Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	spiritual_a	worship_n	worship_v	1,653	5	9.0507	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70099	An exact enqviry after ancient truths, both in scripture and fathers touching the subsistence of the Church of God, digested into three parts : viz. I. True worship. II. Dominion, or divine jurisdiction. III. Discipline, reduced from our father Adams time, through all ages, to these present times ... / by W. Fenwick ...	Fenwick, William, 1616 or 17-ca. 1682.	1643 (1643)	Wing F724; ESTC R21240	51,760	74

grievous to bee borne which the Scribes and Pharisees of Rome who pretended to fit in Moyses seat have laid upon my shoulders the Episeopall waight whereof you my sonnes have heretofore borne with much griefe whilst they advanced themselves to the chiefe seates and most eminent dignities loving to be reputed great and excellent Rabbies even above you the naturall Peeres and Potentates of State And now I conclude and doe offer unto your sacred considerations the holy Sinode of the Apostles set forth for a perfect patterne of all Counsells and Ecclesiasticall causes In the fifteenth of the Acts where you may observe that Synode consisted of the Apostles Elders and Brethren Their consultation was according to the rule of the written Word there conclusion and sentence was thus It seemed good to the holy Ghost and to us to lay no more burden upon you then these things necessarie That is that yee abstaine from things offered to Idols and blood which includes all Ceremoniall inventions and bloudy sacrifices and prohibits from that which is strangled with all crueltie and oppression and from fornication which imports uncleane conversation and lusts which if yee forheare yee shall doe well And though I here claime of you the honour of being your Mother being the body of Christ and Church of God in whom you also have the honour and prerogative to be the sonnes of God yet touching my earthly habitation and abode I am under your Dominion and tuition whom my Lord hath placed over me for my peace and prosperity on earth And that through Soveraigne power and authority which he hath ordained over all men to the end you may give his Gospell a free passage and be nursing and protecting Fathers of mee in your Common-wealth that your Father may give you and your King a blessing of welfare and happy being in my Lord Christ in whom all Nations are blessed and blessed is that Nation whose God is the Lord A Breviate of the ensuing second Treatise THe subsistence of the Church of God composed of a threefold cord 1. Worship 2. Dominion 3. Discipline In the Tractate of worship are declared 1. The nature of Divine worship 2. The nature of acceptable obedience 3. How this worship corresponds with the nature of God 4. The manner of publike worship from Adam till Moyses 5. The Service used by the Patriarkes 6. The same continued in the Nationall Church 7. The service used in the Synagogues 8. The same observed by the Apostles 9. The testimony of the Fathers 10. An amplification and undeniable reasons for the puritie of Gods word and worship In the Tractate of dominion or divine jurisdiction 1. Of the first gradation of this Dominion 2. How Christ ordaines his Vice-royes on earth 3. Difference betwixt Regall and divine power 4. The Glasse of Kings 5. How Divine power is derived unto man from the Father by the Word through the spirit 6. How the Word is the Divine power of God and the authority committed to the Church In the Tractate of Government and Discipline 1. Of the calling of Ministers 2. The manner of their ordination 3. The orders and degrees of Pastours and their 4. Denominations under the Law and Gospell 5. Of Discipline and censures 6. Of Excommunication The subsistence of the Church of God THe subsistence of Gods Church is composed of a threefold thred which cannot easily be broken 1. The first is spirituall and divine worship worship 2. Spirituall and divine Jurisdiction or Jure Divino dominion 3. Spirituall and divine discipline or government discipline I call this threefold cord of grace Divine and Spirituall because the universall Minister of Gods dispensation of all saving grace is the holy Spirit the third person of the Trinitie These are correlative subsistences in the Church of God so depending one upon another that they cannot be separated or untwisled without either some defect or dismembring of the Church in her selfe or utter dissolving of her in essence and nature to be any true Church Also without these distinct subsistences in the Church she cannot exercise the gifts and graces of Gods Spirit nor the functions and offices ordained of God for ministration of the Word For this cause I call them subsistences in the essence of the Church like unto the subsistences of the Trinitie in the essence of God himselfe Of Spirituall and Diuine worship The Worship which God requires must bee such as is agreeable to his owne nature and the good pleasure of his owne will therefore true divine worship is tyed to the prescript commandement of God and not to the devising invention of man therefore to obey is better then sacrifice and to hearken is better then the fat of Rammes The nature of