Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	church_n	word_n	write_a	3,648	5	10.7659	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86489	The skirts of the whore discovered, and the mingled people in the midst of her. In a letter sent by Denys Hollister to the independent baptiz'd people, who call themselves a Church of Christ in Bristol, but are found to be a synagogue of Satan, in answer to a charge brought to him from them by some of their members, and by him ... published. Together with another letter written by him to Thomas Ewens, a teacher among them, ... referring to his speaking among his people of having Sarah Latchet a servant of Jesus, once a member among the Baptists, sent to Bridewell, and whipt for testifying to them in the name of the Lord in their meeting the second day of the ninth moneth. 1655. And likewise an answer to 16 antiqueries directed to the people called Quakers, which answer was sent to Thomas Ewens, from whom the antiqueries were received, though Iohn Pendarviss a long time after published the antiqueries by the name of Queries, without the answer to them, or taking the least notice of it in a book entituled Arrows against Babylon which hath occasiond the presenting of the one, and the other, now to the view of those who read, and understand, to judge of the whole, and of their unfaire and deceitfull dealing.	Hollister, Dennis, d. 1676?	1656 (1656)	Wing H2508; Thomason E896_3; ESTC R202571	35,627	37

s true I said the thing called the Body of Divinity by the Wizards of this world was a plague to the Land and doe still affirme it to be so Although I perceive some among you are so blinded by the god of this world that they know not how to put a difference between the spirit of Witchcrafts which acts in the Diana called Divinity and the pure Spirit of Christ by which the Scriptures were given forth And whereas you accuse me for saying the Scriptures were a blinding or a veil I demand where are your eyes Hath the god of this world indeed so blinded it that you cannot read plain words of Scripture but lay that to my charge as sinne which is according to that which came out of the mouth of him whom you pretend to honour Doth not Christ Jesus the Light of the world and the wisedome of God say Mdrk 4.11 12. Vnto you it is given to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom but to them that are without all these things are done in Parables that seeing they might see and not perceive and hearing they might hear but not understand c. And the like words in Luke 8.10 Was not Isaiah sent to this purpose to make the peoples hearts fat and their eares heavy and to shut their eyes And to say unto them hear ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not Isa 6. Doe ye not understand that the Letter killeth and the Spirit quickneth besides many other Scriptures manifesting the same thing Oh my Friends were you not wholly given over and become past feeling without any sence of the life and spirit of God how can these things be especially at such a time when the night is so far spent and the day so much appeared and the true Light come and the glory of the Lord risen and the children of the Lord walking in the light of the Lord and calling each other thereinto according to the Scriptures were it not your way to be silent and not manifest your ignorance and folly in accusing others for speaking upon the matter the very words of Scripture when it is your own ignorance even of the very Letter of Scripture that is the cause of it And whereas you accuse me for affirming in the Church that the Scriptures were not the Word of God and Rule of Life when I only propounded it among you to consider whether it was so or not In this you manifest your ignorance as well as in the former And therefore I demand of you where doth the Scripture call it selfe the Word of God and to whom was it the rule of life It is true the Holy Scriptures of Truth declare of the Word and that Word of which it declares was God and took flesh and by that Word was the world made and by the same Word it is reserved to the judgement of the great day And if you can find the Scriptures declaring of any other Word of God let me know it and till then be silent and adde not your imaginations which are onely Evill and that continually to the Scriptures Thus having answered what you sent to me I shall further adde that I take notice that God hath granted me that mercy that in all studied accusations raked up together against me you cannot finde one particular thing to lay to my charge condemned by the spirit of Christ to be contrary to the Scriptures of Truth and that all or most part of what you seem to gather up is of that which was done or spoken whilest I was among you and not then reproved and so your own evill is manifested and not mine But to conclude for my heart is moved after some of you why would you stone or otherwise harm me what evill have I done Why doe ye wait for my Halting and lay snares