Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	according_a	body_n	member_n	3,100	5	7.2395	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54066	Some things relating to religion, proposed to the consideration of the Royal Society, (so termed) to wit, concerning the right ground of certainty therein, concerning tenderness of spirit, and persecution, a query concerning separation, concerning washing away sin from the conscience, and the garment of salvation, and what it is that is covered therewith : likewise, some questions and answers concerning the church of the New-Covenant, the rock of foundation whereon it is built, and its preservation by and upon the rock : with some queries concerning the scattered and hidden estate of the church, and concerning that church which got up in the view of the world, instead thereof, and was acknowledged by the world as if she had been the true church, though indeed and truth she was not so : whereunto are added, some queries to professors, who speak of high attainments, &c. / written by ... Isaac Penington.	Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679.	1668 (1668)	Wing P1205; ESTC R13142	15,290	26

the new understanding So for the Garment of Salvation that is Christ the righteousness of Christ the Nature of Christ the Spirit of Christ This is the holy covering He that puts on Christ puts on this He that wears Christ wears this he that appears before God in Christ appears in this And the Soul puts on this as it puts off the other It is the purified Soul that only puts on him that is pure And as a man is cleansed from the impure so only hath he in him a capacity of receiving and being cloathed with Christ And this now is the work of the true Ministry to wit to preach the Word to reveal the Word and bring the Mind to the Word which changeth it and begets the new capacity and so to begin the work of Life and reconciliation wherein and whereby there is some unclothing of the Old and some clothing with the New and so to carry on this work in the Spirit and power of the Father until it be perfected And this is a blessed work and blessed is the Ministry which is called to and entrusted with this work being faithful in it and blessed are they that witness the truth of and receive the effect of this Ministry and are subject to it in the Lord. For through and under this Ministry there is a receiving of a perfect gift in some measure at first wherein some true union and little acquaintance with the Lord of Life is at first witnessed and some operation of the Light and Power of his Holy Spirit And a grovving up in it unto perfection as the Soul is exercised by it and faithful to the Lord in the exercise under the daily Cross vvhich daily vvorketh against and crucifieth in the Heart Mind Life and Conversation vvhat ever is contrary to God as it is singly vvaited for taken up and subjected to Some Questions and Answers concerning the Church of the New-Covenant the Rock or Foundation whereupon it is built and its preservation by and upon the Rock With some Queries concerning the scattered estate of the true Church and concerning that Church which got up in its stead and made a great show with her Golden Cup for the time while the true Church was scattered Qu. 1. What is the Church of God under the new Agreement or Covenant An. It is a company of Living Stones quickned by God and knit together in the unity and fellowship of his Spirit to worship God together in his Spirit and offer up unto him spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ What was the Church of the Old Covenant Was it not the seed of Abraham the outward Jews the Children of the Old Covenant And what is the Church of the New Covenant Is it not the seed of God the Jews inward the Children of the New Covenant Qu. 2. How are these Stones joyned together An. By the Spirit of Life which begets them all in one Nature and knits them together in that nature By the inward circumcision cutting off that which causeth Enmity and Disunion and so fitting them to be made one New Lump in Christ By Christ's Baptism which is the Baptism of Fire and of his Spirit which burns up the Old earthly Nature and so Baptizes them into one New Living Body sutable and fitting to their Head which is the Fountain of Life and distributes Life through all the Body according to its capacity need and service Qu. 3. Upon what is this Church built An. Upon the Rock or Foundation of God which God hath laid in his spiritual Sion which Rock is Christ For other Foundation can no man lay than that which is laid which is Jesus Christ nor other Rock did the Lord ever chuse for his Church to be built upon Nor hath any other Rock sufficient strength to bear up the building against the storms and stress of the powers of darkness which it often meeteth with even every member in its travels after it is once built on the Rock the Gates of Hell press hard upon it but abiding on the Rock it feels the strength and preservation of the Rock For as they cannot prevail against Christ so neither can they prevail against that which is built upon him But if there be a going forth from the strength and preservation there is a liableness to be made a prey And the promise is not absolutely and perpetually to that Person or Congregation which is received or let into the truth but to that Person or Church which abideth and continueth in the truth unto the end The Jews were safe in the Faith and Obedience of their Covenant and the Christians or Christian Churches are not safe but in the Faith and Obedience of theirs For if they walked not humbly with the Lord and in his Fear which keeps the heart from departing from him and in the Faith whereby they stand they were to be cut off from their Church-state as well as the Jews were from theirs as the Apostle Paul expresly tells the Church at Rome Rom. 11. 21 22. Qu. 4. VVhat was Paul An. The Apostle of the Gentiles who Laboured abundantly even more abundantly than all the other Apostles and hath left more instructions relating to the Gentiles than all the Apostles besides and was tender of them in standing for and defending their liberty in Christ when Peter a little warped and was to be blamed Gal. 2. 11. For indeed man cannot be certain and infallible further than he kepeth to and is exercised by the certain and infallible Spirit which he is subject to be tempted to err from further than he stands upon the watch and cannot but err from unless he feel a continual preservation in the Fear and by the Power of the Lord. And the certainty of truth doth not depend so much upon the person from whom it is received as upon the demonstration and evidence to the conscience wherein it is received The Apostles were not Lords over the true Christians Faith but helpers of their joy And Christ did not require his Disciples to believe what ever he knew to be true but prepared their capacities and dropped in according to their capacities And this is the way of the true Ministers to wait on God to beget and on him again to Water the begotten Soul and carry on his work in it to make them know Christ their Master from whom they are to receive Light Life Instruction and Direction and to feel the Head and be joyned to the Head and receive from the Head their knowledg as well the least as the greatest Ebr. 8. What is Paul What is Apollos What is Cephas Were not they carnal that cryed up these one above another Yet the younger ought to be subject to the elder and all to be subject one to another in the truth 1 Pet. 5. 5. Qu. 5. What was Peter An. One of the Disciples of Christ a precious Stone in the building Joh. 1. 43. one of the most eminent Apostles

