Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	apostle_n	church_n	scripture_n	4,023	5	5.8096	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62896	An awakening voice to the Papists declaring to them the fallen state of the Pope from Peter's, and of the Church of Rome from what it once was : in love to the souls of those who have any uprightness in their hearts towards the Lord (but through ignorance are held in bondage) that they may be awaked, and see where they lie, and if any shall smother these things, lest they should come to the sight or knowledge of that people, let them take heed, that they bring not upon themselves the guilt of their blood / William Tomlinson.	Tomlinson, William.	1673 (1673)	Wing T1845; ESTC R10231	20,715	28

but quit your selves of that one principle of Darkness and with single Hearts search into Truth as the Bereans did you would come to see many more things of your own selves to be faulty How easily might you see by the Scripture the horrid Blasphemy of that Man of Sin that such a one as Simon Magus who thinks that the Gift of God may be purchased with Money should claim so near Title to the unspotted pure and holy Lamb of God while he is in the Gall of Bitterness and Bond of Iniquity deluding your Souls with his pretended pardons for Sin to rob you of your Money But indeed he cannot sell you that nor give you that which he hath no Power in Many other things are corrupted among you if I may not say all and you are far from that pure State in which the Church of Christ was at the first at Rome But these things were first presented in the Light before me to mind you of that if it be the good Will of the Lord some of you may have your Eyes opened that you may see to whom you enslave your Souls and may flee out of Babylon lest you partake of her Sins and so pertake of her Plagues And if any of you shall be incensed against me for telling you the Truth I must bear it For I write not these things in Contempt of any or to vilifie any particular Person but in Faithfulness and Compassion to your Souls to lay before you the State wherein you stand enthrawled in your Spirits to a false Power no Successor of Peter but of Simon Magus a fallen Star the Angel of the bottomless Pit King of the Destroyers who hath his Name Abaddon and Apollyon who is exalted above all that 's called God or that is worshipped and so seeing where you are you that are simple-hearted and have any Honesty in your Hearts towards the Lord you may be awakened to look about you and to quit your selves like men and may seek after the Liberty of the Sons of God and to serve him as his Free men purchased by the Blood of Christ from the vain Traditions and Injunctions of men which the Lord hath not commanded Other things still open themselves before me which I would not hold back from you but as the Lord doth open the Error of them to me so to communicate the same to you Your Beads and set number of Prayers and Crucifixes and antick Crossings of your selves they are all Works of Darkness and of the Night and not of the Day and will not abidethe Light Think you that that God which searcheth the Heart and Reins and saith My Son give me thy Heart that he delights in Lip-Labour or in the Number of Prayers insomuch that you stand in need of a String full of Beads to count the number of your Prayers by This is just to do like the Heathen who think to be heard for their much babbling and vain Repetitions which Christ forbad to his Disciples Mat. 5.7 8. And which the Lord hated and cryed out against by his Prophets among the Jews Isa 1.15 When you spread forth your Hands I will hide mine Eyes from you yea when you make many Prayers I will not hear your hands are full of Blood And its in vain also for you so long as you retain your Bloody Tenents or Bloody Thoughts to expect to be heard of the Lord. God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth for such the Father seeketh to worship him Joh. 4.23 24. And they that so worship him they have a better helper and remembrance then either Beads or Books We know not what to pray for as we ought saith the Apostle to the ancient Church of Rome to whom he writ Rom. 8.26 27. But where 's our Helper then Not from Books or Beads but the Spirit helpeth our Infirmities There was the Helper of the ancient Church of Rome and there 's our Helper one that knows the mind of our Spirit and makes Intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered There 's the Helper of those that cannot tell how to utter a Word and their groanings are heard of the Lord who searcheth the Hearts And this Helper administers Words also according to the Condition of the Heart as there is need But when the Heart is far from him then to draw near him with the Lips this is but an Abomination before him and to offer up the Sacrifice of Fools and so your Beads are of no use but in the offering up the Sacrifice of Fools I wonder that you your selves do not consider the Childishness and Ridiculousness and Folly of them they are so Ridiculous Childish Bables that they are not worthy to be mentioned by Christians who should know a measure of the Spirit of Christ in them to teach them to pray know ye not that Christ is in you except you be Reprobate reprobate to every good Work But I shall come closer to your Prayers then your Beads Your Prayers themselves are all Abomination to the Lord with Beads or without Beads by the help of Books or without them Your private Devotions or Prayers and your publick Prayers all are Abomination to the Lord while your Hands are full of Blood and your Hearts and Thoughts full of Blood Your Principles are bloody your Practices are like them full of blood Market-places Stones in the Street will witness against you that you are a bloody People your Prisons your Inquisitions will witness against you and therefore your Prayers are an Abomination to the Lord. And it will not cure the Sore it will not hide your blood-guiltiness to say they are Hereticks they are Tares that we cut off such as infest the good Wheat they are Troublers of the Church and it s no Sin to kill a Heretick So indeed you are taught as by your Practices hath sufficiently appeared to the World But have you never read what Christ said to those his servants who enquired of him whether they should pluck up the Tares or no Math. 13.29 30. How he forbad them saying Nay Let both grow together until the Harvest and then he explains to his Disciples when the Harvest shall be and whose Work it shall be to separate the Tares from the Wheat The Parable begins ver 24. and ends with ver 30. And Christ's own Explanation of that Parable you may read from ver 36. to ver 43. where he saith plainly The Harvest is the End of the World and the Reapers who are to do that Work are the Angels And so he reserves that Work for them who shall be sufficiently able to distinguish Tares from Wheat Heroticks from true Christians And therefore till then they are to be let alone in the Field which is the World Now here are two contrary Lessons your Masters say you may kill Hereticks and so instigate you thereto and make you believe that you do good Service to God and

