Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	whole_a	world_n	2,776	4	4.5382	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90388	Babylon the Great described. The city of confusion. In every part whereof Antichrist reigns. Which knoweth not the order and unity of the spirit, but striveth to set up an order and uniformity according to the wisdom of the flesh, in all her territories atd [sic] dominions. Her sins, her judgements. With some plain queries further to discover her, and some considerations to help out of her suburbs, that her inward building may lye the more open to the breath and spirit of the Lord, from which it is to receiv [sic] its consumption and overthrow. Also, an exhortation to the powers of the earth. By Isaac Penington, the younger.	Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679.	1659 (1659)	Wing P1153; Thomason E770_2; ESTC R203128	52,975	64

accepted and his not who disdains and derides the true seed of of life the living heir who hunts abroad for food pleasing to that nature which is to be famished who crucifies the Lord of glory because of his meaness and because he appears not in that way of devotion and holinesse wherein they expect him Neither will he appear so but to overturn all that which ye have set up and to set up that which ye disdain This is the Lords work and it is marvellous in our eyes Now there are several sins which the Spirit of the Lord hath charged Babylon with and which he will reckon with her for and with all that partake with her therein some whereof I may mention As 1. Her deep fornications from the life under a pretence of honouring and worshipping of it Be not offended that I begin with it again seeing it is also mentioned among other particular sins of hers Rev 9. 21. She speaks fair words she calls to have the worship of God set up and a Godly Ministry and the Ordinances of God in a Nation but the thing is not so in the sight of God but in all this she seeks the advancement of her owne whoredoms And this was and is the very way of Antichrists rising he gets into the form he cryes up the form and by the form which he cries up he eats out the power If Antichrist speak directly against the power without first creeping into and setting up a form and crying up that he would soon be detected but under a form and profession of truth he hides himselfe and covers his spirit of enmity and persecution therewith and here he can secretly and safely smite the innocent and fight against that very spirit life and power which he himselfe in his form makes a profession of being subject to And this is the Wolfe in the Sheeps cloathing which by this fair appearance of the sheeps wool on his back covers his ravenous nature from the eyes of the beholders Now there are three wayes of fornication one of which this spirit is allwayes guilty of sometimes of them all 1. By inventing things which the Lord never commanded or adding to that which the Lord did command The mind of man is very busie and ful of inventions and where the heart is touched with devotion and zeal towards God the inventing part exceedingly exerciseth it selfe this way either in imagining and forming somewhat which it thinks may be acceptable to God or in adding to those things which it finds commanded In this way of fornication the popish Church abounds being filled with ceremonies of their own inventing and of additions to such things as are found mentioned in the Scriptures The common Protestants also have been too guilty here 2. By imitating of those things which were commanded to others When a man finds in Scripture the things which some others did or which they were commanded to do and so he is venturing upon them before he feels the leading of that spirit whereby they were led thereunto Now in this he errs from the life he goes without his guid he doth that which was a good thing in others who were led by the Spirit thereto but in him it is fornication This man is a theif and an intruder he steals into the outward knowledge and practise without the inward life and power he intrudes into that into which others were fairly led coming in by the doore for which entrance he also should have waited and not have run on headily of himself This way of fornication the strictest among the Protestants have generally been ensnared in who have run on further and further to search out the purest way of worship the neerest pattern to the primitive times and so have applyed themselves diligently thereto not knowing what they were to wait for to be their guid and give them the enterance And here now thinking themselves to be in the right they have contracted a lofty spirit and held forth their conceptions of the way as the only way and so have lost the meekness and simplicity which was fresh and lively in some of them before which sets them a great way back and makes the enterance into the kingdom very hard to them Whereas if that simplicity and tenderness were fresh in them the Lord would shew great regard to that easily pardoning this their errour and in mercy to them visiting that evil spirit with his judgements which stood nigh them and was the cause of their error But they are grown high they are grown wise they are become confident they know the way already and can maintain it by undenyable arguments as they think to be the way so the Lord with his teachings is at a great distance from them that lying