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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	according_a	apostle_n	true_a	2,725	5	4.2807	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70985	The reign of the whore discovered and her ruine seen her merchants the priests examined, and with the Romish church (their elder sister) compared and found agreeable in many things ... : some queries also for those people that pay tythes, and priests that receive tythes, to consider and answer : and whereas their cry hath been loud against us the people of God called Quakers, that we are Jesuits, and Jesuitical, in tryal they are found false accusers, and of the same stock and generation themselves ... : also the sustance of a dispute which was the 15th day of the 2d month, called April 1659, at the Bridge-house in Southwark, between VVilliam Cooper, VVilliam VVhitaker, Thomas VVoodsworth, VVieles, Watkins, Cradicut, and others who profess themselves ministers of Christ, and some of the people call'd Quakers ... / written in that which gives to see over all the popish train ... W.S.	Smith, William, d. 1673.; Burrough, Edward, 1634-1662. Following letter containing the substance of the dispute.	1659 (1659)	Wing S204A; ESTC R33983	31,593	40

and treasure up to themselves which belongs no more to them then to the Widows Strangers and Fatherless Put the Popes Lavv aside the Magistrates of England and if Tithes and priesthood must stand let them stand according to the Lavv of God by Moses and not according to the Papists Law and covetous priests desires 4. Did not the Pope and the false Church which hath risen since the dayes of the Apostles who invented Tithes for the maintenance of his Ministers exclude and shut out the poore the Fatherlesse the Widows and Strangers from having a share with him and his priests of the Tithes and people why do you love to uphold a popish invention and the false Churches Synodicall Decrees Edicts and Ordinances and is not this one popish Decree that Tithes are due to God and holy Church do you not know what God the Pope and papists mean and what and where the Holy Church is that Tithes are due to by his or their Decree is not their God their belly and their glory their shame and their Holy Church a Cage of unclean birds a den of Idolaters which murthers prisons racketh and tortureth and persecuteth those that are indeed the members of the Holy Church which is in God and did ever the ministers of Christ who were members of the Holy Church preach up Tithes to be due to them or covet after them or receive any of them did they not on the contrary preach against Tithes and deny them and the priesthood that received Tithes and the Law that gave Tithes they denied also and witnessed the change of the Law and priesthood both as in the 7. of Pauls Epistle to the Hebrews Then are not those priests that preach for Tithes and plead for Tithes opposers of the true Ministers of Christ and their Doctrine and upholders of the Pope Papists and their Decrees and Orders 5. Did not Christ Jesus who is the substance of all the Mosaicall administrations send forth his Ministers freely saying to them Freely ye have received freely give did ever Christ bid them demand Tithes from the people they preached to then surely they did never sue them at the Law for that they never demanded of them as those that call themselves the Ministers of Christ do now in this age who have been rifling mens houses and fields for Tithes People do you not believe that it is a great abomination and blasphemy against the Lord for such to call themselves the ministers of Christ is not Christs glorious Gospel of God dishonoured by them is not the Pope that ordered Tithes to be paid to the Priests Bishops and Clergy men onely and that excluded the poore from having part of the Tithes more honoured and obeyed then Christ by all the Tithe-mongers and hirelings in Christendome and people that own them Christ said Freely you have received freel● give The Pope and Popish Clergy said and saith We have not received freely and we will not nor cannot give freely and if people will not give us freely we will compell them by force and cruelty and whose Ministers are such and whose Commands and Ordinances do such obey Christs or the Popes hath not your fruits and works answered already that the Popes Command and Order is preferred above Christs and obeyed rather then Christs Command and Order Did not Christ say Into whatsoever Town or City you enter enquire who in it is worthy and there abide till ye go thence c. this he spake to them which he sent forth Did he ever send his Ministers into any Town City or Countrey to enquire how much money by the year they would give them to preach to them and to enquire after Tithes and Augmentations and such like and to agree and make bargains with people for a 100. or 200 l. by the year if Christ sent any such Ministers forth and if the true Christians ever owned such Ministers priests and people answer and declare when till then we shall reckon you with the popish priests and Papists This following Letter containing the substance of the Dispute was given into the hands of William Cooper about the middle of the third Month enclosed