Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	holy_a	scripture_n	tradition_n	3,735	5	9.1394	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27590	The command of God to his people to come out of Babylon, Revel. 18. 4, demonstrated to mean the coming out of the present papal Rome with a most earnest perswasive to all to come out who are in it, ...	Beverley, Thomas.	1688 (1688)	Wing B2132; ESTC R18831	42,746	48

of Scripture give to the Expositions and Discourses out of Doctrinal parts of Scripture And certainly had God stirr'd up the Spirits of the Reformed by the most industrious Indeed prophecy if not thus conceal'd could not have been fulfill'd Searches into the Word of God to have conjoyn'd the one with the other and to have bestow'd that Time and Diligence in the Explication of Prophecy of Scripture that they have done in Researches into the Ancients the Controversie had been long ago at an end and the Apostasie exploded But God hath in the deep ways of his Judgment reserved the lustre of open Prophecy to the Times nearer to the Kingdom and Coming of Christ and the Brightness of his Appearance that so the Man of Sin May be consum'd by it Hereby arises a Judgment upon other Prophesies of Scripture that respect this Grand Apostacy as that of the Apostle John's Spirit of Antichrist and The Antichrist For whatever Community or City under the Name of a Church is continually saying Who shall go up to Heaven as to other Mediators besides the One Mediator Brings down Christ from Above as if He had not Ascended or were not Set down on the Right Hand of God to make Intercession for us And when the same False Church is continually Saying Who shall descend into the Deep of Purgatory by those many Sacrifices and ways of Propitiation This is to bring up Christ from the Dead as if He Himself had not made a perfect Sacrifice Once for all All which are a perfect Denial that Christ is come in the Flesh and an Antichrist in many regards worse then Judaism and always branded as Heatheanism in the Prophecy and the very worst of Heathenism This Prophecy rightly understood would expound to us that whole prophetical Chapter 2. Pet. 3. those Predictions of our Saviour concerning the Signs of his coming and of the End of the World Those three Mystical Cities Sodom Samaria and Jerusalem that are never to be recover'd that Edom the Border of wickedness against which God hath indignation for ever It would expound to us that Discourse of the Apostle against any Church being so wise in its own conceit as to think it self perfect till the Calling and Conversion of the Jews Those dreadful Menaces on the then truly Famous Roman Christian Church of its being Cut off and that more irrecoverably than the Jews who shall be grassed in again e're the end of the World into their own Olive But it is beyond my Intention to ingage further into these Things and it is enough to give only Intimations of them It shews us the Care God hath taken of his Servants in all Times since the first working Inference 2. of the Mystery of Iniquity to preserve them out of the Midst of this Congregation and Assembly of the Dead these Deeps of Hell the Damnation of those who are given up to the strong Delusions of Believing so horrible a Lye upon Christianity as Popery is who perish in not Receiving the Truth in the Love of it Who Believ'd not the Truth but had Pleasure in the Deceivableness of Vnrighteousness whose names are not written in the Lambs Book of Life from the Foundation of the World Who are led away with the Errors of the Wicked God hath graciously Sealed his own Servants whom he hath chosen to Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of Truth who are not wandring Stars falling from their own Stedfastness but fix'd by Grace as the Wise who shall shine as the Firmament and as the Stars for Ever let us therefore Consider the several Methods of the Grace of God herein and the various degrees of it according to the variety of Times and of the various Temptations upon them to Seduction All which have been so many Comings out of his People from this Babylon 1. That which hath been Universal to all his Saints and Servants hath been the Ingaging them to stand fast in the Traditions The True sincere Traditions of the Gospel of Jesus Christ first in the immediate word of the Apostles Preaching by the Holy Ghost sent from Heaven and then Sealed in Scripture without taking from or adding thereto in Doctrine Worship Practise or Government 2. When this Apostasie was risen so High that the Gentiles were come to their Forty two Months His Servants were so observant of it that they immediately put on their Sackcloth This was precisely their Testimony Finish'd before their prophecy ends Rev. 11. 