very low in them which the Lord alone will teach 3. By continuing in practices to which they were once led by the Spirit without the immediate presence and life of the Spirit For the whole worship the whole Religion of the Gospel consists in following the Spirit in having the Spirit do all in us and for us Therefore whatsoever a man doth of himself it is out of the life it is in the fornication If a man pray at any time without the Spirit that prayer is fornication and is not either acceptable to God or profitable to himself but grieves the Spirit hurts the life and wounds the soul Now this way of fornication have they especially fallen into who have been acquainted with true leadings and openings of the Spirit and have afterwards run to them for refreshment and so by degrees forgot the Spirit that opened And by this means was that life which was precious and very favoury in the Ranters before they were seduced by the Spirit of deceit into that way of ranting overturned And thus they also who deeply saw into the mistery of whoredoms and into the more inward wayes of fornication above others even they also were deceived with the whores cup and drank afresh of that wine of fornication which the whore very cunningly had new mingled for them and they also are become a reproach to the Inhabitants of Sion who find a living habitation in that Spirit of life which they turned from Now if there be a true eye opened in any in the reading of this how easily and manifestly will he see whoredome whoredome fornication adultery generally in mens Religions practices in their Churches in their Ministeries in their Ordinances in their prayers in their whole course O how think ye doth the eye of the Jealous God behold these things but your eyes who are held captive here cannot see it The God of this world with his mists hath darkned you the great whore with her sorceries hath inchanted you and ye are her slaves ye are drunk with her cup and how can ye judge soberly ei●her of your own estate towards God or concerning your practices in Religion 2. Her notorious blasphemies Having fornicated from the

as good shift as they can without it and then having thus prepared people she brings forth her wares Look ye saith she this is the way thus and thus the Saints practised do thou thus also But thou must receive the Saints spirit before thou either know or worship or thou knowest and worshippest out of it and in that path of sorcery and witchcraft from the life thou shalt never meet with the life but the further thou proceedest therein wilt be more and more entangled from it and become stil a greater and greater enemy to it and more and more in love with the whore and her whorish paths and pleasing wayes of devotion whereby the false spirit in thee is raised up and nourished but thy soul famished for that can be nourished with nothing but the bread of life from the hand of the Spirit but not with words or forms of knowledge or wayes of worship invented or imitated which doe but tickle the understanding or affectionate part of man but reach not the life so that that which should serve the Lord is not there raised but stil bound over with the bond of iniquity 5. Luxury excesse and pleasure She is rich with her Merchandize and she enjoyes it to the ful she takes the pleasure of it She builds costly houses weares rich apparrel fares deliciously read spiritually with the spiritual eye She is rich in knowledge rich in wayes of worship rich in duties rich in religious performances and practices And as she gained these in her own will without the leadings of the life and by her own search and wisdom So she can make use of these in her own will and according to the direction of her own wisdom She can fast when she will give thanks when she will preach when she will pray when she will sing when she will meditate when she will bring forth her knowledge to others when she will Look on the Papists how rich are they in outward buildings in gorgeous Ceremonies in times of worship in wayes of mortification and pennance in fasts in feasts c Look on the several sorts of Protestants they have their riches in their kind too their Churches their buildings their arts their sciences their languages their bodyes of divinity their cases of conscience c. They can open the whole body of Religion resolve all doubts expound all Scriptures c. The great City was cloathed in fine linnen and purple and scarlet and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls Rev 18. 16. And she sate thus on the Throne like a Queen living deliciously and taking her pleasure to which her torment and sorrow afterwards is proportioned ver 7. Yea she had treasure and costlinesse enough to make all her Merchants rich that would trade with her ver 19. What knowledge what delicate food could the wisest or greatest of the earth desire which she had not ready for them see ver 3. ver 9. But Sion all this while hath lain in the dust and been despised She hath had no building no fence but hath been trampled under foot by every unclean beast Her witnesses have been cloathed with sackcloath a garment which all the lofty inhabitants of Babylon disdain her sare hath been hard in the Wildernesse only a little Manm which with fleshly Israel who lust after rich and large knowledg is counted light bread and their souls soon loath it Nor had she this in plenty but only a smal proportion dayly from