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cause_n great_a know_v lord_n 3,918 5 3.5901 3 true
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A90388 Babylon the Great described. The city of confusion. In every part whereof Antichrist reigns. Which knoweth not the order and unity of the spirit, but striveth to set up an order and uniformity according to the wisdom of the flesh, in all her territories atd [sic] dominions. Her sins, her judgements. With some plain queries further to discover her, and some considerations to help out of her suburbs, that her inward building may lye the more open to the breath and spirit of the Lord, from which it is to receiv [sic] its consumption and overthrow. Also, an exhortation to the powers of the earth. By Isaac Penington, the younger. Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679. 1659 (1659) Wing P1153; Thomason E770_2; ESTC R203128 52,975 64

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accepted and his not who disdains and derides the true seed of of life the living heir who hunts abroad for food pleasing to that nature which is to be famished who crucifies the Lord of glory because of his meaness and because he appears not in that way of devotion and holinesse wherein they expect him Neither will he appear so but to overturn all that which ye have set up and to set up that which ye disdain This is the Lords work and it is marvellous in our eyes Now there are several sins which the Spirit of the Lord hath charged Babylon with and which he will reckon with her for and with all that partake with her therein some whereof I may mention As 1. Her deep fornications from the life under a pretence of honouring and worshipping of it Be not offended that I begin with it again seeing it is also mentioned among other particular sins of hers Rev 9. 21. She speaks fair words she calls to have the worship of God set up and a Godly Ministry and the Ordinances of God in a Nation but the thing is not so in the sight of God but in all this she seeks the advancement of her owne whoredoms And this was and is the very way of Antichrists rising he gets into the form he cryes up the form and by the form which he cries up he eats out the power If Antichrist speak directly against the power without first creeping into and setting up a form and crying up that he would soon be detected but under a form and profession of truth he hides himselfe and covers his spirit of enmity and persecution therewith and here he can secretly and safely smite the innocent and fight against that very spirit life and power which he himselfe in his form makes a profession of being subject to And this is the Wolfe in the Sheeps cloathing which by this fair appearance of the sheeps wool on his back covers his ravenous nature from the eyes of the beholders Now there are three wayes of fornication one of which this spirit is allwayes guilty of sometimes of them all 1. By inventing things which the Lord never commanded or adding to that which the Lord did command The mind of man is very busie and ful of inventions and where the heart is touched with devotion and zeal towards God the inventing part exceedingly exerciseth it selfe this way either in imagining and forming somewhat which it thinks may be acceptable to God or in adding to those things which it finds commanded In this way of fornication the popish Church abounds being filled with ceremonies of their own inventing and of additions to such things as are found mentioned in the Scriptures The common Protestants also have been too guilty here 2. By imitating of those things which were commanded to others When a man finds in Scripture the things which some others did or which they were commanded to do and so he is venturing upon them before he feels the leading of that spirit whereby they were led thereunto Now in this he errs from the life he goes without his guid he doth that which was a good thing in others who were led by the Spirit thereto but in him it is fornication This man is a theif and an intruder he steals into the outward knowledge and practise without the inward life and power he intrudes into that into which others were fairly led coming in by the doore for which entrance he also should have waited and not have run on headily of himself This way of fornication the strictest among the Protestants have generally been ensnared in who have run on further and further to search out the purest way of worship the neerest pattern to the primitive times and so have applyed themselves diligently thereto not knowing what they were to wait for to be their guid and give them the enterance And here now thinking themselves to be in the right they have contracted a lofty spirit and held forth their conceptions of the way as the only way and so have lost the meekness and simplicity which was fresh and lively in some of them before which sets them a great way back and makes the enterance into the kingdom very hard to them Whereas if that simplicity and tenderness were fresh in them the Lord would shew great regard to that easily pardoning this their errour and in mercy to them visiting that evil spirit with his judgements which stood nigh them and was the cause of their error But they are grown high they are grown wise they are become confident they know the way already and can maintain it by undenyable arguments as they think to be the way so the Lord with his teachings is at a great distance from them that lying very low in them which the Lord alone will teach 3. By continuing in practices to which they were once led by the Spirit without the immediate presence and life of the Spirit For the whole worship the whole Religion of the Gospel consists in following the Spirit in having the Spirit do all in us and for us Therefore whatsoever a man doth of himself it is out of the life it is in the fornication If a man pray at any time without the Spirit that prayer is fornication and is not either acceptable to God or profitable to himself but grieves the Spirit hurts the life and wounds the soul Now this way of fornication have they especially fallen into who have been acquainted with true leadings and openings of the Spirit and have afterwards run to them for refreshment and so by degrees forgot the Spirit that opened And by this means was that life which was precious and very favoury in the Ranters before they were seduced by the Spirit of deceit into that way of ranting overturned And thus they also who deeply saw into the mistery of whoredoms and into the more inward wayes of fornication above others even they also were deceived with the whores cup and drank afresh of that wine of fornication which the whore very cunningly had new mingled for them and they also are become a reproach to the Inhabitants of Sion who find a living habitation in that Spirit of life which they turned from Now if there be a true eye opened in any in the reading of this how easily and manifestly will he see whoredome whoredome fornication adultery generally in mens Religions practices in their Churches in their Ministeries in their Ordinances in their prayers in their whole course O how think ye doth the eye of the Jealous God behold these things but your eyes who are held captive here cannot see it The God of this world with his mists hath darkned you the great whore with her sorceries hath inchanted you and ye are her slaves ye are drunk with her cup and how can ye judge soberly ei●her of your own estate towards God or concerning your practices in Religion 2. Her notorious blasphemies Having fornicated from the