Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	church_n	old_a	testament_n	6,574	5	8.1314	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86458	The smoke of the bottomlesse pit. Or, A more true and fuller discovery of the doctrine of those men which call themselves Ranters: or, the Mad Crew. / By John Holland porter, an eye and ear witnesse. Licensed and entred according to order.	Holland, John, porter.	1651 (1651)	Wing H2428; Thomason E622_5; ESTC R206430	5,792	8

scarcrowes to feare men withall that they are taught and are onely under teaching of this spirit and that all other teachings either by Scripture or otherwise are of no use to them There was one of them said in my hearing that he need not read the Scripture nor heare Sermons for the Father the Son and the Spirit were all three in him and this he said he could prove but his best arguments were of no force in my opinion Fourthly concerning the Scriptures THe best they say of the Scripture is That it is a Tale a History a Letter and a dead Letter and more the fleshly History they call it a bundle of contradictions I heard one sweare it was the archest peece of Witchcraft that ever was 〈◊〉 Another said it was the greatest curse that ever came 〈…〉 ld for sai●… he the Scripture hath been the cause of all our misery and divisions both in Religion and civill affaires and hath been the cause of all the blood that hath been shed in the world and that there would never be peace in the world till all the Bibles in the world were burned I heard one reason thus Paul had the spirit of God by which spirit he wrote the Scriptures and saith he I have the spirit why may not I write the Scripture as well as Paul and what I write be as binding and as infallible as that which Paul writ Againe saith he all the books of the Old and New Testament were directed to some particular Nation or Church or Persons but saith he none of the Scriptures are directed either to the Nation or to any Church in England or any man in England therefore the Scriptures belong not to us neither are they any rule for us to walk by or to live after Fifthly concerning the Creation THey say that the world was created long before the time the Scripture speakes of for say they when Cain fled from the presence of the Lord he went into the Land of Nod and there he built a City he could not build a City himselfe and it was needlesse for him to build a City for his own houshold one house or tent would have served him therefore they argue that there were at that time more people in the world then Adam and Cain though we read of no more Sixthly concerning marriage THey say that for one man to be tyed to one woman or one woman to be tyed to one man is a fruit of the curse but they say we are freed from the curse therefore it is our liberty to make use of whom we please I did intend to aske them how we came be freed from the curse but I was prevented this opinion they infer from those words of the Lord to Eve Thy desire shall be to thy husband Seventhly concerning the Commandements of God THey say that all the Commandements of God both in the Old and New Testaments are fruits of the curse and that all men being freed from the curse are also free from the Commandments Others say that all the Commandments are to bring men up to live in God and God in them and they say that we living in God and God in us therefore we are above all Commands whatso●… and furth 〈…〉 say Gods will is our will and our will is Gods will and they say Gods will is his law for sometimes he commands men to kill to steale and to lye and at other times he commands the contrary hereon they infer that we living in God and God in us why may not we do the like and if it be a sin to kil to steale or lye God is the Author for say they it is his will these things should be done and it is by his power they are done Eightly concerning Ordinances THat Ordinances are ceased to them and that they are above all such weak and beggerly things as they are that Ordinances are made for weake Christians such as are under the teaching of the letter meaning the Scripture Ninthly concerning sinne THat there is no such thing as that which men call sin that sin and holinesse are all one to God and that God delights as much in the one as in the other and this they say they can prove by the Scripture as from these words in the Prophet Esay 42.16 I will make darknesse light before them and Esay 45.7 I forme the light and creat darknesse I make peace and create evill and in another place he made darknesse his secret place yea his pavilion round about him Tenthly concerning man THat man cannot either know God or beleeve in God or pray to God but it is God in man that knoweth himself believes in himself and prayeth to himself and this they infer from Gal. 2.20 Neverthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me c. hence they alledge that man differeth in nothing from the bruit beast but onely that God doth manifest himself more in man then he doth in the beast that man lives and feeds on nothing but his own excrements for thus they reason that mans excrements dung the ground which causeth the ground to bring forth Corne and Grass and the beasts eat the grasse and we eat the Corn and the Beast Eleventh concerning the Devill THey say that the Devill is the left hand of God or the backe part of God or the dark part of God that the Devil could do no evill at all if God did not give him a power to do it and therefore the Devil is not so much in the fault as men think he is Nay saith one of them God seemeth to complain much of the Devil and wicked men then why doth not God take away that power he hath given them and then there will be no body to trouble him these words made me tremble one of them said he hoped to see the poor Devill cleared of a great many slanders that had been cast on him Twelfth concerning heaven and earth THey teach that there is neither heaven nor hell but what is in man and that those men that do see God to be in all things and his will to be done by all men though they do never so wickedly and not apprehend any wrath to be in God and can quietly without any check of Conscience commit any sin as we call it and can see themselves to be above all Ordinances and all Commands and that these men are in heaven and heaven is in them but those men that cannot see and beleeve these things are in hell and hell in them I saw a Letter that one of them writ to a friend of his but it never came to his hand and at the bottom of the Letter he writ thus From Heaven and Hell or from Detford in the first yeare of my reconciliation to my selfe at the beginning of the Letter he saluteth his friend thus which I am sorry my pen should write or my tongue speake but that I saw it the words were My pretty God and Devill by Gods hart and wounds I love thee and if thou wilt not beleeve me the Devill confound thee this Letter was written by a Frenchman then living at Detford to one esteemed in former times a Saint though now one of them when I heard the Letter I was much troubled and spake in dislike of it but was told that there were spiritual truths couched in those lines which I discerned not Thirteenth concerning death and resurrection THat when men dye their spirits go into God as the small Rivers go into the Sea and as the Sea sends backe the same water again sometimes into one spring and sometime into another so doth the spirits of men after they are gone into God they return and appear sometimes in one form or shape and sometimes in another one wished that his spirit might never be in the shape of a horse for saith he a horse hath the most toylesome life of any Creature that is One told me that I had been in a hundred shapes or formes for ought he knew and that I should be so again though I was such a foole I would not beleeve it Fourteenth concerning the last Judgement THat there is no such thing as a day of judgement but that it is onely an invented thing to serve for a bugbeare to keep men in awe yet I hear one of them say the day of Judgement was begun already and that the world had been made many thousand millions of yeares before we read of its creation and that it shall continue many millions longer then we expect but I say the Lord knoweth his appointed time and none else to him be all glory Postscript REader I have not followed that orderly method I might have done but have written the judgements of these men in a confused manner but I do professe in the presence of the Lord who is the searcher of all hearts I have done them no wrong in the matter of their judgement except it be in forbearing to repeat their bloody swearing and cursing and for this offence I hope those that truly feare God will excuse me Farewell FINIS