with some Directions for him to convey it to the rest of his Brethren which were at the Dispute if peradventure they might be shewed their blindness and ignorance in the things of God and William Cooper soon after sent word by one of his Communicants That we should have a speedy Answer but no Answer hath appeared And now therefore are they further examined and their practices and manners of Worship more fully enquired into in the former Treatise And in both all people may see that are not quite blind how that much and many relicks of Popery are yet standing chiefly in the Presbyterian Churches so called and that the true Christian life and primitive Church-Order is not among them And if they can say otherwise let them lay aside that wisdom which man teacheth and which they have learn'd at School by natural Education and answer without logical Arguments in plainness according to the holy Scriptures Friends YOU that profess your selves to be Ministers of Christ and have put on the sheeps clothing but are erred from the spirit of the Lord the time of tryal is now come wherein secret things are brought to light and the great Mystery of Babylon is discovered and all false Ministers are made manifest and the judgement of the great Whore is come and your judgement also that hath drunk her Cup And now something is upon me as to mind you of and to lay something of your own ignorance and weakness before you which appeared in you at that time of the Dispute in the Bridge-House to the intent that you and the people that are under your Ministry may come to see the error of your ways and may be converted to God and live for it truly appears that death reigns in you and over you and the fruits and effects thereof doth spring from you and the cursed Tree is yet standing that brings forth the branches of darkness of unbelief and of great ignorance and the Sword of the Lord which is the words of his mouth will utterly slay you And whereas you asked If we owned you to be Ministers of Christ Unto which in part we answered and I do here more plainly testifie No we cannot own you to be Ministers of Christ nor sent of him for we know the contrary because you are different and contrary to the Ministers of Christ that were in the dayes of the Apostles in Call in Practice and Conversation in Maintenance and in your Fruits and Effects in all these things we say and can prove that you are not according but different and contrary to the Apostles and Ministers of the true Churches before the Apostacy and therefore I hereby certifie you That we to wit the People of God called Quakers do not own you as the Ministers of Christ but do look upon you

January and the twelfth Month February Now do you not prefer the Heathenish and Popish Traditions Rules Customs Manners and Writings before and above what is delivered prescribed and taught in the Writings of the holy men of God so that it is come to pass by your so doing that if people are brought to call daies and months and times and places and persons according as those did who had the spirit of God which the Scriptures teacheth and witnesseth unto I say When people are brought to this they become a hissing and a wonder among you and are counted nice and frivolous and unmannerly and when we speak and write of hours dayes and months as they are recorded in the Scripture people cannot tell what we mean nor how to understand us nor when such a time hour day or month is but will rather mock and jeer at first hour first day first month c. and will have no such reckoning of times in their temporal civil or spiritual Accompts these are your Auditors your Disciples or Schollars as you have learnt you teach as you the Priests are so are the people imitators of the Papists and Heathen in this as well as other things and the Christians life words manners and behaviour you are out of and strangers to and may we not justly with the Heathen and Papists compare you whose example you follow And then concerning the manner of your publike Divine Worship as you call it have you not this manner and custom as the first part of your Worship to sing David's Psalms in rime and meeter divised or turned thereinto by Poets or Musicianers as Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins and others with apt Notes to sing them withall before your prayer and after your Prayer before your Sermon and after your Sermon of all the people together Is not this your own invention Was there any such manner of singing in the Church of Christ You say Let us sing to the praise and glory of God and you keep an Officer to read the Psalm to people which are some drunkards some covetous some proud some defrauders of their Brethren dissemblers double dealers some Adulterers and unclean persons some jesters and idle talkers some light and vain wild and wanton some scornful high-minded and mockers some disobedient to Parents unthankful and unholy and of rude unchristian behaviour Of such consisteth your Church and are not the Steeplehouse-singers such And can such persons sing to the praise and glory of God Or are they in a state and condition fit to sing at all Doth not weeping and howling mourning sorrow and lamentation and wo from the dreadful Lord God of Heaven