Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	apostle_n	church_n	tradition_n	2,130	5	9.1915	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91075	The prophets Malachy and Isaiah prophecying to the saints and professors of this generation of the great things the Lord will doe in this their day and time. Shewing (amongst other things) the nature and quality of the apostachy. The judgement of the Lord upon the leaders of the apostacy. How the Lord will deale with, and carry himself towards, others guilty of the apostacy. The certainty of deliverance at hand for the true seed. / By a wel-wisher to the kingdome of our Lord Jesus. To which is prefixed two very useful epistles, by Christopher Feak, and John Pendarves, ministers of the Gospel.	Wel-wisher to the kingdome of our Lord Jesus.; Pendarves, John, 1622-1656.; Feake, Christopher, fl. 1645-1660.	1656 (1656)	Wing P3687; Thomason E888_2; ESTC R207362	83,871	109

of all unrighteousnesse likewise as may be observed once for all in Rom. 1. from the 18 verse to the end of the Chapter These Gentiles in the poynt of Government and worship have not Jehovah for their Judge or their Law-giver or their King but have in a constant succession submitted to the foure Beasts which rose out of the great Sea as is described by Daniel the Prophet as to their Soveraigne Lords in all things Others of the degenerate part of Mankind are such as having been taken into Covenant with God from among the Idolatrous Nations to be his Church and people did for a time observe and doe his Commandements but afterward forsaking the Lord their God have joyned themselves to Idols after the manner of the Nations of the world and so have gradually degenerated into the very Image and similitude of the Gentiles which know not God and so are of the world as the Aegyptians were of the world and as the Canaanites were of the world This was the state of the Ten Tribes and this state is notably described in Jeremy the 2 from the 9 to the 21 verse Such also were the degenerate Members of the Jewish Church in the first day of the Son of man they were of the world as the Romans and the Grecians were of the world and therefore without controversie our Lord in the forementioned passages doth include within the compasse of the word WORLD the Order of the Priests from the Highest to the Lowest the whole state of the Elders the whole Hypocriticall Generation of the Scribes and Pharisees and the Generality of the people who being corrupted from the simplicity and purity of the Divine Institutions did not long after the Testimony aforesaid Joyne in the Murthering of the Lord of glory This is the world which hated Jesus Christ even with a more perfect hatred then Herod or Pontius Pilate or the Centurions or the Souldiers of the Romans These Things are plain and clear to almost every understanding and therefore I for bear further explication Only let me add this As it was then even so it is now in these our dayes as by many Instances it might appeare That the Turks are of the world that the Jews are of the world and not of the Church that the Persians the Indians the Moores are of the world as the nations before the day of Christ were of the world is Confessed by us all But is it not as true that the Idolatrous the prophane the Brutish the Barbarous Papists are of the world as the Mahumetans c. are of the world though they pretend to be the only true Church of God upon earth this also will be assented to as the Truth among the protestants they may beleeve upon Scripture ground that the Romish Church as now degenerated must needes be very neere of Kin to the Heathenish world because the spirit of the world and the Characters of the world workes effectually in them and is plainly discerned upon them as in and upon others of the children of Disobedience But now what shall wee say of the Protestant Churches of the Reformed Churches which have a name to live to bee the Spouse of Christ c. wee cannot indure to heare them evill spoken of wee cannot beare it that they should be looked upon as the world or the worldly Church or the Carnal Church these are odious expressions they and their state are not to bee compared with the state of the Jewish Church as our Lord found it when he testified that they were the world and that their workes were evill To this with an holy Boldnes as in the sight of Christ I dare to say that in their present Constitution and Condition they may without doing them any wrong be compared to the Jewish Church and state in the Dayes of Christ and his Apostles in respect of their superstitions and persecutions of their hatred and enmity to the pure wayes of Christ as the popish Church may be justly compared to the Apostate Ten tribes in respect of their Idolatryes and persecutions for this is a most certain truth full of evidence in it selfe where you find the spirit of Idolatry Superstition Tradition Ceremony and formality in worship prevailing and overpowring the true Gospel spirit there will you find the spirit of the world Moreover where the Lord Jesus and his Members feele the power of the spirit of injustice and opression of hatred and persecution overcoming the spirit of truth and equity of righteousnes and innocency there they may safely say these Men are the men of the world and so no other no better then the world Now then forbearing to inquire into the state of the reformed Churches abroad let us take a short survay of the nationall Churches of England of Scotland and Ireland which are accounted in the Number of the Reformed Churches and their Daughters the Parish Churches as they were formerly or are now Constituted and Governed by the Lords Spirituall the Lord Byshops the Lord Presbiters and the Lord Triers under Charles R. and Oliver P. those two protestant Princes those two Defenders of the faith those two supream Heades successively of the Church in these parts of the Earth with all their Ecclesiasticall furniture of Church officers patrons Parsons Vicars Curates Church Wardens Clearks Sextons c. not to omit all their Parish and Collegiate-Church members Did they formerly or doe they now looke like the Churches of Christ or like the Churches of Antichrist were they not are they not of the world did they not doe they not speake of the world as sayeth the Apostle Iohn yea all of them from the Head to the tayle as sayeth the Prophet Isayah Were they not are they not now againe under the shadow of their Lord protectors wings Constituted Countenanced maintained and Governed after the Inventions of men after the traditions of Antichrist after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ doe not these Churches and their officers worship the Lord in vaine teaching for Doctrines the commandements of Men nay more then this did they not in the Prelates dayes doe they not in the dayes of the present Tryers appeare full of the spirit of enmity against the wayes of Christ against the Kingdom of Christ against the Government of Christ and his Legislative power is there not now as formerly a great and a generall hatred among the Scribes and the Pharisees and the Corrupt Lawyers against the new non-conformists nonsubscribers and against all those who in the spirit of Christ shall boldly beare witnes that they are the world and not the Church and that their workes are evill Let those who are spirituall consider the matter and speake their mind Let those whose senses are exercised by reason of use to discerne betwixt Christ and Beliall betwixt the Inventions of men and the Injunctions of God well weigh the premises in the balance of the Sanctuary and give judgement according to God

