Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	father_n	son_n	spirit_n	15,521	5	5.1364	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40035	A winding-sheet for England's ministry which hath a name to live, but is dead sent to John Owen, called Dr. in that ministry, and late vice-chancellor of Oxford, and is in answer to his printed paper concerning tythes : or, an examination of those scriptures by which he seems to prove, that the publike maintenance for preachers of the Gospel by way of tythes, is a gospel-maintenance, but upon examination thereof by the scriptures, he is found to be a subverter of them, and, that tythes is no lawful maintenance for gospel-ministers.	Foster, T.	1658 (1658)	Wing F1637; ESTC R38887	9,915	8

first which speak of Abraham's paying the tenth of the spoils to Melchisedeck and also of Levi's receiving of tythes is nothing at all to the maintenance of Gospel-Dispensers for which end thou quotest them And without controversie that Priesthood is changed for it made nothing perfect and another priesthood is arisen who is made not after the Law of a carnal commandment but after the power of an endless life who hath put an end to the first priesthood and consequently to tythes also and to the Doctrine of all such Hirelings as will not preach without gifts and rewards The other text being the 1 Cor. 9 14. which saith they that preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel hath been largely spoken to already and therefore I shall conclude and tell thee that thou hast proved nothing by Scripture that tythes is a Gospel-maintenance or that the dispensers thereof are to be afforded tythes by way of maintenance for preaching the Gospel It now remains to make it appear as well to thee as to all men else that you who call your selves Ministers of the Church of England are neither Ministers 〈…〉 nor of the Spirit and if so I shall leave wise men to judge whether you deserve to be maintained and upheld as Ministers of the Gospel yea or no First then I say you are not true Ministers of the Letter inasmuch as you preach contrary thereunto that I shall instance in these particulars following As first you say that the holy Law of God cannot be kept by the best of Saints while they live upon earth Which doctrine is contrary to the doctrine of the Scriptures and to the experiences of the Saints recorded therein for David said that he had kept them Psal. 119. 166 167 198 verses And St. John saith That hereby shall the Saints know that they know him to wit if they keep his commandements 1 Joh 2. 3. intimating that he that doth not keep the commandements of God doth not know him and again He that saith he knoweth God and keepeth not his commandements is a liar and the truth is not in him vers. 4. What Ministers are you then that not onely preach contrary to the Letter of the Scripture but also contrary to the experience of the Saints Secondly you say there is no perfection to be attained here and so preach a doctrine contrary to the Letter of the Scriptures for Christ commanded his Disciples to be perfect as their heavenly Father is perfect and the Apostles doctrine was for the perfecting of the Saints and he said he spake wisdome amongst them that were perfect this being so I shall leave all sober men to judge whether you be true Ministers of the Letter and yet are so bold as to say you make the Scriptures your rule I could clearly instance in many more particulars that you are no true Ministers of the Letter of the Scriptures but these are sufficient Secondly I affirm That you are not Ministers of the Spirit neither of which the Apostles were able Ministers for you contrary to the Scriptures and to the doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ say That Revelation is ceased whenas our Saviour himself expressly saith No man knoweth the Son but the Father neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son and he to whom soever the Son will reveal him Mat. 11. 27. So then its evident enough that all you who deny Revelation know neither the Father nor the Son whom to know is life eternal and without the knowledg of whom you cannot know the mind of the Spirit for the Spirit of the Lord revealeth not the thing of its self to any but to those that receive the teaching of the Father and the Son and no man can know the Father and the Son but by Revelation So that it appears to all men of a good understanding that you are neither Ministers of the Spirit nor of the Letter Now since it is thus evident that you are no Ministers of the Spirit as the true Ministers were nor yet true Ministers of the Letter Whose Ministers may some say are they I answer You are Ministers of Antichrist and found to be in the doctrine of the Church of Rome whose belly is your god whose glory is your shame who mind earthly things you are fruitless trees cumbring the ground and whose end is to be burnt and consumed by the breath of his mouth and by the brightness of his coming and this will be your reward and portion without speedy Repentance and turning from your wickedness whereby you craftily deceive the simple and mislead the innocent whom the Lord will teach for he hath said His people shall bee all taught of him FRiend my purpose is not to plead against a Gospel-maintenance for Gospel-Ministers no God forbid for I own both but to cry out against Tythes and a forced maintenance as all men of sobriety and moderation do and must do if they approve themselves true Christians I say the true Worshippers cannot maintain a false Ministry nor uphold the Temple of Idols as well knowing they must fall together with all the Ceremonies and false Doctrine practised and preached in them and by them Nor had I been found to discover thy nakedness to the world hadst thou not so visibly appeared to be cloathed with a shadow and to be found disowning the Wedding-garment And now let me ask thee and those of your generation and profession On whose heads do you think all the guilt of that blood that hath been shed in England for Tithes within these seven years past besides the loss of goods and lives of many of the dear servants of the Lord will light if not on you who plead for and will have Tithes and force a maintenance from the servants of God contrary to their consciences Do you think to shuffle it off from yourselves and lay it upon the Civil Magistrates O no! you cannot though they are not guiltless herein the Lord will not be mocked for you are the men who have robbed the Lord of his honor and his people of their goods liberties and lives to put into your bellies and to uphold carnal Ordinances which perish with the usings and to keep alive your dead Meetings dead Prayers dead Preachings dead Doctrines dead Fasts dead Exercises and dead Ministry Friends let me tell you your foundation it in death and therefore your dead Structure will fall to the dust and the house you have built fall upon your own heads all the powers of the earth being too weake to uphold it And that in thy Paper which is not answered herein is left to another hand to answer partly because I wanted room in this Sheet not willing to bestow Sheets upon thee concerning this matter Now that I may not leave you without a word of Counsel I do in love to all your souls admonish you to come out of Babylon your Land of Confusion and where your Language is confounded and come unto the true fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom and the way to a good understanding in the things of God and so in time as you be faithful may you become Gospel-Ministers and receive Gospel-Maintenance By a Member of the true Church and of that Society which the world calls QVAKERS The End

