Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	church_n	communion_n	schism_n	2,211	5	10.6231	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80730	Two sermons preached at Christ-Church in the city of Dublin, before the honourable the General Convenion of Ireland. The first on Prov.11.14 at the first meeting of the said convention, March 2. 1659. The second on Jude v.19. at a publique fast appointed by the said convention, March 9. 1659. By Sem Coxe, Minister of the gospel and pastor at St. Katherines in Dublin.	Coxe, Sem.; Ireland. Parliament.	1660 (1660)	Wing C6726; Thomason E1026_21; ESTC R208752	50,638	72

in a great errour in that point And they that practise this kind of separation do fail grossly in two things 1 They are an hinderance to the conversion of sinners as our Lord sheweth in the scripture now mentioned if he had not conversed with them a● well as preached publiquely unto them they had never been converted and brought home to God 2 They harden sinners against religion and the professors of it by this means too much austerity in this kind driveth men into a dislike of piety and holiness who might be won by a more gentle and meek demeanour toward them Hence it is that the Apostle Paul giveth that grave advice to Timothy 1 Tim. 2. 24-26 The servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snares of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will By what hath been said we see that it is sinfull Separation for a man to refuse necessary company with those who are unregenerate that it is a great fault and much to be condemned And therefore the Apostle giveth a notable caveat concerning it 1 Cor. 5. 9-11 I wrote saith he unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world c. But now I have written unto you for the explanation of my meaning wherein I was not rightly understood not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such an one no not to eat Where he plainly teacheth That we ought to estrange our selves more from such as have made a profession and afterward do fall into soul offences than from such as never did yet come up to such an holy profession of the gospel This is the first branch of sinfull Separation II. Those also are guilty in this kind that forsake family society upon this pretence that their relations are unconverted And I the rather mention this because it is a great fault of some persons in these our days aswell as in former times Against this practise it is that the Apostle speaketh expresly 1 Cor. 7. 10-15 Let not the wife depart or separate from her husband c. This kind of separation is in it self a great sin and doth occasion manifold mischiefs and inconveniences III. They also are to be accounted very faulty in this matter and have justly deserved the name of Separatists who separate themselves from the solemn Assemblies and Ordinances of Christ and particularly from that great sealing Ordinance of the Lords supper because there are some that communicate with them whom they judg to be unworthy communicants and graceless men Before I speak to this point I must lay down and constantly affirm these two received and well grounded truths lest I should be misunderstood in what I am to say 1 I say That persons grosly ignorant or notoriously ungodly and prophane are not fit to receive the Lords Supper these are not able to discern the Lords body but eat and drink unworthily and so are guilty of the body and bloud-of the Lord as the Apostle informeth us 1 Gor. 11. 27. 29. Such persons eat and drink their own damnation 2 I affirm That it is the duty of the Officers of the Church to exclude from the Lords Supper all such as shall appear unto them to be unduly qualified for the receiving of that Ordinance and in particular this belongeth to the Minister to put a difference between holy and unholy and between unclean and clean and accordingly to admit or exclude from ordinances They were the Priests that thrust Uzziah out of the temple when the leprosie appeared upon him 2. Chr. 26. 19. 20. From these two undoubted truths which we profess and fear not to practise it is apparent that we allow not promiscuous or mixt communion but that it is a false report and slander that the devil and the sectaries have cast upon us to advance their own interest thereby And if it were lawful to boast we may say that our Ordinances are kept as pure from mixt communion as theirs are blessed be God Yet though all this be true it must be constantly received and maintained as a great truth That private Christians may not therefore separate themselves from the Church or decline any of Christs Ordinances because they see some persons admitted to participate with them in those Ordinances whom themselves look upon as ungodly men and That it is a foul fault thus to separate There were great disorders in the Church of Corinth in those persons who came unto the Table of the Lord 1. Cor. 11. 21 22. one came to it hungry and another drunken greater miscarriages then are to be found amongst our communicants when they come to the Sacrament and the Apostle chideth them sharply about those things What saith he have ye not houses to eat and to drink in or despise ye the Church of God and shame them that have not What shall I say to you shall I praise you in this I praise you not Their disorder called aloud for reformation and the Apostle took a great deal of pains to reform it by reducing them to the first institution But you find not that he gives any commandment or allowance to any of the members of that Church to withdraw themselves and separate from communion in that Ordinance with the Church No he commends them for this that they who were godly did not separate but came still together into one place Verse 20 and he sharply reproveth their schisms and divisions Chap. 3. 3. And there is great reason why Christians should be very cautious in this case For 1 Such persons who may by a private Christian or Christians be judged to be unworthy to participate in that Ordinance may yet be worthy and so accounted of in the judgment of those that are Officers of the Church whose judgment is to be preferred before any private opinion of the best men It may be said of a private Christian in this case as the Hebrew said to Moses Acts 7. 27. Who made thee a ruler and a judg 2 Though the persons be indeed unworthy yet their unworthiness may be unknown unto the Officers of the Church And it is the duty of private Christians to make known such offenders to those that are over them in the Lord that so their reformation may be endeavoured and not therefore to decline and separate from the Ordinances This is the standing rule Dic ecclesiae Mat. 18. 17. He saith not If thou be offended fall off from the Church but acquaint the Church that so the scandal in thy way may be removed 3 Those that rule in the Church may suspect that such or such