Commandment nigh in the mouth and heart to which Moses directed them which would have taught and enabled them to have kept to the Law of the Letter without them they also ran into the Nature and Spirit of the Heathen and fell into imaginings and reasonings which led them to worship like them Insomuch that they also changed their glory into the image of an Oxe that eateth grass Psal 106. 20. Now from this part in man ariseth all the uncertainty and doubts and dissatisfaction about Religion And hence arise the Opinions and Judgments and Reasonings in the minds of men Yea indeed the best of Mens Religion here is but an opinion or judgment which the breath of God's Spirit will shake and dissolve every where sooner or later All flesh is grass and all the beauty of men's Knowledg Religion and Worship here will wither like grass All the buildings and Churches that are raised here how beautiful soever are but Babylon built by man's understanding by man's knowledg by man's comprehension by man's wisdom by man's skill and indeed in man's will and time And their standing beauty strength and glory is but from man and in man's day and will fade away like a Flower But the true certainty is in the day of God from the Light of his spirit shining into man's spirit from God's inward reaching to his heart by his power and testifying his truth there And this all the powers of darkness cannot prevail against in it self no nor against that man that is kept to it For it is the Rock the only Rock upon which the whole Church is built and which cannot fail to preserve every member of the Church which is built upon it Ye then which would come to certainty in Religion observe the way which is made manifest from God in this our day blessed be his name which is this Mind the Witness of God in thy heart and come to and build upon the Light thereof Dwell not in reasonings take not up thy Religion in reasonings of the mind but pass through them pass beyond them into a light of an higher nature Wait to know the birth which is from God and the light which he gives to that birth What is the birth Is not the birth of and from the second Adam And what is the Heavenly birth's light Is it not the light of the second Adam Is it not in nature and kind above the light of the first Adam Where is the seat of reasonings Is it not the earthly mind the fallen mind Here lies man's strength Here is man's wisdom Here is man's life It is so indeed But the wisdom of Christ the light of Christ the life of Christ the power of Christ is a cross to this finds it in the enmity against God crucifies it slays it brings it to nothing and he that will become wise as to God must become a Fool unto all this a Child a Babe entring the Kingdom without this and must there remain naked as to this and never put it on more Now observe ye that have understanding and true sense the difference between the Religion which God hath taught us and led us into and the Religions of all men upon the Earth besides Our Religion stands wholly out of that which all their Religion stands in Their Religion stands in the Comprehension in a belief of a litteral relation or description Our Religion stands in a Principle which changeth the mind wherein the Spirit of Life appeareth to and witnesseth in the Conscience to and and concerning the things of the kingdom where we hear the voice and see the express Image of the invisible One and know things not from an outward relation but from their inward nature vertue and power Yea here we must profess we so know things that we are fully satisfied about them and could not doubt concerning them though there had never been word or letter written of them though indeed it is also a great comfort and sweet refreshment to us to read that testified of outwardly which through the tender mercy of our God we feel and enjoy inwardly And in this our whole Religion consists to wit In the silence and death of the flesh and in the quickning and flowing life of the spirit For he who is of the new-Birth of the new-Creation of the second Adam the Lord from Heaven is as really alive to God and as really lives to him in his spirit as ever he was really dead in trespasses and sins in the time of his alienation and estrangement from God Of Tenderness of Spirit and Persecution He which is born of God he who is of the Love and dwells in the Love cannot but be tender He who is born of the earthly Wisdom who taketh up and holdeth forth a Religion there cannot but persecute Why so Because he cannot but judg that any man may take up Religion as he hath done and so by reasonings may come to acknowledg and take up what he hath taken up and holdeth forth or else he is wilful and stubborn as he judgeth But now he that is born of God and hath received his Light Knowledg Religion and way of Worship from him He knoweth that no man can rightly receive them but the same way to wit from God by the Light which he causeth to shine into the heart at his pleasure and in the Faith which he gives So that God's free and powerful spirit is to be waited upon for the working of all in his people and not any forced to act beyond or contrary to the Principle of his Life and Light in them A Query concerning Separation Quer. Whether after the Apostacy from the Spirit Life and Power of the Apostles and the getting up of the Antichristian state Church and Worship there must not of necessity be a separation from all these before there can be a recovery of the Life and Power again and of the true Church-state which was brought forth in the daies of the Apostles Must there not be a perfect coming out of the corrupt state in the whole nature several parts and degrees of it before there can be a restoration to and witnessing of the true and pure state Must not the Christians now come out of all the Antichristian Inventions and Churches as well as the Christians of old came out of all the Heathenish worships yea out of the Jewish worship and Church which once was of God before they can become an holy building and habitation to God in the spirit Yea doth not the same spirit which cryed to the people of God then Come out from among them and be ye separate c. call and cry now Come out of her my people out of Babylon out of the false Church out of all the Antichristian buildings which are reared up after the several forms and waies of mens inventing but out of the spirit life and power which alone is able to build up in and unto the Lord And what is