Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	bear_v	flesh_n	kingdom_n	6,050	5	7.3681	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89056	A further discovery of the mystery of the last times; as an addition to a little book, called Some discoveries of the mystery of the last times, bordering upon the coming of the Lord Jesus. Set forth for the good of all men; but especially of those who in these dissenting times (wherein Ephraim envieth Juda, and Juda vexeth Ephraim) know not where to settle themselves, or to what society of Christians to joyn themselves: wherein is (as simply and plainly, as the author was able to open those mysterious scriptures quoted in this following treatise) shewed the cause of all our divisions and contentions about matters pertaining to form and order in the church of Jesus Christ; and wherein is moderately proved from those scriptures these particulars. 1. The flourishing and building condition of the church of Jesus Christ in the time of the gospel. ... 7. Lastly, that the Lord Jesus will by himself destroy all those enemies, and deliver his people, when the restoration of all things shall be.	Mercer, Richard, fl. 1649-1651.; Mercer, Richard, fl. 1649-1651. Some discoveries of the mystery of the last times, bordering upon the coming of the Lord Jesus].	1651 (1651)	Wing M1732; Thomason E637_16; ESTC R206616	80,538	60

speak concerning this matter for in Chap. 34. 12. speaking of this condition of the people of God he compares the time therof to a cloudy and dark day wherin the people of the Lord were scattered so likewise in his 37. Chapter and 11. verse the Prophet brings the people of God complaining saying behold our bones are dry and our hope is lost we are cut off for our parts They acknowledged that they had lain so long in captivity and scattered among the nations that they began to doubt of the promises of God for their restoring And then in the 12. verse he saith in answer to their complaint Behold I will open your graves and cause you to come out of your graves which shews that they were in a dead condition and also it shews plainely that all this time they were out of order as touching the worship or else as touching any Gospel order Thus far Ezekiel Daniell in Chapter 7. 25. speaking of that little horn which I take to be Antichrist that he should think to change times and Lawes and they should be given into his hands that is as I conceive he should have power to change the times and lawes which are the ordinances of the Gospel and to sit in the temple of God shewing himself as if he were God and to deaden all the outward worship of God by changing the ordinances of God the like to this effect the same prophet speaking of the prevailing power of Antichrist over the Church of Jesus Christ in the last times in chap. 11. 45. saith He shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain And thus much for the prophet Daniel to confirm this thing Now for the prophet Hosea in Chap 2. 3. of his prophesie where in the person of God he expostulating with his people threatens to strip her naked and set her as in the day in which she was born and make her like a wilderness and set her like a dry land and slay her with thirst and then in the 14. verse compared with Ezekiel 20. 35. and Rev. 12. 14. the judgment is fulfilled upon her for her sins Where pray mark in the Judgment which is threatned upon this people if they did not repent the Lord tels them by his prophet that he would make her like a wilderness and dry land and it is added and set her as in the day when she was born now how was it with the people of God in the day before they were born I mean that new birth being born by their calling out of the world being applied to Israell after the flesh or Israel after the spirit As for Israel after the flesh the prophet Ezekiel sets forth their condition in Chapter 16. 3 where he saith thy birth and thy nativity was of the land of Canaan thy father was an Amorite and thy mother an Hittite shewing that there was little difference between the gentiles and them untill they were separated asunder by his love towards them and by that outward order as Circumcision and Sacrifices and the worship of the law So likewise in respect of Israel after the spirit there was no difference between the beleevers and unbeleevers untill the Lord called them out by the preaching of the Gospel as is cleer by all the Epistles of the Apostles unto the severall Churches And thus much for Hosea touching this thing The like hath the prophet Amos speaking of this sleepy or dead condition in respect of outward order in his 8. chapter and 9 10 11 12 verses where in the former part of the chapter having set before the people their sins and wickednesses and their oppressions of the poor he saith in the 9. verse And it shall come to passe in that day speaking of the bloudy day saith the Lord God that I will cause the Sun to go down at noone and I will darken the Earth in the cleer day and I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentations and then in the 11 verse it is said Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will send a famine in the Land not a famine of bread or a thirst of water but of hearing the word of the Lord and they shall wander from sea to sea and from the North even unto the East they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it Lo here friends what can be more plainly spoken then this prophet speaks of that cloudy day and dark wherein as the prophet Micah in chapter 3. 6. and the Sun shall go down over the prophets and the day shall be dark over them Implying thus much that in the last ages of the world during the death of the witnesses and the time and times and half time there shall be no appearances of God by gifts and ordinances but all things in respect of the outward administrations shall be dead and in a barren condition about the woman that is the Church in this dead and sleepy condition of the Lords people To the like matter the same prophet saith in chapter 9. 9. where he saith For loe I will command and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations as corn is sifted in a sieve which sheweth their dispersion and captivity among the nations without any order in respect of Kingdome and Priesthood or injoying God in his ordinances in the purity of them And so much for the prophet Amos. Now for the Prophet Micah pray hear what he saith concerning this condition of the Lords people in cha 2. 10. where speaking in the person of God saith Arise and depart for this is not your rest Why what is the matter he saith because it is polluted it shall destroy you with a sore destruction shewing that their polluting of the ordinances of God was the cause of their destruction and captivity for he saith in the 12. verse I will surely assemble O Jacob all of thee I will surely gather the remnant of Israel The like is said to the same effect in chap. 3. 12. speaking of the cruelty of the Princes and falsness of the Prophets he saith Therefore shall Sion for your sake be plowed as a field and Jerusalem shall become heaps and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forrest thereby shewing the desolations which should lie upon all the face of the outward administrations So likewise the same Prophet in his 7. chapter and first verse speaking in the person of the Church in her complaint saith Woe is me for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits as the grape-gleaning of the vintage there is no cluster to eat my soul desired the first ripe fruit thereby shewing that in the last times the people of God should be like the summer gatherings and that there should be no cluster that is no assembly or Church congregated together in any Gospel order but that they

