Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	jesus_n	lord_n	spirit_n	7,577	5	4.8812	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93411	Some reasons against paying tythes and upholding that ministry that doth receive the same written in love to the truth, and for the sake thereof, and in love to my neighbours, Stephen Smith.	Smith, Stephen, 1623-1678.	1676 (1676)	Wing S4214; ESTC R43757	3,290	7

SOME REASONS AGAINST Paying Tythes AND Upholding that Ministry that doth Receive the same Written in Love to the Truth and for the sake thereof and in Love to my Neighbours Stephen Smith First CHrist Jesus he is Lord of Heaven and Earth and hath Power over all Flesh by whom the World was made who is Heir of all things and hath right of Government in the Hearts and Consciences of all People and over all the Kingdoms of Men the Right of ordaining appointing Ministers being in him and also in giving forth his Righteous Law and Commands in their Hearts where he ought to reign where his Ministers so ordained of him are to wait with their Minds staid in his Light to receive of him freely a Supply of Wisdom and Power and to communicate from the same freely and to be contented with what Provision the Lord is pleased to make for them and by him there being a Change of the Priesthood under that Covenant given unto Moses and the People of Israel there is made of Necessity a Change also of the Law and forasmuch as the Priests in this Age who are not ordained of Christ do uphold that which the Lord hath changed therefore we do deny them and that which they claim for their Maintenance II. These Priests being not ordained of Christ nor appointed to that Office by him they therefore do usurp that Authority the which doth of Right belong to Christ Jesus the which are presumptious Sins and therefore we do deny them III. These Priests having denyed the Revelation of Christ's Spirit now adayes and set up the Letter and Law without above the Spirit and Law within by which its plain and evident that they are Strangers to the great Love of God in his New Covenant and being void of the Knowledge of the Gift of God to the World they have nothing but Imaginations and Inventions of their own Brain-Study and out of others Works and Labours therefore we do deny them IV. They not being ordained of Christ they bring forth no pleasant Fruit as is evident but being ordained of Man being Man-made Ministers they are Men-pleasers so no Servants of Christ Jesus but of their own Bellies and for the Sake thereof they are abominably greedy of filthy Lucre and therefore we do deny them V. They being out of the Way of the Lord and Strangers thereunto therefore they can be no Guides therein having set up Imaginations and Devices in their own Hearts they follow them in defrauding People therefore we deny them VI. Forasmuch as Christ hath said John 10. All that ever came before me are Thieves and Robbers or as it may be rendred All that go before him Now mind before Abraham was he was and before the Prophets were he was so the true Prophets they did not go before him they waited for the Signification of Christ's Spirit which was in them the which was their Foundation and this was the Apostles Foundation and the Believers in the Primitive Time were built upon the same but the Thieves and Robbers were the false Prophets and Priests that came before him who steal the true Prophets words and use them in their Divination for Money and Rewards and Preaching for Hire the which were wicked Practices testified against and cryed out against by the true Prophets among which wicked Practices we finding the Man-made Ministers in this Age and Generation who go before Christ and being of that Number Christ Jesus spoke against therefore do we deny them VII All take notice that the Testimony against Priests that preach for Hire is no new thing of twenty or thirty years standing as some do vainly imagine those Abominable Practices were testified against by the true Prophets read Micah 3. Isaiah 56. Jer. 5. Ezek. 13. Hosea 6. and read Christ's Testimony against Hirelings John 10. and mind all the Holy Men of God were and are of the same Mind And for Priests and People now adayes to pretend to Gospel-Order and Gospel-Dayes and to live in the same and if not worse Practices then the False Prophets Priests Teachers and People who were before the more powerful Manifestation of Christ in Flesh the Everlasting Gospel who is the End of the Law for Righteousness to all that believe this is a very great Shame even to the Name of Christianity and the False Teachers the Priests being the Leaders into these Abominations therefore we do Deny them