Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	day_n	know_v	time_n	17,015	5	3.8228	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86458	The smoke of the bottomlesse pit. Or, A more true and fuller discovery of the doctrine of those men which call themselves Ranters: or, the Mad Crew. / By John Holland porter, an eye and ear witnesse. Licensed and entred according to order.	Holland, John, porter.	1651 (1651)	Wing H2428; Thomason E622_5; ESTC R206430	5,792	8

THE SMOKE OF THE Bottomlesse Pit OR A More true and fuller Discovery of the Doctrine of those men which call themselves RANTERS OR The Mad Crew By John Holland Porter an eye and ear witnesse 2 Tim. 3.1 This know also that in the last daies perilous times shall come 2 Pet. 2.1 But there were false Prophets also amongst the people even as there shall be false teachers amongst you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction Phil. 3.2 Beware of Dogs beware of evill workers beware of the concision Licensed and entred according to Order LONDON Printed for John Wright at the Kings Head in the Old-Baylie 1651. The Doctrine of the RANTERS viz. FIrst concerning God Secondly concerning Christ Thirdly concerning the Spirit Fourthly concerning the Scriptures Fifthly concerning the Creation Sixthly concerning Marriage Seventhly concerning the Commandments of God Eightly concerning Ordinances Ninthly concerning Sin Tenthly concerning Man Eleventh concerning the Devil Twelfth concerning Heaven and Hell Thirteenth concerning Death and Resurrection Fourteenth concerning the last Judgement A word to the Christian READER AT the earnest request of divers of my friends to whom I am much ingaged I was unwillingly willing to publish to the world the more and worse then Atheistical blasphemies of these men not with any intent the Lord knoweth to make their persons odious unto any much lesse to stir up any to persecute them barely for their judgements for when I consider what the Scripture saith I find it is not Gods method to deal with Spiritual enemies with carnal weapons the way that God tooke to over-power those men that were against the re-building of the Temple you may read Zach. 4.6 not by might nor by power but by my spirit saith the Lord and this was Pauls practice for saith he the weapons of our warfare are not carnall but mighty through God for the pulling down of strong holds 2 Cor. 10.4 5. and this Paul gave for a rule to the Saints that if a brother be overtaken in a fault you that are spiritual restore such a one with the spirit of meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted Gal. 6.1 Paul doth not say if a man hold an errour imprison or banish him or take away his life again Paul Prophesieth that the greatest enemies that ever Christ had in the world should be destroyed namely by the spirit of Christs mouth and the brightness of his comming 2 Thes 2.8 and this truth was revealed to John in the Revelation who tels us that the weapon that Christ fights with against his enemies is the sword that goeth out of his mouth Rev. 19.15 and we may see what this sword is if we read Eph. 6.17 but I shall say no more on this subject lest I make my porch too big for this house Only I wish that thou and I may imitate our heavenly Father who alwaies hath and still doth bring light out of darkness and good out of evil and not forget the poor Bee who can suck honey out of the most stinking weed so do thou when thou readest this Pamphlet farewel J. HOLLAND The doctrine of the RANTERS First concerning GOD. THey maintain that God is essentially in every creature and that there is as much of God in one creature as in another though he doth not manifest himself so much in one as in another I saw this expression in a Book of theirs that the essence of God was as much in the Ivie leaf as in the most glorious Angel I heard another say that the essence of God was in that board as much as it was in heaven he then laying his hand on a Deal board They all say there is no other God but what is in them and also in the whole Creation and that men ought to pray and seek to no other God but what was in them The titles they give God are these They call him the Being the Fulnesse the Great motion Reason the Immensity I heard a man swear that if there was any God at all he was one I said to him that God knew all things and was able to do whatsoever he pleased but you cannot therefore you are not God but a blasphemer Another made answer he was not The GOD but he was God because God was in him and in every creature in the world I replyed If God were in every creature how then came it to passe there was such a difference amongst the creatures as there are some good and some bad and some Godly men and some wicked and all such good and bad are divided one against another but God is undivided and at unity with himself therefore God essentially is not in every creature Secondly concerning Christ THey say that Christ was only a form or a shadow or a fleshly apparition of God and no more and that what he did in way of