Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A90603
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The mysticall vvolfe. Set forth in a sermon preached in the Church of Edmond the King, in Lombard-street. / By E.P.
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Pagitt, Ephraim, 1574 or 5-1647.
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1645
(1645)
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Wing P183; Thomason E27_9; ESTC R8274
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23,897
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45
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The Fryers of old erected their Kingdome by lyes Walsingham reporteth that they were so famous for lying that it was accounted a good argument hee is a fryer Ergo a lyer Do not our lying prophets goe beyond them they tell lyes they write lies they preach lyes they print lyes as if God needed lyes Thou wilt destroy all them that speake leasing saith the Prophet Here I would observe two things 1. That there have beene and always shall be false prophets in the Church 2. Why God suffereth them For the first that there have been and always shall be false prophets in the Church There shal arise saith our Lord false prophets and if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect I know saith St. Paul that after my departing grievous Wolves shall enter in among you Again the spirit speaketh evidently that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith and shall give heed to the spirit of error and doctrines of Devills which speake lyes through hypocrisâ—â— Likewise St. Peter affirmeth But there were false prophets among the people and there shal be also false teachers among you which privily shal bring in damnable hesies even denying the Lord that bought them bring upon themselves swift damnation For example sake wee read of the Devill the archfalse prophet deceiving our first parents in Paradice of Iamnes and Iambres withstanding Moses and resisting the truth In Eliahs time of many false prophets deceiving the people yea in this very time when our Lord preached upon the earth The Church was annoyed with divers pernicious sects as with the Pharisees who like the Papists held Justification by works With the Saduces who held with the Atheists of our time that there is no resurrection With the Essens who like the Anabaptists of our time thought themselves free from all humane authority I might set down the hereticks that sprang up in the most pure ages of the Church viz. In the first 400. yeares after Christ collected by St. Agustine out of Eusebius and Epiphanius The Apostles and holy men seldome planted any Churches but the devill with his false prophets went about to subvert them Heare what St. Paul saith to the Galatians O ye foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth Again to the Corinthians I fear lest as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so you should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ The noble Churches of Antioch Ephesus Alexandria and Constantinople were poisoned by false prophets In Ephesus were the Nicholaitans in Alexandria Arrius in Antioch Samosatenus in Constantinople Eutyches and Nestorius and iâ— Britany Pelagius called in Welch Morgan But how Christian Princes holy Bishops and learned men bestir'd themselves to save their flocks from those Wolves and in the very beginning to suppresse them you may perceive by the ancient Councels in some one of which 400. year 600. Bishops conveâ—ed and ran together yea among us to damne Pelagius heresie Bishops came from beyond the Seas as Germanus and Lupus out of France St. Augustine also Bishop of Hippo in Africa was assisting to us against him as appeareth by his writings extant among us Our histories report that our Welch Arch-bishop Davie was a great meanes to extirpate his heresie who wrote a booke against it As sorreign Bishops were ayding to us in suppressing the hereticks that rose among us so were we assisting to them as Eborius of York Restitutus of LondoÌ„ Adelâ—ius of Colchester with other Brittish and learned men subscribed the Councell of Arles Also some of our Bishops were at the Councell of Nice and Sardis and with others damned the Arrian heresie and absolved Athanasius Our poor Church is at this time oppressed with false prophets not only with Iesuites and other Romish Emissaries but also with unpure Familists who blasphemously pretend to be godified like God whereas indeed they are devillified like their Father the Devill who would be like the most high With illuminated Anabaptists who blaspheme the baptisme of Children and these hereticks whom in time past we burned wee