Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	bind_v	key_n	loose_v	3,794	5	10.2737	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86191	The key of Scripture-prophecies: or, A glass of some new discoveries. Being an answer to a book published by Mr John Elmestone. Wherein is resolved, 1. Whether a true constituted church, with true office and visible membership, together with the ordinances proper to such a Gospel-stating, continued true by a line of succession from the primitive time downward to our times: or whether it were not interrupted by the apostacie. 2. If they did there intermit, when they return again to their first glory, whether now, or hereafter; and what is the dispensation now approved by the Spirit. / By Simon Henden.	Henden, Simon.	1652 (1652)	Wing H1430; Thomason E668_11; ESTC R202520	120,810	124

which in Paul's time was the greatest cause of rents then was the primitive Church in her highest stature being as the sun in its full Meridian then were all things here spoken of fulfilled then and but till then was a growing rising time and after that was a gradual declining from that time Heresies and Errors the renters of union crouded in apace Euseb lib. 3. chap. 29. In little time after the three highest spheres of the Ministerial Office were wholly resolved and expired and that remaining of Pastors and Teachers grew in every succession more corrupt and so increased in pride and usurpation till at length the Angel totally apostated from heaven to earth lost the true key of Office and instead thereof had the key of the bottomless pit which brought a gloomy night on all Object 2. Your second Scripture is 1 Tim. 6.13 14 where say you is a strait charge laid upon Timothy to keep that course of discipline prescribed to him in that Epistle Answ This solemn command of the Apostle doth not comprehend the whole Epistle but onely that immediately going before which is to fight the good fight of faith in following after righteousness godliness love patience meekness and avoiding covetousness thereby to obtain eternal life and this is doctrinal and to be observed till the last coming of Christ Now that it is thus is clear from the text for the Spirit faith not Th●s but this as pointing at that immediately preceding nor commandments in the plural as respecting all the several precepts of the whole book but commandment in the singular number as respecting one The Apostle in this Epistle gives other charges by the particle these in the plural number as Chap. 4.11 These things charge and command and Chap. 5.21 having before given rules about discipline enjoyns him to do these things without partiality and lay on hands suddenly on no man The phrase of abiding is not at all annexed to these former charges they containing many things that failed but onely to this later singled out by it self which it well reviewed will further clear up our assertion and by a direct diameter contradict the sence which you would force it to To your fourth Objection from Matth. 28.19 20 we shall reply to in the conclusion of this Paragraph Section 2. Our second is that Ministery Prayer c. being perpetuated in the Word have always the life and power of the same Word in some measure accompanying them whereby to preserve their vital being Rev. 11.1.3 But the later wanting the same Word to uphold their abiding had the winde of the Spirit with-held from them whereby they became as a carcase without a soul Rev. 7.1 We are to observe that the outward matter of Ordinances are in themselves either barren empty elements or at most external formalities a meer carcase or void cask 't is the Name and power of Jesus Christ and the Spirit sent from him that is their internal and essential form when the same Spirit of life deserts them they then remain as a dead body is when the soul is severed from it or as an empty cabinet out of which the Jewel is taken Now the former of these answerable to the Prophecies are experimentally found to have some degree of their vital faculty subsisting There is the same light power and vertue in Ministery Prayer and Praisings that was in the primitive age though not in the same degree likewise for Baptism the badge of the Covenant there was some secret vertue in the Covenant to beget and preserve a sealed company amongst the Israelites which there was not amongst Turks and Heathens quat●nus sic also the Communion received upon the ground of our spiritual union with all the godly may confer some influence of comfort and refreshing flowing from the death of Christ For as there was a mystical relation of the scattered Saints which knit them to Christ the head and one to another by a spiritual bond so was there a mystical communion and feeding together with respect to the same inseparable union But for the later that are proper to a Church stated and invested with full power though in the first Gospel-day they held forth the glory and face of Jesus Christ yet afterwards when the external Government was taken from Christ's shoulders and placed upon Antichrist as it was generally in the hands of Popes Patriarchs and Archbishops thorowout the world according to what was prophesied that it should be given to the nations Rev. 11.2 then was the winde of the Spirit withheld from breathing in them then was the glory of God departed from them since which time they have been but as an empty shell out of which the kernel of their ancient truth was taken since then the lively efficacie and power of Christ is not found to accompany them wherever used Consider them