7. and Prophecied in it against the Apostasie and when the Apostasie rose higher and became a Throne of Satan the Pope became a Balam an exalted False Prophet yet they did not Deny the Name of Christ but held fast his Name Even in the time when Antipas or the Anti-Papal Martyrs were slain Although in the mean time They might not be wholly free from some of the shade of that Doctrine on which account It is said They had those who held the Doctrine of Balam and are call'd the Church of Pergamus that High Tow'ring Church that was then aspiring higher and higher These Witnesses were retired out of it while in the midst of all that Corruption and they Fed on hidden Manna and were satisfied with the Absolution of the White Stone peculiar to themselves which all the World Damn'd for Hereticks which shewed they were retired form Rome and call'd by its Name as if of that Church although thus gently censur'd 3. When this City was become Jezebel the Mother of Harlots under the Name of a Church and that the Witnesses of Christ were slain by her and her Prince that had sold Himself to Work Wickedness before the Lord They then declar'd against it as such a Painted Prostitute and separated from it though they were encompass'd with it as with Lyons and Men set on fire with Rage to Burn them Alive and were forced to suffer this False Church while they were come out so far as not to have nor had it in the Account and Reputation of a Church and yet in signification of being in the midst of it are called Ihyatyra One of its Names 4. The Churches of the Reformation made not only an avow'd Separation from it by Coming out of it but by Laws and Sanctions prohibited the Superstitions and Idolatrys of it and of its Prince who ought to be under this Two-fold Caution as the Church of Sardu is Admonish'd and They under it 1. Of pursuing the Reformation to the utmost according to the Highest Spirit and Truest Perfection of it being else in Danger of being Reprov'd for not having their Garments Pure and undefiled nor their Works filled up before God in a perfect Coming Out 2. Of not receiving back into a Sufferance or Toleration the open bare-fac'd avow'd Sins of Spiritual Sodom and its Impurities seeing the Providence of God hath so far deliver'd them lest Many Return as a Dog to the Vomit and have Complacency in what was cast out with Detestation by a Nation and Church 5. But whereas these Things have not yet been done by the Servants of God so avowedly under the Banner of this Prophecy when the Beast's Forty Two Months are out There shall be more Solemn Voices that Babylon is Fallen is Fallen and if any Man continue to Worship the Beast c. He shall Drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God without mixture That All may Come Out and Reform 9. When the Vials are about to be powred out as the Plagues of Aegypt and Fire from Heaven upon this Spiritual Sodom and Aegypt there may be some Romanists in it who pertain to the Election of Grace on whom the Lord being Merciful to them He lays hold and pulls them as Brands out of the Burning and even forces them to come Out as of old He pull'd Lot out of Sodom that very Moment and with a Holy Violence of Grace to them Rescues them from the Flames After that Time He that is Filthy shall be Filthy still He thai is Vnjust shall be unjust still But He that is Justified from that Apostasie shall be for ever juctified from it After that time there is neither Reformation nor Apostasie FINIS

that we enforce the Command it self to come out of it by particular Inferences from it For hence It appears how necessary It is for Christians in general Infer 1. to know and to take notice that there is such an Apostacy from Christian Religion disguised under the Name of Catholick Christianity that hath concentred it self in Rome under the name of an Vniversal Church and in such a Head of it as the Pope under the name of Head of the Church and Vicar of Christ The Apostle not only speaking Face to Face Not only when with them but by Epistle when at distance from them writing to the Thessalonians thought it a point of great Moment and of deepest Interest to inform them of it and to possess them of it and in them all Christians Learned or Unlearned And the Love of God the Father gave the Revelation to Jesus Christ to shew it to his Servants as containing this as One of the greatest Points of it viz. Concerning this Apostasie the Seat and Residence of it this Prostituted Church and City and the Beast the Prince of it It can therefore be no such mysterious or unnecessary Doctrine as It is generally suppos'd but hath its greatest and most Fundamental Uses That the true Christianity may by the Compare be more known and understood in its true Beauty and Excellency being a Pure Solid Even Supreme Extract and Cube given from the Increated Unerring Wisdom of God in the Face of Jesus Christ Divine Heavenly Spiritual Pure and Chaste Full of Mercy and of all good Fruits But Popery is an Irregular Odd Traditional Christianity made up of Idolatrous and Superstitious Rites Pomp Riches and Pleasures of Sensuality All of the present Evil World full of Rage Cruelty and Blood against All who do not swallow their monstrous Articles of