and do you receive it from those onely that set you to labour Or do you not require pay from those that know you to be Loyterers and never set you to work Friends and people examine the case whether it be not so if so they have no title to a Gospel-Maintenance no more then they can evidence themselves to be Christs Ministers and which maintenance is no more by Tythes then they can prove themselves to be Gospel-Preachers which by their Doctrine and Practice appears they are not The fourth Scripture thou bringest to prove Tythes a Gospel-Maintenance is the 1 Cor. 9. 7. 11. Where the Apostle saith thus Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charge who planteth a Vinyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof Or who feedeth a flock and eateth not of the Milk of the flock This is thy proof for Tythes To which I say thou hast more need to be pittied then refuted as being wholly ignorant of the scope of the Apostle in that place he is so far from exacting a forced maintenance especially upon the accompt of his Ministry that he thus reasoneth with the Corinthians Though saith he I be not an Apostle to others yet doubtless I am to you for the seal of mine Apostleship saith he are ye in the Lord verse the second of the same Chapter and from thence argueth as before in the seventh verse Now say I If you would follow the example of the Apostle and do as he did to wit Sow spiritual things indeed and in truth and not preach your own imaginations for Christ's Gospel then should they to whom you sow spiritual things administer unto you their temporal things and that as freely too as you should administer your spiritual things but if you shall reap where you sow not as now most of you all do then must we needs deny you to abide in the Apostles Doctrine and say you are none of Christs ministers and deserve none of his maintenance but are Vsurpers Hirelings and no Gospel-ministers and deserve punishment rather then pay The fifth Scripture quoted by thee to prove tythes a Gospel-maintenance is in the same Chapter the 9 10 11 12 13. verses Which because I will not repeat they being all concerning the same Argument before spoken of I shall refer the perusal of them to the impartial Reader and he will clearly see those texts are so far from proving tythes a Gospel-maintenance for Gospel-ministers that the Apostle is direct against a setled maintenance first by his Argument in the 9th verse where it is said Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Ox that treadeth out the Corn by which it appears the Ox must tread out the Corn whose mouth is not to be muzled Are you such as tread out the Corn If so then we shall not allow that your mouths should be muzled but have food and rayment convenient for you as the true Ministers of Christ have and were you such you would therewith be contented and of this you need not nay you would not doubt for I never yet saw the righteous forsaken nor his seed beg their bread as you and your seed have done the more are you to be pittied The other Argument is from the Apostles words in the 11. and 12. verses where he saith If we have sown unto you spiritual things is it a great matter if we shall reap your carnal things yet nevertheless saith he we have not ased this power but suffer all things least we should hinder the Gospel of Christ So far was the Apostle from owning a setled maintenance that you see he denied the lawful use of his Christian liberty nay let me say further A setled maintenance is most unreasonable and unjust for Gospel Ministers because they are to be obedient alwayes to Christs Commands and Christs Work is not alwayes in one place and therefore can have no setled maintenance I say his Ministers are to go where 〈…〉 and to be paid where they do their work sometimes in one City and sometimes in another and where they sow there are they to reap and not to reap where they sow not so that we deny you and your setled maintenance to be of Christ but both are out from Christs way and therefore cannot pay you the one nor allow you the other The sixth and seventh Scriptures quoted by thee is in Psal. 2. 8. Isa. 49. 23. Where in the first the Prophet David speaking as I may say in the person of Christ the Lord having in the seventh verse said Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee goes on and saith Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession And as to that place in Isaiah where the Prophet saith Kings shall be thy nursing-Nursing-fathers and their Queens thy Nursing-mothers and they shall bow down to thee with their face towards the earth and lick up the dust of thy feet and thou shalt know that I am the Lord for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me I say that neither of these two texts is to the matter of tythes or maintenance intended by thee for the one speaks of Christ his being the begotten Son of the Father and of the greatness of the Sons Dominion and of his power over the Heathens rage and over the counsels which the Rulers take against him and is also a prophesie of their destruction for saith he Thou shalt break them with a Rod of Iron and dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel And the other text is concerning the Lords owning of the Gentiles and setting up a Standard to the people and because the Lord will own them and bring them in to be his people which were not his people therefore it is that Kings shall be their nursing-fathers and Queens their nursing-mothers c. and they shall not be ashamed that wait for him Friend hadst thou a discerning in the things of God thou wouldst have seen also that part of this prophesie is to be fulfilled upon the oppressors of the children of God even upon the Hirelings and those that prey upon the Captives of the Lord Vers 25. of the same Chapter and the Lord saith He will contend with them that contend with his people and will save his children and they that oppress them shall eat their own flesh and they shall be drunken with their own blood and all flesh shall knew that God is the Saviour and Redeemer of his people even the holy one of Iacob Ver. 26. And now let the wise in heart judge whether these Scriptures hitherto quoted by thee speak any thing as to the maintenance of Ministers by tythes or not The eighth and ninth places to prove the publike maintenance by way of tythes to be a fit maintenance for publike dispensers of the Gospel are these Gen. 14. 20. Heb 7. 4 5. and 1 Cor. 9. 14. To the two