the hand of the free-giver sufficient to keep life in her in the Wildernesse and to furnish her with strength to give in her testimony against Babylon so far as the Lord saw good to call any of her seed thereunto Now what professor can be willing to fare thus with her at present and to wait for her future riches fulnesse beauty and glory Nay nay they have so long lived richly and fared deliciously in Babylon that they know not how to eat the bread of affliction and drink the water of affliction with sad and desolate Sion And yet this is the only way and passage out of Babylon into Sion That which hath been rich and fat and ful-fed there must become poor and lean and feel hunger and have none of the bread of life administred to it no nor so much as husks neither And in this sad day and state of misery the poor is visited which receives the Gospel and the dead raised which receives the life 6. Worshipping of the Devil All the world wondred after the beast and they worshipped the Dragon Rev 13. 3 4. Now the Dragon is the Devil Rev 20. 2. There is no other worship of God under the new Testament but in Spirit and truth and he that worships otherwise worships not God but that Spirit which teacheth to worship out of Gods Spirit and out of the truth Every prayer is not a prayer to God but only that prayer which is from and in the Spirit Every Ordinance or duty is not an Ordinance of God or a duty performed to God but only that which the Spirit leads into and guids and preserves in This is the way that all the earth have departed from the Lord namely by erring from his Spirit They cry up practises in Religion dutyes ordinances the means the means a Church a Church as the Jews did the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord but they find the Church before they have found the Spirit of the Lord and so they find not the Church that is in God the Church that is of his building but they poor hearts frame up a building as wel as they can according to the pattern they find in the Scriptures and so they are not an habitation for God in the Spirit but are estranged from the life and Spirit in all their worship and so are not found by the Spirit which searcheth them and their worship worshiping of God but the works of their own hands and Devils Rev 9. 20. For that charge stands good against all the inhabitants of Babylon even to the highest and strictest of them all whether in forms or out of forms There are many men who are very zealous and devout in their wayes of worship who were never taught by the Spirit the way of worshipping God nor do at all know how to worship in the Spirit these my soul exceedingly pittyes They have received into their understandings from the letter of the Scripture that God is to be worshipped in Spirit and that God will give his Spirit to them that ask it They have asked and they hope they have the Spirit but poor deceived hearts they know not what spirit they are of nor in what spirit they act nor what spirit they serve and so perish for lack of knowledge the key whereof hath been hid from them Now let such consider There are but two spirits the Spirit of God and the spirit of Satan one of which guid all men in their devotion and

carnal mind or to imitate things which others who had the Spirit did in the Spirit by the command of the Spirit for thee to imitate and practice this without the Spirit is idolatry An invented Church an invented Ministry an invented worship an imitated Church an imitated Ministry an imitated worship without the life without the Spirit all these are the work of mens hands and are idols and all that is performed herein is idolatry Rev 9 20. This is a Religion without life a worship without life a fabrick for idolatry and the whole course of worship and service in it is idolatry For the living God the Lord God of endless life and power is alone worshipped by his Spirit and in the truth of that life which he begets in the heart and all other worship though never so seemingly spiritual is idolatrous Ah professors professors if ye knew how many idol-prayers and services ye have loaded the Lord with and how ye have been whoring from him while ye have seemed to be drawing nigh to him ye would hang down your heads and mou●n For what ever ye have done in the worship of God without the leading and presence of his Spirit it hath been idolatry For the worship of God under the Gospel is in the Spirit and in the truth and required of them who are in the Spirit and in the truth and not of others John 4. 23. for them alone the Lord seeketh to worship and the Lord will admit of none to his worship but such as he seeks And if any else will thrust themselves into his worship it is not accepted nor do they worship the true God but they worship they know not what and their whole state and course here is a state and course of idolatry 4. Sorceryes witcherafts divinations and inchantments I do not mean outward sorceryes or witchcrafts they are but the shadow or figure of the inward mistery of deceit of this black dark spirit which appears as an Angel of light that he migh bewitch and deceive Neither repented they of their sorcer yes Rev 9 21. This false Church this adulterous woman she hath her golden cup and her wine mingled and with this cup she bewitches the eye with this wine she inflames the heart and intoxicates the brain She invents wayes and worships like to the true or