Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	antichrist_n	false_a	true_a	3,065	5	4.9514	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29073	A discourse about Christ and antichrist, or, A demonstration that Jesus is the Christ from the truth of his predictions, especially, the coming and the seduction of antichrist : to which is added a treatise about the resurrection / by Edward Bagshaw ...	Bagshaw, Edward, 1629-1671.	1661 (1661)	Wing B408; ESTC R37055	55,746	68

the World the desire of the Flesh i. e. Pleasure the desire of the Eyes i. e. Riches and the pride of Life Ver. 18. i. e. outward State and Magnificence they are not of God but of the World To which he immediately subjoyns Little children it is the last hour and as you have heard that Antichrist shall come so now there are many Antichrists Plainly intimating that there were some who by immersing themselves in the Delights and Excesses of the World did abundantly discover their Antichristian temper And accordingly in the Revelation Apoc. 12. that Woman which figured the true Church as so on as ever she had brought forth i. e. received and embraced the Faith of Christ she is said to flee into the Wilderness where she was to abide for a long time in a disconsolate and afflicted condition where it is observable that the time viz. of 1260. daies which is allotted unto the womans abode in the Wilderness is the very same time in which the Witnesses were to Prophecy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being arrayed with sackcloath Apoc. 11.3 to shew their indigent and needy state as likewise the Temple or true worshippers of God was so long to be trampled under food which likewise is the time limited for Antichrists Reign and Persecution Thus the true Church like Christ her Head finds no peace on Earth but is fain to seek shelter in a Wilderness But that woman which is the Embleme of the False Church Rev. 17 3. is represented to sit in goodly Array upon a scarlet-coloured Beast And the woman was cloathed with Purple and Scarlet and adorned with Gold and precious Stones and Pearls i. e. Tricked up and set out with the utmost circumstances of outward Glory and Magnificence by which she doth allure and entice her Followers making her Religion as pompous Theatricall and specious as may be that so it might be taking But we have not so learned Christ who was himself poor and his Doctrine strict and severe so that to take off from the end of Religion which is to withdraw men from Earth that they may mind Heaven and to change the Spirit and Purity of Worship into the splendour and pompe of Service this is not of Christ therefore it is Antichristian Thirdly The third and last thing in the practice of Ancichrist by which he may be descried is Persecution of all that dissent from him though never so holy or Religious otherwise which is an infallible Note of Antichrist as being directly contrary to the Meekness Mercy and Moderation of our Saviour For when the Disciples desired that they might call down for Fire from Heaven to punish those Barbarous and Inhumane Samaritans who would not so much as allow him a lodging in one of their Villages Luk. 9.55 Our Saviour sharply reproves them Ye know not saith he of what spirit you are i. e. the Christian spirit is not a bloody a self-avenging but a tender a compassionate spirit For the Son of man came not to destroy mens lives but to save them And again Ib. v. 50. when some of his Disciples told him that they found some doing miracles in his name but they forbade them because say they they followed not us Forbid them not saith our Saviour for he that is not against us is for us Thus the Apostle Paul Let every man saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 14. be fully assured in his own mind i. e. of the Necessity and Lawfulness of that which he doth 16. And judge not one another but judg this rather that none do put a stumbling block or a cause of offence before his Brother And again 2 Cor. 1.24 We saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do not Lord it over your Faith or Consciencious Perswasion in things indifferent but if any be otherwise-minded God will reveal this to him Phil. 3.15 with many hundreds of Scriptures more to the same purpose which shew that nothing doth more savour of the spirit of Christianity than Mutual Forbearance and Toleration And that nothing is more repugnant to it then Harshness Rigour and Imperious Exaction But Antichrist quite contrary is all made up of cruelty and unmercifulness The false Prophets Mat. 7. saith our Saviour which come in my Name they wear sheeps-cloathing but inwardly they are ravening Wolves i.e. They seem mild and gentle but indeed are Furious and bloud-thirsty men and therefore in the Revelation Antichrist is compared unto a Beast which hath horns like a Lambe i. e. in outward appearance seems to act for Christ but speaks like a Dragon Rev. 13.16 17. i.e. in his Decrees and Impositions is Outragious and Bloudy Insomuch that he causeth all great and small rich and poor free and bond to receive a mark in their Foreheads or in their hands That no man might buy or sell save he that had that mark i. e. They were either to joyn with him in his publike Worship and by some outward Testimony manifest their Conformity or else they should not buy nor sell i.e. not so much as exercise any civill Commerce or Society with men Nor is that all that he will exclude such from the benefits of Life But saith the Text R. v. 18.13 if men will not worship the beast and that Image which he hath set up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he causes that they be slain which is the utmost expression of Inhumanity and therefore among the Merchandize of the False Church here are reckoned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the souls or lives of men either bestained and poysoned with their Inventions or destroyed by their Butchery So infinitely different is Antichrist from Christ Christ would not have the least of those offended that believe on him Antichrist doth nothing else but offend them And so much for the second thing in our Saviours Prediction viz. The way how Antichrist or the False Prophet is to be destroyed in the decyphering of which I have purely followed that Method Rev. 19 10. which the Spirit of Prophesie which is called the Testimony of Jesus in Scripture hath chalked out to me without mingling the least of my own Inventions and uncharitable Presumptions with it 3. The third thing observable in our Saviours Prediction is the Time when Antichrist should arise which is implied in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then i. about the Time that Jerusalem was destroyed which that it was a very proper time for Antichrist to arise in will appear from these two Reasons 1. Because then the Apostles and others who planted Christianity and were infallibly inspired by God were all dead and therefore when these Suns were Set it is no wonder if Darkness and Night did speedily overspread the World This is plainly intimated by our Saviour where he tells his Disciples that before Jerusalem was destroyed They shall saith he Mat. 24.9.11 deliver you up unto Tribulation and they shall kill you whereupon

