Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	pure_a	religion_n	undefiled_a	1,985	5	11.7434	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89056	A further discovery of the mystery of the last times; as an addition to a little book, called Some discoveries of the mystery of the last times, bordering upon the coming of the Lord Jesus. Set forth for the good of all men; but especially of those who in these dissenting times (wherein Ephraim envieth Juda, and Juda vexeth Ephraim) know not where to settle themselves, or to what society of Christians to joyn themselves: wherein is (as simply and plainly, as the author was able to open those mysterious scriptures quoted in this following treatise) shewed the cause of all our divisions and contentions about matters pertaining to form and order in the church of Jesus Christ; and wherein is moderately proved from those scriptures these particulars. 1. The flourishing and building condition of the church of Jesus Christ in the time of the gospel. ... 7. Lastly, that the Lord Jesus will by himself destroy all those enemies, and deliver his people, when the restoration of all things shall be.	Mercer, Richard, fl. 1649-1651.; Mercer, Richard, fl. 1649-1651. Some discoveries of the mystery of the last times, bordering upon the coming of the Lord Jesus].	1651 (1651)	Wing M1732; Thomason E637_16; ESTC R206616	80,538	60

shepherd to rule over them which should destroy them and of evill shepherds you may read fully in Jerem. the 23. and Ezek. the 34. I shall in the fifth place come to prove the people of Gods posture to be watching and prayer without the benefit of ordinances in their purity during the dead condition from the Churches owne confession walking in outward order which I prove from Isaiah 26. 19. where it is said we have been with child we have been in paine wee have as it were brought forth wind we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen as much as if the Church should have said we have strived to deliver our selves out of our captivity by walking in that order which we have set up but we have brought forth nothing but wind neither have we wrought any deliverance in the earth neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen we have desired to destroy Babylon and to deliver our selves but it comes to nothing and to no effect And then in the next verse The Lord Jesus as I conceive answereth her saying Thy dead men shall live together with my dead bodie shall they arise Awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust as much as if he should have said although that you now seem dead and lie in the dust in respect of outward order according to the first Gospel times yet when my dead body that is the Church shall arise why then awake and sing Now if any should ask any of our professours if they did not travell to bring forth our Lord Jesus and to destroy antichrist by their walking in those professions doubtlesse they would answer yea for it is the principle of every profession Sixthly I shall prove the people of Gods posture to be watching and prayer during the dead condition from the condition the people of God shall be in when he appears and destroyes all their enemies and restores them they being like a wildernesse and all false waies in a flourishing condition this is proved from Isaiah 29 19. where it is said Is it not yet a very little while and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitfull field and the fruitfull field shall be counted as a forrest compared with Revelation the 12. 14. and Isaiah the 32. 15. where it is said Vntill the spirit be poured out upon us from above and the wilderness be a fruitfull field and the fruitfull field be counted as a forrest now what can be more cleerly spoken then this touching this thing for it is the principle of every profession at this day for they say that the waies we now practise are the waies by which the Lord Jesus will more and more draw out his people into Gospel order untill he have fully brought them out of Babell and prepared them to meet him in Sion and this is the saying and tenent of every profession whereas contrariwise he saith by his Prophet that at the time when the spirit is poured out from on high his people shall be like a wildernesse and the false worships be counted as a fruitfull field and then is that great change wrought But it may be objected that before we tooke upon us the profession of the Gospel we were like a wildernesse but since we came into Gospel order we have been like a fruitfull field and this change is now a working To which I answer that this change shall not be wrought untill the Lord destroyes Babylon or the antichristian state and this is cleer by Isaiah the 35. and the first and so forth for in the foregoing chapter being the 34. the Lord sets before us the destruction of all nations but especially of Idumea which I conceive in the mystery to be antichrist or false brethren as Edom was to Israel and in the 14. verse he comes to say as it were that now the people of God are delivered out of her The wild beasts of the desart shall also meet with the wild beasts of the islands and the satyr shall cry to his fellow which compared with Revelations the 18. 2. doth fully agree now mark what followes in the 35. chapter where it is said The wilderness and the solitary place shall he glad for them that is for their destruction and the desart shall rejoyce and blossom as a rose So that I conclude from this text if there were no more that before the Lord destroys antichrist with the spirit of his mouth and the brightnesse of his coming the people of the Lord Jesus shall be in respect of outward order and discipline like a wildernesse and desart and Babylon and all false waies shall be in a flourishing condition like a fruitfull field And thus much to this proofe While my cogitations were exercised about this Treatise there came to my hand a little book written by Thomas Vane Doctor of Divinity and sometime Chaplain to the late King of England intituled A lost sheep returned home or the Motives of the Conversion to the Catholich Faith of Thomas Vane penned in Paris in the yeer 1648. Which book having read and diligently considered I found that he did propound to consideration severall marks of the true Church where in the 17 and 18 chapters he makes conversion of Kingdoms and Monarchs and sanctity of doctrine and life to be marks of the true Church and applyes it to the Church of Rome which having diligently considered I was at a pause but weighing well what this sanctity of doctrine and life was I found it was chiefly in instructing her children in not onely confessing themselves to God but also confessing to the priests not onely sorrow for sin but also doing penance for the same and such as the Church injoyneth obliging to set times of fasting and prayer and magnifying the merit of good works commending the sublime acts of voluntary poverty chastity and obedience and the exercising of other great acts of austerity for to subdue sin in the sleth and to professe our love to Christ in these things which having diligently considered mee thought he had almost forgot the true duties of christian Religion mentioned in those two places Isai. 58. 6 7. and James 1. 27. where the Prophet saith thus Is not this the fast that I have chosen to loose the bands of wickedness to undoe the heavie burdens and to let the oppressed go free and that you break every yoak Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that is cast out to thy house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh Where note one of the duties of Christianity is to do good to our own flesh which cannot well be done by afflicting our bodies by unnecessary fastings and great austerity And the Apostle St. James saith Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherlesse and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted of the world Which

