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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	covenant_n	mouth_n	seed_n	3,950	5	9.5565	5	false

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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

sparing their bodily labour The manner of the publike worship of Gods Church from Adam till Moyses In this first age whilest the Church was domesticall in the family of Adam and Noah and Abram The first-borne and eldest of every family was ordained of God by creation to be a King for the common good A Priest to offer prayer to God for them and a Prophet to instruct them Of this royall dignitie we read that God gave dominion unto Adam over his posteritie and all sublunary creatures Gen. 1. 28. This is the fountaine of Soveraigntie succeeding in the birth-right of the dignitie of the first-borne untill Cain lost it by killing his brother Abel C ham lost it for scoffing his Father Noah Esan sold it for a mease of portage and Reuben lost it for desiling his fathers bed Then God tooke it into his owne hands and reserved soveraigntie and the dignitie of preheminence of the first-borne for his owne onely begotten sonne the first begotten of every creature the Lyon of Judah who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords by whom Kings raigne and Princes decree Justice Also man in Creation was the Prophet of God for God breathed in his face the breath of life and made him a living soule even that word which in the beginning was with God and was God was the light and life of man Adam was taught of God before his fall as in the second Chapter of Genesis and also after his fall as in the third Chapter of Genesis the seed of the woman should break the serpents head which doctrine he received of God and taught his posterity His Priesthood was manifest in that hee taught his sonnes to offer sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving to God the outward signes thereof they brought to their Father as their high Priest a figure of Christ Gen. 4. 3. also Hevah gave thanks to God for her issue The services used amongst the Patriarks Their practise and service in this age was plain and simple praise prayer and thanksgiving to God which consisted in confessing their sinfulnesse and acknowledging the mercie of God in his promise as after the birth of Seth and Enoch then it is said began men to call on the name of God Genes 4. 26. And in every family they taught and declared the promise of God to be the word of life as Lamech confessed at the birth of Noah Gen. 5. 29. and Noah and Enoch are witnessed to be Preachers of righteousnesse This manner of worship was more manifest after the flood in the life of Abraham by his obedience his familiar talking with God as in Chap. 15. 16 18 19 20. and Isaacks conversation who went out to meditate and pray in the evening so Jacob worshipped God leaning on his staffe and blessed his sonne Thus the pure and unspotted worship of God which was used both private and publique among his people was onely praise prayer and thanksgiving with teaching and Divine instruction And to this manner of worship none durst adde nor diminish only God himselfe did in the dayes of Abraham and unto this worship the signe of the everlasting covenant betwixt God and his saithfull servant Abraham and his faithfull seed to make a separation and visible distinction betwixt his people and the people of the world the seed of nature under which Covenant was promised the spirit of Regeneration or spiritual Circumcision in these words I wil be thy God and the God of thy seed the seed of regeneration Here we may observe that to the spirituall and Divine worship of God none can add any thing but God alone and God will add nothing but Divine Doctrine necessary to salvation And that figured under plaine and simple signes lest the naturall corruption of man prone to superstition and externall sanctity should leane and cleave to the signes and forget the heavenly things signified and to seeke holinesse in the action The same worship and service practised in the Nationall Church When Israel of twelve tribes became a multitude and a great Nation whom God exercised and humbled under the bondage of Pharaoh that hee might shew forth his mighty power mercy and loving kindnesse to his people Israel hee sent them a deliverer even his servant Moses Moses added nothing to the service of the first age but God added also the Sacrament of the Passeover to declare unto them that as none was to be esteemed the people of God but those that were under the signe of the Covenant of God so none should be delivered from the destroying wrath of God but those that were redeemed reconciled and washed or sprinkled with the blood of the unspotted Lamb of God the promised seed of the woman the word of life made flesh in whose death and shedding of his blood they were saved and delivered from spirituall bondage and death and this was to be observed for a perpetuall ordinance among Gods people for ever And after the Israelites and people of God were congregated and gathered together and brought out of the bondage of Egypt the Lord by the ministration of Moses and Aaron writ divulged and ministred the Divine precepts of the law of God the knowledge and perfection whereof man had lost and forgot by transgression Out