Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	according_a	true_a	truth_n	2,749	5	5.2105	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65188	The retired mans meditations, or, The mysterie and power of godlines shining forth in the living Word to the unmasking the mysterie of iniquity in the most refined and purest forms : and withall presenting to view ... in which old light is restored and new light justified : being the witness which is given to this age / by Henry Vane.	Vane, Henry, Sir, 1612?-1662.	1655 (1655)	Wing V75A; ESTC R23767	277,940	392

by themselves and comparing themselves amongst themselves were not wise but justly comprehended under the rank of foolish virgins over whom the Apostle was jealous with a godly jealousie hoping to have presented them as a chaste virgin to Christ but now fearing lest they should be beguiled and sin after the similitude of Adams transgression through the subtilty of the devil transforming himself into an Angel of light These among the Galatians were they that Paul stood in doubt of as discerning in them principles that would carry them no higher then the first Covenant before whom therefore he laid the distinction of the two Covenants and the two seeds even under the Gospel those that might be born after the spirit and those that might be born but of the flesh only one of the free woman the other of the bond And among the Philippians this sort of Professors were so prevalent that the Apostle was very sharp ch 3. v. 2. v 18 19. calling them those of the concision dogs and enemies to the cross of Christ whose God was their belly and whose glory was in their shame minding earthly things walking in a quite different strain from them who forgetting what is behinde press forward to the mark ver 14. of perfection brought to light by the death and resurrection of Christ worshipping God in the spirit rejoycing in Christ Jesus and having no confidence in the flesh It would be endless to rehearse the several passages in the remaining Epistles of Paul and the other Apostles deciphering this generation of Professors in the times they lived Teachers of the Law that knew not what they said nor whereof they affirmed as to the lawfull use of the very Law it self who by not holding faith and a good conscience which is interpreted Heb. 10. 23. a not holding them fast but in such wavering uncertain principles as the first Covenant ministers concerning faith made shipwrack and so lost their good conscience too at last drawing back into perdition Like the Jerusalem complained of Ezek. 5. 5. c. where they were so far from walking up to the light of the Covenant with God which they were under that in their walkings they fell beneath the very light and principles of heathens not doing according to the judgements of the nations round about them but becoming adulterers and adulteresses such as defile the Temple of God and therefore such whom God would destroy Lastly as once for all we may see this generation of men in their holy profession and visibility of Saintship incorporated together with the true spiritual seed in every one of the seven Churches mentioned Rev. 2. and 3. chapters which are usually accounted to be typical inreference to the state of the Church under the Gospel from the Primitive times to Christs second coming In every of these churches Christ makes the distinction between the Spiritual Seed that had the spiritual ear and the carnal Seed that had it not but who in and under those very Church-forms were the Nurseries of all hypocrisie apostasie and other Spiritual uncleannesses and defilements there and were not of the faith nor in the faith of those that overcome but were such as from whom the Candlestick and light they had from Christ might be removed verifying therein that saying of his speaking of this generation as they should continue under Gospel Ordinances when he was foretelling the end of the world under the type and figure of the destruction of the material Temple in Jerusalem Verily verily saith he This generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled his mystical meaning herein being that this crooked and perverse generation mentioned Deut. 32. 5. who were always resisting the Holy Ghost Act. 7. 51. and were to succeed in that enmity which they bear unto the true Spiritual Seed to the very end of the world according unto what God declared from the beginning when he said I will put enmity between the Seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent should continue till the serpents head be wholly broken and he trampled under foot and the Saints heel wholly bruised or the measure of Christs sufferings remaining to be wrought out in his whole body the Church fulfilled These are they which call themselves Jews but are not in spirit and truth though they pass currant in the judgement of mans day for the only visible Church of God excluding the heathens on the one hand as Sathan appearing in his own likeness and the true spiritual believers on the other hand as the same evil spirit transformed into an Angel of light The third sort of subjects belonging to the last administration of Christs kingdom are they who in faith and patience do possess their souls following the Lamb whither soever he goes not loving their lives unto death but through the blood of the Lamb being received into the unity of the faith of the Son of God have the use of spiritual senses set up in them enabling them to hear and obey what the spirit saith unto the Churches and so are worshippers of God in spirit rejoycing in Christ Jesus having no confidence in the flesh enjoying within themselves the witness of a better and more enduring substance then what is experienced under the first-covenant-ministry through this law of the spirit of life which the spiritual sied are made under have that overcoming power of Christ ever present with them in the actings of true and saving faith which overcomes the world and gives them the victory over all opposition not but that they also in walking as men have the same common weaknesses as other men are liable to many failings and miscariages but as they are born of God and walk and live in that spirit sin hath no more dominion over them to make them fulfil the lusts thereof Gal. 5. 16 18. These therefore are distinguished from all the earth-born sons or children of the first covenant by their higher and more divine birth as born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Joh. 1. 13. not but that they are born also of all the other principles as well as othermen possess them in common with others something of the corrupt nature with the heathen and something of the renewed nature with the Jew or worldly Christian but they have over and besides a birth of God which none of the other two have living thereby in that light and life which no man hath seen or can see wherein they are a sort of heavenly seers and men of God that enter with Christ within the veyl and are admitted into the sight and enjoyment of God in the very brightness of his glory and express character of his person shining forth in the face of Christs second appearance and herein are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ partaking after this manner of the divine nature it self wherein they see God face to