and of Earth belong to such singers Singing with Grace in the heart unto the Lord we own but singing with wickedness with pride and covetousness in the heart we utterly deny Singing with the Spirit and with understanding we own but your singing by Letter with Musical Notes and Tunes customarily ignorantly without understanding we wholly disown and bear our testimony against it as abomination in the sight of the Lord and it was never ordained nor appointed in nor by the true Church but it hath been ordained and appointed by the false Church the Whore and her Merchants in the dark night of Apostacy since the dayes of the Apostles and since the true Church fled in to the Wilderness And is not this singing of David's Prayers Mournings Sighings Complainings and Cryes unto the Lord and his Praises Rejoicings and magnifying the Lord and such like conditions as David was in I say Is not your singing of these things like the Papists singing have you any more rule in the Scripture for your singing then the Papists have for their singing And hath it not been one of the Whores later invention and addition to your Worship even about the time of Queen Elizabeths reign in this Nation but the same pure eternal light which appeared in the hearts of some about the beginning of our English Wars and manifested much of the Popish Trumpery which was then in being of which quiristers and singing-boys in white Surplices was one I say the same pure eternal light hath manifested your singing and noise to be as abominable in the ears of the Lord as theirs and to be denyed and witnessed against for you have no more rule in the Scripture for your singing David's Prayers then the quiresters and singers then had to sing the Prayer which Christ taught his Disciples which they called Pater Noster Which of all you Mass-house Singers are or ever were what you sing as when you sing O Lord I am no● puft in mind and that your eys are not scornful Are you not of such a proud and hard heart and puft up mind and scornful eyes many of you that you will scarce look upon nor walk with nor relieve those that are poor though they be of your own Church Then do you not sing a lye in this And is that to the praise and glory of God Surely you dare not say that God is glorified with a noise of lyes not that David's Psalms are lyes but you being not in the same state condition and life that David was in they are lyes in your mouths David said Mine eys gush out with Rivers of water because they keep not thy law I am afflicted ready to dye from my youth up while I suffer thy terrors I am d●stracted I am like a Bottle in the smoak I am like an Owle in the desert I am like a Pellican in the Wilderness I am like a Sparrow alone upon the house top all my friends and acquaintance hath forsaken me This David said and you sing these words ignorantly customarily never witnessing the same state condition so they are lyes in your mouths and God is not glorified but dishonored by you in this part of your Worship and your singing and the Papists and quiristers and Surplice-boys singing is abomination alike in the sight of the Lord and in the sight of his servants who are redeemed from amongst you and from under the great Whore which sits upon the Waters but the Lord our God is taking her seat from under her and into the pit she with her golden Cup full of Sorceries Witchcrafts and Fornications shall fall and none shall be able to deliver her neither can she save her self nor those that hath been and still are made drunk with her Sorceries and deceiveable ways of unrighteousness of which this trick craft and art of singing is one James said Is any merry let him sing Psalms He wrote these words to Saints but hear what he wrote to such as you Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purifie your hearts ye double-minded be afflicted and mourn and weep let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy into heaviness Such as these hath no cause to be merry who are sinners whose hands are uncleansed and whose hearts are unpurified and whose minds are double And

can neither prove that you are so neither doth your fruits and works prove it but the contrary is manifest And whereas you further said The gift of the holy spirit is not sufficient to make a Minister This is also your ignorance for as I said they also have receiv'd the spirit have received the fruits thereof and the Apostle saith As every one hath received the gift of the spirit so he may administer of the same to another who have received the spirit of Christ they are Christs and if any man have not that spirit such are none of his but how full of confusion are you I cannot but mind you of it Some time you say the Spirit is not necessary to the Ministry and again you say The spirit alone is not sufficient to make a Minister and here is Babylons stuff Confusion brought forth by you her Merchants and such as these hath deceived the souls of men one saying one thing and others another and thus is your kingdom divided and that is a sign that it cannot stand but it must fall when the kingdoms of this World becomes the Kingdom of Christ And whereas you affirmed One may be called into the Ministry by Christ and yet at the same time be under