Selected quad for the lemma: woman_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
woman_n	church_n	time_n	wilderness_n	1,494	5	9.8942	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90388	Babylon the Great described. The city of confusion. In every part whereof Antichrist reigns. Which knoweth not the order and unity of the spirit, but striveth to set up an order and uniformity according to the wisdom of the flesh, in all her territories atd [sic] dominions. Her sins, her judgements. With some plain queries further to discover her, and some considerations to help out of her suburbs, that her inward building may lye the more open to the breath and spirit of the Lord, from which it is to receiv [sic] its consumption and overthrow. Also, an exhortation to the powers of the earth. By Isaac Penington, the younger.	Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679.	1659 (1659)	Wing P1153; Thomason E770_2; ESTC R203128	52,975	64

that wisdome wherein they stand and to that eye wherewith they look to see Now mark this Antichrists coming when he first deceived was very mighty exceeding strong 2 Thess. 2. 9 10. Whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with al deceivableness of unrighteousness c. Weigh the thing wel Satan used al his art and al his strength to conceive and bring forth this mystery of iniquity so like the mystery of godlines that it might pass for currant in the world and he rule as God in in i● With all power c. no power of deceit wanting he did not spare for signs and lying wonders yea 〈◊〉 gave power to the beast to do wonders and miracles even to make s 〈…〉 e come downe from heaven on the earth in the sight of men which was the sign and wonder whereby the God of Israel was distinguished from Baal power to work this very sign Satan gives to the Beast to confirm the godhead of the Dragon and Antichrist with Rev. 13. v. 13 14. These are the things men look for see but great power signs miracles they are satisfied the whole world stands ready to be deceived with this Yea and if the eye be not opened in persons which can distinguish of power they must needs be deceived Signs wonders and miracles had their place in the first covenant and were to that part to which the first covenant was not to them that beleeve but to them that beleeve not Now after the full demonstration of the truth by signs and miracles the power of Satan riseth up and by lying signs wonders and miracles overturneth the truth Now the unbeleeving part in man expects and cals for signs and miracles and says that wil determine the controversie and settle the state of the Church again but that part is not to prescribe God his way yea he wil steal as a theif upon thee whose ey is abroad and lookest for demonstrations without And as Antichrist got up thus so Antichrist wil go out thus he wil raise up this power and what lying signs wonders and miracles he can to defend himself with now the Spirit of the Lord is risen up to dispossess him and cast him out of the house which he hath long lodged in And he that can be cosened with power with signs with lying wonders which are lying because they come from the spirit of deceit with an intent to deceive though they may come to pass and appear true to mans eye Deut. 13. 1 2 3. or with any of the deceivablenes of unrighteousnes shal never come out of Babylon but only be translated into some of the more refined chābers of it fed with somemore fresh likenesses of truth where he shall stil remain an Inhabitant and worshipper in some Image perhaps of universal love life and liberty and yet be out of the life out of the love out of the liberty of the truth which stands in the power and presence of the Spirit of God and not in the most refined Image or likeness All the world wondred after the beast and they worshipped the Dragon which gave power unto the beast and they worshipped the beast Rev 13. 3 4. The Dragon is the Devil the beast is that spirit of the earth which he raiseth up and feeds in men with a form and appearance of truth to which he gives his power and his seat and his authority and every man hath a measure of this according to his state condition place and service in Babylon And now what a man doth here in Religion be he never so devout and zealous and frequent in Ordinances and duties is the worship of this spirit and of the Dragon who sits and rules in this spirit I am run into hard expressions very hard because the nature of these things is hid from mens eyes and they are in the mist of Antichrists raising in the smoak which comes from the pit where there is no opening of the true eye nor no true sight of things but truly if ever ye espy the Dragon the beast Antichrist the whore the false Prophet ye must look at home and read within and there having found the thing and seen it in the true light ye will be able to read it certainly abroad also Now do not go about to distinguish these things in the notion of the understanding but come to feel the life to unite with the life and the eye will open which can see into the nature of things and will behold all in it's season for that eye which is so eager to see shall never see these things but that eye alone which waits in stilnesse and quietnesse on the pleasure and good will of the opener Now all this time while Babylon stands while Antichrist sits in the Temple while Satan reigns over all the Antichristian world the true and living God hath not been known feared nor glorified but mens knowledge hath been of a false God they have set up and him they have feared and given the glory to in their worship nay the Gospel hath not been preached the true Gospel the everlasting Gospel the Gospel wherein is the light and power of eternal life to turn men from all Antichristian forms of knowledge and worship to the true life and power But when Babylon falls and Mount Sion begins to appear again then this Gospel is to be preached again even by an Angel who receiveth it from God himselfe Rev 14. 