suffering was for himself for none had or ever should have any benefit by his suffering but himself That the Ministry of Christ either by himself or by his Apostles as it is held forth in the Scriptures is ceased as well as the Ministry of Aaron others of them say that what Christ did in the flesh is now made over to us in the spirit and that we are no more to eye or mind Christ that died at Jerusalem but we are to mind Christ in our selves others of them say that what Christ did in his own person was onely a figure or a type of what should be done and acted in every man and that every man must do and suffer as much as Christ did this is the best they say of Christ I have heard some say that if Christ were on earth now he would be ashamed of what he did before I heard one of them say it was a question whether Christ was born of a Virgin nay saith another he was a bastard sure enough for the letter saith he meaning the Scripture saith that Mary was betrothed to Joseph before Jesus was conceived in the womb At which words I was much inraged and began to speak intending to reprove them but was interrupted by one of them that sate by who swore abloudy oath and told me I doted on a silly boy which was at Jerusalem and he also swore he knew the Lad very well for said he I was his Godfather one of them met me and said he was told that I had as much wisdome as Christ I answered that none but blasphemers would say so then he answered if I had not so much wisdome he had There was one of them did affirm to Doctor Chamberlaine in my hearing that every man was God as much as Christ for saith he there is as much of the God-head in every man as was in Christ Thirdly concerning the Spirit THey all affirme that there is but one spirit in the world and those names of good spirit and bad spirit are meere imaginations and

scarcrowes to feare men withall that they are taught and are onely under teaching of this spirit and that all other teachings either by Scripture or otherwise are of no use to them There was one of them said in my hearing that he need not read the Scripture nor heare Sermons for the Father the Son and the Spirit were all three in him and this he said he could prove but his best arguments were of no force in my opinion Fourthly concerning the Scriptures THe best they say of the Scripture is That it is a Tale a History a Letter and a dead Letter and more the fleshly History they call it a bundle of contradictions I heard one sweare it was the archest peece of Witchcraft that ever was 〈◊〉 Another said it was the greatest curse that ever came 〈…〉 ld for sai●… he the Scripture hath been the cause of all our misery and divisions both in Religion and civill affaires and hath been the cause of all the blood that hath been shed in the world and that there would never be peace in the world till all the Bibles in the world were burned I heard one reason thus Paul had the spirit of God by which spirit he wrote the Scriptures and saith he I have the spirit why may not I write the Scripture as well as Paul and what I write be as binding and as infallible as that which Paul writ Againe saith he all the books of the Old and New Testament were directed to some particular Nation or Church or Persons but saith he none of the Scriptures are directed either to the Nation or to any Church in England or any man in England therefore the Scriptures belong not to us neither are they any rule for us to walk by or to live after Fifthly concerning the Creation THey say that the world was created long before the time the Scripture speakes of for say they when Cain fled from the presence of the Lord he went into the Land of Nod and there he built a City he could not build a City himselfe and it was needlesse for him to build a City for his own houshold one house or tent would have served him therefore they argue that there were at that time more people in the world then Adam and Cain though we read of no more Sixthly concerning marriage THey say that for one man to be tyed to one woman or one woman to be tyed to one man is a fruit of the curse but they say we are freed from the curse therefore it is our liberty to make use of whom we please I did intend to aske them how we came be freed from the curse but I was prevented this opinion they infer from those words of the Lord to Eve Thy desire shall be to thy husband Seventhly concerning the Commandements of God THey say that all the Commandements of God both in the Old and New Testaments are fruits of the curse and that all men being freed from the curse are also free from the Commandments Others say that all the Commandments are to bring men up to live in God and God in them and they say that we living in God and God in us therefore we are above all Commands whatso●… and furth 〈…〉 say Gods will is our will and our will is Gods will and they say Gods will is his law for sometimes he commands men to kill to steale and to lye and at other times he commands the contrary hereon they infer that we living in God and God in us why may not we do the