as they are in the Romish Church who alone in all our Horizon can claim a succession from the primitive and where because your Office is derived from thence you are inevitably driven to hold their true being to remain What tender hearted Protestant who holds the Pope to be Antichrist can cordially embrace that his Holiness or his Clergie by laying on of hands can confer a true spiritual gift or that Christ accompanies their hand with so much glory as to make it the prime key on earth to beget the truth of Membership and Office Who would not blush to imagine that the Popes Excommunications or Bulls deliver over to Satan and by consequence that the Church of Rome ●nto which by these keys and doors they are entered and out of which they are shut is such a Church as may be named a kingdom of heaven or that what she bindes on earth is bound in heaven or that what she looses on earth is loosed in heaven or that she can forgive and retain sins All which powers she must have if the really possess the keys of the Kingdom For these can no more be severed from the keys while abiding true then the soul from the body while a living organ But if Rome be fundamentally a false Church as she is held to be by the Protestant party and stript naked of that primitive excellencie in her external government then what may be thought of you who deduce your interest from her by descent Experience hath taught the Saints that there was as little efficacy of the true Spirit if not as much of that Antichristian spirit of Cruelty Partiality Covetousness Enmity against the power of godliness in the Bishops Courts as was before in Rome And what the Presbytery hath been in Scotland where they had the full and uncontroulable command we leave to such to determine who have felt the rod. If it be true that Effectus sequitur virtutem causae The effect follows the vertue of its cause then surely no good fruit is like to spring from an Antichristian root The lifelesness formality contentions divisions c. that

symboles accompanying his Ministery and the peculiar effects thereof wrought in the manner of the Corinthians conversion sealed his Apostleship and not their bare conversion as is apparent by comparing this text with 2 Cor. 12.12 The signes of an Apostle were seen amongst you in all patience in signes and wonders and mighty deeds 2. Bare conversion without such singular gifts and fruits argues not any particular no nor any Office at all For men in every one of those five degrees nay such as had no Office were instruments in this honourable designe and a common effect proves not a particular cause Paul's argument had been weak and groundless to demonstrate himself to be an Apostle by such a signe as was common to all other Officers nay to private Christians 3. The Witnesses in mystical Babylon whether in Rome or elsewhere received a gift from Christ tending to convert and edifie Now the conversion wrought by those godly men did not confirm the warrantableness of membership and orders in the false Churches they lived in for their outward clothing was black deformed sackcloth it onely evidenced the truth of that inward grace and power given by Jesus Christ I hope you will not affirm that those good fruits issuing from the Ministery of Sylvester Savanarola Wickliff Huss Luther with others of the Romish Clergie as also Latimer Ridley Hooper with sundry other Bishops ratified the Office of Friers Monks Priests and Diocesan Bishops as that of Paul did his Apostleship we say It sealed onely their gifts We shall here sift another argument of yours against this gifted Ministery instanced in page 23 of your Book Object If such a gifted Ministery be currant and sufficiently authorized for administring Word and Sacraments then there was no need of an Official Ministery and Christ it seems ordained therein a superfluous Ordinance for Frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora It is a vain thing and not beseeming a wise man to use many ways to do that which may be done by sewer Answ This your Philosophical Maxime is not generally true in Divinity but must admit of many limitations For God is a free agent and may work by more or fewer nay without mediums and in some seasons administers a greater variety and fulness for satiety and delight Prov. 9 1 2 3. Cant. 5.1 Matth. 22. Revel 19.9 in other times he useth a more sparing dispensation onely to maintain some being and life of grace When the Temple was destroyed and the vessels thereof lay void and were of no use for Gods service in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar yet the Lord then was to them a little Sanctuary in the truth of Grace Ministery Prayer c. You cannot from hence conclude that the same Temple and vessels as were made consecrated and used in Jerusalem were superfluous Ordinances neither is it safe to charge Wisdom it self with vanity and indiscretion for effecting that by more which he might have and did accomplish by fewer means So when the outward court of Church-government was given to the Nations and in the possession of Antichrist Christ did and might in point of honour and justice leave it and distribute his grace by a more retired and inward way as is at large declared in the Cessation Therefore this your assertion is both untrue and dangerous it intrenching upon the absolute and unlimited Royalty of the great King Object Lastly if the holding of the four windes be understood of the holding of the Spirit from breathing in Ordinances for others carry it fairly in another sence then 1. there is nothing