was in the first Gospel times the servants now have been asleepe and the Church hath lost her power the number of tares are above the number of the wheat besides the servants have lost that spirit of discerning as they had in the first times the Sun now is darkned and the powers of the heaven shaken that is removed and there is not that spirit of infallibility as was in the first Gospel times wherein the spirit or pure Anointing was able to try who were tares and who were good seed as is clear by our Saviour's words in verse 29. where he saith Nay least while yee gather up the tares yee root up the wheat also with them Secondly The Lord Jesus doth now expound the world to be his kingdome whereas before it was the Church which was particularly Christ's kingdome for in the same Chapter where this parable is set forth in verse the 38. he saith The field is the world and then in the 41 verse it is said And they shall gather out of his kingdome all things that offend and them that doe iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire This is also confirmed in the same Chapter in the parable of the draw-net which is cast into the sea which when it is full men draw to land and gather the good into vessels and cast the bad away Even so shall it be in the end of the world the Angels shall come forth and sever the bad from among the just It is further objected that whereas the Lord Jesus saith that he will gather out of his kingdome all things that offend and them that do iniquity this kingdome say they is that kingdom which the Lord Jesus will purge in the new world wherein there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord. To which I answer that although Antichrist hath gotten possession and doth Rule and Raigne in the Church yet the Lord doth call it his Church which I prove from these Scriptures Isaiah 27. 10 where he saith yet the defenced Citie shall be desolate and the habitation forsaken and left like a wildernesse there shall the calfe feed and there shall he lie down and consume the branches therof and 33. 14. where he saith The sinners in Zion are afraid fearfulnesse hath surprised the hypocrites who among us shall dwell with devouring fire which thews that there was sinners in Zion and hypocrites in them that walked in outward order for he saith who amongst us shall dwell in devouring fire who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings he doth not say he that goeth out of this Sion in this or that order but he that walketh uprightly and speaketh righteously he that despiseth the gain of oppression that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes that stoppeth his eares from hearing of bloud that shutteth his eyes from seeing of evill where note here is no difference between the people of God and the sinners and hypocrites in Zion but Righteousnesse and yet Zion the like Isaiah chap. 49. 17. speaking of the Restoring of the Church he saith Thy children shall make hast thy destroyers and they that made thee wast shall go forth of thee which thews plainly that the enemies of the Church were possessed of her and did destroy her and make her wast The like you have Eezekiel 9. when the Lord sends to mark his people and to destroy those that had polluted his worship in an extraordinary measure which will bear a Type of the last times which I suppose cannot be denied where he saith unto them in the sixth verse which had the charge to destroy the city slay utterly old and young both maids and little children and women but come not near any man upon whom is the mark which shaweth they were mingled one amongst the other and begin at my Sanctuary where note notwithstanding this people had so much polluted his worship as is fully set forth in the foregoing chapter yet the Lord is pleased to call it his sanctuary and beside we read of no other sanctuary of the Lords at that time and therefore the enemies of the Lord were possessed of his Church and sanctuary the like you have in express termes the 2 Thessalonians 2. 4. where it is said speaking of the man of sin who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God shewing himself that he is God Now what can be plainer spoken that notwithstanding antichrist had gotten possession in the Church of God and ruled as God therein yet the Apostle cals it the temple of God Another objection is made touching the Virgins for say some men it is said in the text Then shall the kingdome of heaven be likened to ten Virgins which tooke their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom so say these men this going forth is as we do now out of Babylon by the ordinances of the Gospel as baptizing laying on of hands and all those ordinances which the Lord Jesus hath commanded his people to walk in untill his second coming To which I answer that I do believe that the going forth of the Virgins was out from the world to professe the name of Christ and not going out from Babylon which I shall further cleer but pray mark it is said while the bridgroom tarried all slumbred and slept so that here was a slumbring and sleepy condition between the going forth and the bridegroom 's coming which as I conceive is that slumbring and sleepy condition which I have proved from Scripture Secondly it is said and at midnight there was a cry made Behold the bridegroom cometh go ye forth to meet him where pray mark here is a midnight spoken of and I thinke there is no man will say that this midnight was either friday or saturday night that is one of these naturall nights wherein we take our rest but I conceive it is that midnight or darknesse which lies upon the Church of Jesus Christ immediately before the Lords bright appearing Thirdly it is said Goe yee forth to meet him I suppose no man will affirm it is meant going forth out of a mans house but it is that going forth out of Babylon or the Antichristian state by the beleeving Gentiles which lay in captivity among the Antichristian state and that going forth of the whole Israel of God after the flesh from among the nations in which they lay scattered so many ages to meet the Lord in Zion at the voyce of the great trumpet when he shall gather together his Elect from the foure windes of the heaven Isaiah 11. 12. and 27. 13. Mat. 24 31. and that voice of the second Angel mentioned Rev. 14. 18. and 18. 4. where it is said come out of her my people that you be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues It is further objected that in all ages there have been such