Rev. 19.20 So that our Saviour and his Apostles do both grant that Miracles may be done by a false Power and likewise affirm that whoever hath nothing else to alledge for his Religion but meerly Miracles that same is Antichrist For Truth stands not in need of such outward Circumstances to underprop it and according to the Scripture Miracles are not to prove the Doctrine but the Doctrine is to prove the Miracles whether they are from God or not But yet saith our Saviour with those Arts and waies he shall so far prevail as even almost to stagger the belief of the very Elect Many shall follow their destructive Doctrines 2 Pet. 2.2 Rev. 13. saith Peter the World shall wonder after the Beast saith John and he shall deceive the Inhabitants of the earth c. all which places do note an almost Universal seduction And if any ask how it comes to pass that Corruption so contrary to the received Tenets and Maximes of Christianity should be so generally embraced 2 Thes 2 10 11 the Apostle Paul hath given it Because men have not received the love of the Truth that they might be saved therefore shall God send upon them the strong working of deceit 2 Thes 2.9 that they should believe a Lye i.e. Men being unwilling to give themselves up to the guidance of Truth which shines clearly by its own Light both in Scriptures and in their own Understandings therefore shall God suffer them to be so brutish and Sottish as to quit their Reason and to be led up and down by any fond and ridiculous Errour as those Impostors shall guide them I have done with the Prediction of our Saviour concerning Antichrist V. Canenes Concil Trident. and if upon your enquiry you find that there is that Religion in the world which hath espoused and embodied into their Confession of Faith all the Opinions of Antichrist If there be that Church in the world which still pretends to do and for ought I know doth reall Miracles upon which they bottome their Plea to be the true Church if they maintain Persecution Violence and Fraud if they have dispirited and disenvigoured Religion by their worldly Pompe and Gallantry and make thriving in this world a sign that God doth love and favour them all which are Antichristian Tenets and Practices If there be that Person in the world who hath assumed the very stile of Antichrist who hath trampled upon Kings and trode upon the Necks of Emperours who in his Canon Law is called God and like God doth dispense with all both Divine and Humane Laws then first certainly Antichrist is already come and to deny it is to deny as great evidence and notoriety of fact as to deny it is day when the Sun shineth And secondly He which foretold that Antichrist should thus come with all these Circumstances that I have summed up he was undoubtedly a true Prophet the true Messiah for to repeat the Argument in my Text He told us these things before they came to pass and we find that they are come to pass and therefore he is The Use that I shall make of this whole Discourse is 1. To convince the Unresolved 2. To confirm those who are already setled Use 1 The first use shall be to convince the Unresolved I have already spoken something to awaken those that are resolute and peremptory Unbelievers but there are many who may be yet in their enquiring doubting and disputing state who are not unwilling to embrace the Faith of Christ but they find it to be so repugnant to every thing of natural Reason within them and likely to be attended with so much hazard and danger that they are either ashamed or afraid to own it but yet are not fixed in positive denial of it but through uncertainty they are alwaies Anxious and wavering Such as these ought to be tenderly and gently dealt with and two things I shall propose to them which may help to alleviate and to abate their Prejudices 1. That Christian Religion is in no part of it unreasonable for since the Proof of it in general depends upon the clearest Demonstration viz. The fulfilling of Prophesies then the belief of it must needs be rational I know very well that the things contained in the Scriptures viz. The Incarnation of the Son of God three Persons of the Godhead the Immediate Acting of the Holy Spirit upon the heart of Believers and the like are all Mysterious and no waies reconcileable to Humane Apprehension but then we must consider that these things are not proposed to our Understandings to comprehend them but meerly to our Faith to believe them which where there is a firm and demonstrable ground of Beliefe may be done even to many things that we understand not And the great hindrance that hath kept Christian Faith from entring into the minds of men is want of attendance to that distinction for many have both confounded themselves and subverted the Faith of others by pressing upon them a comprehension of what is no waies by us Intelligible And therefore all those Disputes about Predestination Trinity Resurrection Incarnation and the like are for the greatest part of them unprofitable and dangerous because they are not content barely to assert the Truth which is then best done when it is put into the plainest and most unscholastick Language of Scripture but our Arguers do over and above enquire de modo and labour to give reasons for those stupendious and amazing Mysteries which the Apostle Paul cries out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon and for the most part ends the Dispute with a Reproof of the Disputer And therefore such of you as are not yet fixed in your belief set your selves purely upon this Article viz. to enquire whether Jesus be the Christ and never give it over till it hath pleased God fully to confirm you in it And my Reasons for this Advice are these three 1. Because this is the most effectual and ready way to prove unto you the Divine Authority of the Scriptures Those who set upon this work by endeavouring to prove the Scriptures to be the Word of God as they lye in gross and in their diffused Bulk proceeding by Chapter and Verse do undertake a Tedious and Impossible Task for there those ordinary and trivial Objections of mistakes and variations in Copies mistranslations and the like are never to be assoiled but if you draw the several lines in Scripture into their Center and contract them into Christ as you use to do the Sun-beams into a burning-glass then do they cast a quick and vigorous lustre sufficient to enlighten and warm even the most stiffe and rigid Opposer He that would demonstrate the Providence of God would not I suppose begin with the Minutiae mundi the lesser things of the World as Flies and Insects but he would fix as David doth upon the Sun or some noble and conspicuous part whose Use is undeniable and