6 7. for man could never recover it again it requires a new inspiration The law is to go forth out of Sion the word of the Lord from Jerusalem And this Gospel is to be preached to every Nation and Kindred and Tongue and people v 6. mark There was not one Nation not one kindred not one tongue not one people that kept the everlasting Gospel but it was laid up in Sion it was carried with the Church into the Wildernes and there it hath been hid all the time of the apostacy since the dayes of the Apostles But now Sion is redeeming the true woman bringing back again out of the Wilderness she brings back the true everlasting Gospel with her and there is an Angel chosen in the power of the Lord even in the same power and Spirit that first preached it to preach it again to every Nation Kindred Tongue and people And the Lord hath so ordered it that he will have the voice of this Angel as despicable to the wise in Religion to the zealous in devotion of all sorts of this backsliding age as the former preaching was to the wise and devout both among the Jews and Greeks So that whosoever is wise in Religion according to the flesh whosoever is wise in expectation and waiting for the kingdome whosoever is wise in reasoning about it and can tel the foregoing signs of it c. shall not know the voice but he that can shut his eyes by

but so much as read in the Scriptures concerning the power of life the Saints formerly enjoyed the living Ministry and Ordinances their sweet walking and fellowship in the light the presence of the spirit in their worship and in their whole course their sincere love in the spirit and tender bearing with one anothers weaknesses doubts and differences which he that reads singly cannot but pant after And the state of the Gospel was not to be a decaying and dying in these things or a loosing of them so that the power of the spirit and the revelations thereof should cease as the whorish spirit which hath gone out from the life pleads but to grow and increase and the last times to abound most of all with the power and glory of truth I say were it possible for persons who should read and entertain the least tast or savour of these things to be satisfied with any of those dead wayes and forms which the whore hath set up instead of them unless they were wholly bewitched and altogether deprived of their sences being made dead drunk which the whores mingled wine in this dark night of apostacy Yea professors are drunk they have deeply drunk of the cup and are sorely overtaken and their hearts overcharged with strong liquor which makes them even mad to draw others into their beds of fornication and to stand up themselves in great rage and call also to the Magistrates for the defence of them Yea like the clamourous woman they make a great noise about ordinances duties Ministry Church c. I have decked and perfumed my bed saith the loud woman the subtilhearted woman Prov 7. 16 17. but do not soberly consider which are the painted ones which the truth We have run on headily after these things too long it is now time to stand stil a while and wait for the purging out of the wine wherewith all our brains have been overturned that we may come into soberness and into a fit temper to be led by the Spirit of life out of the bed of fornications and out of the wayes worships ordinances and duties of fornication into the bed of the true and undefiled Spirit Now he that worships God aright must feel life within and that life raised and strengthned by him who begets it and this will savour death and faithfully following its guid will come out of the land of death even that land wherein all the false worshippers inhabit and wherein all the false wayes and worships duties ordinances Ministeryes c. are set up and flourish Now these secret sins of Babylon are the same with the more open and gross the great difference is their secrecy their not appearing like sins their paint their colour whereby they are swallowed down for holy and good As to instance There is fornication or adultery from the life in the finest in the purest way of worship man can invent or imitate but the fornication doth not so plainly appear here but they who have drunk of the cup take these things for the wayes and appointments of God Those that set up the whores Church do not call it so nor perhaps think it to be so those that set up the whores Ministry or ordinances do not give them that name but call them the Ministry and ordinances of Christ yet this is as truly as really fornication from the life as the grossest wayes of Heathenish worship O mark it mark it If thou hast read the Scriptures and thrust thy selfe into any practices thou there findest mentioned without the raising up of a living thing in thee and without thy following by the guidance thereof thou hast done this by the whores advice and in this thou art committing fornication and erring from the life for the true worship lies in the Spirit and in the truth and it is the new birth that God seeks to worship him but the spirit of man thrusting it selfe into these things the Lord abhors