Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	jerusalem_n	spirit_n	worship_v	3,034	5	9.5572	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49836	The inward and spiritual Christian distinguished from the outward nominal and notional and a generation of men in these dais parallel'd with the scribes and pharisees of thos daies that profess, say, and do not, that persecute others for religion, but will not stand to it themselves : with an exhortation to people to come to the Spirit of God and truth in their hearts that in it they may worship the living God that made them.	Laythes, Thomas, d. 1701.	1684 (1684)	Wing L752; ESTC R28773	3,558	8

THE INWARD AND SPIRITUAL CHRISTIAN DISTINGUISHED From the Outward Nominal and Notional AND A Generation of Men in these our Daies parallel'd with the Scribes and Pharisees of those Daies that Profess Say and Do not That Persecute others for Religion but will not stand to it themselves WITH An EXHORTATION to People to come to the Spirit of God and Truth in their Hearts that in it they may Worship the Living God that made them We know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we know Him that is true and we are in Him that is true in His Son Jesus Christ This is the true God and Eternal Life 1 John 5.20 London Printed in the Year MDCLXXXIV The Inward and Spiritual Christian distinguished from the Outward Nominal and Notional c. AS I was deeply exercised in my Spirit upon the things of God and His true spiritual Worship that place was brought to my remembrance in the 5th of John 40. Ye will not come to me that ye might have Life it is Christ's Words unto the Jews which methinks doth much resemble the state and condition of many of the People of this Age in which we live who like the hard-hearted Jews are unwilling to come unto Christ yet think themselves Christians and would be counted such but how few do come to wait for His Spirit that they may be led and guided thereby and worship God therein out of which no other worship is accepted with him As Christ said to the Woman of Samaria John 4. when she spake of worship in the Mount and in Jerusalem Ye worship ye know not what The hour cometh and now is when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth O how plain and undeniable are Christ's words here if People were not wilfully blind but alas how few do worship God thus but rather in dead Forms and outward Observations out of the Power and Spirit of the living God and in bodily exercise that profiteth little Nay are there not too many do slight the Spirit and speak lightly of it others limit it and some are grown so bold and impudent as to scoff thereat as if no such thing were to be expected in this Age we live in and how far are such degenerated from the life and practise of the Holy Men of old that spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1. and in Rom. 8. how expresly there the Apostle saith If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His and the Spirit helpeth our infirmities with groanings that cannot be uttered And let us but search the Scriptures and we shall find how strict the Scribes and Pharisees were about outward things and outward worship Christ's greatest enemies while he was in the body and how often were they ready to Judge him herein notwithstanding those many great and wonderful Miracles he did in opening the eyes of the Blind and curing other Diseases and infirmities on the Sabbath Day yet say the Pharisees This man is not of God because he keepeth not the Sabbath and how strict were they in paying Tythe of Mint Annis and Cummin and yet omitted the weighty matters of the Law as Judgment Mercy and Faith and made clean the outside of the Cup and Platter while within full of Extortion and Excess How many woes doth Christ pronounce against them read Matth. 23. And in that Day and Age how did the Lord raise up a poor dispised People to bear witness to his Truth of whom the Pharisees say Have any of the Rulers believed in him but a People that know not the Law are cursed And what great Persecutions Imprisonments and cruel Sufferings did they undergo for their Testimony as Christ himself had foretold them saying They shall put you out of the Synagogue yea the time cometh that he that killeth you will think he doth God Service and how was this fulfilled after in his faithful Followers read the Acts at large and these were they in that Age did often meet together to wait upon and worship God in Spirit and in Truth and were separated from the World the Worship Ministry and Temple and did bear a faithful Testimony against them For which Testimony Stephen was stoned to death who testified saying God dwells not in Temples made with Hands neither is worshipped with mens Hands And after his Death most of Christ's Apostles suffered Martyrdom for their Testimony sealing it with their blood According to Christ's Example who was gone before them And after the Apostles time how valiant and noble were the