twelve And Luk. 22. 14. And when the hour was come he sare down c. He would not fail in the very time of this Ordinance though a whole Church digressed from it Though Christians are bound to hold communion with the Church in which they live so far as they walk up to the rule yet in any pollution that is in that Church they need not nor ought to be partakers and such a frame of spirit doth well become every Christian This therefore justifieth the practise of such as flie from the errours that are in the Church not daring to meddle with any impositions which are not of the Lords appointment therein though they may not nor dare separate from her VII Lastly After due admonition given to scandalous sinners who live in the Church if the admonition be rejected and the sinners prove obstinate the Church must separate them and cast them out from her communion This lesson our Lord Jesus teacheth Mat. 18. 15-17 If thy brother shall trespass against thee go and tell him his fault between thee and him if he shall hear thee thou hast gained thy brother But if he will not hear thee then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established And if he shall neglect to hear them tell it unto the Church but if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican In which Text our Saviour doth not teach a Non-communion as some call it viz. that when we see Church members to offend and there is in the Church no help to be found for the redress thereof we must therefore decline communion with that Church immediately but he teacheth an Excommunion viz. that such as offend are to be cast out of that Church in case they do not reform upon admonition seasonably and frequently given according to that in Tit. 3. 10 A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject cast him off separate him from your communion This Separation is approvable Thus far you see we may and must be Separatists the Holy Ghost enjoyneth it we sin if we be not so and they that cast a reproach upon any man for this kind of Separation are in a great fault and it will be sin unto them And the Apostle in the 2 Cor. Chan. 6. giveth five reasons to persuade to such a Separation as this when he commandeth to come out from sinners and to be separate 1 Because there can be no agreement between the people of God and such sins and sinners This he proveth and confirmeth by propounding five Questions Verse 14 15 16. The first is What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness The second What communion hath light with darkness The third What concord hath Christ with Belial The fourth What part hath he that believeth with an infidel The fifth What agreement hath the Temple of God with idols As if he should have said These things are diametrally contrary the one to the other they are separated asunder and so must ye be separated from sin and sinners 2 Because the people of God are the house or Temple of God ver 16. For ye are the temple of God And it is unmeet that the temple of God should be defiled by having any society with sin and sinners therefore be ye separate 3 Because God dwelleth in this temple ibid. As God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them And it is treachery yea high treason to lodg any rebels within or near the habitation of this great King therefore separate 4 Because this God who dwelleth in this temple is the living God ibid. Ye are the temple of the living God so as he taketh notice of our behaviour and his spirit is grieved at this as a great miscarriage if we hold any communion with such and therefore we must separate from them 5 Because the people of God are an holy covenant engaged people God is their God and they are his people ibid. I will be their God and they shall be my people According to that which is written Deut. ●6 17 18. Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God to walk in his ways and to keep his statutes and his commandments and judgments and to hearken unto his voice And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people And therefore the people of God ought warily to avoid and separate from such things or persons as may endanger a breach of that love and amity that is between God and them Observe then that I speak not against all kind of Separation there is a Separation that is lawfull holy and strictly enjoyned us in the word of God Second Yet there is an unholy unlawful Separation an ungodly Separatist condemned in the unerring word of God You see that the Apostle Jude condemneth these false Teachers of whom he speaketh in this Epistle for their Separation amongst other vices that they were guilty of and sets a black mark of infamy upon them These be they saith he mark observe them well follow them not who separate themselves Let us therefore make enquiry by the written word of God who these Separatists are that we may know them and avoid them And I shall demonstrate that in six particulars I. Such may justly be challenged as guilty of sinfull Separation who deline as unlawfull all necessary society with them whom they conceive to be unregenerate so as they will not eat or drink or converse with them at all Such were the Pharisees of whom mention is frequently made in the New Testament and they were called Pharisees from the Hebrew Pharash separavit For though that word be metaphorically expounded to declare or to interprete yet properly it signifieth to divide or separate as the learned observe and so the Greeks used to call the Pharisees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Separatists to this Epiphanius agreeth Dicebantur Pharisaei eò quòd separati essent ab aliis propter spontaneam superfluam religionem apud ipsos receptam Now one main point of their religion lay in this thing That they refused to eat or drink or come into the company of any whom they looked upon as sinners and blamed all those that followed not their example in this matter as you find in that speech of theirs to the Disciples Mat. 9. 11. Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners But our Lord Jesus refused not to converse with them upon just occasion as appeareth by his defense in the twelfth and thirteenth verses But when Jesus heard that he said unto them They that be whole need not a Physician but they that are sick But go ye and learn what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice for I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance By which answer our Lord Jesus Christ doth fully declare unto us that the Pharisees were

