Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	good_a	seed_n	word_n	4,972	5	5.3021	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28633	Paracelsus his Aurora, & treasure of the philosophers· As also the water-stone of the wise men; describing the matter of, and manner how to attain the universal tincture. Faithfully Englished· And published by J. H. Oxon.; Aurora thesaurusque philosophorum. English.	Paracelsus, 1493-1541.; J. H.; Böhme, Jakob, 1575-1624. Correspondence. English. Epistle 23.	1659 (1659)	Wing B3540; ESTC R211463	86,113	244

them is separated and is wholly cast away as the drossy fece of the Mettals Thus then may a transmutation be made with the imperfect Mettals and with unsound or faulty precious Stones and Crystal may be also so tinged therewith that it may be well compared with the most noble and most precious Stones and moreover there are many other things that may be done thereby which are not at all to be revealed to the wicked world But yet the aforementioned Philosophers and all such true Christians as at this day are endued and gifted by the most great and blessed God with this Art and Science did accompt of those and such like other most excellent things of that kind as the meanest and least excellency in this Magistry for verily those things in comparison of the most excellent knowledge of things Celestial and being compared I say therewithall was wholly accompted as a thing of nought and disesteemed For verily know of a truth that he to whom the most High hath graciously vouchsafed to bestow this Gift doth esteem of all the money and riches in this earth in comparison of the Celestial good no better then of the dirt in the Streets for his heart and all his desire tends to this only viz. that he may behold in a heavenly manner and may also in reality enjoy that in life eternal which he hath seen here figured out as 't were in an earthly manner only according to the testimony also of that wisest of Kings King Solomon in his Book of Wisdom chap. 5. where he saith I esteemed wisdom at a greater price then Kingdoms and principalities it was dearer to me then riches all gold in respect of her is as sand and silver as dirt before her Such therefore as seek after this Art for no other end but for temporal honour pleasure and the sake of riches are to be reckoned of as more foolish then Fools for verily they will never attain it notwithstanding all their great costs labour and trouble and their miserably tormenting their hearts minde and all their cogitations On which account the Philosophers esteemed of temporal riches for the most base abuse of them not that in themselves they be evil for in Gen. 2. they are highly commended by Moses and likewise in many other places of Scripture as a precious thing and a great gift of God very disdainfully and as destructive because it is such a thing as instead of leading men to God doth rather cast a remora and hindrance upon men from arriving to a right and true good and doth convert likewise all that which is ●ight in this world into a perverse confusion even as that most famous Marcellus Palingenius Stellatus in his Poem which he hath called the Zodiack of life hath under the Sign of ♐ elegantly described it and curiously pointed out detestable Covetousness to whom we shall at present refer the wel-minded Reader Out of which it may be seen and collected how viz. That most excellent man as truly hath this Art as is to be perceived and understood in his Zodiack of Nature doth esteem of those temporal goods of gold and silver as a thing of nought and as a thing contemptible in respect of vertue And therefore they all preferred Wisdom and the knowledge of heavenly things far before the earthy and fading things as we advised afore and had in all their life time and consequently in all their Actions an eye to the event and end alone that they might be able or fit to reap therefrom an immortal name and perpetual praise the which even that most wise Solomon doth also teach in the sixteenth chapter of his Proverbs ver 16. saying Entertain or accept wisdom for it is better then gold and understanding is more precious then silver And also in Chap. 22. he saith A good name and a good report is more precious then great riches and the Art or knowledge is better then gold or silver So also Syrach's Son that Wise man in his 24. chapter doth exhort men saying See that thou retainest a good name for its continuance is more certain then a thousand treasures of gold For these and such other kind of vertues that flow forth from that Philosophy of the Stone the Philosophers could never sufficiently enough praise and celebrate that so oft named stone And therefore their whole care and study and all their Labour in their writings was for this end that that Art might be further enlarged wisdom embraced and the life rendred conformable thereunto But all their Writing is as to the unwise obscure dark and hard to be understood even as Solomon in his Proverbs from the beginning thereof even to ch 6. doth exceedingly complain of and bewail and doth to his utmost perswade men to the following of that Wisdom and in the 3. chap. of Ecclesiasticus he saith thus My Son be content with a low estate for better is it then all that which the world covets after By how much the greater thou art so much the more must thou humble thy self and then the Lord will bless thee for the most High God doth do even great things by the humble THE Fourth Part Psal. 78. and Matth. 13. 35. I will open my mouth in Parables and utter things hidden from the beginning of the world WHen the Omnipotent GOD was minded to reveal by his Divine voice any hard and singular thing to Mankinde of his wonderfull high and Celestial Mysteries it pleased him to do it for the most part Parabolically the which notable Parables in this earthly Life are daily obvious to our eyes and are as 't were painted out unto and set before us for examples sake when God in Genesis 3. intended to shew to Adam in Paradise after his Fall his punishment viz. Mortality and Corporal death it pleased him to signifie it in the following manner that whereas the earth hath not by it self any life at all and whereas he was taken and framed out of the earth therefore also must he be made like the earth again So in the 15. and 23. chapter of Genesis when God would discover to Abraham the encrease of his Seed and Family he bad him to behold the Stars in the Heaven the Sand in the Sea and the dust of the earth as a Type Such like various very pleasant and sweet Typical Prefigurations God commanded his Prophets to propose and demonstrate to his People Israel when he would denounce or declare any singular thing unto them This Christ himself likewise who is the mouth foundation of truth did do in his Testament and proposed all things in Parables that so his Doctrine might be the better understood as for example when he would hint unto us the highest happiness his Divine Word and Gospel then doth he use for a type the good and evil seed or tares which the enemy sowed in the ground likewise he useth typically the hidden treasure and pearl the grain of wheat the grain

