Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A75826
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An Awakening word to the churches, saints, and professors in this slumbring and sleepy day
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1664
(1664)
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Wing A4277A; ESTC R42642
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13,389
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18
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Thirdly These sinful Factions amongst Saints are from mens own spirits and not from the Spirit of God and Grace for they have neither precept nor practice of Saints in the Gospel to warrant it but the contrary altogether The Old Testament is the declaration of one Covenant of one God one Church and one Worship The New Testament also declares of one New-Covenant one of Jesus the Christ one Faith one Baptism one Mystical Body yet in that one Body many Members or that Body divided into many Societies Companies or Congregations by habitation or near co-habitation but the whole Body of Christian Saints living together in one City or a part in several Cities or Countries were all of one Faith in one order of the Gospel and all in mutual Love and Fellowship as one Body or Church This was the state of the Primitive Churches of the Gospel founded by Christ and his Apostles amongst which Jesus Christ walked and amongst whom the Apostles laboured and conversed and none other therefore such Societies only are Churches of Christ It is now the Lord knows a hard matter to number up the several Factions of People formed and united in several Opinions which Christ the Gospel knows not and yet every party professing to worship God above others each several Company accounting their way the only true way of Worship and that only and so they divide and separate from all other Persons and Forms as false Antichristian and in Babylon while I fear their Doctrine and Practices are meerly Babylonish and were never known in the Churches of Saints till Antichrist arose O what a wonderful cheat is Antichrist and what dreadful Darkness Delusion yet possesseth Saints that they take themselves to be in Sion when indeed they are in Babylon and Christ knows it is so and therefore calls Come out of Her my People Poor hearts I speak my experience and by light received my soul mourns for you and mourns after you and to my Exhortation I joyn my prayers That yet the Lord would give forth the Spirit more fully to discover your present state and standing for little do you think what spirits you are led by Certainly persons under such singular Opinions discover woful pride and ignorance whoever they be and these two are the very Basis upon which Babylon is built and the Pillars upon which she stands remove these and Babylon is in the dust The better to manifest this to you consider First Persons under these singular Opinions of their own Light and wayes so as to condemn all others and separate from them as Antichristian and account themselves only to have the Spirit and be the only People of God and none but they this discovers wonderful pride arrogancy rashness and ordinarily these singular high thoughts prove but thoughts and mistakes at last This is a sad dividing Spirit and Principle of Antichrist and discovered to creep in early in Pauls time It was this Spirit which was got into the Church at Crinth which caused them to despise the Apostles themselves as men of little light and of small gifts to them What else can we make of those humble Rebukes Paul writes to that Church 1 Cor. 4.8 10. Now ye are full now ye are rich ye have reigned as Kings without us and I would to God that ye did reign that we also might reign with you For we are fools for Christ's sake but ye are wife in Christ we are weak but ye are strong ye are honourable but we are despised Such a spirit also was among the Romans which the Apostle reproves Rom. 2. Who make their boasts of God and knowing his will and are able to approve of the most excellent things and are confident that they are lights to the blind instructors of the foolish who have the form of the knowledge of the Truth and yet even these persâ—â—â— caused the Name of God to be blasphemed among the Gentiles It is it is a shame to mention the pride of deceived Professors who professing themselves wise above all others become fools or discover their weakness being giddy and high-minded directly opposite to the Spirit of Saints the Spirit of Christ his Apostles and the Gospel which teacheth more humility and to look upon the things of others as better than our own It is wonderful strange that persons professing the Gospel should yet be such strangers to the Spirit of the Gospel to say no more Secondly These singular Opinions and Practices discover wonderâ—â—l ignorance and weakness to accuse their Brethren and separate from â—hem as in Babylon and this is their own state nay possibly those they condemn are nearer to the rule of the Gospel than themselves Surely if this charge which some