Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	bring_v	good_a	see_v	1,546	5	3.3026	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29217	A form of sound words, or a brief family catechisme containing the cheif heads of Christian religion. (Fitted for the weakest capacities.) Together with some arguments against atheisme. By J.B. a minister of the Church of England	Brandon, John, b. 1644 or 5.	1682 (1682)	Wing B4249B; ESTC R213088	27,920	76

before he dyed he was most happily humbled for it and wished he had spent his Days in a Prison rather than to have dishonoured his good God as he had done and at length as a mighty Monument of Divine Mercy he experienced the comforts of that good way which before he so much despised and opposed see the Sermon preached at the Earl of Rochester's Funeral 2. If a man tell us seriously that he believes there is no God I would fain know how such a Man can in reason be believed by us For if he be of that perswasion we can never be assured that he means Honestly unto us or makes Conscience of Deceiving us But secondly a sober mind may be easily assured that there is a God indeed on these following grounds amongst many others that might be named 1. Either all things are things made or else there is something which was not made and by whose power the other things were made The first can never be said with any shew of Reason For if all things in general were things made then there must be somthing that made them and so there should be something besides and beyond the number of all things which is impossible But on the other side if they grant that there is something that was not made as they must grant this if they deny the other then they do in effect grant that there is a God For that Being that is beholding to none above it for its Being is the very same we call God or in the Prophets words The Everlasting God the Creator of the Ends of the Earth 2. It is very necessary for the world to believe that there is a God yea such a God as the Scripture tells us of that is the Maker and Judge of Men that loveth Righteousness and hateth Iniquity and is acquainted with all their ways I say it is very needful for men to believe that there is such a God to take notice of them Therefore there is such a God indeed that must needs follow upon that supposal For certainly it is not necessary that the world in all Ages and in all places should believe a Lye He that can think that a Lye is so needful for men generally to believe will think there is no Necessity of being True and so will as little deserve to be trusted for his Honesty as to be admired for his Wit So then 't is plain A Lye is not necessary to be believed in the world therefore it must needs be true that there is a God and such a God as was said before for 't is highly necessary that men should believe there is such an one For if they believe that there is none they will believe they are bound in Conscience to do any thing that is Evil seeing Conscience hath to do with God in the first place and with none other but for his sake I have lived in all good Conscience before God saith the Apostle Acts 23.1 And if a Man should but once declare that he is of such principles as move him to make Conscience of nothing He need say nothing more to prove than He is full of mischief and throughly fitted for every evil work Thus we have seen that it is necessary for men to believe there is a God and that it is not necessary to Believe a Lye Therefore there is a God and the belief thereof is the belief of a Truth 3. If there be no God then all that the Scripture tells us of God as to his Majesty Might and Mercy our Duties to him and Dependance upon him and all things relating thereto for this world and the world to come are but so many Lyes and Cheats upon Mankind But we are sure these are not Lies for then Falshood should be the ground of all true goodness in the world and afford the greatest engagement to it and encouragment in it as the Scriptures confessedly do And so no man should have any Real Reason for well-doing until he be deceived into it by a belief of those Commands and Promises and Rewards which have nothing of Real weight and truth And he that can believe an Atheist that should say A Lye is the Foundation of all good living may also with as good warrant beleive a Fool if he should tell him that a Dunghil is like the Sun and would seem as Bright if it were but as far off as the Sun is 4. There could be nothing of Sin or Duty Good or Evil or as Moralists call it Virtue or Vice if there were not a God to Require the one and to forbid the other But we are well assured that there is such a thing as good and evil and the Atheists themselves will not count it any absurdity to call a faithful Servant a good Servant and an unfaithful Servant a bad Servant Now let us but consider whence it is that any thing is really good or matter of Duty For Example to live Soberly and deal justly why is it indeed a good thing or a matter of Duty so to do Surely 't is not so because of mens Opinions for if we should live in a place where were Men generally so wicked as to have no good opinion of Justice and sobriety yet they would be the same things still and of the same excellency as 't is plain in it self Nor is it a good thing or a Duty to deal justly or to live soberly because men are pleased or profited in the world by our doing so For what if most of those men that take notice of it or are concerned at it as to their profit or approbation should dye yet that would not make Justice and Sobriety to be less our Duties than they were before For if there were but three Men left alive in a whole Countrey yet it would be every ones Duty to be a sober man himself and a Just man towards the other two and it could never be proved that men ought to be just towards many if they ought not also to be just towards a Few Nor is it a Mans Duty to deal Justly only or chiefly because Mens Laws require him so to do For if he had been living before those Laws of the Land were made yet just dealing would have been his Duty and unjust dealing his fault as any Man of sober Reason will grant And no wise man did ever make Laws to engage men to deal justly that thereby he might make it a Duty upon them so to do but rather that he might bring them to that which they were bound in Duty to do whether he had made a Law for it or not What remains therefore as the true ground and Reason why Sobriety and Justice should be good things indeed and Duties indeed but this that there is a God that requires us to practise them Which also is if possible more clearly to be seen in the Nature of Sin For Instance for a Man to make Malicious Lyes of his