Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	church_n	minister_n	ministry_n	3,814	5	8.8738	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40009	A guide to the blind pointed to, or, A true testimony to the light within wherein some men are reproved, others counselled and encouraged, but all (who are ignoranr [sic] of their true guide) directed to the path of life : with a friendly call to all notionists and high professors of religion, in what form soever, to come speedily down from their pinacles, lest they fall into temptation : also some queries to the persecuting ministers of the Church of England / vvritten for the truth sake by T.F.	Förster, Thomas.	1659 (1659)	Wing F1607; ESTC R37821	38,944	95

say Eat O friends drink abundantly O beloved Go no more forth But you who are still upon the Mountains you must come down and dwell in the low Valley before you can find safety You must walk in the narrow path which leads to life before you can come to rest and to the spirits of just men made perfect you must be joyned Peradventure some of you may say you are now upon the Mount with Jesus and have seen his transfiguration and do say in your hearts It is good to be here if so yet boast not For you must all come down from the Mount as the Disciples of Christ and as Christ himself did and live here below Nay though you have been wrapt up into the third heaven as Paul was and heard things unutterable yet the cross must be born and the Thorn in the flesh felt by all who are lifted up above their measures To your measures herefore of the gift of God all come Boast not of any thing which you have ●t attained through the death of the Cross for if you do you will suffer loss ●any of you have set your selves at the ●pper end in the room Oh be sure you be not without your wedding garments left the Master send you forth as unworthy guests you seem to be eager to tast of the Supper of the Lord and some of you are giving and taking it in beggarly elements All such are to know they are not yet past the shadow be their pretence what it will be much lesse come to the substance of all things which puts an end to types and shadows The voice in me cryes keep low abide in the fear of the Lord for there is the beginning of true wisdome High words will no longer beguile the true Israelite for in him there is an eye open which sees and can discern spirits and an ear that can hear the shepherds voice from the stranger The stranger or false messenger's voice saith I comprehend all mysteries I am past the first second dispensation to wit the fear and the faith and I am arrived at the third which is Love I have born the crosse and now wear the crown Is this thy voice indeed then know thou art the Antichrise whom God will destroy with the breath of his mouth whosoever thou art that cryest up one dispensation by way of boasting and sets it against another thou art doing the Devils work and endeavouring to make a rent where nothing but unity and peace ought to be for one mans state in Christy though but the babe is not to be set against another no more then Christ is to be divided But now on the contrrary the true Shepherds voice saith I am meek and lowly of heart learn of me and be little in your own eys This voice calls out of the world it stills the waves when they rage it binds the strong man in chains and Nobles in fetters of iron by its meekness patience gentleness and long-suffering Therefore friends come all down into the true fear of the Lord where this is to be witnessed and no where els Your knowledge in misteries and large comprehensions of divine things unlesse your practice be answerable doth but fit you for the scourge with many stripes I say while you are upon your Pinacles the inward beauty of the Temple you can never behold nor see the glorious presence of the Lord who fits therein Hasten therefore to the porch where wisdomes voice is to be heard and become Doore-keepers therein which keeps out sin and vanity that so an entrance may be made unto you into the holy of ho-lies For this I declare to you all That no more of the true knowledge of God have you attained then what you have learned and known through the death and daily cross of Christ Jesus And now to thee who hast been once enligtened and hast tasted of the heavenly gift and been made partaker of the holy Ghost and tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the world to come Content not thy self with these refreshments nor feed thou upon them for they will passe away as the lightning but live thou upon the bread of life it self from which these refreshings have proceeded for that 's it and it alone which can nourish the Soul up to eternal life I say again keep low and patiently run the race that is set before thee and through perseverance thou shalt gain the Crown Some Queries to my old friends the Ministers of the Church of England FRiends I come not now to question you as to my self nor yet your Faith and Hope in God being fully satisfied concerning you and your Ministry and also of your Call thereunto having well known and heard the chief amongst you for many years together Yet for the sakes of those heaps of people that pin their faith upon your sleeves and take all for granted that you declare unto them for truth believing your lives also to be unblameable I shall mildely propound unto you these ensuing Queries charging you as you would be accounted Ministers of Christ and are willing to observe the Apostles direction of rendring a reason of your hope to every one that shall ask you to make it appear in your answer by what fruits you may be known 1. VVHether was your Call to your Ministry from God yea or no as the true Ministers of the Gospel ever was and will be Or was it not a place of preferment to a comfortable maintenance as you call it and to get a Trade to live by that called you And whether if that maintenance were removed you your selves would not soon come to silence and your Ministry quickly fall to the ground 2. Whether or no did ever the true Ministers of Christ or any of them go to the Arm of Flesh for aid to uphold their Doctrine and force a Maintenance from people contrary to their consciences as you do 3. Whether are you not respecters of persons honouring and fawning upon those men most who can promote you to the greatest Benefices And do you not remove from one quarter to another where the greatest gain is to be had often leaving your flock when you are assured of greater wages from other Masters or because you may not sheer them to their very skins 4. Whether do you not rend and tear mens Goods from them to the value of ten times more then your unreasonable and Antichristian demands are under a pretence of a Popish Law for maintenance and trebble damages and yet come forth and say you are Gospel-Ministers and the workman is worthy of his hire though the true Husbandman never set you to work 5. Whether is the spirit of cruel and bitter perjecution in which many of you are found and which none of you that I hear have declared against be the spr●●● of a true Minister of Christ or the spirit of Antichrist 6. Whether have you not stirred up the Beast ●nd