for him that reproved you in times past by words and now by silence Why are your spirits imbitter'd against him that thought nothing deare to doe you service Have I not served you freely many years together and been a keeper of your Vineyard In which all my reward from you was to beare and be broken under your backbitings murmurings formality and unfruitfulness and other evils not a few then in being and still is among you Is it not time now for me to look to my own Vineyard and to mind my Eternal Habitation Have I ever made a gain of you or any of you Surely I have been servant to you neer as long as Iacob was to Laban for both his wives And may I not now be permitted to mind mine own but you must pursue like Laban after poor Iacob when God bid him return I know and am perswaded that the most embitter'd spirit among you cannot but say I have been more righteous then you more discerning more faithful and diligent then you though I am not thereby justified neither have I whereof to glory And may I not say to you as sometimes the poor Ass abused by the blind Prophet said to his Master what have I done Have I not been your servant these many yeares was I wont to doe as now Surely if ever the Lord take pleasure in you and open your eyes you will soon see the Angel in the way and that the poor Ass hath more discerning then the wilfull angry and passionate Prophet You are my Witnesses that some manifestations of truth was breaking forth in me some yeares past and was sometimes manifested among you at which some of your hearts burn'd some trembled some were offended and contradicted c. My selfe in all was groaning after power spirit and life without which no satisfaction came to my soul from whence I ceased not to warn you from day to day of your danger in the state where you stood short of the life But you not being warned how often hath mine heart lamented in your hearing in these and the like words To whom shall I speak and give warning you will not hear your hearts are uncircumcised and you cannot hearken The word of the Lord is a reproach so you and you have no delight in it O that my head were water and mine eyes a fountain of tears c. Oh that I had in the Wildernesse a lodging-place of Wayfaring men that I might leave my people and goe away from them for they are Adulterers an Assembly of treacherous men and bend their tongues like bowes for lyes but are not valiant for the Truth upon Earth c. But this seemed as idle words yet was I made to proceed and to warne you of the mighty day of the Lord now at the doore in which you could never stand I told you your foundation was on the sand short of the life your profession was in words not in power and that your mountaines must be brought low and your valleys exalted before the Lord come to your Temple and at last that your Church was but an Harlot and the spirit

your heap whether it be not the Prince of darkness in you which denies that the Light reveales Jesus Christ that so ye may draw people from the true light which lighteth every man to follow your own inventions building in the credit of others testimony without the power which laid the foundation and so set up a Forme without the power in your gross dark imaginations and call that Light shewing your selves to be false Christs crying loe here and loe there And seeing some may be Witches that Preach up the outward Commands in the Letter without the Spirit Whether are not you Witches that deny the power the Apostles had by which the foundation was laid and whether he that brings the same doctrine the Apostle brought hath not the same power which laid the foundation seeing he hath the Father and the Sonne and whether you that have denied this power can deny but ye are seducing spirits and in the doctrine of Devils Quere 13. Whether you have not among you many who presume to be Masters or masterly Teachers contrary to the word of Christ Mat. 23.10 Doe not they usurp authority over the Consciences and judgements of their followers requiring them to believe and obey what they say without asking their meanings and examining their sayings by the Scriptures whereas Christ expounded his sayings to his Disciples and the Bereans were commended for searching the Scripture Answer Nay we have not many such among us contrary to the Word of Christ neither do they whom we own to be Ministers usurp authority over the Consciences and Judgments of their followers requiring them to believe what is said without tryal this is an absolute lye Ah ye dissembling Hypocrites doth not the light condemne you for this Hypocrisie who are found in this very practice contrary to the word of Christ and would hide your selves by casting it upon the innocent Truly your condemnation slumbers not though your hearts may be hardned Query 14. Whether it be not high presumption and spritual pride for some among you to break Christs commands and teach men so and to judge the secrets of mens hearts and rathly without knowledge of mens conversations