down the residue of the pasture with their feet and foul the water with their feet and caused the people to eat that which they had trodden and to drink of the water which they had fouled with their feet Ezekiel the 34. 18 19. Even so I conceive the Popes Clergie have defiled the ordinances of Jesus Christ by altring them from their first constitution and polluting them with their ceremonies and causing the people to back them and use them as they are pleased to command and to commit Idolatry by them and especially about the reall presence in the Sacrament Seventhly that as Antiochus having set up the Idol of abomination that maketh desolate in the temple of God and commanded the people to offer upon the Altar and those that refused he put to death even so the Pope of Rome having placed the abomination of desolation that is as I conceive the reall presence in the Sacrament did persecute and put to death all those that would not worship it and confesse this doctrine to be truth Eightly that as when Antiochus having placed the abomination that maketh desolate in the Temple of God and in the cities of Juda that then Matthias and his sons fled unto the mountaines for succour the first of Maccabees 2. 28. Even so the Lord Jesus adviseth his disciples that when ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place whoso readeth let him understand then let them that be in Judea fly unto the mountains Matthew 24. 15 16. likewise I conceive the people of the Lord Jesus in the mystery are at this present to come out of the Romish Church and to fly into the mountaines of the protestant Churches where though in respect of the purity of the ordinances they come short of the perfection of the first times having lost their power and their greatest number being Christians at large that is having little else but the bare profession of Jesus Christ yet in doctrine which are things to be beleeved they come neer to the first times and I do conceive they are the earth as I shall hereafter shew God assisting me when I come to speake of the beast which did arise out of the Earth unto which the woman fled Revelation 12. 16. Ninthly that as Antiochus after he had set up the Abomination which maketh desolate in the Temple of God had such as resisted and withstood him and did exploits as Matthias and his sons and brethren with such as regarded their God even so when the Pope and his Clergie having corrupted the ordinances and set up the abomination which maketh desolate and commanded the people to worship it had such as did soon resist and withstand him with the losse of their bloud and that not a few but many as may be seen in Acts and Monuments at large treated of Tenthly and lastly that as Antiochus when he did defile the Temple of Jerusalem and set up the abomination that maketh desolate had armes to stand on his part which were the nations that were Enemies unto the Jewes and had such as did wickedly against the covenant to joyn with him Daniel the 11. 31 32. 1. Maccabees 1. 50. Even so the Pope when he did defile the Church of God by setting up the abomination that maketh desolate in the Church I mean the reall presence in the Sacrament and command the people to worship it had armes to stand on his side and doubtless all that forsook the covenant being many of the order of Monks that were the first devisers of transubstantiation for in a councell which was held in Laterane at Rome under Pope Innocent the third were gathered together through the christian world of severall nations to the number of 1300. Bishops which inacted transubstantiation as a Law to be set up throughout the whole Church in the year 1215. and then in the year 1220 Pope Honorius the third in another Councell inacted Elevation and Adoration of the Sacrament and thus was the Abomination of desolation set up in the Church of God as a law and all men commanded to worship it and so the Spirit of God forsook that Administration as you may see at large Acts and Monuments the second volume page the 457. 460. So that from these foregoing Reasons I supose I may safely conclude that it is somthing in the mystery in the church of God which the Pope is prossessed with that is the abomination that maketh desolate and drives the Spirit of God from his own worship and I know nothing in the church of Rome whereunto this may be applied so fitly as to the reall presence in the Sacrament or the fleshly body of Christ under the form of bread and if this in particular may be applied unto the abomination that maketh desolate then much more when all the ordinances of Jesus Christ in that Church are corrupted from their first purity either in substance or in form by adding many ceremonies unto them and the people forced to receive them as they command Thus having finished the description of the Beast which did arise out of the sea and spoken of the time of his standing and prevailing in the Church we wil now come to speak God assisting something of the beast which is to arise out of the earth and because I am not certain whether this beast be up or not I shall not speak much of him only I shall speak somthing of the earth from whence this beast doth arise It is a principle amongst men that earth in Scripture phrase signifies men of earthly condition being flesh and not guided by the spirit of God or if you will by earth you may take men of the meanest rank and quality in the world that is the vulgar multitude whom Mr. Prin in his Soveraignty of Parliaments and Kingdoms makes to be the originall of Authority in temporall things Reasoning thus that there was a people before there was a King And this people did originally chuse their King Now according to this principle If the Soveraignty of Authority remain in the people from whence the government ariseth and this Authority be it a King or common-wealth which you will have power to make Lawes in the church of Christ and have derived their Authority from the multitude and ascribe unto themselves the title of Head of the church of Christ it will come to passe that the multitude in generall originally and the King or state derivatively will be the head of the church of Jesus Christ which hath come to passe already in the severall nations of the protestants and this Saint John seems to intimate Revelation the 16. 19. where it is said And the cities of the nations fell where note I conceive Saint John doth not treat in this place of the civill government or state of the nations which may be applied to the nationall cities nor yet of the materiall cities of the nations as London Paris