said how long the restraint should last much less that it lasteth during the apostacie Answ 1. That the winde metaphorically signifies the breathing of the Spirit is apparent by these Scriptures Joh. 3.8 Ezek. 1.4 Acts 2.2 Ezek. 37.9 14. and it cannot here be fairly applied to any other sence it belonging to Israelites and the restraint being hurtful to their earth sea and trees that winde must needs be favourable and reviving whose detaining is hurtful 2. The text implicitely concludes the restraint to last during the time of the hurt which is the whole Antichristian age and after that the four windes shall again be loosed to animate what lay before spiritless as is shewed on the second Querie in the Cessation Object 2. Then it must be meant of a more sparing breathing in comparison of the primitive times not of an utter restraint 3. If it be an utter restraint then take notice that the restraint is general and cannot by any circumstance of the text be confined onely to Official preachers and preaching but as fully reacheth to the gifted men as to them and so doth conclude an utter ceasing of the Spirit now or then from breathing in or by any Ordinances Answ To begin with the last of yours 1. This withholding and the hurt thereby may be gathered by a circumstance of the text not to be so general as utterly to debar the Elect from some more secret and inward inspirations for vers 2 3 the four Angels are forbidden to hurt by this restriction till the Angel of the East had sealed the servants of God in their foreheads which infers a care and some provision for the spiritual subsistence and breathings in upon and by the elect hereupon it reacheth not to the gifted men for they had a power given immediately from Christ which breathed forth in Ministery Rev. 11.3 and as there was an inward Temple and Altar so there was approved Worship therein flowing from the truth of grace vers 1. 2. The restraint was total in respect of outward Order and Church-constitution For first Therein succeeded another key also that was cast out and became Babylon as shall be shewed in the two next Sections and the Spirit cannot breathe in that which is wholly corrupted and becomes another especially in what it excommunicates Secondly The winde here expressed was utterly detained from blowing on the earth sea or any tree which must imply it to be in some sence general Thirdly All save the Elect were hurt thereby and subverted vers 2. which dis-interesses other common Israelites from those outward priviledges they enjoyed while the visibility was true From hence we gather that the open windes deciphered Acts 2.2 which gave being to the external keys of Church-government were altogether bound up from their manifest blast but yet a still and secret influence coming more immediately from Jesus Christ which never was wanting from Adam's time remained and this was more sparing and narrow in comparison of the primitive both in its measure and degree and the number of the Ordinances which it occupied The windes here kept back are said to be four in regard of the generality thereof reaching to the four quarters also the windes of the earth it being an administration more visible here on earth thus the power of binding and loosing by these more external keys is said to be on earth

Pope have the true smoke or winde of the primitive Church then what he bindes or looses on earth is bound or loosed in heaven Matth. 16.19 as is further cleared in the second Section 5. The Officers coming from hence are locusts of a divers kinde from the true they proceeding from another key king pit and smoke If Office had been true in Rome then Membership must be the like for he can be no true Officer that is not withal a Member and if Office and Membership be both right in that Catholike Synagogue then must she be a true Church being radically right both in Ministers and people Sir have you exclaimed against Rome as Babylon for so many yeers and do you now by this argument prove her to be Sion However we may from this text observe that as the pit is bottomless so is the key the smoke and the locusts arising from it and that fundamentally so that your Ordination Excommunication Suspension coming from hence cannot have any parcel of the keys of the kingdom of heaven but must pertain to this bottomless key Object But say you these Ordinances may remain the Ordinances of Christ though in wrong hands and abused as the Great seal of the kingdom is still in the right and true seal though in the hand of an usurping Lord Keeper c. Answ If you should prove these constitutive Ordinances to be Seals yet in the Broad Seal there be two things requirable 1. The Power and Authority from whence the Seal proceeds 2. The confirming of an act coming from that power by the Seal When the writing sealed is derived from a lawful authority then the Seal carries the name and majestie of that true and rightful power which makes it a legal ratification but if it issue forth from an usurped Primacy though the matter and print may be the same with the other yet the act sealed bears the substance of that usurpation which puts another form upon it and makes it illegitimate nay treasonable So these Ordinances pertaining to Church-order in the primitive times arising from Christ and his Spirit working in the Apostles c. were accompanied with the name and power of Christ which made them true as representing the lively image of himself but these coming from other usurping lords as Popes Bishops or the like receive the character of the same usurpation