of which law Moses by the commandement of God extracted Ecclesiastical ordinances for Aaron and the legall Priesthood and Levites for serving of the Tabernacle to instruct the people by types and figures in the Divine and heavenly mysteries of God under the law as by a Schoolemaster till the mysterie of God should be manifested in the flesh and dwell with men And of this Doctrine all the Prophets testified and writ declaring and fore-telling the comming of that Messias All the glory of the Tabernacle and after that the Temple with the typicall Sacrifices was but to set forth that spirituall and Divine glory and power which was to come and to be manifested in the flesh and then the outward and earthly glory should be abolished and done away that the Divine and invisible power thereof might onely remaine and shine in the hearts and soules of the Elect as the Prophet Ioel 2. 28. And afterward will I poure out my spirit upon all flesh and your sonnes and your daughters shall prophecie Ier. 31. 33. After those dayes saith the Lord I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and I say this is the Covenant which I will make with them my spirit is upon thee my word which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy seed saith the Lord from henceforth and for ever But in all this they held the daily publique service pure and undefiled without rites or any other ceremonies but only the reading of the word and ministring the Sacrament and teaching on the Sabbath dayes And the Jewes for their

but they are placed about their bodyes as it were for furtherance and assistance in their proper place and not to flye withall from place to place These wings therefore signifie Governours and assistants or helpers by whom the ministers are ayded in their function and doe more swiftly and readily afford succour to every part of the Church These wings are full of eyes within These signifie the inward gifts of knowledge which are not placed in so neere a measure to the Throne as the eyes in the body but they are of the same nature of knowledge in divine things to this end they stand as in a watch tower to behold and discerne every ones manners and conversation and to reprove and exhort privately and to helpe the ministers in Censure and Discipline of the Church therefore Paul saith obey your overseers and leaders and yeeld submission unto them for they watch for your soules as those that shall give account These gifts are limited within and under the wings as to meddle onely with that which is committed unto their power 1 Pet. 5. 2. they are not to be strikers or busie-bodies and they are to watch over Christian people onely for what have wee to doe to judge them that are without ● 1 Cor. 5. 12. 13. They that desire to behold the patterne of Gods Church as she is on earth in Christ consider well this vision and reade it seriously as it is more fully expressed by Master Brightmans Exposition upon the fourth chapter of the Revelation This patterne is the perfection of the Church militant as she is in Christ and in the judgement of God the Father who onely knoweth who are his The beauty and glory thereof is not seene with mortall eyes for she is not composed of mortall but immortall seed even begotten of the immortall seed of the word of God 1 Pet. 1. 23. for it is the ministration of God the holy Ghost communicating the knowledge of the Word unto the hearts of the elect which doth beget them anew or regenerate and unite them unto Christ and those are the supernaturall powers the word of God cōmunicated unto man and gathereth them into one head Christ and by a well compact union makes them one Church all communicating of one spirit one faith and in one Lord and Father of all who is above all and in all and through us all blessed for ever Amen How the Word is the divine power of God and the authority committed to the Church WHen wee speake of the word of God consider that the word in essence and property of being is God with God in eternity eternitie it selfe as it is described in the first of Iohns Gospell and though it cannot bee divided in it selfe yet it is to bee distinguished after the personall order of the Trinitie Therefore we may say the Word in the person of the Father is the unbegotten Word in the person of the Sonne it is the begotten Word and in the person of the holy Ghost it is the proceeding Word So that by the proceeding Word all things flow from the Father and the Sonne By the order of this proceeding power the world was made by the word of God As the Psalmist saith Psal. 33. 6. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the hoast of them by the breath of his mouth By this proceeding power of the Word man was made a living soule as Gen. 2. 7. And God breathed in his face the breath of life and the man was a living soule and Ioh. 1. 4. in it was life and that life was the light of man not naturall reason but supernaturall light which inlightened nature By this proceeding word Adam was restored after his fall by promising to make the Word the seed of the Woman and to breake the Serpents head Gen. 3. 