and rejects And this spirit never can be thus cleansed and fitted to enter into Christs bed but only gets a paint from Scripture and enters into the painted bed and bosome of the harlot where it remains unrenewed unchanged unmortified in the midst of all it's great talk and profession of these things And thus the Scriptures the Holy Scriptures of truth which were given forth from the pure spirit of life the whorish spirit maketh use of to estrange from the life For what sort of persons which have fornicated from the life but make use of the Scriptures to maintain their whoredoms by and to bewitch others into their whoredoms with Every sort cryes up their own way and worship to be the way and worship according to the Scriptures and if any be gathered out of all these witcheries into the power of God then the bewitched say that such are bewitcht Then as for all the abominations of the earth all the filth that defiles the heart it is to be found on the skirts of the whore even in her most refined dresse For her religion her worship her profession her practices do not reach to the purifying of the conscience but only to painting over of the old Sepulcher where rottennesse still lodgeth within The sore was never throughly searched the heart was never throughly circumcised or baptized the old man was never put of nor the new man put on the blood of purifying which truly washeth away the sin was never felt in it's vertue and power but only an apprehension and talk that they are cleansed in Christ from a notion they have stollen out of the Scriptures but not from the sensible feeling of the thing in life and power in their consciences And so the evil nature stil remains the evil heart of unbelief is stil to be found in them and they want the life they want the power they want the Spirit they want the love they want the humility they want the meekness they want the patience they want the innocency and simplicity of the Lamb and Dove And when the Lord comes to provoke them to jealousie by the shining of his light and by the appearance of his power in some whom they despise then the pride the passion the envy the heart-burnings the hard speeches the false surmisings with the rest of the enmity which still abides with them stirs and rises against the life and power and their hypocrisie is made manifest Yea some of the strictest among them can scoffe and jeer at the appearance of life so strong is the evil and unmortified nature in them and so conceited are they in their wayes and practices because of their cover under which all this iniquity for the most part lyes hid from their eyes But for all that it is there it is there the Lords candle will search it out and thine owne eye shall see it and find in thy selfe bloody Cain scoffing Ishmael prophane Esau the uncircumcised Jew who is angry that his brothers sacrifice is

carnal mind or to imitate things which others who had the Spirit did in the Spirit by the command of the Spirit for thee to imitate and practice this without the Spirit is idolatry An invented Church an invented Ministry an invented worship an imitated Church an imitated Ministry an imitated worship without the life without the Spirit all these are the work of mens hands and are idols and all that is performed herein is idolatry Rev 9 20. This is a Religion without life a worship without life a fabrick for idolatry and the whole course of worship and service in it is idolatry For the living God the Lord God of endless life and power is alone worshipped by his Spirit and in the truth of that life which he begets in the heart and all other worship though never so seemingly spiritual is idolatrous Ah professors professors if ye knew how many idol-prayers and services ye have loaded the Lord with and how ye have been whoring from him while ye have seemed to be drawing nigh to him ye would hang down your heads and mou●n For what ever ye have done in the worship of God without the leading and presence of his Spirit it hath been idolatry For the worship of God under the Gospel is in the Spirit and in the truth and required of them who are in the Spirit and in the truth and not of others John 4. 23. for them alone the Lord seeketh to worship and the Lord will admit of none to his worship but such as he seeks And if any else will thrust themselves into his worship it is not accepted nor do they worship the true God but they worship they know not what and their whole state and course here is a state and course of idolatry 4. Sorceryes witcherafts divinations and inchantments I do not mean outward sorceryes or witchcrafts they are but the shadow or figure of the inward mistery of deceit of this black dark spirit which appears as an Angel of light that he migh bewitch and deceive Neither repented they of their sorcer yes Rev 9 21. This false Church this adulterous woman she hath her golden cup and her wine mingled and with this cup she bewitches the eye with this wine she inflames the heart and intoxicates the brain She invents wayes and worships like to the true or she imitates the true wayes and appearances of life and when the poor simple young man is singly seeking after God from some true touches of his life before he comes to know the Spirit of life before he can come to be marryed to the Lamb she comes with her golden cup and with her tempting wine and bewitches the poor heart therewith and so leads it aside into her painted bed Wouldst thou enjoy God saith she wouldst thou worship him aright wouldst thou have fellowship with him Lo here 