to affirme they have not the Spirit may not others know by such things how to judge of you Answer This Query as t is laid down is a lye and by your uttering forth such deceit we know how to judge of you We deny breaking Christs commands and teaching men so bring in those some and let them be made manifest else ye are slanderers manifest But to judge the secrets of mens hearts the Lord doth it by which spirit the Saints are guided and judge the Vnlearned and Vnbelievers the thoughts of their hearts being made manifest and this we witness against spiritual pride which would not be judged Query 15. Whether you doe not esteem the sayings of some among you of equall authority with the sayings of God in Scripture and as readily or more to be believed or obeyed without enquiring whether they agree with Scripture or no even though they plainly contradict the Written Word Is it not an usuall thing with many of you to travell up and down to and fro farre and near in obedience to such voices not warranted by Scripture but contrary thereunto Answer This query is absolute Lyes as t is laid down But that which God speaks now we own to be of the same authority with what he spake formerly and is to be believed and obeyed accordingly though the wicked generation who have the words formerly spoken doe reject the Word of the Lord now as the Hypocrites did who had the Prophets words but owned not them who spake by the same Authority your building the tombs of them your fathers slew wil not serve to hide you in the dreadful day of the Lord you will know that the Lord hath sent his Witnesses among you and for contradicting the Scripture it is not shewed in what let the slander lie upon you As for wandring up and down to and fro farre and neer that is not contrary to Scripture but was the practice of the holy men who spake as they were moved and wandred up and down and to the voice of God were obedient in so doing and some of them to the going naked though you be so blind and ignorant as to oppose the same in them who witness it a sign to such as you Query 16. Whether Satan that old deceiver who often changeth his shape being discovered in many of his old devices may not now be expected to come in his best dresse as an Angel of Light And if so ought not all men to take heed how they believe every spirit as also how they hear and follow every Prophet that comes in sheeps cloathing and are not such in the way to be easily seduced who are taken with a fair covering and outside carriage of persons as to embrace their Principles without a serious spirituall Scripture-triall Answer Satan in his best dresse is discovered by the Light and the children of the Light are not ignorant of his wiles but by the power of the Lord are we preserved from that transforming and see him to become working his lying wonders with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish and though you have got into as high a form as you can even professing the doctrine of the Apostles yet wanting the power the Apostles had which laid the Foundation we see your dress to be the well-favour'd Harlot And seeing it is so we believe not your spirit but try you and find you to be Wolfes and false Prophets and they that receive you and follow you or such are in the way easily to be seduced and here again is confusion in the Queries who speak of spiritual pride in judging secrets and say the outside the carriage and the covering is faire and said all we say makes not against a spiritual practice and yet condemnes us deceivers Ye blinde guides who are expecting that Satan may come and are so blinded by him at present that you are acting his part One of you said his soul was in the pit to whom these Antiqueries were sent was not that judging a secret and whether such deceit lying and confusion from such blinde guides and seducing spirits be more likely to recover souls out of the pit or lead those who follow them into the pit let the impartial spiritual Judges bear Witness And here your queries are answered in particular in clearness and plainness in our own Judgements and Consciences and they whose eyes are opened may see your Errour and give glory to God Answered by them to whom they were directed To England I have this to say OH England England who wast Chief among the Nations and Princely among the Provinces in the midst of which the right hand of the Lord became glorious in power and dasht in pieces his Enemies and in the great●esse of his Excellencie overthrew and brought downe the Oppressour and gave thee opportunity to performe thy Vowes Promises and Declarations which in the day of thy distresse thou madest to God and men against Injustice Oppression Tyranny and Wrong and in the behalfe of Equitie Truth and Right But now the Lord by his power having given thee Victorie and Peace How soone is the just man perished and the upright in thee not found but the wonders of the Lord forgotten and his wrathfull judgements against Oppressors and the Proud accounted