15. for God by the proceeding of the Word saying he will put enmity betwixt Satan whose nature is wicked and evill altogether and the humane generation or seed which Satan had made like himselfe he thereby promiseth that by his proceeding Word he would make his Word the feed of the Woman whereby it should be of a contrary nature to wickednesse of a heavenly pure and holy nature and condition powerfull against Satan Thus by the proceeding Word the word God is made the word of promise and the Promise is made life and thus it comes to passe that the Just shall live by faith By this proceeding word all the Elect of the Father are called are sanctified are washed are inspired and by inspiration are made sonnes of God Kings Priests and Prophets for by inspiration of the proceeding Word God the Word dwelleth in them for in the proceeding Word is both the begotten Word and the unbegotten Word the Father as Christ saith my Father and I are one and the proceeding Spirit is one with the Father and the Sonne so these three are one in themselves and beare record in heaven and they also agree in one by inspiration in the soules of the faithfull or the Church which makes three to beare record on earth as the water of Sanctification and the blood of justification and our spirit enlightned with the Spirit of God it beares witnesse with our spirits that we are the sonnes and servants of God For this cause the faithfull are called the Temple of the living God 2 Cor. 6. 16. as God hath said I will dwell among them and walke there and I will bee their God and they shall bee my people Also know yee not that your body is the temple of the holy Ghost which is in you which yee have from God Ye are not your owne for ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in body and in Spirit for they are Gods As the proceeding Word hath proceeded by inspiration to dwell in man which is his internall ministration so he proceedeth by externall ministration to divulge and write the same proceeding Word by the instrumentall pen and voyce of man for mans instruction at first written by his Prophet Moyses and after by the rest of Prophets and Apostles and Evangelists to feed and preserve their holy faith worship of God among the faithfull As Paul witnesseth 2 Tim. 3. 15. 16. Thou hast knowne the holy Scriptures of a child which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus For the whole Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable to teach to convince to correct to instruct in righteousnesse Thus the proceeding Word doth proportion it selfe to mans capacity first it becomes the word of promise in the seed of the woman then the inspirated word to dwell in the mind and also it is the ministeriall Word declared written taught and preached for mans instruction and all is one Word for this cause the Apostle Peter saith we have a most sure word of the Prophets to which yee doe well that yee take

eternall Sonne of God by generation and to proceed from God by spiration in creation and to be communicated unto man since his fall by supernaturall inspiration and united unto man and man unto it by incarnation and ministred unto man by externall dispensation Thus the Word descends unto man by inspiration and dwels in man through the Spirit for the Lord is that Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is the Word for the Word and the spirit cannot be divided nor separated they are one For this cause God useth the externall ministration of his Word and Spirit that he may inspire and regenerate the mind of man After this manner are the ministers and messengers that are sent of God indued with the Word and Spirit of God Therefore let no man say that hee hath the Spirit if hee want the light of the Word neither can any man have the Word but by the Spirit and the Word and Spirit are both made manifest in this that they reveale the hid things of God even the mysterie of God in Christ 1 Cor. 2. 9. 10. which in Col. 2. 3. is called a full assurance of understanding in the knowledge of the mysterie of God in Christ for he which commanded light to shine out of darknesse shines into the hearts of the Messengers to give the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Christ Of the calling of Ministers As the externall Ministration cannot be without the Word and the Spirit so the Church cannot bee without Ministers and messengers of God and as the ministration is publicke and externall so the visible Church and Congregations have power of divine right to call and appoint such as God hath internally qualified to the externall and publicke exercise thereof For as by internall inspiration they are indued with a more then ordinary measure of the Word and Spirit so they ought to be well knowne and conversant in the Congregation or facietie of that Church wherein they live that by a mutuall consent they may be approved and thought worthy to be called to the publick ministration and dispensation of the VVord This was the practise of the Apostles and primitive Church Acts 1. 21. 22. Wherefore of these men that have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out with us beginning from the Baptisme of John unto the same day that he was taken up from us must one be ordained to be a witnesse with us of his resurrection and they appointed two Also Act. 6. 1. 