Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	father_n	mountain_n	worship_v	1,874	5	9.7184	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65358	The saints guide, or, Christ the rule, and ruler of saints manifested by way of positions, consectaries, and queries : wherein is contayned the efficacy of acquired knowledge, the rule of Christians, the mission and maintenance of ministers, and the power of magistrates in spiritual things / by Iohn Webster ...	Webster, John, 1610-1682.	1654 (1654)	Wing W1213; ESTC R17627	36,008	50

The Saints Guide OR Christ the Rule and Ruler OF SAINTS Manifested by way of Positions Consectaries and Queries Wherein is contayned The Efficacy of acquired Knowledge The Rule of Christians The Mission and Maintenance of Ministers And the power of Magistrates in Spiritual things By IOHN WEBSTER late Chaplain in the Army LONDON Printed for Giles Calvert at the Black-spread Eagle at the West End of Pauls 1654. To all that love the Lord IESUS CHRIST in Truth and Sincerity Dear Souls BLessed be the God of mercies who hath satisfied my spirit that it is not the power of Argument the force of Dispute or Eloquence nor the efficacy of humane Reason that can more clearly make out the things that are freely given to us of God than they are by that Spirit that searches all things yea even the deep things that are of God in the experience of his Saints as they all witness having the same spirit opening unto them that Record which God gave of his Son Neither are these and poor weak things though we should not despise the day of small things made publick upon any such account but onely as it pleased the Lord to draw forth my spirit to give testimony with those Truths he had sealed in my breast against all the prejudice cenfures and unrighteous judgments of men For that immortal Spirit which raised Ies●s up from the dead and quickeneth the bodies of his Saints by its own light life power wisdom and strength worketh all in all in his people stands not in any need of the weak instrument of ●infull mans carnal and devilish wisdom For it is this Spirit that qu●ckeneth the flesh profiteth nothing Neither are the weapons of a believers warfare carnal but mighty in Christ not in us to the pulling down of strong holds and laying low of every imagination that stands up against Christ And also I have usually in experience observed that in laboring to make out the Truth by the force of our wit and arguments one carnal weapon is but set against another and so doth little else but engender strife and stir up passion so that Truth rather receives damage than profit by it And therefore the Scripture witnesseth that Saints should avoid foolish questions endless Genealogies and contentions with perverse disputings whereof cometh envy strife railyngs and evil surmisings And as the Lord in mercy hath cleared my spirit from these mysts so he hath led me forth to give my testimony with the rest of his Saints in behalf of his Cause and Truth against all perversness and unrighteousness of men For after the Lord about eighteen years ago had in his wonderfull mercy brought me to the sad experience of mine own dead sinfull lost and damnable condition in nature and fully shewed me the nothingness and helplesness of creaturely power either without or within me and graciously led me forth to witness with the Prophet David That he had drawn me forth of the horrible Pit and set my feet upon a Rock and established my goings And then and ever since carried me forth somtimes in much power somtimes in weakness according to the working of his own will to declare unto the sons of men what he had done for my Soul This no sooner appeared in me and others whom it pleased the Lord to reveal his Son in but the power of Babel in the Ministers of Satan transforming themselves into Ministers of Righteousness then in the Episcopal and Prelatical Form poured forth all their malice and spite against the Truth and against all those in whom it appeared then throwing dirt upon us and hotly raging in persecution against us in and under the terms of Puritans Seperatists Grindletonians and Antinomians And also continued the same bitterness in malice in the tail of the Dragon though then disguised under the name of Presbyterians and a new Form of pretended godliness by the former odious ●itles and addition of new as Libertines Blasphemers Sectaries and Hereticks and since hath not ceased under the new devices of Independency and Church-gathering keeping still the same appellations and super-adding of others as Dippers Quakers and indeed what not calling and accounting all others as Hereticks that were not of their Tribe and Trade Form and judgment and so the hierling merchants of Demetrius his Craft do still vociferate and continu it yet notwithstanding all their bloudy malice and insaciable envy the Lord hath delivered me and those that were his through his great mercy from the paws of all these devouring Lions and will still faithfully keep and preserve all his by his mighty power through faith unto salvation And now the Lord hath strengthened my spirit and hand to bear out my witness against all these and to manifest the same to you my dear brethren pertakers of the same heavenly calling and anointed with that spirit that teacheth all things and leadeth into all truth where there is neither Iew nor Greek bond nor free male nor female but are all one in Christ Iesus to the unity of whose Spirit he commends you who remains April 28. 1653. Yours in the Lord though the lowest and least of all Saints JO WEBSTER To all those that set up Forms and external Worship instead of the spiritual and those that call themselves the Ministers of the Nation Countrey-men IT is far from my purpose to asperse your persons or to condemn any of the least appearances of the Lord Iesus in you much less to oppose any thing that may tend to the building up of the spiritual and new Ierusalem Nevertheless the Lord hath put a few things in my mouth to speak unto you and some things in my spirit to inquire of you which I beseech you to receive in meekness as becometh th●se who have stiled themselves by the dear and precious name of Christians Hath the Spirit of Christ ever revealed in you or the record of his truth taught you that any Form of godliness how exact soever or any external worship or discipline though never so near the model that you may imagine is layd down in the Lette● of the Scriptures doth make a Saint where the life and power is altogether absent Or doth there appear in any of your gathered Congregations or select Forms the evident and pure power of spiritual self-denial and divine love Nay is it not as the Apostle foretels Having a Form of godliness but having denyed the power thereof Doth Pride Covetousness Censuring Envying Condemning nay murthering of others that follow not your Forms declare or evidence the power of godliness Is not he a murtherer that hateth his brother and therefore hath not eternal life abiding in him Or is there none a Brother but only he that is of your gathered Congregation Is this to worship the Father in spirit and truth or rather to worship ye know not what either at Jerusalem or pon some other Mountain The Lord open