of murderring the Innocent And such principles as this is part of that Smoak that hath risen out of the bottomless pit of Men's Imaginations and hath darkened the bright shining of the Gopel of Truth and kept Men in the destroying Nature ignorant of God and of Christ And he that opened this bottomless pit and let out such Smoak was a Star fallen from Heaven The Angels or Ministers of the Churches Christ called Stars Apoc. 1.20 Now this was a star fallen to whom the Key of the Bottomless pit was given who had power to open the pit This must needs be in the Churches of Christ for there were the Stars Now what is the Use or power of a Key but to let forth or shut in This Star had got that power that he could let forth smoke out of the bottomless pit He could establish Principles and Doctrines and Traditions of his own and so open the bottomless pit of Men's Inventions and Imaginations for there is no bottom to be found And so here rises a smoak out of this pit which darkens the Sun the pure Light received from Christ And so the bright Sunshine of Truth being darkened with smoaky Imaginations of Men's Hearts and Wisdom of the Flesh out comes the Locusts out of this smoak who have Power to kill and so comes in the murdering Spirit again which was once cast out by the Doctrine of Christ and of his Holy Apostles And the King over these murdering Locusts was he that was the Angel of the bottomless pit the Star that was fallen from Heaven Rev. 9.1 2 3 11. Thus you see whence was the reviving of the killing Spirit which had been prohibited by Christ It was from a fallen Star one that was fallen from the pure Doctrine of Christ and from an Innocent and Heavenly Life yet retained such Power from his place that he was in that he could make his own smoaky Imaginations take place and his fleshly Wisdom which works contrary to the Wisdom of God Thus this man of Sin being exalted above all that is called God or that is worshipped you may understand what Power he hath and whereto it tends It works quite contrary to Christ Jesus and to the Holy Apostles though under pretence of honouring them he bears up himself in peoples Imaginations as Successor to them and the chief Father in the Church of Christ People open your Eyes and be not so befooled with that doating blockish principle that Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion but search the Scriptures and try all things and hold fast that which is good as you are exhorted in the Scripture to do 1 Thes 5.21 And those at Berea that did so when Paul preached to them were commended for it and counted of a more Noble Spirit then others in that they would search and see with their own Eyes and not take things upon trust therefore many of them believed as you may read Act. 17.10 11 12. Is it likely that Ignorance should make men more devout to God Have not the most knowing Men in the World been alwayes the most devout to God Search the Scriptures from end to end and see Begin at Enoch who saw Dayes that are yet to come so far of was not be devout to God think you who had this Testimony that he walked with God Was not Abraham devout towards God who fore-saw the Day of Christ in his time and rejoyced Did Moses want Devotion Did his being brought up in all the Learning of Aegypt or his great Knowledge in all the Counsels of God make him less devout to God Was David less devout because he made the Testimonies of the Lord his Delight and his Meditation and doth not he pronounce him Blessed whose Delight is in the Law of the Lord Was Daniel less devout by understanding by Books the time of their Captivity O sottish principle contrary to all Experience have not the most devout Men mentioned in Scripture been Men of deep Understanding in the things of God for shame you Teachers among the Papists teach them better Doctrine and let it appear that you do so by their Liberty and Boldness to search into all Truth For we know you do but lye if you say you teach them otherwise whilst they live according to that principle and dare not search the Scriptures Do ye not remember that it was said of old Hos 4.6 My People are destroyed for lack of Knowledge What do you delight in the Destruction of people that you keep them lockt up by such a principle from searching the Scriptures It s a Doctrine to be abhorred by all Men as fit only for Hell and the Kingdom and Children of Darkness who hate the Light lest their Deeds should be discovered But it s not to be admitted among the Children of Light who are not of the Night but of the Day who love the Light and bring their Deeds to the Light that they may be made manifest that they are wrought in God If the Pope and his Subjects were Children of the Day they would not fear the Light but love it as all Children of the Light do But being in Darkness they love the Darkness and its fit Doctrine for his Kingdom to keep his Subjects and Slaves in Darkness lest they should discover his Abominations and so deliver their own Souls from under his Thraldom for Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion to him and to the dead Forms of Worship and vain Repetitions and Traditions which he keeps the People in Bondage to for his own Gain But let him or any of his shew from the Writings of the Holy Men of God where ever such Doctrine was taught among them It s he that hath the Key of the bottomless Pit that hath taken away the Key of Knowledge darkening the Sun and the Air with his smoak It s he that hath let out that Doctrine out of the bottomless Pit Deliver your selves you poor deluded People who are held Captive in his Chains of Ignorance under that serpentine Fallacy that it is the Mother of Devotion for its only so to him but not to God who will have the Knowledge of himself to be as the Waters that cover the sea as he hath promised and shall be fulfiled in due time And therefore Peter opens to you the Way to Knowledge but this false Successor shuts up the Way to Knowledge Add to Faith Vertue saith Peter and to Vertue Knowledge and to Knowledge Temperance and to Temperance Patience and to Patience Godliness and to Godliness Brotherly-Kindness and to Brotherly-Kindness Love for if these things be in you and abound 2 Pet. 1. they make that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the Knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ but he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see far off and in that Blindness would the Pope and his Agents keep you by Doctrines of Darkness lest you should see too far to be ruled by them If you did