's the way here 's the Church here are the Ordinances here 's the Ministry here are the means Thou must wait upon God in the use of the means and these are them Did not the Saints formerly do thus did not they meet with God here did not they serve and worship God thus Come thou hither also do what they did enjoy what they enjoyed Yea but thou whorish woman did ever God appoint means wi●hout his Spirit Thou leavest the main yea indeed the only thing behind thee which it selfe alone is accepted and without which nothing is accepted And this is the course of the whore in all her transformings in all her baits in all her temptings she stil leaves the Spirit behind her She may perhaps speak of the Spirit to hide her self the more because the letter of the Scripture is so expresse therein and teach people to look and wait for the Spirit but so as is never to be obtained For he that begins in Religion either to pray or worship or seek the knowledge of God without the Spirit shall never meet with the Spirit so but that way of knowledge religion and worship of his must first be broken down and he become a fool and recieve the Spirit as a fool out of all his religious knowledge and wisdom which he had gathered before and afterwards following the Spirit which is thus received he shall be led into the true wisdom Now mark that which follows ye that have a desire to understand This spirit of deceit this whorish spirit this spirit of divination and witchcraft which by her sorceryes deceived all Nations Rev 18. 23. came forth curiously decked at first with all manner of deceiveableness of unrighteousness It had the exact form of life the true form of Godliness and a lively spirit in it it had the form of knowledge and the form of worship and with these it came to tempt and draw away them from the life and from the power who were in the life and in the power and it did prevail upon such as kept not close to the anointing But after it had overcome and gained the Churches territories then it might safely corrupt the form and so it did and went into multitudes of inventions and fopperies as at this day may be seen amongst the Papists Now these are easily discovered and seen through by any simple plain honest eye upon a little breaking forth of the light Therefore the whorish spirit when she perceives her self found out here she changes her shape and attire and comes back back again by degrees as need requires to the forms of knowledge and worship wherewith she was arrayed when she deceived at first yet stil she is the same and doth this to keep poor simple hearts still in her bands from the life and from the Spirit And thus painted thus decked thus holding forth Scripture-knowledge and Scripture-wayes of worship she is the more subtil witch the more subtil sorceresse and is able to deceive any eye but that which is opened in the light With her Lo here Christ lo there Christ she would deceive the very elect if it were possible but it is not possible for they are taught by the Spirit not to go forth and the anointing within preserves them And he that knoweth not this preservation is bewitched by her and his fear of God is such as may be taught by the precepts of men and practised without the knowledge of the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus which is the Saints rule guide and preservation For as the Apostles were able Ministers not of the letter but of the spirit of the New Testament 3 Cor 3. 6. So they that received their Ministry or that which they ministred received not the letter only but the Spirit and were preserved not by the letter but by the Spirit and were made able to try words things and Spirits not by the letter but by the Spirit But this the whorish spirit is departed from and bewitcheth others from first possessing them that the Spirit is not to be looked for and then perswading them to make

Religion and one of which they serve therein He that is led by the Spirit of God he serves God he worships God He that is led by the spirit of Satan he serves not God but that spirit which appeares in the Temple of God like God and gives such demonstrations that he is God as no flesh can deny 2 Thess 2. 4. Here now is the great deceivableness of unrighteousness In prophanesse in manifest wickednesse Satan is easily seen and men that are found here it is granted that they are serving the Devil but that he should sit as King in gathered Churches in dutyes in ordinances in wayes of self-denyal and mortification and be worshipped here this is hard to be seene yet any of these which the Spirit of the Lord leads not into or which are performed at any time without his Spirit he is worshiped in Consider this ye that are wise in Religion and are dilligently reading the Scriptures and gathering knowledge and rules of worship and applying promises c. Do ye this in the life and Spirit of God or in your own wisdom and according to your owne understanding Doth not the wisdom of that spirit which is out of the truth guid you in your searchings after truth O do not serve that spirit which the Lord hates but come backe to that from which in all this ye erre and which in all this ye cannot serve and worship And let not your Religion any longer consist in meer practising what the Saints formerly practised for that ye may do without the same spirit but in yeelding up to that life power and pure spirit that they were led by And when ye are joyned to this then do not prescribe the Lamb the way that he shall go but follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth Do not tell the Shepheard by your gathered wisdom the way that he must lead you in but know the voice and follow For this I can truly testifie that if once ye come in faithfulnesse and true light to follow the Lamb he will lead you in paths ye have not known and out of the paths ye have known 7. Compelling of others to worship Rev 13. 