acceptable Obedience It is a supernaturall and filiall worke of God internally and spiritually wrought seated and invested by Gods Spirit into the intellect making man a new creature created in Christ Jesus unto good workes which God hath ordained that he should walke in them being renewed in the spirit of the mind to offer himselfe unto God a living sacrifice in an understanding worshipping of God This worship and sacrifice is described by the Prophet David to be a broken and contrite spirit called a well-pleasing sacrifice to God presenting a sin-offering as Psal. 51 17. also in the 116 it is called the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving How this Worship is correspondent to the nature of God The Lord doth shew it in the fourth of John 23. and 24. saying the true worshippers shall worship God in spirit and truth that is in the Spirit of sanctification dwelling in the mind helping our infirmities with sighes and groanes which cannot be exprest and in the truth of his Word dwelling in us in all wisedome and spirituall understanding such as these the Father requireth should worship him because God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth and not in the ignorance of the mind nor in the invention and will-will-worship of man For this cause the Psalmist saith in the 51. 6. Thou O Lord lovest truth in the inward affections and in the 50. Psalme he saith Offer to God the sacrifice of praise and pay the vowes of the most high and call upon God for the Lord loveth truth in the inward parts This is the pure and simple worship of God without the glory and beautie of outward Ceremonies agreeing with the simple pure essence and nature of God himselfe Consider wel Pauls Caveat in the Coloss. 2 8. 18. 20 21 22 23. warning all men to beware of humane wisedome and deceitfull inventions and traditions according to the Rudiments of the world and not after Christ the outward shew of holinesse which puffes up mens hearts with selfe-conceit being burthened with traditions which having a glorious shew of holinesse of wisedome and voluntary religion wherein men are out of measure superstitious in zeale not

spirit and truth for through him we are become new creatures unto God the Father created in Christ not to a new worship but to the same worship more pure and perfectly to worship in spirit then heretofore The reason why Christ would institute no other worship nor allow none to be true-worshippers but those that worshipped in spirit and truth simply plainly and nakedly is extracted from Gods owne Essentiall nature God is a spirit and therefore will be worship'd in spirit and truth Also God is one simple pure spirituall Essence therefore he will have no invention nor no mixture of any Rites Ceremonies or observations but plainenesse And againe God will with the simple plainenesse of his worship and preaching confound the wisedome and superstitious curiosity of man for the naturall corruption of man not savouring nor discerning the beauty and sweetnesse of spirituall things doth out of a slavish feare and superstitious curiosity seeke a will-worship of his owne invention which God hates But the enlightned soule sees most heavenly and glorious delights in the plaine and simple ministration of Gods word for the minde not sticking in the outward forme and signes of the mysteries shee flies with the wings of Divine speculations into the presence of God and his Angels as Tertullian saith speaking of the soule We have a sister saith hee among us unto whom is given the gift of Revelation in the middest of Divine Service she is east into an extasie she is brought into the company of Angels and sometimes into the presence of the Lord himselfe Againe according to the Scriptures that are read the Psalmes that are sung the Sermons that are made and prayers which are offered new matter of vision is administred and offered unto her Now those that have not this spirituall sence and eye to taste and see how good and gracious the Lord is and to behold how beautifull his Tabernacles are they think it was the ignorance or poverty of the age that suffered the worship of God and his ministration to be clad in such base and meane array and cloathing and comparing her to the worldly pomp of Idolatrous and superstitious worship they were ashamed to show the Church in such plaine roabes before the Gentiles and Iewes therefore every Metropolitane after the Nicene Counsell having got the sole government into their hands devised some sentences out of the Scripture to beautifie the service and the Sacraments and some rites and ceremonies to correspond both with Iew and Gentile in serving God All which things though at the first the Inventers had a good intent and the words and rites carried a glorious show of holinesse yet because they were not the things that God ordained nor thought fit to be done or to have done in his service and ministration therefore they brought forth in the end a malignant effect both in worship and Doctrine Idolatry and Superstition with damnable heresies in the end which the first Inventers never dreamed of For when man adds other words or some other thing to the Sacraments then Christ did use in his institution doth hee not disallow of the wisedome of God and thereby make his owne filthinesse appears under his skirts as the Lord saith Exod. 19. last verse where man is prohibited invention To beware of this Cyprian in his Epistle to Adrian the Emperour adviseth to hold our selves fast to the institution of Christs the Apostles did so as appeares by Paul 1 Cor. 11. 