Faith and submit to that slavery of their Antichristian Government To keep men therefore wholly to that Excellent Rule of the Word of God in Doctrine Worship and Practice and under that most merciful Discipline it is necessary to know the Goodness of the One by the Badness of the other That one Grand Reason of the so sad Imprevalency of so excellent a Religion as the Religion of Jesus Christ might be understood The great Eclipse of it is by so foul an Apostacy and Mystery of Iniquity casting so black a shade upon it and such a Cloud of Tares upon the Field of Wheat And this hath so universally obscured Christianity and allay'd its Supreme Excellency and turn'd it into so worldly a Religion that it neither hath nor can be Refin'd to it self till that whole Apostasie be consum'd out of the World And then but not till then there will be another Face of Christianity And this is necessary to be known to abate the Scandal That the dark Interposition between the Kingdom of Jesus Christ according to all the Prophecies of Scripture due to him at his Resurrection and the glory of it may be duely apprehended For the Mystery of Iniquity work'd early that it might arise to the taking away the true daily Sacrifice of Christian Religion and scattering the power of the Holy People for Time Times and half a Time. Now this is most necessary to be known to take off the Scandal of so many Massive Prophecies and Promises as were to ensue on the Kingdom of the Messiah both in relation to the Jews and to the whole World of Mankind not yet come to pass but we ought against it deeply to consider There was to be forty two months of the Gentiles and of the Beast running parallel to the twelve hundred sixty days Sackcloth of the Witnesses and the Wilderness-state of the Church all which was to be by the Fathers own Appointment who reserv'd Times even as that Day and Hour in his own Cognisance or Right of Dispose before the Kingdom of Christ and the glorious Accomplishment of the Prophecies such as Esay 2. 1. Zech. 14. with innumerable more which being so peculiar to that Kingdom cannot be adjourn'd to the Day of Judgment as generally understood For then Christ shall render up the Kingdom to God and the Father and God shall be All in All. There arises in the wise Ordination of God a mutual Justification of the Prophecy by the Separation from Rome upon the general Principles and Rules of the Word of God without close and strict and express Attendance to the Prophecy or deriving Directions from that for how is the Prophecy honour'd and vindicated in commanding to Come out of that City and Church which Holy Wise and Conscientious Christians see Reason and just Grounds from its extream Pollutions in Doctrine Worship and Practice and the Imperiousness of its Tyranny to come out from although they did not understand Prephecy so commanding them And how could Prophecy be either understood or fulfill'd if Things were not so bad upon such Fundamental Accounts How could it be verified that Prophecy were so to be interpreted if there were not so great Reasons for Coming out supposing there had been no such Prophecy On the other side How is the Separation justified by the Prophecy thus rightly expounded and interpreted For who might not scruple that so great and so long an Apostacy should grow up out of the Profession of Christianity and that the Prophecy of the New Testament should not have seen and foretold it So that it were without this Reason also hardly to be believed with that firmness and full Assurance that now it is viz. that such an Apostacy is And why should there be no easier a Remedy might men say than a Separation so solemn and avowed a Separation if there were not the Grand Prejudice against so guilty a Community that Prophecy hath long ago pass'd upon it There ought at least to be all means of Reconciliation perpetually us'd And who could believe they should be so long after so many Debates ineffectual if there had not been a Prophecy commanding the People of God to come out of it and not to expect its Repentance So that either it would not have been so bad as to necessitate such a Separation or we may be certain there is Prophecy concerning it Such a Prophecy and such an Apostacy undoubtedly belong to and interlock one within another Lastly what greater or better Determination of these everlasting Disputes than to seek into Divine Prophecy and to find them determin'd and decided so long ago by it against that prostituted Church and mystical City and on the side of the Separation This certainly in the nature of the Thing must surer and more speedily make an end of Controversie than those endless Combatings out of Antiquity for when all the Incertainties of the ways of Discourse among the Ancients may leave us in an Amaze and bewildred the Testimonies of God are sure Again Those Ancients might be deceived as Men but the Rightousness of Divine Oracles is Everlasting yea how great Certainty do these Prophetick parts