Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	church_n	faith_n	foundation_n	2,327	5	8.6631	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91474	The watcher: or, The stone cut out of the mountains without hands, striking at the feet of the image, whose head is gold, and brest of silver, and thighs of brass, and legs of iron, and feet part iron and part clay, Dan. 2. 31, 32, 33, 34, 35. Or, A discovery of the ground and end of all forms, professions, sects and opinions, and also how they now are made as friends, and joyn hand in hand against the substance, the life and power of God, which is now made manifest in his sons and daughters (according to his promise) as hath been plainly manifest in several meetings betwixt the people called Quakers, and the people called Baptists, which is here describ'd. And also a description of the true Church, ... / VVritten by a friend to all tender hearted ones, who hunger and thirst after God, who are hoping and seeking in forms for life, to the directing of their mindes, where and how to finde the true light which leads into the true life and power of Godliness, the end of all forms, where I rest with all who in spirit read me, who am known to them who are without, by the name, Iames Parnell.	Parnell, James, 1637?-1656.	1655 (1655)	Wing P541; Thomason E845_18; ESTC R621	62,535	56

to this who was ordained by the Pope or by the wil of man but was lifted up with pride and covetousness and greedy of filthy Lucre as they are now and so came into the condemnation of the Devil as they do now and thus your priests old father planted their Church and so set every thing in form and tradition according to their own imaginations and here is the ground and foundation of the faith and Church of England so called and here is the old Fathers and the old Authors that your Priests have so much talked of and prated of their ancient Fathers even the Popes and the Bishops and though now in words they deny the Pope and the Papists and the Bishops and differ something from the Pope in judgement yet are in the same forms Customes and Traditions and are upheld by the same Laws as they was when they was in the Popes and Bishops Loynes and thus Antichrist hath long deceived the Nations and ruled by the power of darkness under a notion or profession of the Gospell and faith of Christ and one generation hath gone and another come and have not known the Lord that bought them but by the hearing of the ear and as those that saw him knew him in whom he dwelt bore testimony and declared of him and thus the Priests could tell the people from the Records of the holy men of God what God is and what Christ is and what faith is and how Christ dyed for their sins and rose again and that Christ is a Saviour and a Redeemer and what the Apostles spoke and writ unto the Church freely they get and speak unto the world for gaine and lucre and so casts the childrens bread unto dogs and so seeds and puffs up the dark mindes of men with ayry knowledg what they have gotten into their brains from other mens words and their own imaginations and so made and makes the people believe that they are the means ordained by God now many may see by this what lyars they are and how they came up and was ordained and whose rule practise or example they follow in this they do and they wil be found the Ministers of Antichrist Look into their owne Records which they call the Book of Martyrs and such as have long shut up and do shut up the Kingdome of heaven against men and would neither enter in themselves nor suffer others that would but so long as they had power would bind all unto themselves and those that had any appearance of Light so that they came to see their deceit and seperate from them they would scarce suffer them to live amongst them but praised be the Almighty who hath so weakned their hands and shattered their foundation and caused his light so to shine out of Darkness to cause them to be so manifest so that all people who love Light better than Darkness may now see how ignorantly blindly you have bin led as strangers from the father of light after the vain traditions customes forms ordinances and imaginations of man with a vain profession and feigned faith which you have gotten into the notion but stil in you sins and iniquities alive in the first nature under deaths dominion still strangers from the God of life and from Christ the Saviour and Redeemer of his people from their sins and thus you lye under the power of Darkness and delusion of Antichrist Hos 4.9 Isa 9.10 both Priest and people for like people like Priest and so saith the Prophet and your Leaders cause you to erre by their lyes and by their lightness and though you be full of teachers yet you are lost for want of true knowledge and are stil led captive in your sins and iniquities after these who have gotten the form but deny the life and power ever learning and never comes to the knowledg of the truth in your selves only differing from the heathen in name and profession judgment or opinion but still alive in the same nature in the fall under the Curse the children of disobedience in whom doth rule the Prince of Darkness and you must have a Law without to keep you in awe and feare of the same as they have whom you account heathen but the Righteous needs no Law for because of transgression the Law was added and you are fighting killing and devouring one another as they do whom