12. It is truth saith Cyprian seeing that neither any Apostles neither Angels from heaven could declare any thing unto us beside that which Christ hath once taught I cannot but mervaile how against all Angelicall and Apostolicall Doctrine men dare to offer in some places water in the Cup Again he saith they should ask counsell of those whom they follow for if in the sacrifice which is Christ we should not follow any other then Christ it must of necessity follow that wee must obey and doe as Christ hath done and commanded us to doe so he saith in his Gospel If you doe the things I command you to doe I will call you no more servants but sonne And the Father doth witnesse that Christ is onely to be heard Aying from heaven this is my beloved Sonne heare him thereupon we are not to regard what those before us have judged meet because we are not to apply our selves to follow the customs of man but the truth and verity of God And the same Author to stop the month of all will-worshippers faith if any of our predecessors either through ignorance or foolish simplicity have held otherwise then the Lord hath taught either by his precept or by his example God will pardon such his simplicity through his rich and abundant mercy But unto us now who are forewarned and taught the contrary by himselfe it cannot be pardoned These enforcing and undeniable reasons cannot be withstood but teach and stirre us up to seek the first purity simple and plaine manner of worship and to shake off all rites ceremonies and superstitions and to rest satisfied with the simplicity of preaching and to cleave to the prescript Institution of Christ in using the Sacrements Thus much for the worship of God Of Divine Iurisdiction the second subsistence in the Church of God AS Divine worship is the first subsistence in the unitie of the visible Church of God in which all the faithfull are congregated as it were in one body into the unitie of the spirit in the bond of peace even so Divine dominion must be the second subsistence dwelling in the Church and filling the Church with life and vigour through all members as the soule in the body also it is like sinewes and arteries knitting and coupling together the body by every joynt for the Furniture thereof according to the effectuall power which is in the measure of every part receiving increase of the body unto the edifying of it selfe in love Now all powers are of God from above from the Father of light as from a fountaine from whence all good gifts and gracious givings doe proceed by his mighty Word through his holy Spirit flowing into the vessels of humanity and running through them with a perpetuall successive duration returning into the Ocean of Gods glory The first receptacle of all divine power and dominion communicated from the Father is Christ the Mediatour God and man to whom all power is given both in heaven and in earth who is the first begotten of every creature And as Daniel saw in his Vision one like the Sonne of Man come in the cloudes of heaven and approach to the Antient of dayes and they brought him before him and he gave him Dominion Honour and a Kingdome that all people Nations and languages should serue him for this cause we are taught to conclude our petitions with this obedient acknowledgement for thine is the kingdome the power or dominion and

Congregations is used likewise exhortations reprehensions and the exercise of sacred censures for then matters are judged with great advisement as is wont to be done of such men as assuredly know that the face of God is towards them Behold and see their doings and it is a great foreshew of the judgement to come if any one amongst us have sinned so deeply as to be excluded from the Communion of prayer and the Assembly and of all manner of having any thing to doe with this societie and fellowship whereof the Elders that are best approved and found most faithfull doe sit as presidents in the Assembly advanced and called to that dignity not through any summes of money but by the weight and sway of the good testimonie which they have given I have onely reported the testimony of these two Authors of the Primitive times to shew the pure simplicity of Gods worship in their publike service which was no other but the same in order and forme with the worship used in the Jewes Church onely in this they differed from the Christians that after their services and exhortation they ministred the Sacrament of Baptisme when there was occasion And then the Catechumeni were dismissed with this word Missa then the Elders which were all the best approved of Congregation were admitted to the Sacrament of the Lords body and blood ministred with prayer under the signes of Bread and Wine and singing of Psalmes then the Minister blessed them and then with the same word ●ie Missa the Congregation was dismissed This word did properly