Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	great_a	see_v	stand_v	1,629	5	5.1656	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07538	A sermon preached at Pauls Crosse the 24. of October. 1624. By Robert Bedingfield Master of Arts, and student of Christ-Church in Oxford	Bedingfield, Robert, 1597 or 8-1651.	1625 (1625)	STC 1792; ESTC S101420	26,141	48

wicked when it is lightest and it is their plague that they are not plagued Veniet ad faelices sua portio quisquis vid●tur dimissus Sene● dilatus est These happy worldlings must at last haue their iudgement and their iudgement will be their damnation Our sinnes are our debts vnto God and his iudgements are his debts to our sinnes where God oweth he can he will repay He is not like the Heathen's Iupiter that his Quiuer should be empty that want of thunder-bolts should dis-arme him The Lord of hostes cannot want Souldiers to fight his battels If men of Warre should be lacking he hath an army of Frogges and another of Lice to discomfite and deuoure both Pharaoh and Herod As the wicked doe multiply their transgressions so doth he cumulate his iudgements and washeth away a deluge of sinne with a deluge of water He who is omnipotent is no more powerfull then iust and 't is as certaine that he will as that he can reuenge sometimes his wrath is slow and not vpon the necke of the sinne Num. 25.8 as Phineas slew Zimri and Cosbi in the very act of incontinency yet it alwayes at last ouertaketh it and then as hee hath beene slow to wrath so will he be slow to lay downe his wrath when he hath leaden heeles then hee hath iron hands So that the sinner might wish that the blow came sooner so it came lighter God iudgeth not like man our Courts of Iustice doe censure onely knowne and open Malefactors The Iudge at the last day will punish the most close and secret offenders Heere the hired eloquence of the vnconscionable Aduocate or the false periury of the suborned witnesse sometimes casteth a mist before the eyes of the Iudge that he cannot see sometimes corruption hood-winkes him that he will not see The Iudge at the generall Assise shall be his owne euidence he shall be Iudge and Iury and Witnesses Ipse est qui videt vnde videt Hee ●hat made the eye shall not hee see and he that made ●he heart shall not hee vnderstand And as hee can both see and vnderstand what he will so will hee see and vnderstand what hee can There none may escape heere so few are censured that most are not quaestioned Ille crucem sceleris pretium tulit hic Diadema Heere you may see the petty thiefe whose accusation and that perchance false is but petty larciny with chaines of iron about his feete when the grand-thiefe the state-theife who by fore-stalling ingrossing or by worse means robs the common-wealth hath no chaines but of gold and them about his neck Such are your sacrilegious Lay-Patrons those spirituall robbers and our Iewish oppressing Vsurers The first back't by the authority of the Law begin now to confront the Pulpit to quaestion the zeale of the Priest denouncing Gods iudgements against them and to threaten punishment if they cannot inflict it so that 't is much safer to commit sinne then to reproue it Let them therefore enioy their conquest let them triumph that they may rob God freely At last their punishment will ouer-take them Quis enim laesos impune putabit Esse Deos The Vsurer hath no Law on his side yet doth he praetend some and where he findeth a tolleration there doth the couetous Peny-father conclude an allowance Turne to the Statutes made against this Citty-sinne and you shall finde it tolerated with an inhibition for the Acts which seeme to allow it doe some of them plainely praeface that Gods Law condemneth it And God will one day take an account of his Law and that with farre more terrour then he deliuered it At the deliuery hee did but shew how fearefull hee could be at the execution he will be as fearefull as he shewed to be when he shall be a Iudge he will inflict death which he did but threaten when he was a Law-giuer The day will come as certaine as it is vncertaine when it will come Behold the day commeth which shall burne like an Ouen and all that doe wickedly shall be as stubble and the day that commeth shall burne them vp saith the Lord of Hostes Then shall the malignant spirit which tempted to sinne be a tormenter for sinne Then shall the amazed reprobate stand betweene his sinnes accusinng him and God's Iustice terrifying him below him shall be his punishment aboue him his Iudge and he equally trembling at the horrour of the one and the wrath of the other within him his conscience without him the world shall be on fire Quid metuat qui ad ista non trepidat Who heareth this and yet dareth to sinne what pleasure of tentation can counteruaile this horrour of euent who now is not frighted who would not bee wonne from wickednesse who now is not drawne who could not be before allured vnto repentance let vs therefore accept no obiect but of sorrow let vs because we are fallen by nature hasten to arise by grace that we may turne the sentence from Goe yee cursed into Come yee blessed that death may be changed into life this euerlasting death into eternall life which is the first part in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To haue any conceit of life but good is now as well impious as Stoicall since eternall blisse is compared to it Yet doth this life of glory so farre surpasse the life of nature as the second death is worse then the first Hence it is that many who feare not death feare to die after death and they who are hungry to loose their liues are yet afraid not to find them being lost I should now from this mount as God did from mount Nebo vnto Moyses shew you the land of Canaan and discourse of though not expresse the ioyes of this eternall life Ioyes in number infinite yet are they summed vp in the Beatificall vision and you might see them all could you see God How often hath the deuotion of many not superstitious Pilgrims with wearied paces measured the way from euery climate to Ierusalem who haue recompensed their tedious trauels onely with the sight of the ground which our Sauiour trode and the visitation of the Sepulcher where hee lay how were the wise men rauished with contentment when the starre had brought them to see Christ but in his Cradle when he came to be of age and began to preach in the City Videres referta tecta ac laborantia when he tooke house there was such a crowd that the sicke of the palsie could not get in except the house had bin vnroofed when he iournied from Ierusalem migravit ciuitas the City was dislodged and ran out of the gates The Sicke and all Qui neglecto medentium imperio ad salutem sanitatemque prorepebant Plin. Paneg. So that the concourse of the people made a narrow way to Christ as well as to Heauen The presse was once so great that there was no ground left for Zacheus to stand on for he needed not