15 16. The false woman and the beast set up a worship in the will and they do not know why any in the will also may not subject and submit to it They can give them reasons they can give them arguments from Scripture and if they will not yeeld to these they are to be looked upon as stubborn and refractory and to be compelled by outward force This hath been the course generally throughout the Land of Babylon But these shew hereby that they themselves are erred from the truth and therefore very unfit and unlikely to teach it others For that which God works upon is the conscience which he convinceth by the light of his Spirit and no other light can truly convince it That therefore which would have a man yeeld to any practise or way of worship till he be truly convinced is of the Devil My son give me thy heart saith Christ the wisdom of God Come not to me with oblations and sactifices but give me thy heart My son give me thy knee give me thy obedience to the wayes I have set up give me thy conformity saith Antichrist saith the adulterated wisdom and if any refuse she endeavours to compel them Thus like Jeroboam the son of Nebat she makes that which she calls Israel to sin or like Nebuchadnezzar she sets up an Idol and causeth all her children to bow to it Thus the load of the iniquity of multitudes lies upon that scarlet whore who forces her cup of abominations and filthiness upon all she can Rev 17. 4. causing all both smal and great in all her Territories to receive her marke and worship her Image The work of the Minister of Christ is to keep the conscience tender that the voice of Christ may be heard and the Law of his Spirit of life which makes obedient to the God of life spring up there but this is the Image here is the way bow conform say the Ministers of Antichrist But we are not convinced in the sight of God that this is the way say poor souls It is your own fault ye may be convinif ye will say the Ministers of Antichrist we are ready to give you arguments and Scriptures to convince you how is it ye are not convinced Ye must be convinced otherwise the Magistrate must deale with you Thus they endeavour to harden the conscience that they may set upon it and ride it and terrifie it from it's subjection to it's only true and lawful King O the havock that hath been made of souls by this means the Lord is requiring it of this generation But let me ask this question to all the learned and wise in all the Regions of Babylon under what painted form or way of worship soever Can any worship God aright before they be truly convinced of his will and way can any be convinced without his light and Spirit were it good and acceptable in the sight of God for any persons to run into that way whereof thou sayest thou art convinced that it is the way before they themselves are convinced If it be not good or acceptable what is that that goes about to compel them Away with thy carnal weapons and if thou wilt draw to God draw by that which is spiritual but if thou wilt still be using outward force running to the laws of men and power of the Magistrate the Lord hath opened an eye which discovers thy nakednesse herein and is able to make it manifest in the sight of all people and thou shalt not long cover thy shame The Lotds people shall be a willing people to follow him in the day of his power but all the Lords people have been unwilling to follow thee in the day of thy power which is neer an end and the very fountain of thy deceit and tyranny over the conscience is opening and making manifest 8. Persecution of such as she cannot compell to her worship She sets up her form of knowledg she sets up her way of worship and those that will not be drawn to own the one and practise the other she sets her brand upon them for erroneous persons Schismaticks Hereticks they must not buy or sel Rev 13. 17. They must be banished or imprisoned or perhaps put to death for she is hardly satisfied til she hath drunk the blood of those who in any eminent degree are the witnesses of Christ against her Rev 17. 6. This was a thing wondered at by John with great admiration to see this woman this great City out of which all the venomous darts are shor against the Saints and Martyrs of Jesus under a pretence of zeal for the Church and ordinances of Christ For this is the engine whereby the Dragon makes war with the true womans seed which keep the commandements of God and have the testimony