happy and they that tempt God and doe wickedly delivered and exalted whom Pride compasseth as a chaine and violence take hold as a garment so that the wicked compasse about the Just and devoure the man that is more righteous then he How wofully is truth fallen in thy streets and equitie cannot enter but he that departs from iniquity is made a Prey Judgment turned away backward Justice standeth afar off Oh how is the Foundations broken up and the Sluces opened whereby injustice oppression and almost all ungodlinesse hath again overspread thy face beyond what it did in the day before thou wast made a field of blood so that by the overspreading of abomination how great is thy desolation and all thy seeming Religion and high Profession which stood in Words and Forms but not in the Life discoverd and manifested to be but scum and deceit in this day when God hath tried thee How is thy Silver become drosse and thy Wine mixt with water and the faithful City become an harlot in which Righteousnesse once seemed to lodge but now murderers and all thy Vowes Promises and Engagements both to God and men forgotten in this day of thy pride and how are the hidden things of Esau sought out and the blood-thirstinesse of Edom in thee manifested and the wise men destroyed out of Edom and understanding out of the mount of Esan whose calamitie commeth upon him from the Lord for his perpetual hatred against his Brother as the Scripture witnesseth which also saith As Troops of Robbers wait for a man so the company of Priests murther in the way by consent and commit lewdnesse as it is seen this day Who would have thought that the wonders of the Lord should be so soon forgotten in thee and the wayes of the Heathen so exactly learned and the deeds of the wicked overpassed whom the Lord cast out as thou hast seen How shall the Lord pardon thee for these things or how shall thy heart endure when he shall visit it upon thee whose controversy is so much increased because truth and mercy is perished in thee FINIS

Moses by faith refused Happy would you be if your souls which long have been in captivity under the wisdom and policy of the first Adam might be raised and have dominion and you come to witness your part in the first resurrection where the second death hath no power O my friends what shall I say unto you or how shall I intreat you for I bear you record that some of you have a great zeal of God but not according to knowledge but going about to establish your own wisdom have not submitted your selves to the wisdom of Christ nor his Cross which is foolishness to some and a stumbling block to others but is known and witnessed by those that are saved to be the very wisdom of God Now in the words of Iob I shall conclude to you Iob 13.1 2. Loc mine eye hath seen all this mine ear hath heard and understood it what ye know the same do I know also I am not Inferior to you Surely I would speak to the Almighty and I desire to reason with God but ye are forgers of lies ye are all Physitians of no value O that ye would altogether hold your peace and it should be your wisdom hear now my reasoning and hearken to the pleading of my lips Will ye speak wickedly for God and talk deceitfully for him Will ye accept his person will ye contend for God Is it good that he should search you out or as one man mocketh another do ye so mock him he will surely reprove you If ye secretly accept persons shall not his excellency make you afraid and his dread fall upon you your remembrances are like unto ashes your bodies to bodies of clay Now all the Churches in England and Wales Baptized and Independant so called to whom I have been known in the flesh and the Elders that are among them I exhort who also was accounted and called an Elder that by the Light of Christ with which you are every one enlightned and is the true Light of which Iohn was a witness you search your selves whether ye are indeed that which ye account your selves to be or else but the likeness the picture or the image of the thing without the life or living power of God within you to act order and direct you For the day of the Lord is great upon all the Idols Likenesses and Images which have eyes and do not see and feet and do not walk c. Like unto which are all those that make or trust in them and sad will be your portion if you be found worshipping in the house of your Imagery and Imaginations setting up the Images of Churches in which the true life is not or the likeness of Elders without the power which the living Elders had which is the works of your own hands for the Scripture saith Confounded be all they that serve graven Images that boast themselves of Idols And also I exhort you to be sober Come out of Egypt and stand still that you may see the salvation of the Lord who is now leading his people like a stock out of Egypt and out of Babylon as in the days of old at which Pharaoh with all his Host is angry and the Magicians and Wise-men of Egypt withstand with whom many of you have