signifie depart or be gone or leave to depart but by use it did after signifie the first service and the second service which they called the first Missa and the second Missa and in corruption of time it came to signifie the Masse and Idolatrous sacrifice from hence the Papists lyingly saigne to derive their Masse from the Apostles and the Fathers of the Primitive times Wee may also observe from the Apostles and the primitive Congregations that they had this tradition they ministred the Sacraments every Sabbath and every one did bring something according to their abilitie to the Lords Table of bread meat and wine which was set on a Table in the middest of the house of prayer and this they called an offering the more to encourage the people to this bounty and charity and this was covered till the first service was done and the preaching then the Cloath was taken of and then the Bishop or Pastor or president came to the side of the Table and gave thankes and prayed for all men and after tooke Bread and Wine and consecrated them with prayers Sometimes onely with the Lords prayer rehearsing the words of the Institution of our Lord as in the 1 Cor. 12. 11. And brake the Bread and the Wine was poured out and distributed to the people thereto admitted The rest of the offerings were given to the poore the needy and the widowes by the Deacons And Platina in the life of Telesphorus saith that in the Apostles times all things were done nakedly plainly and simply in the action of this mysterie And in Rome where the mysterie of iniquitie was to take roote and bee seated all things continued and were done after the same order doctrines and traditions as the Apostles taught As Irenaus doth witnesse for twelve Bishops successively from the Apostles unto Eleutherius Nay the simplicitie and puritie of worship continued without addition or diminution untill Constantine the great his time An amplification what undeniable reasons for the puritie of Gods Worship and service It is evident and undeniable that Gods worship and the Divine service hath beene ever from Adam and practised by his posteritie in the first age plaine simple pure and naked prayer praise and thankes without any invention of man or externall Ceremonie nor yet any Sacramentall signes save onely that Adam taught his sonnes to bring unto him as to their high Priest presenting the person of the promised seed before the incarnation their first fruits in thankfulnesse having onely the naked and simple ministration of the word promised to be made man preached by Adam Seth and Enoch and Noah to feed their holy faith God enlightning them with the inspiration of his spirit making them the Prophets of God And the Divine reasons why God used no Sacramentall signes nor figurative Sacrifices was for that Adam and his posterity had not altogether forgot that Divine light of life which hee was endued with in his creation though hee had newly lost the possession thereof yet he was more capable of inspiration then the next generations were who had smothered even the light of nature by multiplying their transgressions And this was a principall cause why they lived in this age above 960. But in the second age God did not onely for their overgrowth of sinfulnesse cut short the dayes of man but hee also did choose himselfe a people from the loynes of Abraham and renewed unto him the promise of his blessed seed and made him a great Nation and Church unto himselfe and to this Church and people God gave Sacramentall signes to distinguish them from all other Nations to be his owne and ordained them Statutes Lawes and ordinances to instruct them as under a Schoolemaster and by signes to lead them unto the spirituall power and efficacie of the Incarnation of Christ and his death unto the remission of sinnes But it is undeniable and manifest that hee required no other manner of worship and service of them then hee did of the first people for God is unchangeable in his nature therefore he cannot nor will not have any other kinde of worship but one simple pure worship of praise prayer and thanksgigiving and feeding of this worship with the plaine ministration of his promised word of life preached unto them But why was this second age burthened with ordinances and figures because this age was drowned with the growth of sinne and incapable of light for sinne by the law became more raging and sinfull and the law was weak and could not prevaile with man because of sinne for mans sinfulness was so great that the spirit of the law which is righteousnesse could not dwell in flesh and blood but it must be consumed for this cause the law became death unto man and man by the law became dead for the law did not onely reprove but condemne But in this third age the righteousnesse of the law became incarnate and was made man that man might be made the righteousnesse of the law Thus that Christ who was promised to the first age is become our righteousnesse so that now the spirit is communicated in a fuller measure and more evident and powerfull then it was unto the Jewes in figurative types and ceremonies And this is the reason why all things are become more spirituall and God will have his worship now to be known to be onely