Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	heathen_a	let_v	publican_n	2,742	5	10.9981	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54155	Judas and the Jews combined against Christ and his followers being a re-joynder to the late nameless reply, called, Tyranny and hypocrisie detected, made against a book, entituled The spirit of Alexander the Coppersmith rebuked, &c. which was an answer to a pamphlet, called, The spirit of the hat, in which truth is cleared from scandals, and the Church of Christ, in her faith, doctrine, and just power and authority in discipline is clearly and fully vindicated against the malicious endeavours of a confederacy of some envious professors and vagabond, apostate Quakers / by ... William Penn ; to which are added several testimonies of persons concern'd.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1673 (1673)	Wing P1307; ESTC R23117	100,153	131

Shepherd and a Stranger will they not hear Who is this Stranger Not alwayes False Doctrine but a False Spirit covered with True Doctrine They shall come in my Name that is pretending Authority from me and speaking my Words not having my Spirit Christ's Spirit within is his Voice within and 't is that alone gives to discern the Strange Voice let it come with never such True Words Had Christ left his Churches destitute of this Touch-Stone they had been imposed upon by every False Spirit and his Flock devoured by every Wolf in Sheeps Cloathing Sheep know Sheep not only by Sight but Instinct and Wolves too For if Shepherds be of Authority they tell us that if a Wolf be near though out of Sight the Sheep will bleat their Antipathy So do the Sheep of Christ know each other by the Instinct of that Divine Nature they are mutually Partakers of and by it do they discern the Wolf within notwithstanding the Sheep's Cloathing without It was for this end they were to have Salt in themselves the Anointing and Spirit in themselves that they might see relish and discern thereby who were so Salted Anointed and Spirited which in the ground could never be visibly discerned 2ly The second Question I also take in the Affirmative and for which there is both express Scripture and Unanswerable Reason This is seen in the very case of Alexander the Copper-Smith who was denyed and rejected notwithstanding that he made Profession of Christianity And there is cause to believe that the Difference began from his emulous Spirit 's taking Occasion against the Apostles Authority and the Power of the Elders in the Church It was doubtless for something not unlike to this that Paul complained of him to Timothy Alexander the Copper-Smith did me much wrong of whom be thou ware also for he hath greatly withstood our Words Which is the very State and Character of the present Apostates Who pretend with Alexander not to withstand Truth or Christianity but a Lordly Paul Timothy or such like eminent Labourers They pretend to own the Churches but deny some of their Leading Ministers That this was Alexander's Disease the next Verse proves At my first Answer no Man stood with me but all Men forsooke me I pray God it may not be laid to their Charge Who was this People but the Church for of the Heathen it could not be said And what was Alexander's aim besides Ambition I mean to discredit the Apostle that he might gain the Repute and being him down from that Authority God had given him in the Church that he might usurp it to himself What did the Apostle do in the like case shrink No Hear him For though I should boast somewhat more of our Authority which the Lord hath given us for Edification and not for your Destruction I should not be ashamed 2 Cor. 10 8. But no more of this at present That Christ as well gave his Church Power to reject as to try Spirits is not hard to prove That notable Passage Go tell the Church does it to our hand For if in case of private Offence betwixt Brethren the Church is made absolute Judge from whom there is no Appeal in this World how much more in any the least Case that concerns the Nature Being Faith and Worship of the Church her self The Judgment Christ passeth in the matter is sufficient to the Resolution of our Question But if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as a Heathen and a Publican This I say on the Account of those Apostates who pretend to be the Men they ever were For this Man that works with their Tooles is upon his own Principle as much an Heathen and a Publican as any thing else and tells us to boot that it is dangerous to be of any one Party Therefore not of the true Churche's Party I omit any particular recital of the Apostle Paul's frequent earnest Dehortations from so much as keeping company with perverse Disputers about needless Questions or any that infested the Church and disturbed her Peace and that Practice in which she was at first setled with unprofitable Novelties under what Pretence soever They that can read may find in his Epistles enough to this purpose 'T is true They used no corporal Violence or any civil Power to punish such obstinate Dissenters nor is that Unchristian Practice so much as any part of the Question But first to reprove and admonish and in case of Persistance then to disown and reject which is a part of the Question and a part of the Scripture too And indeed it is most reasonable that as a Civil so a Christian Society should have this Power to preserve it self from the Taints Infections of hurtful Spirits for such tend not to further Knowledge Increase in Holiness or Peace but Strifes and Divisions Animosities and Rents Backbitings and Revenge to the laying waste of God's holy Heritage 3ly The third Question we also accept in the affirmative That men may believe confess and subscribe to the Truth of the Doctrine of the Vniversality Sufficiency and immediate Teachings of the Light as to Faith and Worship and yet be declined from the living Sense Power and Ordering of it so as to be acted by a wrong Spirit to Divisions and notwithstanding plead his Following of the Light within against the Judgment of the Church who reproves him for so doing In short that a man may follow a Wrong Spirit when he thinks he follows the Right and though he ought to follow the Light and Spirit yet is to be judged when he does not act thereby though he may think he doth by such as walk thereby In this the Scriptures of Truth are very positive The Jews owned the Law at what time they rebelled against it and thought they acted according to Scripture when by their Traditions they made it of none Effect There was a certain Generation that were pure in their own Eyes That is believed themselves to be of a Right Spirit whom the holy Ghost reproved for being guided by a Wrong one It was no other State then this that Christ spoke of when he said If therefore the Light that is in thee be Darkness how great is that Darkness Some doubtless acted by Virtue of this Darkness not as Darkness but as Light Was it therefore Light because they thought so When it is manifest that they were against Christ the true Light as you are now Or would the Plea of such an one be so valid against the Body of a Church walking in the true Light as to disengage any from her judgment Or must we therefore conclude that the Light is not a Rule for Men to walk by because some mistake or swarve from it Or that he who calls his dark Imagination a Motion of Light is therefore not to be condemned because it is every Man's Duty to follow the True Light Shall this Position I say