Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	heathen_a	let_v	publican_n	2,742	5	10.9981	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67066	The leper, and the leper's house, cleansed being, an exposition upon some part of the XIVth chapter of Leviticus; the mystery of which is explained and applied to the state and condition of a sinner's becoming a saint. With profitable uses and applications. As also, what chapter may be applied to, as to the cleansing or destroying of any particular church of Christ, in and under the time of the gospel. Divided into ten parts. Written for the information of those which seldom concern themselves about the types and shadows of the Old Testament: very useful for all people. By Thomas Worden, author of, The types unvailed.	Worden, Thomas.	1695 (1695)	Wing W3578; ESTC R218033	86,936	103

which shall smart their Backs to recover their Hearts Isa 27. 9. By this therefore the Iniquity of Jacob shall he purged this shall be the Fruit thereof I will take away their Sin Oh! therefore all ye that are the Seeds of Jacob be you thankful to God that he hath given you his Word and will not suffer you to want his Rod they being both appointed in his divine Wisdom as a healing Means against your spiritual Leprosies whenever they shall break out upon you How should the thoughts of this abundant Care of God over you make you to cry out with David Psal 103. 2 3. O bless the Lord O my Soul and all within me forget not his holy Benefits who forgiveth all thy Iniquities and healeth all thy Diseases 2d Vse Let this Truth serve to perswade all the cleansed Lepers of Christ to carry the Matter as they ought to do towards the means of their Cleansing which as you have heard consists of these two things First The Word of Instruction Secondly Of the Rod of Correction First of all See to it that you carry the Matter well towards the Word of Instruction so as not to imprison it in your Heads make not your Heads as too many do a Jayl to the Word there be but too many that will hold the Truth in Unrighteousness who are unwilling that the Light of the Word which is got into their Heads should come down into their Hearts for fear lest its shining Light should become a perplexing Heat within them to prevent that they strive to hold fast the Doors against the Truth as a Man who fears an Arrest bolts fast the Doors of his House against the Bailiffs but if ever you mean co have benefit by the Word so as to be cleansed from your sinful Leprosies you must let the Truth out of Prison and give it a free Passage that it may be glorified in you Let it run from Room to Room from the Head to the Heart and from the Heart to the Will and from the Will to the Conscience and from thence to the Affections that so it might have an uninterrupted Out-let into the Conversation so to do is co carry the Matter as you ought towards the Word of Instruction Secondly Be sure you carry the Matter well towards the Rod of God's Correction when Afflictions do light upon you do not fret repine nor murmur at them as if some sore Evil had hapned to you for your Hurt but rather rejoyce under them that God by them is about to scrape and cleanse you from that Heart-naughtiness which cleaveth to you and if the Rod seems to smart do not say to God as Jonah did Jonah 4. 9. I do well to be angry to Death But rather to say with David Psal 119. 75. In faithfulness hast thou afflicted me And instead of muttering at the length or strength of your Affliction you should reason thus It seems that our Lusts are strong and our Corruptions are rooted fast in us which makes our dear Redeemer to put the greater strength into our Afflictions for where the Disease in a Body is more malignant than ordinary there the Ingredients must be the stronger in the Medicine to work it forth again Christ had rather his People should be preserved in Brine than rot in Honey and you may be sure of this that when Christ by his Rod hath done his Work upon you then may you expect the removal of it from you Isa 4. 4 5. When the Lord shall have washed away the Filth of the Daughter of Zion then will be create upon the Dwelling-places thereof a Cloud and a Smoke by Day and the shining of a flaming Fire by Night and a Glory with a Defence upon it Thus you have seen what the Priest was to do in order to the Cleansing of the Levitical leprous House and how well it shadowed out the Way Instruments and Means which our great Gospel High Priest useth in Cleansing of his Churches from their spiritual Leprosies and Defilements We now come to a second Work which the Priest was to do in order to the preserving of the Levitical House that was infected his Work was to pull out the infected Stones thereof and to put other Stones in the room of them Lev. 14. 40 with 42 Ver. Then the Priest shall command that they take away the Stones in which the Plague is and be shall take other Stones and put them in the place of those Stones and he shall take other Mortar and plaister the House Thus you see if scraping of the Walls wherein the Infection lay would not serve the turn then the infected Stones must be pulled out and cast away into an unclean Place which Action in a most lively manner leads us to behold the sacred Order which our Lord Jesus Christ observes in the Cleansing and keeping Clean of his Gospel-churches who in like manner if the Means he hath already used will not do as his scraping of them by his Word of Instruction and the smarting of them with his Rod of Correction if nothing of this Means will heal then out must the Stones be pluckt in which the Infection lay Quest. But some may ask What or who may we understand by the Stones of Christ's spiritual Houses Ans They are the visible Members of Christ's Churches 1 Yet 2. 5. Ye also as lively Stones are built up a spiritual House an holy Priest-hood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. So that the Meaning will amount to this That if any of these Stones shall be so leprous as that neither the Word nor Rod will procure their Amendment wherein they walk contrary to sound Doctrine either in Judgment or Practice then ought they to be separated from the rest of their Brethren by a Church-excommunication You see how clear this appears in the Tipe the infected Stones were to be pulled out of the House to shew us that the incurable infected Members of Christ's House which Peter calls the Stones thereof must be pulled out from thence also From whence we may observe this Note Doct. That when ordinary Means have been used to reclaim offending Church-members but all to no purpose then is the Church to cast out such corrupt Members by an Act of Excommunication This is such a necessary Rule to the keeping of the Churches clean that it is an established Rule by our Saviour himself Matt. 18. 15 16 17 18. If thy Brother shall trespass against thee go to him and tell him his Fault between thee and him alone and 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 to the Church but if he shall neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an heathen Man and Publican The meaning is let him