may heare now in our pulâ—its â—educing the people We have also Donatistical Brownists who like the Pharisees of old separate themselves from other men counting all men prophane that are not of their Conventicles We have also Independants who dream that they have a perfect modelâ— of Church-government which Almighty God kept secret from the Patriarks Priests Prophets Apostles and Doctors of the Church and now lately revealed unto them We have also Antinomians who whereas the Papists leave out one Commandement of the ten they null the whole Law not allowing it to be a rule of life This opinion simple people swallow down having as they suppose found a new way to heaven We have Arminians an after-brood of Pelagius We have Sabbatarianss who affirme the old Jewish Sabbath to be kept and not the Lords day We have also Antisabbatarians who would have no speciall Sabboth day at all affirming every day to be a sabbath to a christian man We have Traskites who affirme many Jewish ceremonies to be observed by Christians We have Arrians who deny the deity of Christ We have Antitrinitarians who blaspheme the holy Trinity We have Millenaries who dream that wee must live with Christ 1000. yeares here in earth before the resurrection We have Hetheringtonians who hold a hodg-podg of many heresies We have an Atheisticall sect who affirm that mens soules sleep with their bodies We have Socinians who teach that Christ dyed not to satisfie for our sins but to give us an example of patience with other abhoâ—inable errours Alas what Heresie have we not and most of these are subdivided into many Sects as there are about twenty sorts of Anabaptists fourteen set downe by Alstedius and the rest by Bullinger sundry sorts of Familists Brownists and of others every day begets a new opinion it faring with them as with the ancient Hereticks who having once forsaken the truth wandred from one errour to another they agreeing onely in this one thing to doe mischiefe to the Church of God The old Fable may have relation to our times of an overture of peace tendred by the Wolves to the Sheep but upon condition that they would put away their dogs that were malignant to them and doth not all this follow upon the suspension of Church Government Alas our Church is oppressed by false Prophets and we have no government to helpe The City of God is on fire and who goeth about to quench it The plague of Heresie is among us and we have no power to keep the sick from the whole The Wolves that were wont to lye in the woods dare come into our Sheep-folds and roar in our holy Congregations O thou Shepheard of Israel why hast
THE Mysticall VVolfe Set forth in a Sermon Preached in the Church of Edmond the King in Lombard-street By E. P. LONDON Printed by Marie Okes and are to be sold by Robert Trot at his Shop under the Church of Edmond the King 1645. To the Right VVorshipfull Sir NICHOLAS RAYNTON Knight and Alderman of London and to Mr. WILLIAM GIBBS Alderman and Sherâ—ffe of the said City and to all his loving friends who have been Church wardens assisting him As to the Right VVorshipfull Mr. Walter Rogers Mr. Robert Smith Mr. Samuel Bridge Mr. Thomas Soane Mr. Henrie Geirie Mr. Thomas â—aton Mr. Iohn Bludworth Mr. Nicholas Cook Mr. Anthony Crosse Mr. Ambrose Brumskill Mâ— Tobias Dixon Mr. Iohn Niclas Mr. Iaspar Clayton Mr. Andrew Hâ—de Mr. George Denham Mr. Iohn Rogers Mr. Spencer Vincent Mr. â—ohn Smith Mr. Richard Kimble Mr. Francis Patâ—s Mr. Peter Worster Mr. William Devâ—nshâ—re and to all his other loving parishioners and to his loving friends and fellow labourers Mr. Iohn Hopkins and Mr. Iohn Davis Old Ephraim Pagitt Rectoâ— of Edmonds the King in Lomb. wisheth all happinesse MUnster writeth that there are no Wolves in England which is a great blessing and in a manner peculiar to our Kingdome in which our Shepheards may securely feed their flocks without dread of those ravenous beasts who are to sheepe most mischievous The like might I have said of Mysticall wolves for 40. year and more of my Pastoral charge in which I had no dread of them But now I live to see with griefe of heart grievous Wolves broken in among us not sparing the flocke Therefore the counsell that St. Paul gave to the Presbyters of Ephesus I will put you in remembrance of that is To take heed to our selves and to the flock whereof the holy Ghost hath made us over-seers It is reported concerning the mother of Gregory Nazianzen that she dreamed when she was conceived of that worthy light of the Church that shee had in her womb a white mastiffe which by his barking should drive the Wolves from the sheep-fold And whereas some of you with many other pious Citizens have erected sundry Lectures in this City