Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A42020
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A call out of gross darkness and idolatry into the light to wak [sic], which is the way of life ... with a word of advice and information ... / by Richard Greenway.
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Greenway, R. (Richard)
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1662
(1662)
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Wing G1863; ESTC R25470
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20,414
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17
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Lord worshipped him in spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter in which you are pretending to worship And friends though you have gotten good words to cover your selves with the St. words which is the sheeps cloathing the Prophets words Christs words and his Appostles words yet you are ravened from that Spirit which was their life by which they were moved and by which those words were brought forth by them and though you make never so goodly a shew outwardly yet you are but ravening Woolves within you have that nature standing which will rend and teare the Lambs when they are sent amongst you but now the Lord hath appeared and is farther appearing to strip you of your Covering and your nakedness will more and more appear and many shall see your shame and loath it for the woe doth belong to all that have gotten a Covering which is not with his Spirit And people that you may not think better of your selves then you ought through Ignorance of the falsness of your way and worship and the Idolatry in which you are wallowing I shall in tender love shew you plainly wherein your sacrifice was Lame and your devotion Blind and such as is nor of the Spiritâ— leading nor like the Saints practice and therefore the Lord will not except it from you nor you therein First of the place you meet in to Worship it is Idollatry in you or your Teacher to call it a Church and though he call it so and teacheth you so to call it that you may have the higher esteem of his Shop or Market house in which he â—rads for dishonest gain and in which he sels unto you that on his market day which he hath stollen on other dayes of the week yet it is in truth no more nor less than an old Mass-house which was by the Popes power and order built and consecrated as they call it and set a part for that use and some of your Grandfathers could remember I believe the Popes Mass sung and said therein in the Lattine tongue I have heard my Grandfather tell of it as now you have the same in whole or in part in English But friends search the Scriptures which your teacher tels you is your law and rule and see therein if you can finde any such thing called a Church which I am sure you cannot but therein â— find the Apostle Paul said the Church is in God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ Thes 1. 1. And the Church is not made of dead but living stones no nor dead men neither such as are dead in sins and trespasses and so he that knowes not aright what is the guide or rule of a Saints life it is no wonder that he knows not the true Church of Christ and if ignorance and gross darkness indeed were not over people they would see these things and if they did know the true Church of Christ and themselves but coming to be Members of it then they would not indure any longer to follow such blind guides as shall call a house of Lime and Stones a Church to give it that name which only is proper and belongs to the body of which Christ Jesus is the head If you were all of you believers and did know follow Christ Jesus the light and did meet in the name and power of the Lord and so did worship him in the Spirit and in the truth yet the best name you could properly give the house or place you meet in was but a meeting house and therefore now while you are in the unbelief in wickedness Idollatrous and ungodly practices how can any one call it any other then a Sinagogue of Satan and not a meeing house of believers or Saints much less a Church though you are met therein for God who is light hath no fellowship with darkness nor the workers thereof those that walk in the light as he is in the light they are in and of the Church which is in God the Piller and ground of truth and such have fellowship with the Father and the Son in the Spirit and one with another and therein the blood of Christ is witnessed which cleanseth from all unrighteousness and such are the peculiar people of God that are zealous of Good works and such connot but bare testimony against the contrary Steven the Apostle of Christ he bore witness against the Tempel which once commanded of the Lord to be builded and worshiped in but when it was Idolised by the people as you do now your stone Church then the Lord sent the Apostle to bare witness against that Tempel as you may read Asts 17. 24. God that made the World and all things therein seeing bâ— is Lord of Heaven and Earth dwelleth not in Temples made with hands â—â—ither is he worshiped with the works of mens hands marke that and friends God never commanded that to be built and set apart for his worship which you call your Church Secondly that which you offer in your high place built by the Popes order is but the works of mens hands and that is abomination unto the Lord as you may read Acts 7. 4. And they made a Calfe in those days and offered sacrifice unto their Idol and rejoyced in the works of their own hands then God gave them up to Worship the Host of Heaven So that when a people gives themselves up to Idolatry then they may be left of the Lord to be more and more overcome therin now your prayers as you call them are they not a deviâ—â—d thing or a forme that is composed or made ready by mens hands and so is as a Calse which is made and set up which you are worshiping with your bodys and lips but in it there is no Spirit nor life but is a dead blind Lame Image and the Apostle said bodily excercise profiteth little but Godliness is profitable unto all Freinds if bodily excercise profiteth little or nothing at all in the worship of God consider your practice and your several sorts of jestures which you know nothing of the leading of the Spirit of God thereunto 〈◊〉 its abominable unto the Lord and he may justly say as he will do one day who required such things at your hands and what ever you may think of it through Ignorance the Vale being over your hearts yet this I â—estifie unto you in the fear of the Lord that it is not the true Worship of the true God and it is not in the Spirit and he will not accept of it nor you therein as afore said when you read the Prophets words you keep on your hats and when you sing and say them in your common praying then you put them off waht example or command from God have you for so doing Thirdly As for your singing it is not according to the practice of the Saints and primative Christians as you may read the Apostle said I will pray with the Spirit and I will pray