of mustard-seed leaven c. as in Luke 18. Mat. 13. 23. Luke 19. Mat. 20. Moreover when he prefigurates to us the Kingdom of heaven he proposeth to us the parable of the great Supper and the wedding of the King Even as also he compares the whole Christian-Church and the state thereof with a Vineyard and a King requiring an account from his Servants Likewise also he useth a similitude of a noble Lord who committed his goods to his servants and of a lost sheep and Ox and of a lost Son and other such like Parables See Mat. 18. Luke 16. Mat. 25. Luke 18. Mark 12. Luke 10. Seeing therefore that such like examples and similitudes were solely and alone given for this end that that which is Celestial and consequently difficult to comprehend by reason of humane frailty might be the easier understood and better conceived of by us How much rather therefore seemeth it expedient that the eternal God should propose unto us by some corporal figure the highest good viz. His Son and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who by his obedience and merit freed all mankind from eternal death and restored the Kingdom of heaven again unto them For verily that most high mysterie of God Almighty is most difficultly comprehended by mankind Ephes. 3. Colos. 1. Esay 45. verse 8. Let the heavens send down dew and the clouds rain on the just Let the earth open it self and wax green and bring forth a Saviour And although that this hath been signified unto us in the Old Testament and elswhere in other types as in the sacrifice of Isaac in Jacobs Ladder and in the selling and wonderful state of Joseph and in the brazen Serpent in Sampson David and Jonas c. Yet nevertheless the Omnipotent God hath shewed or taught and clearly discovered to us men in the great Book of Nature this high and Celestial good by another certain wonderful and secret thing and that very abundantly that so we may be able to have likewise by this means or on this account even a certain corporeal visible and apprehensible idea of those Celestial goods and benefits The which terrestrial and corporeal thing he himself hath so proposed or published in his Word where he speaks thus by his Prophet Isaiah in Ch. 28. viz. Behold I lay in Sion a Corner stone a tryed and well-founded stone he that believes makes not haste Likewise also the Kingly Prophet David speaks thus by the Spirit of God in the 118. Psalm viz. The stone which the builders refused is become the Corner-stone This is the Lords doing and is wonderful in our eyes This prefiguration or representation also the now-spoken-of Corner-stone Christ himself doth in Mat. 21. derive or convert unto himself saying Did you never read in the Scriptures The stone which the builders refused is become the Corner-stone this is the Lords doing and is wonderful in our eyes he that falls against it shall be broken but he upon whom it shall fall shall be ground to powder This likewise Saint Peter in Acts 4. and in his Epistle So also Paul in Rom. 9. doth repeat and describe this in almost the self-same words Now all the chief Fathers and holy Patriarcks as also all their successors illuminated by God did ever since the beginning of the world expect with great desire that proved blessed and Celestial Stone Jesus Christ Luke 10. v. 23 24. and earnestly endeavoured by their utmost and chiefest prayers that it would please God to communicate unto them according to his promises the beholding of Christ even in a bodily and visible shape Rom. 10. v. 12 13. and therefore having rightly known and obtained him in the Spirit they were then delighted with him all their life time and consequently did in all dangers even to the end of their lives trust upon that invisible prop and support But although that that heavenly and blessed stone was given by God to all mankind without exceptions of rich or poor and that without any merit viz. freely as Mat. 11. v. 6. yet nevertheless there have been but a very few in this world even from the beginning to this very day that could find it and apprehend or comprehend it but rather hath it been at all times hidden from the greatest part of men and hath alwaies been a grievous offence and scandal or stumbling to them as Isaiah in the eighth Chapter prophesied thereof saying It shall be a stone of offence and a rock of stumbling Also a pit and a gin where many shall stumble fall and be broken and took and ensnared The which heavenly stone old Father Simeon saw in the Spirit in Luke 2. v. 34. where he saith to Mary the Mother of that Celestial Corner-stone viz. Behold behold this stone is set for the falling and rising of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be spoken against The like doth S. Paul also testifie in Rom. 9. v. 32. saying They stumbled at the stumbling stone and at th● rock of offence but he who believeth in him shall not be confounded So likewise Sain● Peter in his first Epistle Chap. 2. v. 7 8. c. This stone is precious to those tha● believe but to the unbelieving a stone o● offence and of stumbling and a rock o● scandal even to them which stumbl● at the Word and believe not on him i● or by whom they are placed o● built up Eccles. 43. So therefore shall now shew here fundamentally how the now mentioned precious blessed an● heavenly stone doth artificially or harmoniously agree with this so-oft-mentioned terrestrial Corporeal Philosophical stone I will shew both their descriptions and the comparison of the one with the other Whereby it shall be known and seen even invincibly viz. how the terrestrial Philosophical stone may be accounted as a true type of the true spiritual and heavenly stone Jesus Christ and how he is herein set before us and discovered as 't were in a visible shape by God even in a Corporeal manner First of all therefore Even as in the true knowledge of the first matter 1 Cor. ch 2. v. 7. but we speak of hidden things c. of the aforesaid terrene Philosophical stone for this is to be accounted of as a principal member or part and of highest concealment or secrecy t is very much behovefull for those who would prepare it Rom. 11. v. 33. Oh how profound c. and that endeavour thereby to obtain all that happiness as is provided by God for us to eternity and that are withall busied or seriously bent on the knowledge of the eternal heavenly stone that is of the true right and living God and Creator of heaven and earth his indissoluble triune essence tis I say needful that they do know further and more things and therefore also as I have shewed above in the first part the way of the entring upon it and the universal nature together with all its properties without which that work