you account heathen you are Drunkards Swearers and Lyers as they are Scoffers Gal. 3.19 scornrs and Revilers and Back-biters and Whoremongers and Adulterers and proud and covetous Idolaters and high minded oppressors as they are both Priest and people and you are Idolaters as they are eating and drinking and rising up to play and you are envious and malicious suing and rending and tearing one another at the Law both Priest and people pulling down others to set up your selves and you are dissembling cozening cheating defrauding one another of the earth which is none of your own you are persecutots stoners strikers of the innocent children servants messengers of God and what sin is there amongst those whom you account heathen that is not amongst you doth abound yea those whom you account heathen may condemn you inmuch of their practise Oh! be ashamed and blush you Priests and teachers of England to see your Ministry and the fruits of your Ministry so laid open before you and thus you are these who come neare the Lord with your lips and mouthes but your hearts are far from him in the earth or else you would walk more uprightly Math. 15.9 but saith the Lord in vaine do you worship me teaching for Doctrine the Commandments of men but I know some Pharisees and Priests will be ready to say we are no drunkards nor swearers nor such like but I say unto you you are hypocrites and your hearts are full of deceit envy wrath and bitterness covetousness pride and earthly mindedness and selfe love and selfe-wisdome and persecutors and the greatest oppressors of the truth and Publicans and Harlots shall enter the kingdome before you Jesus Christ the Light marked out your fore-fathers and found them to be such though they was more strickt and zealous than this generation and by the same Light you are found in their steps and those things both Christ and his Apostles judged to be without and condemned them out of the new Covenant for there no unrighteous person can dwel and there all wars are ended and the swords beat into pruning hooks and guns into plowshares and there is no oppression nor selfe-exalting Math. 20 21. Isa 54.13 14. Rom. 8.1 but hee that would be the greatest must be the least and in righteousness are they established and they are far from oppression and the Lord alone is their teacher and there is no need of an outward Law for to them there is no condemnation who walk not after the flesh but after

and Flocks and Heards then they have a Law even to devour them and their whole estates and this is far from Gospel Ministers nay Jesus Christ the Light saw their fore-fathers and marked them out to be the ravening wolves Mat. 7.15 16. in sheeps cloathing as these doth now appear to any but those that love to have it so for so long as you put into their mouthes they cry peace peace and speak you fare and calls you christians and beloved but put not into their mouthes then they even prepare war then they have a Law for you to take treble damage from you 2 Pet. 2.3 and so fulfils the Apostles words Oh what a horrible filthy thing is here committed in the land are not they plaine ravening wolves that would devour hoth body and soul Now you people of England consider where you are and whom you follow and whither you are going and see now who is your fore-fathers and see now how you have walked by tradition and form and have been blinded by a vain profession and outside-worship and so have taken Antichrist for Christ and the Ministers of Antichrist for the Ministers of Christ and have put Darkness for Light and Light for Darkness and your fear towards God hath beene taught by the precepts of men Isa 29.13 and they have taught for Doctrine the traditions of men as I have before proved how many things they have led you in by tradition without any Scripture proofes though to you they have been Oracles of God but now they are searched by the light they are made manifest to be vaine heathennish traditions and thus the blind have led the blind along and many of them into the ditch but yet I say not but the Lord hath had his people in all ages those who was zealous and faithfull and true in what they knew but I know the Priests have been long utter enemies to God and his truth and the tares have long covered the wheat and in the time of ignorance God winked but now the Light shines out of Darkness and now is the separation and gathering the sheep from the goats the wheat from the tares and to convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment because the Prince of the Ayre is judged and now the Lord doth require all every whereto repent and they that love the light will bring their deeds to the light that the light may prove them whether they be wrought in God and it is not to say you wil follow your forefathers and go on the old way for such are they that hate the light and despise it and love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evill and so having drunk old wine doth not straightway desire new for they say the old is better and those are they that cry up the old way and cry away with new wayes and new Lights and this is the condemnation of the world Iohn 3.19 20. light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil Light is now to them who have alwayes been in darkness and truth is new to them who have alwayes lived in deceit but the light is the same as ever it was for it is unchangeable and the truth is the same So people