flesh is grass and the glory thereof as the flower of the field Surely this people is grasse and their zeal and profession of God like the fading flower Some plain Queryes drawn out of the Book of the Revel for all sorts of Professors of this age to answer between God their own souls that they may see whether they have received that light from him which his Spirit judged necessary to give forth to keep people chast to him to preserve them from the several painted beds of Antichrists fornications and whoredoms from the life Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophesie and keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand Rev 1. 3. The time of deceit was then at hand for Antichrist with his false Church and false Prophets to get up which were to last til the houre of judgement Rev 14. 7 8. Hast thou read hast thou heard hast thou kept the things written in this book then happy art thou But hast thou not read in the Spirit hast thou not heard the true sound of these things from the Spirit of life hast thou not kept the things written therein Then thou hast been deceived with the mistery of iniquity and must smart with the whore in the hour of her judgement The Queryes are these which follow I. What woman was that which was cloathed with the Sun and had the Moon under her feet c Rev 12. 1. Whether it was the true Church or no II. What that wilderness was whereinto she fled where she had a place prepared of God that they should feed her there 1260 dayes vers 6. III. How long those 1260 dayes did last and whether they he yet expired and whether the true Church is anywhere else to befound all the time of the 1260 days but in that place in the wilderness IV. What are all the Churches the Ministry the Ordinances that appear out of the wilderness all this while while the true Church is there V. What was that beast which came out of the Sea to which the Dragon gave his power his seat and great authority which all the world worshipped Rev 13. ver 1. to 5. VI What is that Sea and those ships wherein wherewith the Merchants of the earth traded with Babylon and were maderich by their traffique what were those Merchants what their Merchandize and what kind of riches was this Rev 18. ver 15. to 20. VII What was that name of God and that Tabernacle and those inhabitants of heaven which was blasphemed by the beast that arose out of the Sea all the time of the 42 Moneths Rev 13. vers 5 6. VIII What is the Lambs book of life and where is it and how are the names of any so written in it as to preserve them from the worship of the beast Rev 13. 8. IX What is that beast that came up out of the earth with the horns of a Lamb as if it came up in the Lambs power which doth great wonders and iustifieth his sacrifice by making fire come down from heaven in the sight of men who both causeth men to make an Image to the first beast and also putteth life into the Image which men make Rev 13. ver 11. c. So that here 's not a meer dead Image but there 's life in the beasts knowledge ordinances and worship yet with God all this is dead for it is not the true life X. What is the beasts mark his name his number Rev 13. 17. For if I do not infallibly know this I may have receved his mark I may help to make up his name I may be of his number and be unknown to my selfe a worshipper of him and his Image and so be liable to partake of the torment of the fire and brimstone threatned to such Rev 14. 9 10. XI What is that song which none could learn but the 144 thousand which were not defiled with women but remained Virgins Rev 14. 3. XII What was that other woman which took and kept the place of the former woman after she had fled into the wildernesse and enlarged her territories in Nations Kindreds tonguus and peoples Rev 17. 4. ver 15. XIII What was the purple and scarlet colours and the gold and precious stones she was decked with ver 4. XIV What was the golden cup she had in her hand which was ful of abominations and filthinesse of her fornications in the midst of all her glorious appearance of zeal devotion humility and holinesse ver 4. XV What kind of drunkenness was it wherewith the Kings and inhabiters of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of this cup Rev 17. 2. XVI How may th●se who have hated the whore and made her desolate and naked and cat her flesh and burned her with sire yet after all this give their kingdom again to the beast Rev 17. v 16 17. How may this be done and how often may it be done These are plain simple Queryes not to intangle mens minds or set their brains on work for that way shall they never be able to resolve them but to awaken the simplicity in them which will readily let them see what the Lord hath revealed to them herein and in which they are to wait for the knowledge hereof that they may escape or come out of the snare And in the mean time not to boast as Israel of old did when the Prophets from the mouth of the Lord accused them that they had not polluted themselves they had not gone after Baalim Jer 2. 22 23 v 35. but wait O backsliding Christian and thou shalt see thy way in the valley And though thou hast of●en traversed thy ground to change thy path gadding from one form to another from one notion to another yet all this hath been out of the life out of the pure power and stil in the whoredom Open the weak sick eye in the weak heart For how weak is thy heart while thou hast done all this and let the languishing simplicity be my witnesse for under all thy wisdom thy zeal thy knowledge thy worship that faints that fails that is not what it was in the beginning Though thou art grown much higher wiser and greater otherwise yet there thou hast lost and happy wilt thou be if all thy gains ever since may become losse to thee for the recovering of this Some considerations helping out of the Suburbs or out-skirts of Babylon that her inward building may be the better come at and lye the more open to the Axe and Hammer which is to batter it down and to cut it up for the fire FIrst Consider what it was the Church fled out of when she fled into the wildernesse Was it not out of that Church-state or building which the Spirit of God had raised up for her here in the world to which her ordinances and way of Church-worship belonged Was it not here that the Dragon