Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	find_v	great_a	part_n	1,561	5	3.9971	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35057	The judgment of M. Cartwright and M. Baxter concerning separation and the ceremonies	Cartwright, Thomas, 1634-1689.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1673 (1673)	Wing C701; ESTC R21747	13,713	32

foundation CHRIST whereupon it is necessary that by faith the Assemblies be laid which groweth unto the Lords building without the which it cannot be his Church which thing being whatsoever is wanting of that which is commanded or remaining of that which is forbidden is not able to put that Assembly which by faith is laid upon Christ from the right and title of being the Church of Christ for Faith can admit no such thing which giveth an utter overthrow and turning upside down of the truth By this title of the Faithful the Apostle in his Epistles noteth out the Churches of God it being all one with him to say To the Faithful or To the Saints as To the Church of such a place Whatsoever wanteth unto this or is more than enough that wanteth or aboundeth to the disgrace or uncomelyness or to the hazard of continuance and not to the present overthrow of the Church Hereupon the people of Israel which neglected for the space of forty years the holy Sacrament of Circumcision and the Passeover also as it seemeth one onely time excepted ceased not therefore to be the Churches of God and to have the Sanctuary among them And in this respect the Dutch Assemblies whereof the greatest part in High Germany which beside the main of Discipline which is common to our Churches are groslly deceived in the matter of the Supper are notwithstanding holden in the Roul of the Churches of God In this respect also certain Assemblies of our Profession which having the use of the Discipline permitted unto them are not suffered to have the use of the Lords Supper are not therefore when the Lords Churches are mustered and their names written and enrouled up cast out as unfit to be in any accompt of the Lords hosts Without any part of that Order or Discipline which the Lord hath appointed I grant there can be no Church of Christ or that without some part of it there can be no faith in Jesus Christ It is a part of the Discipline of our Saviour Christ that there should be certain which should be chosen out of the rest to preach the Gospel by preaching whereof the Churches are gathered together Where therefore there is no Ministery of the Word there it is plain that there are no visible and apparent Churches It is another piece of the Discipline of the Lord that the rest of the body of the Church should obey those that are set over them in the Lord wheresoever therefore there is no obedience of the people to the Ministers that in the Lords name preach unto them there can be no true Church of Christ But where these two be although other points want yea although there be some defect in these that neither the Ministers do in all points preach as they ought nor the Assemblies in all points obey unto the wholesome doctrine of their Teachers yet do they for the reason above-said retein the right of the Churches of God This is made plain by a similitude from the body of a man whereinto we are already entred For if a man should have both his hands and his arms cut off his eyes put out c. yet as long as the head standeth and other vital parts he is to be accompted a Man although a maimed man Even so it is in the Assembly as long as it holdeth the head how defective soever it is otherwise it hath the due and right of the Church of God And although a man should have six fingers in one hand and but three in another and albeit they should stand where the mouth doth yet all this deformity should not hinder him from being truely holden to be a Man although it should be a great deformity in him On the other part if he had no Head at all or that there were no natural conjunction of the parts one with another but a whole and through displacing of every part from his proper seat then verily would he be denyed to have either the proportion of a Man or his life So likewise if an Assembly should not hold the Head which is Jesus Christ or be nothing elss but a confused multitude without part of the order which the Son of God hath appointed the same is justly crossed out of the accompt of Gods Church Was not Jerusalem after the return from Babylon the City of the great King until such time as Nehemiah came and builded the Walls of the City To say therefore it is none of the Church of God because it hath not received the Discipline metthinks it is all one with this as if a man should say It is no City because it hath no Wall or that it is no Vineyard because it hath neither ditch nor hedge It is not I grant so sightly a City or Vineyard nor yet so safe against the invasion of their several enemies which lye in wait for them yet are they truely both Cities and Vineyards There remaineth that other point which is against those Assemblies onely which have a dumb Minister wherein the part of your conclusion That that Assembly where they be is none of the Church of God is before answered Therein resteth that part of your conclusion whereby you infer That the Sacraments ministred by them are none of Gods Sacraments and therefore that a man may not receive any part of them at their hands Here first I agree with you that their Ministery is unlawful and to themselves without repentance a certain matter of destruction especially in those to whom knowledge of corruption is come to the Churches where they be presently hurtful and in the end without remedy deadly But that they are no Ministers of God so far as to receive the good they offer unto us that I suppose I may not yield unto The ground whereof I take from the former part of my Answer That for so much as they are allowed by the Churches of God they ought until remedy may be found of so great disorder to be heard and retained so far as they can give us any thing that is of Christ And for this cause our Saviour commanded that the Scribes should be heard for that they taught truely which honour our Saviour would never have given unto them unless the Church-calling had moved him thereunto Neither had it been lawful for the people otherwise to have heard them for it is evident that their unfitness and unlawfulness in the Ministery although another way was as great as it is in our reading Ministers They were altogether deceived in the Messias for neither knew they that Jesus was Christ nor yet that Christ whom they looked for should be the Son of God but held him for a bare and naked man It appeareth also that they taught the Justification by the Law of Works not onely in the 18. of Luke but even in the same very place where our Saviour Christ commandeth this audience for speaking of the works of the moral Law which