in which divers Nazianzens now preach who I hope with the assistance of our religious patriots assembled in Parliament will drive away not only the Romish but all other ravening wolves from the Sheep fold of our Lord Jesus Christ For my owne part although by reason of my age I cannot barke loud much lesse bite Yet whereas about 60. yeares agoe I published in print 28. Sermons of Lavaterus upon Ruth Now not knowing how soon I shall put off this my Tabernacle I publish this sermon of my own preached among you when the plague of heresie first began among us and this I dedicate to you to whom I confâ—sse my selfe much obliged Most humbly entreating Almighty God to blesse you with abundance of all gifts and graces in this world and eternall glory in the world to come Your old Pastor Ephraim Pagitt THE Mystical VVolfe Beware of false Prophets which come to you in Sheepes cloathing but inwardly they are ravening VVolves Math. 7. 15. IN the former two Verses our Lord telleth his Disciples of two waies in which all mankind walke The one a broad way that leadeth to destruction in which many walke The other a narrow way which leadeth unto life which few finde In this verse like a most loving kind friend he forewarneth his Disciples of the chiefe impediments hindering in the way viz. False Prophets The journey of the Israelites to the Earthly Canaan was a type of our journey to the Heavenly And did not one false Prophet Balaam do them more mischiefe in their journey then Og the Gyant King of Bashan Sehon King of the Amorites and all their enemies beside Yea could the Devil himselfe in his owne likenesse have beene more noxious and hurtfull to the Church of God then some Hereticks have been As one Hereticke Arrius denying the deity of Christ in a manner infected the whole Christian world The like did another false Prophet called Eutyches denying his humanity affirming the immensity of Christs divine nature to have swallowed up his humane now if Christ had not been man how could he have dyed for us sinners And if not God how could hee have wrought the salvation of mankind Time will not serve me to relate what mischief false prophets have done by the instigation of the Devill neither need I Our poore Church hath sence enough of it groaning under the burthen of them at this present and especially they that have cure of soules may with great griefe of heart complaine of Infants not brought to the Sacrament of Baptisme of multitudes refusing to receive the holy Communion of the accounting of the Lords prayer abhominable and the Apostles Creed defective and banishing the ten Commandements out of many of our Churches The miseries of this time are infinite and who layeth hand to help Is not our help only in the name of the Lord upon whom our mother the Church hath taught us to call from all false doctrine and herisie from hardnesse of heart and contempt of thy Word and Commandements good Lord deliver us These words are part of our Lords holy sermon in the Mount which containeth A Premonition in which there is A Caution in this word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} A description of them whom wee are to beware of whom hee 1. Describeth generally by their Title Ealse Prophets 2. Particularly by their Externall shew they shall Inward disposition being Ravening wolves 1. Intrude themselves 2. Insinuate 3. Dissemble And of these as God shall enable me I pray God that this Text may be as profitable to you as fitting And first I purpose to speake of false prophets how dangerous they are and of the caveat in the last place which will be then more acceptable to you you seeing the great danger that you are in by them {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of false prophets The word Prophet is used in Scriptures First for a fore-teller of things to come derived from the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which signifieth to divine or fore-tell Secondly in a larger sense for all Ministers and Teachers Our Lord biddeth us beware not of Prophets but of false prophets or such as pretend themselves to bee Prophets The word signifieth lying prophets Saint Peter termeth them {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} lying teachers who privily shal bring in damnableheresies St. Paul calleth them {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} speaking lies in hypocrisie Take heed of such also as pretend that they speake immediatly from God by revelation as the illuminated Anabaptists Familists and other Enthusiasts make their proselytes beleeve or from the Oracle of Gods Word by an especiall insight given them from above to interpret Gods Word Again from such as turne the truth of God into a lye