comes to vindicate his name and honour in jealousie and wrath Judging of her And that it was the state of the Jewish Church in which our Lord found them at his first coming in the flesh hath been cleared up already and therein she was a Type and representation of the professing Gospel-Church in the last dayes Lastly That it is the state and condition of the professing Gospel Church when Judgement shall begin at the house of God he will visit her with a SPIRIT of Judgement and a spirit of burning be as a Refiners fire and as Fullers sope to her Matthew and Luke tel us plainly As it was in the dayes of Noah so shal it be also in the dayes of the Son of man and Luke illustrates it by the condition of Sodom g Luke 17.26 28 30. They did eat they drank they bought they sold they planted they builded even thus shal it be in the dayes when the Son of man is revealed so that upon the credit of the word of two Evangelists we may believe it for a truth that the professing worlds being in this state and condition is a clear sign of the Lords being at hand to deliver his remnant and destroy his enemies But wil you have the testimony of a third Apostle John the Spirit of the Lord by him in his Epistle to the seven Churches in Asia bears witness to this truth that when the professing gospel-Gospel-Church fals into a refined hypocritical apostacy after reformation then the Lord stands at the door and knocks he stayes no longer but comes to Judgement for the proof of this let us a little consider these seven Churches of Asia They were Tipes and representations of the various state and condition of the Church of Christ from the falling away the Apostle writes of in his second Epistle to the Thessalonians by which the man of sin got up to his seat and power until the coming of the Lord to his Syon for some things written especially to the Churches in Philadelphia and Laodicea cannot be restrained to literal Philadelphia and literal Laodicea but must of necessity be granted to refer to some other time and persons tiped out by them further behold the order the Holy Ghost observes in his writing be begins with an apostacy with Ephesus who had fallen from her first works and closes with an apostacy with Laodicea that had fallen into a notable hypocritical strain boasting of her own gifts and excellencies saying I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing If we observe the Church of Sardis we shall there see what a low ebb the Church of Christ was once brought unto Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to dye there were but a few names which had not defiled their garments but at the next remove the Spirit of the Lord works such a glorious reformation in the Church that she seems as if she were perfect before the Lord he finds no fault at all with her but commends her after a high rate this is represented to us by Philadelphia now the coming of our Lord draws neer it is not far off Behold I come quickly hold that fast which thou hast after this Satan that cunning and implacable enemy to the Saints happiness brings his Laodicean temper upon the stage the professing Gospel-Church fals from so glorious a reformation wrought by the Philadelphians into a luke warm hypocritical apostacy by this time our Lord is at the door and ready to enter in and behold the hypocrisie of this apostacy although she be fallen from the glory of noble Philadelphia into the loathsome condition of luke warm Laodicea wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked yet she saith I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing now our Lord stands at the door and knocks gives notice that he is coming and wil not tarry Thus my Brethren you have a manifold testimony to the truth of the assertion that an hypocritical apostacy after reformation in the professing Gospel-Church is an unquestionable evidence That deliverance to the true seed and destruction to the enemy is at hand the Lord wil stay no longer but wil come and wil not tarry for his own Names sake if God would not spare the old world nor his chosen people Israel To whom pertaineth the Adoption and the glory and the promises when they came into this temper and frame what ground hath any man to think that this present evil world being come into the same State shal find more favour at the hand of the jealous God than those of old did The blood of all the Prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world Luke 11.50 shal be required of this Generation saith our Lord what Generation is that an hypocritical Pharisaical Generation So that it remains for a certain truth that judgement is at the door of this Generation and deliverance is coming from Heaven to the faithful that keep their garments pure and they shal walk with their Lord in white for they are worthy 2 Be instructed in the design of the Lord at this day upon you and the rest of your Brethren with whom you are contending for the name and honour of your Lord it is to bring you into cloth you with the glory of the day of your Espousals that it may be with you as it was in antient years in the beginning what glory is that the glory of the Apostles and Saints when they received the promise of the Father when the Spirit of the Lord came with power upon them working in them according to the might of his power the glory of this day is inexpressible neither is it my work at this time to dilate upon it but I chuse rather to leave it to your own meditations to represent it to your view by chewing the cudd in the consideration of it as it is set forth in the holy Writings of the Apostles when you have attained to this glory then wil you be defended by the creating power of God and power from on high wil be given you to tarry on that great work of God in the world to the glory and praise of your Lord your hearts are now so much fixed upon in which you so earnestly desire to be labouring Other very useful instructions might be added but I conceive it wil be more acceptable and vvork more kindly if your selves press that wholsom liquor out of this cluster therefore I forbear 2 In the second place give me leave to Exhort you to these things 1 Be not weary of nor undervalue your present work behold how acceptable how delightful it is to your Lord the Lord is alwaies among you hearing all your discourses with greatest delight the glory of it so ravishes his hear k Cant. 4 8 9 11. Thou hast ravished my heart my Sister my Spouse thou hast