antient and Primitive Christians and what great Sufferings and cruel Deaths were they put to by the Heathen in the first three hundred years after Christ for their confession to His Name And since that time for many years by the Papists and others for their Testimony altogether out of Christ's Spirit and Doctrine who came not to destroy mens lives but to save them And as it hath been in former Ages so also in the Age of which we live Wherein God in his infinite Love and rich Mercy hath raised up a People to bear a faithful Testimony for him against the Spirit of the World the Forms Fashions and Customs thereof their Worship Ministry and Maintenance by Tythes And what imprisoning of Bodies and spoiling of Goods hath been these divers years and that for no other cause but peaceably Meeting together to wait upon and worship God in Spirit and in Truth And bearing a faithful Testimony for him as he hath perswaded our hearts according to the Antient Christian Primitive practice both in Christ's time and in the Apostles time and since the Apostles time until this Age and in this Age in which we live and if for this good cause we suffer we have no reason to be discouraged in that we suffer for righteousness sake And sure the Lord will take our part and plead our innocent case with all our Adversaries And of late time how much hath been about Conformity to the Publick Worship and such as could not Conform for Conscience sake how liable are they to be made a prey of by wicked and ungodly Informers and such as regard no Religion at all but self ends and worldly interests and such do Conform tho in Hypocrisie how do they escape And tho we eat the bread of Adversity and drink the water of Affliction yet the Lord our God by his holy Spirit and Grace is become our Teacher and upon him do we wait and in him only do we put our Trust for he hath been our helper and deliverer in our greatest need And praises to the Lord that hath appeared in the Assemblies of His People to their great Joy and Peace comfort and refreshment inwardly and spiritually and how hath the Lord hereby engaged a little Remnant to follow him whithersoever he goes through good report and bad and we cannot confess him before men and such will He confess before His Father which is in Heaven blessed be his Name for evermore And now all People come try and examine your selves if ye be yet separated from the World their vain Fashions Customs and worships thereof and so come to wait for the Spirit and worship God in the Spirit and in the Truth Come to the Grace that ye may be taught thereby which teacheth to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live righteously soberly and godly in this present world And so the Law written in the heart the New Covenant and serve and worship God in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth Life And now all you Professors which have made so great a profession of God and Christ Duties and Ordinances come ye unto Christ the ordained of God for Life and Salvation and joyn unto him with your whole hearts and deny your selves and take up his Cross and follow him without which none can be his Disciple but how is your Zeal and tenderness of conscience decayed in many of you who once seemed strict and zealous in your way and constant in meeting together to worship and serve God according to your belief but now how cold and conformable are you grown having forsaken the Assembling your selves together and now observe and practise what once you seemed to bear a Testimony against using shifts evasions and excuses therefore which will be a covering too narrow in the day of the Lord. And how also have several of the Teachers and Leaders of the People some conformed and others gone and left their Flocks upon the very report of Persecution before they suffered either Imprisonment or spoiling of Goods and thus they have dishonoured themselves and discovered great Hypocrisie and dissimulation in their Profession And may it not be rightly said of such Teachers and People as the Prophet said of one like People like Priest But I will punish them for their waies and reward them their doings saith the Lord. And thus they have fled from the Cross they should have taken up and must be taken up before they be Christ's Disciples and readily and truly worship god in Spirit and in Truth And blessed be the God of Heaven that hath raised up a seed in our day that cannot bow nor bend to any thing but to the Name of Jesus only to which let every knee bow and every tongue confess who is the Rock of Ages and the Foundation of all the Generations of the righteous in all Ages To whom with God the Father be Glory and Honour both now and for evermore Amen Given forth in the fear and dread of the Lord and in the travail of Spirit for the sake of such and in love to their Souls as may have any true desires after God and His Truth From one who hath Love and good will to all men Thomas Laythes From Dailehead in Cumberland 83. THE END