she imitates the true wayes and appearances of life and when the poor simple young man is singly seeking after God from some true touches of his life before he comes to know the Spirit of life before he can come to be marryed to the Lamb she comes with her golden cup and with her tempting wine and bewitches the poor heart therewith and so leads it aside into her painted bed Wouldst thou enjoy God saith she wouldst thou worship him aright wouldst thou have fellowship with him Lo here 's the way here 's the Church here are the Ordinances here 's the Ministry here are the means Thou must wait upon God in the use of the means and these are them Did not the Saints formerly do thus did not they meet with God here did not they serve and worship God thus Come thou hither also do what they did enjoy what they enjoyed Yea but thou whorish woman did ever God appoint means wi●hout his Spirit Thou leavest the main yea indeed the only thing behind thee which it selfe alone is accepted and without which nothing is accepted And this is the course of the whore in all her transformings in all her baits in all her temptings she stil leaves the Spirit behind her She may perhaps speak of the Spirit to hide her self the more because the letter of the Scripture is so expresse therein and teach people to look and wait for the Spirit but so as is never to be obtained For he that begins in Religion either to pray or worship or seek the knowledge of God without the Spirit shall never meet with the Spirit so but that way of knowledge religion and worship of his must first be broken down and he become a fool and recieve the Spirit as a fool out of all his religious knowledge and wisdom which he had gathered before and afterwards following the Spirit which is thus received he shall be led into the true wisdom Now mark that which follows ye that have a desire to understand This spirit of deceit this whorish spirit this spirit of divination and witchcraft which by her sorceryes deceived all Nations Rev 18. 23. came forth curiously decked at first with all manner of deceiveableness of unrighteousness It had the exact form of life the true form of Godliness and a lively spirit in it it had the form of knowledge and the form of worship and with these it came to tempt and draw away them from the life and from the power who were in the life and in the power and it did prevail upon such as kept not close to the anointing But after it had overcome and gained the Churches territories then it might safely corrupt the form and so it did and went into multitudes of inventions and fopperies as at this day may be seen amongst the Papists Now these are easily discovered and seen through by any simple plain honest eye upon a little breaking forth of the light Therefore the whorish spirit when she perceives her self found out here she changes her shape and attire and comes back back again by degrees as need requires to the forms of knowledge and worship wherewith she was arrayed when she deceived at first yet stil she is the same and doth this to keep poor simple hearts still in her bands from the life and from the Spirit And thus painted thus decked thus holding forth Scripture-knowledge and Scripture-wayes of worship she is the more subtil witch the more subtil sorceresse and is able to deceive any eye but that which is opened in the light With her Lo here Christ lo there Christ she would deceive the very elect if it were possible but it is not possible for they are taught by the Spirit not to go forth and the anointing within preserves them And he that knoweth not this preservation is bewitched by her and his fear of God is such as may be taught by the precepts of men and practised without the knowledge of the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus which is the Saints rule guide and preservation For as the Apostles were able Ministers not of the letter but of the spirit of the New Testament 3 Cor 3. 6. So they that received their Ministry or that which they ministred received not the letter only but the Spirit and were preserved not by the letter but by the Spirit and were made able to try words things and Spirits not by the letter but by the Spirit But this the whorish spirit is departed from and bewitcheth others from first possessing them that the Spirit is not to be looked for and then perswading them to make

Church is now proved to be the whore those who have been taken in their several transformings for the true Ministers made manifest to be the false Prophets their ordinances and duties but thefts and imitations things which they have stollen from what they read in the Scriptures but never received from the hand of the Spirit The wrath of God the dreadful cup of his fury and jealous indignation for the cause of Sion is to goe over her whole Land Over her Sea and all the Ships that trade therein and all her Merchants with all their precious traffique and merchandise All her doctrins which she hath stollen out of the Scripture all her disciplines all her experiences all her performances even those which are most like the performances of former Saints nay though she may speak the very words of truth yet as they come from her mouth they shall be thrown by and judged and be of no service or esteem in Sion The preciousest of her ware shall be drosse and dung in the Land of life where there shall be no Sea nor no such kind of Merchants