already been partakers in persecuting and in unwarrantable cruelties exercised upon the true Israel of God by which you have sufficiently declared your selves to be the feed which was born of the Bond-woman after she flesh which persecuted and must be cast out and not the seed which was by promise born of the Free-woman from above after the Spirit which shall be Heir and must reign who in all ages was persecuted under one pretence or other but did never persecute but as then He that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit so it is now And the innocent blood of righteous Iames Parnel who hath suffered to the loss of his life for the testimony of Jesus in the Goal of Colchester will sadly witness it to the Consciences of those pretended Ministers and Members of the Churches in Essex who were his unjust betrayers and persecuters against whom it cries aloud for vengeance let some Members of Churches whom I know in Norfolk and other parts of the Nation also consider this and repent And therefore amend your ways and your doings and execute true Judgement and Justice oppress not the stranger the fatherless and widow and shed not innocent blood nor walk after the abominations of the Heathen whom the Lord hath cut off before you and trust not in lying words that cannot profit saying The Temple of the Lord the Ordinances of God The Churches of Christ c. For will ye lie swear deal unjustly persecute and imprison the righteous slander and abuse and shed innocent blood do worse then your Fathers and come stand in that you call a Church as if you were delivered to do these abominations Is the House that is called by my Name become a Den of Robbers or Persecutors in your eyes Behold I have seen it saith the Lord And although he hath daily sent unto you his Servants and Prophets warning you in his Name and in his Power yet have you not hearkned unto him nor enclined your ears but hardened your necks and many of you done worse then your Fathers and therefore go see what he hath done to your Brethren the Persecuters which he cast out before you And for mine own part I must deal plainly and tell you the beholding and observing the unrighteous actings and deceitful hypocritical dealings of many of your eminent Members and other high pretenders to Religion whilst I sate with them in Parliament and other chief places of Counsel and Trust in the Nation was one of the first things that put me upon consideration what the root of that Profession should be from whence such sowre grapes and fruits of bitterness proceeded where I obtained mercy through the light of Christ that enlightneth every man that cometh into the world to see the root and the fruit to be the same your foundation rotten in the imitation and likeness of the truth not in the truth as it is in Jesus your way too broad to lead to life your Principle and profession weak and powerless not able to carry and lead you out of the World and its crooked and deceitful ways but in the lustful proud vain-glorious envious oppressive nature to dwell equal with the rest of the world from whence it is since broken sorth into the monstrous Viper of plain and open Tyranny Violence and Persecution in which you are observed greatly to exceed the Generations that went before you Vpon consideration of which notwithstanding I have known what it is to be accounted something among those called Churches what the preferment of Pharaohs Court is and the great things of England and have had a nature prone enough to imbrace the same yet for

but to us of salvation and that of God But what shall I advise or counsel you I know from of old many of your hearts are hardned and you will not hear and therefore I shall say no more but with Paul From henceforth let no man among you trouble me for I must bear about in my body the dying of the Lord Iesus that the life also of Iesus may be manifested in my mortal body however you take it this is written in much feeling and love to your souls and therefore in plainness by one that hath been and still is a great lover of your souls though a witness against your deceit Known to you by the name of Dennis Hollisler POSTSCRIPT I Shall spare to make much mention to you of your carriage to a Servant of the Lord who came into your meeting the second day of this ninth moneth and of your threatning her with Whips Stripes and Prison Having written more largely of it to Th●mas Ewens your Teacher where you may see how contrary your practice is to the Saints in all ages and the Churches of Christ and one with the Seed of the Serpent the enemies of Christ who was ever found in imprisoning and persecuting the Saints as the Scriptures testifie The Letter to Thomas Ewens Thomas Ewens THy Letter of the second day of the last Moneth I received with the enclosed Papers from Henry Iessey and Iohn Pendarviss as thou saist in answer to some Queries sent to me by them which is not true for I sent none to them in particular that I know but to the People to whom they