which changeth their essence makes them unlawful and to carry the image of the Beast And your Office flowing from this bestial and exorbitant key must be false in its foundation The Key the Church the Smoke is another and thereof not Christ but Antichrist the king of the bottomless pit We informed you how the truth of this was verified by the event that there was no other Office but that of the Locusts kinde even in Luther's time who himself was a Monk In opposition to this you reckon up some Bishops Monks Friers Priests or of some such Popish Order that for 1260 yeers stood up to witness the Truth who were not locusts Answ These men whom you reckon up with any other of the like sort of godly men officiated by Antichrist had no other Office but that of the locust-kinde You your self acknowledge the Officers called Monks Friers Priests Abbots Cardinals and the Popish Clergie to be of the series of the locust a little before in the same page of your book And whatsoever excellencie and honour these men gained beyond others arose simply from the gift of Jesus Christ not at all from their Popish function that being but the defiled rags with which the same Witnesses were clothed No man not Popishly minded can imagine that their Frierhood Monkery Priesthood or the like could confer any dignity to their piety or that these men thus gifted by the Lord Jesus did attribute any esteem to their Popish Orders It is observable that God should rear up such men who had no Office but what was meerly invented to be such noble instruments to testifie in some degree the Truth which may teach you us and all others not to give any worth to such difiled Offices but onely to their qualifications which unless sanctified from heaven they had been locusts as well as the rest of their Orders and to conclude that this their grace and the right to dispense the same came not from their officiating but onely from the gift and grant of the Lord of life So that herein we must distinguish their inward gift with its administration from their outward investment the one distilling from Christ was radically true and holy the other coming from Antichrist was utterly false and polluted Object You assert further that Ockam John of Gaunt Dante 's John Wickliff Jerome of Prague Luther were men that amongst others made up the series of the three Angels Rev. 14. and yet lived in the Church of Rome had their external calling from that Church were of some of the Popish Orders c. Answ Bare saying is no proving and ipse dixit he said so will hardly pass for currant amongst men of judgement We shall deny that the men you name were of the rank of the three Angels specified Rev. 14.6 8 9. much less that they were called Angels by vertue of their Popish Office which you would insinuate For they lived within the circuit of the one thousand two hundred and sixty yeers of tribulation wherein they were mourners and being as you confess men that lived in the Church of Rome that had their external calling from that Church and of some of the Popish Orders must be those Witnesses clothed in sackcloth Rev. 11.3 Whereas these three Angels were of the rejoycing Harpers who arose not till after the expiration of that sorrowful time were clothed in white Robes of joy and greater purity and had gotten the victory over the Beast his image mark name and the number of his name Chap. 7.9 Chap. 15.2 Again neither the Ministery nor Writings of those you mention were so pure and full as might be termed an everlasting Gospel which the first Angels ministery was vers 6 neither did they with the second vers 8 unmask the root of Mysterie Babylon great part whereof was sealed up from their understandings neither did they discover the Beast his image and mark in its whole latitude with the third who with a thundering voice crieth against all such defiled Offices with which they were outwardly arayed vers 9. 2. These ministers or instruments of this threefold discovery are not intitled Angels by vertue of any outward call to an Office by the Pope Bishops or any other authority on earth but onely by the priviledge of a gift dispensed immediately by the Angel of the Covenant Rev. 10.8 9 10 11. Here their commission or sending forth Go comes simply from God their furnishing for this ministration or their taking and eating the book from the Angel and being thus divinely impowered they must prophesie though all the earth oppose it their

Antichristianism is the keys of visible Church-constitution or Marriage-Ordinances resolve themselves radically into believers or into the power of the people who may at any time take them up erect and model visible Churches open and shut the doors thereof to others This we reduced to the touchstone of the primitive and found that they prayed preached baptized and at last brake bread while they were bare disciples and onely Covenant-members but in respect of Church constitution they were commanded to tarry and wait at Jerusalem till the promise of the Father to wit the keys of the Kingdom was given whereby the Kingdom of God came with power Acts 1.4 8. Luke 24.49 This was a manifest transfusion of the Spirit that did not onely increase the glory of the former but also stated and invested them with new Membership and Office and inspired the stative Ordinances of Ordination Confirmation Church-censures with a new created efficacie whereby they received in and shut out of that new-married Church The image of this is set forth in Acts 2. It is called a pouring out of the Spirit in regard of the abundant measure