take heed of obstinancy and wilful blindness and love not to be deceived for now the light plainly and clearly shines and here your old way is plainly laid open what it is and from whence it is and also your Priests and though they be more refined within this late years than they was before it is because the Light is more broken forth within this late years so that many is come to see their deceit and declare against them and now they are but the more subtiler and closer deceivers Satan transformed into anothe shape more like the light but still they have no parted with their great benefices add Augmentations or tythes nor the chiefest place of the Assembly nor their long gowns though they are almost ashamed of their colour nor to be called of men Master nor from seeking their gain from their quarter nor from making a trade of other mens words nor from their lying divinations and saying the Lord saith when he never spoke to them nor from stealing the word into their mouth and saying heare the word of the Lord when they never heard his voyce neither turns the wicked ones from their wickedness nor the proud ones from their pride nor the ungodly from their ungodliness nor the prophane from their prophaneness but are stil prophane themselves and stil proud and covetous and stil shelter themselves under the powers of the earth as their fore-fathers the false Prophets alwayes did and stil runs when the Lord never sends them but ordained and set up and upheld by the wil of man therefore they profit not the people at all but only hath gotten a higher notion to feed the notionists withall and so makes more Pharises hypocrites and whited walls and they are more whited over themselves to deceive the world but the pure light is so broken forth that they cannot hide themselves and many sees the deceit of the Priests and their folly is a manifesting even to all so that none need to be deceived by them but the wilful obstinate and blind who love to have it so who love darkness rather than light which is their condemnation the light which reproves them for their evill deeds and therefore they hate it for every one that doth evil hates the light and this is his condemnation and no ignorance here is to be pleaded and these are they that uphold the Priests and the Pharises but all who have desires to see may see and now here is the Priests or the ministers so called of England laid open with the church of England with their form profession and outside worship with their ground and originall and sandy foundation and to be within differing from the Heathen but in name and form and profession therefore down it must though the powers of the earth hath long upheld them more than any other sect so that they have continued so long as they do not a little boast of and thereby say they are of God but let the Magistrate look to his office and let the minister alone with his office and then you shall see the professed ministers of England to be the weakest of all sects and forms but Antichrist hath had his limited time to raigne over the earth but now the King of righteousness is risen with a sword in his hand and by his mighty arm he wil overturn overturn all until it come into his hand Psal 149.8 whose own it is and he wil bind the Kings in chains and the Nobles in fetters of iron and he wil brake the powers of the earth assunder and all who oppose him Rev. 19.20 and the Beast and false Prophet shall

the Spirit and there is no respect of persons but all members of one body of which Christ is head serving one another in love and here is the new Covenant and the Children of the new Covenant who are washed and made clean by the blood of the new Covenant but you are Aliens and strangers from this Covenant who are in your notions and professions therefore all you ignorant people who are led by these deceitfull Priests and Pharisees and disdain to be wiser than your fore-fathers now see who is your fore-fathers and the originall of your Priests and who is your example for you are out of the life and practise of the Apostles and the Children of Light and by their life are judged and condemned for they was mortified to that life which you live in neither did the Ministers of the Gospell Baptise Infants with water neither did they teach for hire or stand up in the chiefest place in the Assembly neither was they called of men Master neither had they the long Gowns neither did they respect any place more than another to teach or preach in except for conveniency Acts 20.17.18 20. for they teached in dwelling houses and by the River sides or in any open place neither did they give to the world Davids Conditions to be sung in a Meeter neither did they give to naturall men and women bread and wine which you call a SACRAMENT neither did they use to Church women as you call it and take money for it neither did they take a Text of other mens words 2 Pet 1.21 and speak from it a divination of their own brain neither did they study what or how to preach but spoke as they was moved by the holy Ghost neither did they teach people the Letter was the Word Iohn 1. or that the Letter was the light but they bore witness of God to be the Word and Christ to be the light neither did they tearh people that they could never be free from sin while they were upon the earth but they preached Jesus Christ the Lamb of God who came to take away the sinnes of the world and to redeeme his people from