A Guide to the Blind Pointed to Or a true TESTIMONY TO THE Light within Wherein some men are reproved others counselled and encouraged but all who are ignorant of their true Guide directed to the path of Life With a Friendly CALL to all Notionists and high Professors of Religion in what Form soever To come speedily down from their Pinacles lest they fall into temptation Also some Queries to the persecuting Ministers of the Church of ENGLAND VVritten for the Truths sake by T.F. The darkness is past the true Light new shineth 1 Joh. 2.8 See therefore that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise Eph. 5.15 London Printed for the Author and are to be sold by G. Calvert at the Black-spread Eagle near the west end of Pauls N. Brooks at the Angel in Cornhil 1659. THE PREFACE READER ALthough I have bin for many yeers a true seeker of the kingdom of Heaven yet had I been one who had sate in the seat of the scorner or been disobedient unto the Light or motion of Gods Spirit upon those Waters in me which had neer over-whelmed my Soul I should have remained as most men still do in darkness even until now or else been like unto those who are a sleep in sin neither knowing nor beleeving any other state attainable in this life who yet notwithstanding are bold to say They see But blessed be the Lord God I am not of their unbelief but of that faith which overcomes the World Sin and the Devil Friend If thou art such a one to wit a sinner and beleevest thou canst not be otherwise here and yet will presumptuously say Thouseest Know thou That Christ Iesus came to make thee blind and that those who are blind and sensible of it might see And thou who art a sleep in sin and dead whilest thou livest Arise and listen thou to the voice of Christ and to his knock in thee if thou wilt live to God open the door of thy heart unto him betimes He it is who calls to sinners to be pure and to be perfect as our heavenly Father is He it is who cryed out to Jerusalem to be gathered under his wing and he also if thou will be gathered would gather thee O refuse him not for he it is who hath called me out of darkness into light and caused me to listen to his still voice within me and he it is who calls to thee also to return and live saying to thee as he did to Israel Why will ye die O House of Israel Now that thou mayest know I am none of those that cry Lohere Or Lo●hers nor of the many Sects and divided Judgments in this Nation I shall briefly tell thee how many by-wayes I have past through and how restless I was in them all till I came to own the light of Christ in me First As to my Education I must tell thee it was such a was in the fear of the Lord into which I admonish thee to hasten and therein continue all the dayes of thy life for I assure thee there is no safety but in that state and in the pure life of innocency from which all men by disobedience are fallen It 's not talking of the holy life but living it that can give thee an entrance into Paradice for the flaming Sword is turned against the transgressor so that he cannot touch the tree of life much-less eat thereof but with the Serpent must feed upon dust all the dayes of his life O Make haste Friend to the life of Obedience and come down from the barren Mountains lest thou die for there is no bread to be had there Consult no longer with the Serpents carnal reasonings in thee nor with his numerous and busie Agents without thee perswading thee that purity is not to be attained here Oh! that thou wouldest consider that the Soul which sinneth must die and that as the tree falls so it lyes that there is no Repentance in the Grave nor any other Way to life but by keeping the Commandments of God Friend Thy Enemy is within thee therefore look at home keep the Watch well there and if thou canst pray that thou enter not into temptation for the Devil now goes about roaring like a Lyon and is seeking whom he may devour Oh! beleeve not those that say The best of Gods Children cannot be free from sin in this life for I declare to thee they are all of the black Army of Satan and for the support of his kingdom are they come to fight and to make War with the Lamb and his followers who walk with him in white Remember thou That without holiness no man shall see God and that the pure in heart and they only can see him And thou who art flown high in thy comprehension of aiery Notions without life thou must descend and dwell in the Low-valley where once thou hadst some sooting for thy safety is there and no where else Come thou into the cool of the day and hear Gods voice unto thee who chargeth thee with eating of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil Thou hast lost thy state of happiness by hearkning to the Woman thy fallen Reason who is not to speak in the Church for thou hast suffered to be marr'd the holy Creation of God in thee and there is no way lest now for thee but to come to Christ Jesus the light of the world and life of man He it is though thou hast despised him because his appearance is low in thee who must repair the breach between God and thee but if thou reject him who is thy light and who would be thy leader thy stare is worse then fallen Adams was thou art now one with the Angel of false light Darkness will be thy portion as it is his for evermore Friend What I have further to say in this Preface may give thee some light of the crooked-wayes thou art not to walk in and therefore shall proceed to give thee an accompt of my wandring steps which the Lord hath now brought to my remembrance even from my Child hood The fear of God I say was before me even from my Youth so that when I was but a School-Boy I durst not omit my Morning and Evening Sacrifice of Prayer to God upon any pretence whatsoever Never did I swear an Oath but once since I was born and that was upon great provocation by a lewd Boy when I was about twelve yeers of age But such was the goodness of God to me then that presently after I had spoken the word I found trouble in my Conscience and condemnation for it many yeers after My Companions were mostly such as were sober and freest from scandal and I can truly say I remembred my Creator in the dayes of my Youth and was a true seeker of the Kingdom of Heaven from such time as I had an understanding to believe there was such a Kingdom to be sought after And when I