were directed viz. The Baptists of which as that time a very great number was in Town from whom some reasonable answer might be expected instead of which I reveived a Paper signed Henry Iessey Iohn Pendarvis pretending some Reasons why they answered not and in thy Letter a shew of an answer to them the said Quaeries but indeed a parcel of such dull stuff that it s not worth observing much less replying thereto by those whose time is not their own but his that sent them Enclosed thou maist receive an answer to their Anti-quaeries from those to whom they were directed A reply also to the pretended answer of the Quaeries thou and they might have expected had it been worth the while but instead thereof you viz. the Baptists are desired to review your own Answers and take notice of the confusion and deceit therein contained and how far short it is of an answer to the Queries and amend the same I shall instance in one particular namely your answer to the eight Query in which you speak of two Baptisms under the New Testament besides that of Iohn when the Scripture saith One Faith one Baptism you say Christ in his own Person onely Baptized with the Spirit none other being appointed nor inabled c. When the Scripture saith Some were made able Ministers of the Spirit not the Letter And he that ministred the spirit among the Saints Did he it by the works of the Law saith that able Minister of the Spirit And where was it that Christ in his own person Baptized in Scripture expressions Were not all the Saints Baptized by one Spirit into one Spirit into one Body See ● Cor. 12.13 without wresting sithence the Spirit was not given till that person was ascended And he that spake by the Spirit said Though ye have known Christ after the flesh yet henceforth know ye him so no more And what is that Name of the Lord Iesus in which you say you Baptize I shall say little to your Spiritual ends there mentioned of your water Baptism or my stical holdings out or representtions c. But would rather have the tearms and things proved by the words of Scripture to be so because the shadows do now begin to flie away and the true Light shines and deceit is manifested so that words colours and pretences will not now prevail to blinde and deceive those that live and walk in the true Light And whereas thou saist If there be any thing in either of the Papers that may tend to recover my precious Soul out of the pit and snare into which it is faln as it would be a rejoycing to others that love me so to thy self who would be as ready as ever to serve me in love and in the Lords way To which I reply Were my soul which indeed is precious in the eye of the Lord faln into a pit or snare I see nothing in either of those dull confused liveless and powerless Papers like to recover or lift it out But why dost thou not tell me what the snare and pit is into which it is faln The mistaken blinde generation in all ages accounted the people of God who were escaped their pollution and snares and turned from the darkness to the Light and from the power of Satan unto God deceived faln and mis-guided and therefore hated reviled and persecuted them as people faln into a snare fit for their prey and spoil and to be whipt and imprisoned c. I do not say in Bridewell but shall leave it to come out of thy mouth as it did the second day of this present month and is that the Lords way in which thou art so willing to serve me I utterly deny that way and the Lerd of it which is the god of the world the Devil and all that by him are led and guided therein it is the devil that casts the Saints into Prison as the Scripture saith It was wretched Pilate that scourged Iesus It was those Masters whose gain came in by Divination joyning with the multitude that carryed Paul and Silas before the Magistrates and caused them to be beaten and many stripes laid upon them and cast into prison It was Iesus that foretold his Disciples they muse be so used by the world the generation of Vipers that must fill up the measure of their Fathers iniquities that upon them may come all the righteous blood that hath been shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abel c. It was Paul the able Minister of the Spirit not of the Letter that proved himself the Minister of God in much patience intumults in stripes in imprisonments c. and more a Minister of Christ then the false Ministers that encountred him were by labors more abundant in stripes above measure in Prisons more frequent that five times of the professing Iews received forty stripes save one and was thrice beaten with rods But is is Thomas Ewens a Minister of the Letter not of the Spirit as all the false Apostles and deceitful Workers were who trans form themselves into the Ministers of Christ as Satan doth himself into an Angel of Light that is at least threatning the servants of God and witnesses of Iesus with stripes with whipp ings and with Bridewel O my Friend How great is the wrath and how heavy is the indignation that from the