2. When the nuber of the Disciples was multiplied then the twelve called the multitude of the Disciples together unto them and said unto them it is not meet that we should leave the ministration of the Word and serve tables wherefore brethren looke you out among you seven men of honest report full of the holy Ghost and of wisedome whom we may appoint ouer this businesse And it is to be observed that nothing was to bee done in the Church either by the Apostles or by those that in the ministration succeeded them without the consent of the whole Church which then at first were called Disciples Of the manner of their externall ordination Touching the manner of their Ordination that we find in the first of the Acts they prayed and said Thou Lord which knowest the hearts of all men shew which of these two thou hast chosen and then they gave forth lots and the lot fell upon Matthias And also afterwards in the sixt of the Acts the multitude of the Disciples or brethren those seven and set them before the Apostles and when they had prayed they laid their hands upon them In the first place of Scripture it is said the Disciples appointed two and left the choyce to God and therefore they give forth lots because it was an extraordinary calling to an Apostleship to succeed Judas But in the second place it is said they chose Srephin a man full of faith and the holy Ghost and Philip and Prochorus and others c. And it is remarkable that the Church received instruction from the Apostles as a rule to be observed in choosing Deacons and Elders as in the first of the Acts they were admonished by Peter to choose such as were conversant in the Church from their beginning By which I conceive they ought to bee of knowne conversation and men of good report and that they should be full of faith and the holy Ghost as Steven was or men endued with the holy Ghost and with wisedome These are the respects which ought to bee had in choosing Pastors Deacons and Governours in the Church For all gifts of learning and humane Sciences howsoever they be excellent and worthy much praise and honour yet without these Characters of grace they are nothing and not to be esteemed Of the orders and degrees of Pastors and their denominations both under the Law and the Gospell It is evident that the orders and degrees of Ministers and Governours of the Church of God under the Law were Priests Levites and Elders God also sending among them Prophets of extraordinary inspiration for revelation of the VVord to teach admonish and exhort the people The Priests office was figurative prefiguring Christ untill his comming offering sacrifices to figure the sacrifice of his body instructing the people in the promised seed unto the remission of their sinnes whose manifestation in the flesh should be the accomplishment of all figures and shadowes in the law which thereby were abrogated The Levites were given unto Aaron as an addition to his office as in Numb. 3. 6 7 8 9. to minister unto him to keepe his charge and the charge of the whole Congregation to doe the service and to keepe the instruments of the tabernacle of the Congregation The Elders though every Father of a Family bee called Elder and also the twelve tribes of Iacob yet those are properly Elders who are chosen and appointed to be Governours and Rulers both in Church and Common-wealth For the Governours in Pharaohs house were called Elders and the Rulers in the Church as first in the Tabernacle as Numb. 11. 25 26. and Temple were also called Elders And the Lord stirred up Prophets among them both of the Levites and Priests and others as occasion required never leaving his Church without a Prophet and Rulers till Shilo came And when that faithfull Prophet of God came into the world whose effectuall power and fulnesse of all divine perfection abolished all figures and darke resembling shadowes then in his owne person and humane presence hee spread abroad the glad tydings of his glorious Gospell causing the light of his truth to shine evident without vaile or vizard notwithstanding he neither altered nor abolished the order of ministration nor the manner of government but established the same by his owne example and the practise of his Apostles And therefore he said that Christ when he ascended on high

* arinke with the drunken that servants Master will come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an houre that hee is not aware of and will cut him off and give him his portion with hypocrites there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth The office of Deacons of their ordination I have spoken before upon the sixth of the Acts is that they stand in place of the Levites to attend on the hand of the Pastors aswell to helpe to catechise to teach administer the Sacraments as to care for the poore and to take the charge of the goods and revenues of the Church but for their conversation and qualitie it is set forth by Paul in the first of Timothy the third chapter the 8 9 10 11 12 13. verses A Deacon must be grave not double tongued not given to strong drinke not given to filthy lucre holding the mystery of faith in a pure conscience Let him first be proved then let him use the office of a Deacon being found blamelesse Even so must their wives bee grave no slanderers sober faithfull in all things Let a Deacon be the husband of one wife ruling their children and their owne houses well For they that have used the office of a Deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree and great boldnesse in the faith which is in Christ Jesus And if Pastors and teachers would have