thereof visibly manifested vers 17 also a mighty rushing winde filling the house with cloven tongues of fire vers 2 3 as causing that breath of life and spiritual heat which operated in that apparent Kingdom Isaiah compares it to smoke filling the house as presenting the glory of Christ in his powerful administration Chap. 6.3 4. In Ezek. 1.4 5 the four Beasts or livings with each of them four faces which must typifie the Apostles Prophets and Evangelists who had all gists and tongues by which they were distinguished from the four Beasts Rev. 4.6 7 who had each of them but one face came out of the midst of that winde cloud and fire also in Ephes 4.8 11 the Spirit tells us that all the several degrees of the Ministerial Office to wit together with the former three Pastors and Teachers were ingendered originally by that virtual efflux of the Spirit sent down from heaven Indeed the twelve were set apart for their Office by Christ while he was on earth and in that sense named Apostles as Joseph is called the husband of Mary and she his wife while they were no more then espoused Matth. 1.18 19 20. and a man may be termed an heir when he is onely designed for the inheritance but their real investment was not till after For Ezekiel in the place before quoted shews that the four-faced beasts proceeded out of the wind cloud and fire expressed Acts 2 and in Eph. 4 Christ first ascended then gave gifts the gift sent down was the Office Some Apostles c. They had not till then that differential eminency of gift which gave being to and distinguished their Office from the rest nor of extraordinary Prophets or Evangelists nor of ordinary Pastors and Teachers no nor yet of the same which private members had after the Spirit was emitted They were before unfurnished with the gift of Tongues Act. 2.2 looked on Christ as an earthly king over a temporal kingdom Luke 19.11 Matth. 20.21 were ignorant of the death resurrection and ascension of Christ the common and main principles of Christianity Matth. 16.22 Mark 16.11 13. Luke 24.11 21 25. were not able to bear many things which after were easie to every believer Job 16.12 Chap. 14.26 1 Cor. 15.1.2 3 4 5 6 7. And this M. Robinson and others the solidest men of the Separation have maintained against the Presbyters and Bishops Again their first designation came not from man but onely from their Master which makes least for those who here will plead against us Besides the disciples were not called a Church nor did any lay on hands for Membership or Office nor use any Church-censures till they received power from on high Hence we may safely conclude that Gospel-stating at the first beginning came not from believers as believers but from the powerful dispensation of Chirst Jesus and that when if sunk and the same open windes before animating were with-held it must return to him the fountain whence at first it flowed for every thing resolvs into its principle But leaving the primitive we may search the Scriptures treating of this last marriage to come and we shall find the same pouring of the Spirit that was in that first Gospel-day * Rev. 11.2 Chap. 19.7 Isa 32.13 14 15. the joyous City shall lie desolate untill the Spirit be poured out from on High whereby the Wilderness shall be a fruitfull field and the fruitfull field counted for a Forest also Zech. 17.10 I will pour upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace c. Which must be on Jews and Gentiles for the mourners here poured on are interpreted by our Saviour to be all the tribes of the earth who by their sins and Iedol-worship have pierced Christ Matth. 24.30 likewise Ezek. 37.9 th-same open windes before bound up Rev. 7.1 shall be then loosed in their manifest blast So Luk. 17.24 and Psal 97.4 there will be the like fiery flashing lightning to illuminate the world which the earth shall see to wit visibly and tremble also Psal 102.16 When the Lord shall build up Sion he will appear in glory and Isai 60.2 His glory shall be seen upon thee both which places shew that his most excellent dispensation shall be visible Hence we may gather that as this by the apostacy resolved into Christ so it must again issue forth from him before it can have its true existence For this glorious effusion of the Spirit in the first beginning of Church-constitution is the foundation of the keys thereto pertaining it gives them their vital being their proper difference and by its manifold work causeth those various operations which proceed from and by them Thus in the primitive marriage they received power from on high whereby the Lord was to them for a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty Isa 28.5 by vertue whereof they had the high keys of the Kingdom So in this last the Lord will first marry them to himself to wit pour out his Spirit upon them whereby they shall be as a crown of glory and a royal diademe in his hand Hos 2.19 Isa 63.2 and then vers 5 they as sons of the Church shall marry in others the first is done by God immediately wherein man is meerly passive the second by man as instrumental working by the power of his preceding Into the first work of marriage acted simply by Gods own finger none save the Elect enter and not all the Elect but onely such elect ones who believe and wait for the same promise of pouring the Spirit for such choice singled ones were the hundred and twenty in the primitive though by the second done by the hand of the Church hypocrites did then intrude So in this last matrimony Isa 60.21 Rev. 21.27 none but the virgins who expect and prepare