Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	church_n	faith_n	matter_n	2,111	5	5.9828	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69815	Concerning the nevv chvrch discipline, and excellent letter written by Mr. George Cranmer to Mr. R. H.	Cranmer, George, 1563-1600.	1642 (1642)	Wing C6826; ESTC R4082	8,450	28

instruments of this great worke Hereupon they framed unto themselves an assured hope that upon their preaching out of a pease-cart all the multitude would have presently joyned unto them and in amazement of mind have asked them Viri fratres quid agimus whereunto it is likely they would have returned an answer farre unlike to that of S. Peter such and such are men unworthy to govern pluck them down such and such are the deare children of God let them be advanced Of two of these men it is meet to speake with all commiseration yet so that others by their example may receive instruction and withall some light may appeare what stirring affections the Discipline is like to inspire if it light upon apt and prepared minds Now if any man doubt of what society they were or if the reformers disclaime them pretending that by them they were condemned let these points be considered 1. Whose associats were they before their entring into this frantick passion Whose Sermons did they frequent Whom did they admire 2. Even when they were entring into it Whose advise did they require and when they were in whose approbation Whom advertised they of their purpose Whose assistance by prayers did they request But wee deale injuriously with them to lay this to their charge for they reproved and condemned it How did they disclose it to the Magistrate that it might be suppressed or were they rather content to stand aloofe and see the end of it and loath to quench the spirit No doubt these mad practitioners were of their society with whom before and in the practise of their madnesse they had most affinity Hereof read Doct. Bancrofts book A third inducement may be to dislike of the Discipline if we consider not only how farre the reformers themselves have proceeded but what others upon their foundations have built Here come the Brownists in the first ranke their lineall descendants who have seised upon a number of strange opinions whereof although their Ancestors the reformers were never actually possessed yet by right and interest from them derived the Brownists and Barrowists hath taken possession of them For if the positions of the Reformers be true I cannot see how the maine and generall conclusions of Brownisme should be false For upon these two points as J conceive they stand 1. That because we have no Church they are to sever themselves from us 2. That without Civill authority they are to erect a Church of their owne And if the former of these be true the latter I suppose will follow For if above all things men be to regard their salvation and if out of the Church there be no salvation it followeth that if we have no Church we have no meanes of salvation and therefore separation from us in that respect both lawfull and necessary as also that men so separated from the false and counterfeit Church are to associate themselves unto some Church not to ours to the Popish much lesse therefore to one of their owne making Now the ground of all these inferences being this that in our Church there is no means of salvation is out of the Reformers Principles most clearely to be proved For wheresoever any matter of faith unto salvation necessary is denied there can be no meanes of salvation but in the Church of England the Discipline by them accounted a matter of Faith and necessary to salvation is not only denied but impugned and the professors thereof opprest Ergo Againe but this reason perhaps is weak Every true Church of Christ acknowledgeth the whole Gospell of Christ the discipline in their opinion is a part of the Gospell and yet by our Church resisted Ergo Againe The Discipline is essentially united to the Church by which terme essentially they must meane either an essentiall part or an essentiall property Both which waies it must needs be that where that essentiall Discipline is not neither is there any Church If therefore between them and the Brownists there should be appointed a solemne Disputation whereof with us they have been oftentimes so earnest Challengers it doth not yet appeare what other answer they could possibly frame to these and the like Arguments wherewith they might be pressed but fairely to deny the conclusion for all the premises are their own or rather ingeniously to reverse their own principles before laid whereon so foule absurdities have been so firmely built What further proofes you can bring out of their high words magnifying the Discipline I leave to your better remembrance but above all points I am desirous this one should be strongly inforced against them because it wringeth them most of all and is of all others for ought I see the most unanswerable You may notwithstanding say that you would be heartily glad these their positions might so be salved as the Brownists might not appeare to have issued out of their loines but untill that be done they must give us leave to thinke that they have cast the seed whereout these tares are growen Another sort of men there is which have been content to run on with the reformers for a time and to make them poore Instruments of their owne designes These are a sort of godlesse politicks who perceiving the plot of Discipline to consist of these two parts the overthrow of Episcopall and erection of Presbitriall Authority and that this later can take no place till the former be removed are content to joyn with them in the distructive part of Discipline bearing them in hand that in the other also they shall find them as ready But when time shall come it may be they would be as loath to be yoaked with that kind of regiment as now they are willing to be released from this These mens ends in all their actions is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} their pretence and colour Reformation Those things which under this colour they have effected to their own good are 1 by maintaining a contrary faction they have kept the Clergy alwaies in awe and thereby made them more pliable and willing to buy their peace 2. By maintaining an opinion of equality among Ministers they have made way to their own purposes for devouring Cathedrall Churches and Bps Livings 3. By exclaiming against abuses in the Church they have carried their own corrupt dealings in the civill state more covertly For such is the nature of the multitude they are not able to apprehend many things at once so as being possessed with dislike or liking of any one thing many other in the meane time may escape them without being perceived 4. They have sought to disgrace the Clergy in entertaining a conceit in mens minds and confirming it by continuall practise that men of learning and specially of the Clergy which are imployed in the chiefest kind of learning are not to be admitted or spareingly admitted to matters of State contrary to the practise of all well governed Common-wealths and of our own till these late yeares A