the power of the Devil and the self-same man at the very same time may be a Disciple of Christ and yet a Devil Ans. I cannot but mind you of your ignorance and return your words to you again For a man that is under the power of the Devil he is the servant of the Devil and not Christs servant and that man that is a Disciple of Christ and learns of him is a child of God and not of the Devil for the Devil is out of truth and so are all that are under his power but the Disciple of Christ is in the truth and learns of Christ who is truth and though you would seem to prove these things by Judas Peter yet as for Judas he turned from Christ and against him and the Devil entered into him and he lost the power of God and erred from it and then he was a Devil and a betrayer of the just but whilst he followed Christ and was faithful in his Ministry he was not a Devil Neither was Peter Satan he that was Christ's Disciple but he that savoured the things that was of man and not the things of God and he that denied Christ he was the Satan for the Disciple of Christ and Satan are two and not one they are contrary and not the same though you in your ignorance would make them one but ye know not of what spirit ye are of nor whose work you are doing And whereas you held it forth That you had the fruits of the spirit because you shew forth faith and repentance therefore c. Now I did and do deny that you shew forth faith and repentance for your Works doth manifest the contrary And to prove that you have repentante you say you detest all sin and therefore c. Now this I did and do deny again and do assert the contrary and thus I prove it Whosoever breaks the commands of Christ and acts those things which he cryed wo against those things which the holy Prophets cryed against they do not detest all sin but thus you do to wit you that profess your selves to be Ministers you act those things which Christ forbad which the holy Prophets cryed against therefore you do not detest all sin and so have not the fruits and marks of the Holy Ghost upon you that you act these things that Christ forbad and which the Prophets cryed against it is plainly manifest Christ forbad his Ministers to be called of men Masters but you are called Masters Christ cryed wo against them that loved the uppermost Rooms and the chief Seats greetings in the Markets and these things are you guilty of And the holy Prophets cryed against them that preached for hire and divined for money and against them that fed themselves with the fat and clothed themselves with the Wool and did not feed the flock and these things you are guilty of and thus it is manifest you do not detest all sin but lives in it for in the fruits and works of the flesh you do abound in pride and covetousness in wrath and bitterness and in many other things whereby it is clearly manifest that you have not your own noted signs of the holy spirit upon you and so we cannot own you but must deny you to be the Ministers of Christ And as for your carriages and proceedings at that Dispute they were not agreeing with the spirit of truth for you were wild and vain and scornful which practices becomes not Christs Ministers And why did you run so soon away Why had not you longer patience for the tryal of all things Were you afraid to be discovered and that your shame should have appeared Were you hit upon your sore which made you fling away so suddenly that you could not abide any longer Many things more I had to have spoken if you had not left us in that manner which a shame unto your selves and to your companie who used such wildness and violence and laid violent hands upon me thrusting me forth and threatning of us with Constables and these things ought not to have been nor had you been Ministers of Christ would they have been but your fruits makes you manifest and by your fruits we know you as Christ hath told us for your fruits are the fruits of unrighteousness and not the fruits of the holy Spirit of the Lord which fruits are pure and peaceable but your fruits are otherwise to wit the fruits of the spirit of this world that lies in wickedness And whereas you accused us to be Jesuites or such like these were your false accusations and we see you to be nearer to agreement with the Jesuites then we are and the Church of Rome is your Mother from her you have descended in your Call and in your Maintenance and in the most part of your worship and practices therefore come let 's reason with you Had not you the Professed Ministers of England this way of making Ministers at Schools and Colledges by natural learning from the Church of Rome Was not she the first that instituted these Colledges gave the maintenance to them and gave all these names to Schollers as Batchellour of Arts and Master of Arts Batchellour of Divinity and such like names which yet remains amongst you the originall of which came from the Church of Rome and was first set up in England by the Whores Authority Did these things come from the Church of Christ or was there such names amongst Christs true Ministers or have not you received these things and wayes from the Whore and drunken her cup this way of making ministers have you had from the Whore of Rome and from whence had you this