traffique or trading for ever Her Earth also shall be made desolate and burnt up with all that is found therein All her settlement shall be shaken all her fruit-trees shall be rooted up all her fruit shall wither rot dye and perish All her conversions of people to God as she calls it shall come to nothing Yea and if she have yet any more dresses or secret coverings wherein she would appear like the Church again and bring forth again yet she and her children shall immediately be discovered her flesh burnt with fire and her children dash'd against the stones Every street in her City every house and idol in every street every room in every house with every inhabitant shall drink of the cup of astonishment and stumble and fal and rise no more Thou hast long triumphed over me O mine enemy because I have fallen and have long sit in darknesse but rejoyce no longer for I shall rise again and the Lord shall be a light unto me but thou shalt rise no more and thy light shall be put out for ever glory to the meeke suffering-Lamb even to him that sits upon the throne of life for ever Her Aire also shall be darkned The Lord shall enlighten my darkness but the light of Babylon shall be darkness for evermore The light of a candle shall be seen no more at all in thee Many lights hath Babylon set up in the dark night but the rising of the Sun of righteousness shall extinguish them all for ever and Babylon shall be shut up in utter darkness Yea all that have retained to Babylon all that have walked by the light of any of her candles that have cryed up any of her false ware for orthodoxe that have given up their names to her under any of her dresses or appearances or that have received any of her marks they shall partake of her shame of her misery and of her torment from the hand of the Lord God Yea her throne also shall be visited and the seat of Antichrist in every heart shall feele the wrath Rise up from the dust and shout forth with joy O captive daughter of Sion who hast long dwelt under oppression in the midst of the daughter of Babylon Behold Babylons King shall be no longer judge over Sion but thy King shall be judge and he shall judge the King of Babylon And let all the powers and potsheards of the earth strive to their utmost yet saith the Lord have I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion and he shal rule in my people and rule over Babylon Therefore O inhabitants of the earth great and smal learn meeknesse learn righteousnesse learn the fear of the Lord Kiss the Son harden not your selves against him calling him a deceiver a blasphemer a seducer an heretick for what ye do to the least that appear in his life ye do to him but hearken to the word of his everlasting Gospel which saith FEAR GOD AND GIVE GLORY TO HIM FOR THE HOVRE OF HIS JVDGEMENT IS COME and ye cannot escape his hand by that fear which is taught by the precepts of men or by traditional knowledge out of the Scriptures nor while ye seek that honour which came out of the earth and is of the earth and to that which is earthly Therefore let your hearts learne to know him and your tongues to confess him and your knees to bow to him which if ye do ye must forget all that knowledge and those confessions and bowings which ye have learned in Babylon for though ye may have confessed some true things yet having learned this in Babylon ye have confessed falsly even as the Jews who said The Lord liveth yet swore falsly Jerem 5. 2. Now consider ye Ministers of several sorts and ye several sorts of professors We may appear great enemies to you because we witness against your wayes and tel you what the end of them will be but are we enemies to you indeed whose desire it is to save you from this great wrath which hath already entred into the earth and seized on some Should we sooth you up and not witness these things to you which we infallibly know how should we answer it to the Lord our God or to your souls when we shal appear before him If we were in your condition would we be content to be let go on and to be overtaken with this great destruction We cannot be silent Ye must be silent but we cannot We know ye must be silent for that which now speaks in you hath been silenced in us and is not to minister the things of God But the Spirir of the Lord must not be quenched in us no notwithstanding all our weaknes but the treasure must issue forth from the earthen vessel for the relief of the poor in spirit who alone receive the Gospel Therefore though ye hate us though ye persecute us though ye speak all manner of evil against us and use us never so hardly yet there is love rooted in our souls towards your souls yea and towards your persons also and having both felt the wrath and tasted of the mercy we cannot but warn you of the one and invite you to the other and O that ye might find a shelter under the shadow of his wings in the stormy season when wrath shall be showred down without mercy And this we cannot but tel you that the several wayes of Religion in the Christian world are but so many several coverings and that that which is covered with them is the whorish spirit which the Spirit of the Lord is hunting who wil strip her and make her naked and she shall appear to have been the whore under them all Now that which lyeth beneath this Spirit in you which is despised and trampled upon as a thing of nought which is burthened and daily slain by your multitudes of