VIII Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ he did exhort the then Believers To follow him as he was a Follower of Christ who ever was and is a blessed Leader out of Transgression out of Sin and therefore out of Strife and Contention he taught and teaches to love Enemies for this Cause was and is the Love of God in his Son manifest in Flesh even to condemn Sin in the Flesh and to destroy the Devils Works of Malice Envy Lust Pride Excess Covetousness Lying Guile Hypocrisie Deceit Fraud Vain Worships Vain Services Persecution and all other Abominations that may be mentioned the true and faithful Witness even the Light of his Holy Spirit in Mankind never did nor will assent unto any thing that is Evil. And forasmuch as the Priests are led by another Spirit and acted by another Spirit as by their Fruits and Practices they are manifested even to be led by the spirit of Cain he being the first Persecutor about Religion and the Priests being in the same Steps of Persecution they may say if they will speak truly Beloved be you Followers of us as we are Followers of our Fore-Fathers Cain the False Prophets and Teachers in Ages past they bringing forth the same Fruits therefore of Necessity they must spring from the same corrupt Ground and Root and therefore let all the Wise in Heart judge whether we have not Good Cause to Deny them IX It hath been so from the Beginning that He that was born after the Flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even so it is now when we turned our Backs upon Ungodliness waited in the Grace of God that we might live Godly and Righteously in this present Evil World we did believe we might suffer by Unreasonable Ungodly Men who live exalted above the Grace of God of which Number the Priests are chief and therefore we do deny them X. And whereas Christ Jesus who is Lord of the Sabboth did above Sixteen Hundred Years ago set up the Everlasting Worship in the Spirit and Truth and directed all to take that for their Leader into all Truth the Truth and blessed Effects whereof being witnessed to the Praise of God this day as it was in the primitive Time And whereas the Man-made Ministers of this Age and Generation who are not ordained nor sent of Christ Jesus do teach for Doctrine the Commands of Men and so Worship in vain and by their Traditions and Vain Customs they have excluded that Worship in Spirit and Truth the which Christ Jesus set up therefore we do Deny them XI Whereas the Man-made Ministers now adays do make that their Plea for their Persecution and Wickedness they have a Law so said their Fore-Fathers the Scribes Pharisees and Chief Priests who crucified Christ they said They had a Law and what Persecutors about Religion since Cain had not some seeming Pretence and Covering though indeed these in this Generation do excel in rare Arts and Coverings to hide their Wicked Bloody Spirit of Persecution under but he is risen and come that sees through them and teaches his Followers to deny them and therefore we do deny them XII And we do commend the Reader for his full and compleat Satisfaction about the Ground and setting up of Tythes since the Gospel dayes unto a Book entituled The Great Case of Tythes Revived by Francis Howgil who Dyed a Prisoner for the Testimony of Jesus in that Book are all Reasonable Objections clearly answered and there is clearly shewn what a dark Night of Apostacy was over People when Tythes were set up by a Law and how many Hundred Years it was after Christ before that gross Ignorance was ushered in in making Laws to Persecute and Compel about Tythes And unto all we do signifie That we have hopes in our Lord Master Christ Jesus our Saviour that he will maintain us by his Grace and supply us out of his Fulness of Wisdom and Power to live godly soberly and righteously in this present life giving no just Cause of Offence to any but in all things to live an innocent harmless Life keeping our Conscience void of Offence both before God and all men And if any that may be among us and profess to own our Principle should do otherwise then Right and Just let none be so rash as to condemn our just Principle or those that live in it because of the Unfaithfulness of some that may make some Profession of it and not live up to it And we do pray for all in Authority that the Lord of Heaven and Earth may pour out his Spirit of Judgment Wisdom upon them that they may be opened and the Nobility of their Understandings may be cleared from Darkness and Error that they may discern between the Precious and the Vile and that they may be for the Punishment of them that do Evil and for the Praise of them that do well The 16th of the 1st Moneth 1676. THE END