to haue climed the tree to looke downe vpon him that was higher then the clouds If these were happy and happy they were happy were the eyes which haue seen that which you see Luke 28.10 who thus saw Christ on earth and in the forme of a seruant happy must they be who shall behold him in Heauen in his glory There must be all the obiects both of loue admiration There shall internall blisse be ioyned to externall faelicity where there shall be added the Contemplation of his Diuinity to the sight of his Humanity Then shall euery sense inioy it 's own delight then euery faculty of the soule shall be fully satisfied satisfied but not glutted Vitae fontem sitientes haurient haurientes sitient There shall be hunger without want abundance without loathing The Saints shall still haue what they desire but they shall still see more to be desired what here we can neither in wish seeke nor in imagination faine there we shall beyond hope be possessed of neither shall this ioy be more full then it shall be vniuersall Here one part of the Earth is not illuminated but the other is darkned The Sun riseth not but the Moon goeth down All the Starres though they shine with the luster of the Sun yet can they not be seene for the luster of the Sunne so that they are eclipsed with their light Here the ioy of one occasioneth and breedeth the sorrow of another there Et si dispar sit gloria singulorum Austin med cap. 25. attamen communis est laetitia omnium Me thinkes while I dilate of this glory I find my selfe in the same temper with Peter Iames and Iohn those three Disciples when they saw a glimpse of it in the transfiguration of CHRIST on mount Tabor and must cry out with the first of them Math. 7.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 T is good for vs to be here and I would build Tabernacles too for your attentions to reside in but that my discourse may not be like this life euerlasting which is the adiunct or Duration The life of Nature if it be sweet yet it is short and if we may loue it we cannot keep it vivendo decrescit transeundo nosterit So that our age beginneth not to encrease before it decreaseth This life of glory is more glorious because it is lasting if there were any thought of ending there could not be a full power of inioying it In Heauen there is no time there is no distinction of time there are no yeares nor dayes nor nights or if there be there is but one day a day without a night Aeternitas unus dies aeternus est and one day in thy Courts O Lord as it is better so it is longer then a thousand Consideremus magnitudinem praemij si considerari possit quod immensum est Let vs a little meditate on the vnlimited greatnes of this reward we shall find that no treasure of our best workes can euer purchase it 'T is a reward not of merit but of mercy not of debt but of fauour 'T is so a reward that it is a gift which is the second part of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The words are in the originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gift or grace of God The moderne Popish Schooles haue so highly magnified the arme of flesh and ambitiously extolled the nature of mankind that they haue blasphemously opposed the grace mercy of Christ See how the little wormes swell see how corruption disputeth for the freedome of the will not for such a freedome as Austin proued against the Manichees or the Greek Fathers evinced from the Stoicall Christians They argue not that the will cannot be carried violently but that it may be moued necessarily neither is this necessity from which they would be freed a fatall or absolute necessity they hold it not enough that a man be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 except he may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they account not that freewill which dependeth vpon the free will of God They place it in the indifferency of Election giuing it ability to choose to refuse good or bad that not only in things which are naturall morall but in those also which are spirituall Biel. 3. sent dist 27. still making the liberty of the will as large as the obiect These are their blasphemies that the will is a faculty meerely Actiue and this they conclude against their own Aquinas that by their naturalls Suarez de auxil Diuin grat l 3. c. 2 num 2. they can doe workes acceptable vnto God that without spirituall help they can for the loue of God sorrow for sin most of thē indeed towre not so high but they require the helpe of exciting grace Some outward only so did Pelagius some inward too so did the semi-Pelagians at least to be profitable if not necessary and those doe no more Ibid. lib. 3. cap. 4 num 12. for they yeeld not any Physical efficacie or reall working by infusing any power of consent but only a morall determination in propounding some obiect of feare or loue they hold the necessity of grace but they hold they merit the grace which is necessary when 't is offered they may choose whether they will accept it 'T is in our power to reiect or receiue any inspiration of the spirit so the Tridentine Conventicle in their 6. Sess 5. cap. 4. Canon making grace Instar advenae like a guest whom we may choose to let in like a garment which we may refuse to put on like a suasory or eloquent oration which we are not forced to consent vnto They neuer speak of grace and the will but with blasphemous similitudes They match them together yea they sometimes praeferre the last making the will the agent and grace to instrument See Pelagius returned from Hell only a little disguised and therefore the better able to seduce What Maxentius somtimes spoke of Faustus giue me leaue to conclude of these Dum nolunt videri Pelagiani accuratius Pelagij errorem fouent quàm Pelagius pepererat Vpon this groūd of free-will is built the proud Haeresie of the Roman merit their immunity from sin not only from the punishment but the guilt of sin their satisfaction a thing most derogatory from Christ's passion the treasure of their Church the supererogated works of their Saints departed are true corollaries from this false position Religion cannot teach them how Christ's merits may be imputed to vs Couetousnes perswadeth them that the merits of one man may be conferred vpon another And I belieue them in their tenet the merits of one man may be conferred on another the sins of our fore-fathers may be visited vpon vs their children see our merits Damnationis sunt non liberationis they may cast vs down to Hell they cannot lift vs vp to Heauen The sacred volumes euery-where oppose these Popish Pharisies in their high-towring thoughts of meriting