to the flesh through which they clean escape the pollutions of the world and then turn aside from the holy commandment delivered unto them in the ministry of this first covenant These are they that are under the dominion of the law or of Christ as he is the Minister of circumcision of Gods first appearance exhibiting himself to the eyes of their mind in the righteousness of his natural man as he is God manifested in flesh and so witnessed unto by the Scriptures as a holy commandment unto which he begets and requires conformity in them Here he is to be seen and conversed with as on Mount Sinai in the holy place or worldly Sanctuary where his Angels are his chariots even thousand thousands of Angels to administer the glory of this kingdom under him and as his forerunners to prepare the way whither he himself intends to come and vouchsafe his own perpetual presence and abode So then until Christs coming in the flesh into the true Tabernacle which God pitched and not man the Word Law or Rule of this kingdom also was spoken given and administred by Angels called the law and Ministry of circumcision or of Moses contained in the two tables together with the Judicial laws and fleshly rites and ordinances of divine service those relating to the second table these to the first and to the material temple-worship which were to contiune till the time of reformation at the comming of the true Temple it self when the WORD was made flesh But Christ being come and having in the body prepared for him fulfilled the will of the Father in offering up himself in the flesh without spot unto God through the eternal spirit and with his own blood entred into the holiest of all he thought fit no longer to dwell in Temples made with hands Acts 7. 48. but abolishing all the former fleshly rites and worldly ordinances belonging unto the Temple-worship that was then he did build up out of the ruines thereof a spiritual Temple 1 Cor. 3. 16 17. which Temple saith the Apostle Paul unto the Corinthians are yee which yet is but such a kind of building for permanency and abiding as the former For whosoever of you saith Paul shall defile this Temple him shall God destroy whoever you be that after your being enlightned and having received the knowledge of the truth shall not hold fast your confidence unto the end but become such servants as are to be cast out of the house making shipwrack of faith and a good conscience Thus there is an Israel after the flesh kept up and continued under the Gospel as well as under the law who are now under Christs immediate government by his spirit in the ministry of his first appearance and according to the tenor of the first covenant as they then were under the law and had the word spoke unto them by Angels in the Mosaical ministration both being but one and the same earthly Ierusalem that now is and is in bondage with her children in which it is most true still that they are not all Israel that are of Israel neither because they are the seed of Abraham the Father of the faithful so pretending to be believers are they all children but in Isaac crucified offered up Isaac shall thy seed be called that is to say they that are the children of the flesh and of the living and natural body only are not the children of God but the children of the promise are counted for the seed that were raised out of a womb as good as dead and sprang up to Abraham after that he had received the promises as they respected his fleshly seed by Isaacs restauration as from the dead the figure of Christs death and resurrection This earthly Jerusalem is the worldly Church under the Gospel the incorporated body of visible Saints called out and separated from the world who for their Law and Rule own and profess the written word and the spirit of Christ received and held forth in no higher a ministry then that of Christ as he is the head and root of all natural purity and perfection singly considered declaring themselves herein a holy or a separated people by a manifest self-distinguishing profession according to the measure of their receiving from Christ and growth up unto him from all heathenish worship yea and corrupt Christian professions or practises walking in all the ordinances and judgements of Christ held forth to them from the Scriptures in the various forms thereof which their light leads them to receive This visible temple or worldly sanctuary of God is a true Church as they walk in the light and according to the truth of this Law under which they are and as shall be shewed the nursery or womb of all the true spiritual seed Rev. 12. 1. c. Where it is described by the woman cloathed with the Sun the day of Christs first appearance and having the Moon or heathenish Gentile state under her feet being exalted into a glory far above them and made use of by God to bring forth the manchild or heavenly seed that are to rule the Nations with a rod of iron which in their divine birth are caught up to God and to his Throne and so much farther exalted above the earthly Jerusalem then she is above the rest of the Nations This earthly Jerusalem in the times of the Law had judicial Laws for the heightning of a civil Magistracy into a sutableness unto the divine service of this worldly sanctuary But since Christs ascension and the spirituality of this very temple to be continued under the Gospel till the fulness of the Gentiles come in and the mysterie of God in Christs fleshly dispensations shall be finished although many attempts have been made and endeavours used to revive a like Magistracy again in conformity to the judicials of Moses in the very letter of them there hath seldom been found any considerable progress or success herein forasmuch as Christ is rather pleased to detain his people in subjection and captivity under the powers of the world and the Magistracy kept up by him over men as men during the season of sufferings allotted to them in which as souls under the Altar of persecution they cry out How long Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwel on the earth and are enabled by faith to see through and above the visible powers and thrones of this world into the ministry of Christ by his Angels who are all the while Magistrates and Rulers in a higher sphere and capacity then the others and who as the times of Christ draw near who is the only Potentate and KING OF KINGS shall shew themselves to be his servants taking vengeance in flames of fire upon all ungodly men that are his and his peoples implacable enemies By what then hath been said we may see how consistent this second branch of Christs Rule over men is with