like and if it be a sin to kil to steale or lye God is the Author for say they it is his will these things should be done and it is by his power they are done Eightly concerning Ordinances THat Ordinances are ceased to them and that they are above all such weak and beggerly things as they are that Ordinances are made for weake Christians such as are under the teaching of the letter meaning the Scripture Ninthly concerning sinne THat there is no such thing as that which men call sin that sin and holinesse are all one to God and that God delights as much in the one as in the other and this they say they can prove by the Scripture as from these words in the Prophet Esay 42.16 I will make darknesse light before them and Esay 45.7 I forme the light and creat darknesse I make peace and create evill and in another place he made darknesse his secret place yea his pavilion round about him Tenthly concerning man THat man cannot either know God or beleeve in God or pray to God but it is God in man that knoweth himself believes in himself and prayeth to himself and this they infer from Gal. 2.20 Neverthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me c. hence they alledge that man differeth in nothing from the bruit beast but onely that God doth manifest himself more in man then he doth in the beast that man lives and feeds on nothing but his own excrements for thus they reason that mans excrements dung the ground which causeth the ground to bring forth Corne and Grass and the beasts eat the grasse and we eat the Corn and the Beast Eleventh concerning the Devill THey say that the Devill is the left hand of God or the backe part of God or the dark part of God that the Devil could do no evill at all if God did not give him a power to do it and therefore the Devil is not so much in the fault as men think he is Nay saith one of them God seemeth to complain much of the Devil and wicked men then why doth not God take away that power he hath given them and then there will be no body to trouble him these words made me tremble one of them said he hoped to see the poor Devill cleared of a great many slanders that had been cast on him Twelfth concerning heaven and earth THey teach that there is neither heaven nor hell but what is in man and that those men that do see God to be in all things and his will to be done by all men though they do never so wickedly and not apprehend any wrath to be in God and can quietly without any check of Conscience commit any sin as we call it and can see themselves to be above all Ordinances and all Commands and that these men are in heaven and heaven is in them but those men that cannot see and beleeve these things are in hell and hell in them I saw a Letter that one of them writ to a friend of his but it never came to his hand and at the bottom of the Letter he writ thus From Heaven and Hell or from Detford in the first yeare of my reconciliation to my selfe at the beginning of the Letter he saluteth his friend thus which I am sorry my pen should write or my tongue speake but that I saw it the words were My pretty God and Devill by Gods hart and wounds I love thee and if thou wilt not beleeve me the Devill confound thee this Letter was written by a Frenchman then living at Detford to one esteemed in former times a Saint though now one of them when I heard the Letter I was much troubled and spake in dislike of it but was told that there were spiritual truths couched in those lines which I discerned not Thirteenth concerning death and resurrection THat when men dye their spirits go into God as the small Rivers go into the Sea and as the Sea sends backe the same water again sometimes into one spring and sometime into another so doth the spirits of men after they are gone into God they return and appear sometimes in one form or shape and sometimes in another one wished that his spirit might never be in the shape of a horse for saith he a horse hath the most toylesome life of any Creature that is One told me that I had been in a hundred shapes or formes for ought he knew and that I should be so again though I was such a foole I would not beleeve it Fourteenth concerning the last Judgement THat there is no such thing as a day of judgement but that it is onely an invented thing to serve for a bugbeare to keep men in awe yet I hear one of them say the day of Judgement was begun already and that the world had been made many thousand millions of yeares before we read of its creation and that it shall continue many millions longer then we expect but I say the Lord knoweth his appointed time and none else to him be all glory Postscript REader I have not followed that orderly method I might have done but have written the judgements of these men in a confused manner but I do professe in the presence of the Lord who is the searcher of all hearts I have done them no wrong in the matter of their judgement except it be in forbearing to repeat their bloody swearing and cursing and for this offence I hope those that truly feare God will excuse me Farewell FINIS