their sin and to set them in the glorious liberty of the Sons of God that he might redeeme unto himself a pure Church not having spot or wrincle Eph. 5.26 27. or any such thing neither did they teach people that a house of lime and stone was the Church or the house of God neither was they set up or upheld by a Law of man or came by the will of man or stood in the will of man Gal. 1. but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ and from him they received their Message and Command neither was they brought up in humane learning at an University as it is called to learn Arts and Sciences and take degrees from Sir to Batcheller and from Batcheller to Master of Arts from Master to Batcheller of Divinity from Batcheller of Divinity to Doctor of Divinity and had so many severall Gowns but the Pharisees loved these things but the Ministers of Christ was not such but most of them was ignorant and unlearned in that wisdome and learning Mat. 13.11 but unto them it was given to know the mysteries of the Kingdome but it was hid from the world and the wise ones thereof and now the wise ones of the world say that is the meanes ordained of God to come to the knowledge of the truth and that is the originall to wit humane learning and deny all revelation or immediate inspiration and say it is ceased for all which they have no Scripture proofe for the Apostles never taught this Doctrine nor prescribed this way therefore your teachers are such as bring another Doctrine and climbe up another way who are not to be received but shut out for thieves and robbers who shut up the Kingdome of heaven against men Iohn 10.1 and wil neither enter in themselves nor suffer others that would and the Ministers of the Gospel never preached up Hebrew and Greek to be the originall but they preached the word to be the originall neither took tythes Iohn 11. nor ever had a set maintenance or so much a year namely forty fifty or sixty or a hundred or two hundred pounds a year more or less to abide in one place neither sued any at the Law for any such thing but all their care was to make the Gospel free and without charge 1 Cor. 9 1● neither did they take of those that did not own them as denyed them but shaked off the dust of their feet and so left them neither had they an hour-glass to limit themselves by or had a Clark to say Amen but your Priests wil tel you now the Gospell is published and the Churches are gathered and planted Oh! with shame might they speak it what Churches have they gathered here I have before laid down their Church the ground thereof the gathering thereof and the planting thereof and what they are and also the gathering of the Apostles Church and the planting thereof so that here you may see the difference betwixt the one and the other the one a form and tradition and profession the other the life and power and substance and here also you may see what Englands Church which Englands Priests have planted now differs from the heathen and now set Drunkards aside set swearers aside set lyars aside set proud ones aside set covetous ones aside set raylers aside set murderers aside and whoremongers aside set wild ones prophane ones and wanton ones aside set quarrellers and fighters aside and hypocrites dissemblers and persecutors aside and back-biters extortioners and lustfull ones and such like aside and then see where Englands Church is which your Priests have made you believe they have planted and let them eat no where but of their own vinyard and it will make them go about to plant a better vineyard or else to cast off their long Gowns and fall to dig with a spade for some of them have sometimes brought that place of Scripture to uphold their 40 or 50. or 100. or 200. l. by the year where the Apostle saith who planted a vinyard eateth not of the fruit thereof 1 Cor. 19.7 now according to this the vinyard must be planted first before they can eat of the fruit thereof and set those aside that I mentioned as aforesaid for the Apostles cast out suchweeds and wild plants out of their vinyard and then see where their vinyard is which they have plaeted let them only eat of the fruit thereof and not rob others vinyards and this is but equity according to Scriptures example but they are such greedy Doggs as the Prophet Isajah declared Isa 56. against in his time and such ravening wolves and foxes as they live all upon the spoyle and the fruits of others labours and those that hunts them out of their Vinyards and Barns

Disciples of Christ and there have stumbled and cryed out it is hard and straight and goes away sorrowfull I know this is witnessed and answered in many consciences for here every mans faith and works comes to the tryall and so to some the preaching of the Cross is foolishness and to some a stumbling-block but unto them that believe and take it up it is witnessed the power of God unto salvation and such rejoyces in it with Paul who are crucified to the world and the world to them upon whom the ends of the world are come but it would be an easie thing to the flesh if that was all 1 Cor. 10.11 to turn out of one profession into another and out of one form and judgement into another but the way to life is through death And the Legs of the Image which is of Iron is the Beast or the power of the Beast upon which these stand where lies their strength and the feet of the Image which is part of Iron and part of Clay are the Priests and Pharises joyned to