the like zeale and consideration with themselves which the Apostles had Acts the sixth and the second and would have judged every thing an obstacle whatsoever might withdraw and hinder them in the preaching of Gods word and their care of soules and would make it their delight and labour to give themselves continually to prayer and ministration they would discerne that they can no more be without Deacons one or two in a Congregation then their bodies can be well without hands neither would they nourish that indigne opinion that ignorant Nay often improbous Church-wardens can serve in their place and office as some alledge Now touching the particular dutie and office of Elders which in this our age is taken in a corrupt and improper sence calling them lay Elders which in Scripture from the antient originall are tearmed Elders of Israel or of the Tabernacle as to say Elders of the Church of God or of the people of God to distinguish them from civill Elders and Governours and they are either such as by natures ordination are Fathers of Christian families or such as are publickely chosen by the severall Congregations of the Church and approved by their Pastors and Teachers Their office and duties were such as Ambrose said without whose counsell nothing was done in the Church and that both the Synagogue and the Christian Church had Elders They were to be chosen men such as Jethro advised Moyses Exod. 18. chosen out of the people men of courage such as feare God men of truth hating covetousnesse and place such over the people to rule thousands hundreds fifties and tens But these Elders are here rather to be for civill affaires then Church cares But thus we must conceive that Church Elders might as well be exercised in ministration of Justice for the Common-wealth as in the ministration of Discipline for the Church For this is the proper duty even of Kings Princes and their Magistrates as also of fathers of Families because the Common-weale of Israel is involved in the Church of God and the Church of God in a Christian Common-weale For so ought our Christian Kingdomes to bee composed as Magistrates may be chosen Church Elders in the Church of God For blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord * And in such a Kingdome Christ raigneth as a King in excelsis and his Vice-roy by him and for him and the flourishing propagation of the ministery of the Word is the soule of such a Common-wealth But there is an evident difference betwixt the Elders that governe the Common-wealth and the Elders that governe the Church Distinct they are in their ordination and in their endowments and in the manner of exercise and execution of their office For Magistrates and Elders in a Kingdome are those who are appointed of the King or chiefe Governour as in the first of Peter 2. 13 14. Submit your selves unto all ordinances of man for the Lords sake whether to Kings as superiours or to Governours as sent of them and their office is for punishment of evill doers and for the praise of them that doe well And these are such as Moyses ordained by the counsell of Jethro before exprest But Moyses by Gods expresse appointment did afterward ordaine other Elders chosen out of those Elders whom God indued with the speciall gifts of his Spirit for helping of Moyses in governing of the Congregation of the Tabernacle as it is set downe Numb. 11. 16. 17. 25. 26. Then the Lord sayd unto Moyses Gather unto me seventy men of the Elders of Israel whom thou knowest that they are Elders of the people and Governours over them and bring them unto the Tabernacle and let them stand there with thee And I will come downe and talke there with thee and take of the spirit which is upon thee and put upon them and they shall beare the burthen of the people with thee so thou shalt not beare it alone So these were another sort of Elders Then the Elders that governed over the people as in the 24 25. and 26 verses So Moyses went out and told the people the words of the Lord and gathered seventy men of the Elders of the people and set them round about the Tabernacle There the Lord came downe in a cloud and spake unto him and tooke of the spirit that was upon Moyses and put upon the seventy antient men and when the spirit rested upon them then they prophesied and did not cease Here their ordination is of God their indowment is of the Spirit and their office and duty is to prophecie and not to cease and the end why they were to prophecie is to beare the burden of the people with Moyses for the people murmured and often tempted and provoked the Lord to wrath And though they received daily instruction and publicke ministration of the word of God from Moyses and Aaron yet the seed of truth fell sometimes among stony ground and sometime upon thorny ground sometime in the high way and either took no deepe root or it was choaked or otherwise picked up and carryed away by the sowles of the ayre so that their murmurings grudgings and rebellions were such a burthen to Moyses and an insupportable griefe that Moyses wished rather to die than to live Therefore God ordained these kind of Elders to be an assistance in his publicke ministration that as Moyses among the Jewes and Paul in the Church of God planted the Word in publicke So these might be as Apollo's to water it in private and that by their vigilancie and