persons are unworthy and yet there can be no full proof made of it The opinion or knowledg of one private Christian may not be a sufficient proof in some cases but there must be two or three witnesses And where full proof is wanting there can be no warrant for a judicial proceeding nor sufficient ground to account such person or persons unworthy of that Ordinance Charity will surmise no evil without sufficient proof made When Paul was coming the third time to Corinth to reform their disorder in the Ordinances of Christ he telleth them what course he would follow in that work 2 Cor. 13. 1. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established he would not take upon him to judg by hear-say and bare reports but by full and clear proof which ought to be laid down as a pattern in all Church censures 4 Although it fall out so that full proof may be had of a fault committed by a Church-member and that the Officers of the congregation may be fully persuaded that that person hath done such a thing as might justly exclude him from the Lotds table if he do not repent of it yet it may be there hath not been an opportunity as yet to hear the witnesses and to deal with him by private Admonition whereupon repentance may follow so evidently that there may be no occasion to proceed to suspension much less can there then be an occasion for a private Christian to withdraw communion in Ordinances upon that account It were as I conceive preposterous and against the rule to suspend any Church-member from the sealing Ordinances before he be admonished of his fault and have shewed his obstinacie Or it may be that such a mans repentance aswell as his fault is sufficiently known to the Governors of the Church though not to every private member and if his repentance be known to them and they be satisfied therewith that should give much content to others in diverse cases Paul supposed that his testimony of the repentance of Onesimus was a sufficient ground of satisfaction to Philemon as is evident in the epistle to Philemon 5. Admit that the fault be notorious and evidently proved and that those who are in authority in the Church do sinfully connive at it and cast not out the offender according to his merit as it seemeth to have been in the church of Corinth yet that is no sound ground to forsake communion with that church No private christian needs to fear that he shall be accessory to that mans sin or receive hurt by participation in that Ordinance whereunto the other is admitted No it is the fault of children to refuse the bread which their father offereth to them because dogs are suffered to be in the room and snatch at the childrens portion there would appear more of surliness than of discretion and godly wisdom in that The Apostles or some of them at least did participate with Judas in a sealing Ordinance after he was detected to be the traitor as appeareth by comparing John 13. 23-27 with Mat. 26. 23-26 This rejection of Ordinances this separation from them upon supposition that unworthy persons are admitted is to be severely censured as proud censoriousness and uncharitable rashness which God abhorreth notwithstanding that pretence of piety that is put upon it These are they that say Stand by thy self and come not near us for we are bolier than thou But mark what a character the Lord giveth of them Isa 65. 5. These are a smoak in my nose they are a greater offense to God than the stinking snuff of a candle can be to any of us It becometh true Christians to judg themselves and to suspect themselves rather than other men and to sweep at their own dores first Our Lord giveth excellent advice to us all Mat. 7. 1 2. Judg not that ye be not judged for with what judgment ye judg ye shall be judged and with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again It comes to pass frequently that the weakest Christians are most censorious and those that are strongest are most charitable I say not but that it is the part of a godly man to mourn if he see those that are unworthy persons admitted to sealing Ordinances but he may not therefore separate from those Ordinances whilst they remain Gods Ordinances This is an occasion of much hurt and mischief in the church of God and it were more safe for Christians to keep themselves within their due bounds and limits It was the sin of the people to abhor the offering of the Lord 1 Sam. 2. 17. although those that did officiate therein were very lewd men That is the third branch of sinful separation IIII Those are also in a great measure guilty of hateful Separation that decline private christian communion with the godly in such duties as are of common concernment to all that fear God as prayer reading the word conference c. They that feared God spake often one to another Mal. 3. 16. Yet even herein there is singular caution to be used For when such private meetings are made the anvil whereon to hammer out treason and sedition in the land and the snare and bait to draw men into separation from our publique Congregations then whatsoever glorious gloss may be put upon them they cease to be such meetings wherein Christ will be present such assemblies every good foul ought to withdraw from and they ought to be supprested by the civil Magistrate Such seditious meetings I am sure have many of those been of late years which have been said to be religious and in them many of our late miseries have been first plotted and contrived But when Gods people do meet onely for edification and to build up themselves in their most holy faith with prayer in the holy Ghost and do not intermeddle to the disadvantage of Church or Common-wealth but pray for and seek the general good of both as the people of God did in these nations forty and fifty years ago then such meetings are to be countenanced and frequented And for want of this holy private communion of Saints it cometh to pass that beleevers lose much comfort cool in their love to God and his people and rust in their graces much more then formerly From this private Christian communion we must not separate V They that separate from the church of Christ from that particular congregation whereof they are members for some errour which they conceive to be therein and gather themselves into other societies distinct therefrom are without doubt guilty of sinful Separation in an high degree It is no light thing to give a bill of divorce to the Spouse of Christ to count her for an harlot in whose womb we have been conceived who hath brought us forth for God and nourished us till we were brought up and all because she hath some spots and blemishes upon her This course is against the