the powers of the earth which upholds them for but for that as I said before they are the weakest of all forms and so they are the part of clay and the power that upholds them is that part of Iron which is the strongest of the mettalls and the watcher or the stone cut out of the mountain without hands which strikes at the feet of the Image is the King of righteousness Rev. 19.11 12 13 c. Rev. 17.12 13 14. even he that rides upon the white horse out of whose mouth goes a sharp sword whose name is called the word of God who comes to strike at the powers of the earth even the Kings of the earth who have given their power unto the Beast and joyne in war against the Lamb but the Lamb shall overcome and he will overturn all untill it come into his hand whose own it is Rev. 19.20 Rev. 21.1 and the Beast and the false Prophet that hath thus deceived the nations and all that receive the mark of the Beast and worship his Image shall be taken and cast into the lake that burneth for ever which was of old prepared for them and he wil create new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness where there shal not be war any more but he shall reigne in peace with his Saints for evermore Oh blessed are all they that fight in this Banner and here lay down their lives they shall take them up again with an everlasting Crown and reigne for evermore singing Halelujah to their king to whom be all praise honour power dominion and thanks for evermore Amen And thus shall this great Image be broken to pieces by the Stone cut out of the mountain without hands which wil become a heavy mountain even a burdensome stone to all nations but upon this Mountain shall the true Church stand as a City set on a Hill Mat. 5.14 that cannot be hid and thus I have laid down the ground and end of all sects forms and professions with a blow to this great Image with a weapon which is not carnall but spirituall he that can receive it let him And now concerning the CHURCH which is now gathering and redeeming not by the wil of man nor by the wisdome of many but by the wil and power and spirit of God which according unto his promise he hath poured down upon his Sons and Daughters now in these latter dayes by which we are carried abroad in the power of the Almighty now to declare abroad his powerfull Truth which the Lord hath decreed shall prevail upon the hearts of the people which is glad tydings of great joy unto them that receive it but unto the stubborn and stiff-necked and rebellious tydings of wo and misery and though the messengers of the Gospell are by some rejected reviled reproached scoffed and scorned stocked stoned and imprisoned and despitefully used slandered and abused yet nevertheless blessed be the name of the Lord there are some found worthy and do receive with much joy the messengers of the Gospel Rom. 10.15 so that they know how beautifull are the feet of those that bring glad tydings to the reviving the just witness for God and raising up to life the dead and so the living comes to know and praise the Lord and so the just comes to reign and the wicked comes to be judged and the minde comes to be turned from the darkness to the light to which we do preach in every creature and to the same are made manifest and known to them who do like to retain it in their mindes and from whence we come and the testimony which we do declare but they that do not receive it to them we are not known and therefore are by them esteemed as deceivers and deluders vagabonds and wanderers and the like yet at all this we do not wonder for we read the servant is not greater than his lord for if they have called the Master of the House Belzebub how much more those of his houshould and if they had known him Mat. 10.24 25 they would not have crucified the Lord of glory yet nevertheless we have a witness in every Conscience both in them that believe and in them that perish unto which we do clear our consciences and leave all without excuse by the same which wil answer for us in the mighty day though to the condemnation of those that hate it wherein we have our great joy above all our sufferings but as many as receives this to them he gives Power to bccome the Sons of God and those are they who are led and guided by the one spirit of Truth which the world cannot receive even the Comforter of whom you have heard should come by which they are seperated out of the world redeemed out of the rudiments polutions therof their fashions their customes their words their ways their manners their breeding their fellowip love and friendship their honor and glory and their worship and so are become strangers to the world and so are hated of the world because they are not of the world and the enmity stands betwixt the two seeds but while they was of the world the world loved them but now they are gathered out of the world and seperated from the world and testifies against the world both in words and actions therefore the enmity is raised in the world against the righteous seed and those are they upon whom the ends of the world are come to whom it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdome though to the world in Parables and those are they that are come with a mighty arm and power to turn the world upside down whom the Lord hath gathered and is a gathering out of the world by his owne Spirit of Truth and Love to walk in the way of Truth even the way of Holiness where the Ransomed of the Lord