Professors lay upon others shall not bear weight in the Ballance of the Sanctuary the accusers will be found to speak evil of the things they know not but by a deceived carnal judgment and that is sad When that sad Division in the Church of Corinth was declared to Paul that they said I am of Paul and I am of Apollos I am of Cephas and I am of Christ The Apostle chargeth this as a sin of ignorance and to convince them he useth this as his main argument Is Christ divided hath Christ so many bodies and leaves them that to consider This was so contrary to the received Principles of the Gospel that he judged the pondering upon that was enough to discover their own carnal thoughts to be the spring of such divisions for the Spirit of Christ and the Gospel teacheth the quite contrary Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness c. bearing one another burthens and so fulfilling the Law of Christ and therefore Paul presseth this general exhortation from the Prison I beseech you that ye wâ—â—k worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called with all lowliness and meekness with long-suffering forbear one another in love endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace Ephes 4.1 33. And the ground of this Exhortation the Apostle draws from the Oneness of the Mystical Body of Christ and of Gospel-Worship vers 4 5 6. Alas alas the Divisions among Saints sufficiently discover their infant-state and their new breaking forth of Babylon that they are so spotted and tinctured with Babylon and no question but as the Spirit of Light and Truth is more given forth the Spirit of Antichrist will be more manifest in Satans closest delusions that he cannot deceive long If I might not too much offend the weak I could ascribe a great part of Saints divisions to arise from abused Liberty and prejudice against the able Preachers of the Gospel I do not I dare not acquit them of sad failings which have caused the way of Truth to be evil spoken of and are an instrumental cause to move tender and weak Saints to draw into corners and follow weak and unsound Teachers which was their weakness also by which means the Ministers of Antichrist and Babylon have done their work and brought the Saints into bondage c. But amongst or above the rest I would earnestly commend to you three Characters of Babylon to be heeded First Blasphemy in denying or invalidating the holy Scriptures Secondly In corrupting the pure Doctrine of Justification in the Blood of Christ by bringing in the Doctrine of Universal Redemption or Christ's dying equally for all alike Thirdly By instituting or founding the Church or Churches in an Opinion or submitting to an Opinion this or that and not in union with Christ All these are in Babylon and from 〈…〉 and will perish with Babylon Fourthly These Factions are 〈…〉 not from the Spirit of Grace and it is too 〈…〉 â—â—â—â—ons and forms are great strangers 〈…〉 a holy and inward close walking with 〈…〉 of Saints closet-communion with God but 〈…〉 that is a very lean Religion which stayes in the 〈…〉 is worse which comes not to the Form of Godliness My Paper and Prudence calls me to conclude and therefore I beg of Saints to look more to their Souls and to the Duties of Relation natural civil and spiritual It yet remains that I make some reply to the latter part of the Objection That these persons are against force and persecution for Conscience but where persons walk disorderly to withdraw and separate For my part I cannot say that all Corrections or restraint in abuses and corruptions in and about the Worship of God under the Gospel is Persecution yet I do confess that withdrawing or separating from false Wayes and false Worship is a blessed Ordinance of God when rightly used but for Saints to separate from Saints and withdraw from Churches and so un-saint the one and un-church the other upon mens own bare opinions or self-conjectures and not in the Ligh Spirit and Power of Christ becomes a sin of a high nature Alas many people know not what spirit they are led by and it is much to be feared a change of state may change their minds in some things as well as in others My Brethren in tender Christian Bowels I have written these lines to you and shall follow them with earnest and constant prayer that the Lord would direct them seasonably to gracious souls by the Spirit of Grace and â—â—â—â—th that they may be made effectual to those great ends I have designed them to Love Unity and Peace amongst all Saints and so shut up this Epistle in the words of Paul 1 Cor. 1.10 Now I beseech you Brethren by the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same things and that there be no Divisions or Schisms among you but that ye 〈◊〉 perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment in all the things of God Christ Spirit Gospel and Saints and things accompanying your peace and joy here and glory hereafter Amen Even so come Lord Jesus and thus rule and reign From my Clift in the Rock the 10th day of the â—th month 1664. I hope in the year of Redemption begun from 〈…〉 THE END