be cast out of the Church no more to be communed with than a profest Pagan or the worst of Men unless he Repents which act of Excommunication past upon incurable Offenders you may read at large in the Corinthian-Church 1 Cor. 5. 4 5 Verses And as an Addition to this severe Corinthian Excommunication which was executed upon the Incestuous Person you may read what a strict Charge the Apostle gives to the Members of this Church that if a Brother be known amongst them to be a Fornicator or Covetous or a Railer or an Idolater or a Drunkard or an Extortioner not to keep Company with such a Man Thus you see the Point proved by the Word of God And so we come to the Reason of it The first Reason is drawn from the Will of God God will have it to be so So that a Neglect in the doing of this Work by the Churches it will be grosly inexcusable on their Part The Will of God in this Matter hath been sufficiently revealed to you already both in the Tipe of the Levitical House under the Old Testament and by our Saviour's Words under the New Matt. 18. 15 16 17 18. with 1 Cor. 5. 4 5 Verses And it will be esteemed as our Righteousness I mean a Righteousness of Sincerity if we fulfil the Will of God Matt. 3. 15. Second Reason why the Churches of Christ should cast out incurable leprous Persons from amongst them is Because as by their Sin they have forsaken their God they thereby have given God cause to forsake them therefore ought the Churches to forsake the Company of such too The ground of the Churches Union one with another is that visible Union which they all prosessedly hold to Jesus Christ but when in outward Appearance the Bond of that sacred Relation which any prosess they hold to Christ ceaseth then is their visible Union to Christ dissolved by it Because it was founded and built upon visible Holiness and when visible Holiness ceaseth the Union ceaseth also Therefore whoever they are that oppose the Father and Son as to their Laws and Government ought to be opposed by all the Lord's People Psal 139. 21 22. Do not I hate them that hate thee am not I grieved at them that rise up against thee Yea I hate them with a perfect Hatred I count them my Enemies Third Reason It 's so because God hath promised his peculiar Presence amongst his Churches Matt. 18 20. But he will not be in any such Sence with any Church but upon Terms of their Purity and that they keep themselves clean Houses to him and for his Company Psal 93. 5. Holiness becometh thine House O Lord. Men that return after a religious Profession made to their old sinful Course again are compared to the Sow that was once Washed to Wallow in their old Mire again and as a Dog that licks in his old Vomit And be sure of this that God will not make his abode with dirty Swine and filthy Dogs Therefore if the Churches do not proceed to the Casting out of such Swine and Dogs from amongst them they may expect that God will not continue long amongst them Fourth Reason why Churches ought to Cast out their irrecoverable infected Members is Because otherwise they may be infected with the same Infection themselves according to the old Proverb One scabbed Sheep may spoil a whole Flock And doth not the Apostle say as much 1 Cor. 5. 6. Know ye not that a little Leaven leaveneth the whole Lump Psal 106. 35. They were mingled ●●nong the Heathen and learnt their Works As one rotten Apple may corrupt a whole Heap so may one rotten Member corrupt a whole Church nothing more da●gerous than to be Familiar with Men of corrupt Lives and corrupt Principles for their Words will Eat as doth a Canker saith Paul of whom is Hymeneus and Philetus 2 Tim. 2. 17. If Corab be of a terbulent Spirit himself and over-run with Pride and Envy he quickly draweth no less than two hundred and fifty Princes of the Congregation into his Conspiracy to their utter Ruine Numb 16. 1 2. with the 35 Verse Fifthly and Lastly The Reason why the Churches are to cast out their polluted Members is That those of them who belong to the Election of Grace may thereby be recovered again and made the fitter for the Bulding at last It is a common Saying That a Bone once broken if well set again is stronger in that part than ever it was before This is that merciful End which God aims at towards some who are habitually living Stones in and by their Excommunication To this Purpose it will not be amiss to read the Institution 1 Cor. 5. 4 5. In the Name of our Jesus Christ when ye are gathered together and my Spirit with the Power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a one unto Satan for the Destruction of the Flesh that the Spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord Jesus Mark the word That the Spirit might be saved in the Day of the Lord Jesus that is at the great and last Day when he shall come in flaming Fire to Judge both Quick and Dead So that you see that God cuts off some of his here in this Life that they may not be out off from the Life which is to come he will cast some out of the Church milirant that they may not be cast off from the Church triumphant God delivers the Soul by this Ordinance into the hands of Satan for a time that thereby he might deliver him from the Power of Satan for ever though the Means applied be sharp yet it being blest of God to that end the Effect you see will be good gracious and profitable Oh the depths both of the Riches of the Grace Wisdom and Counsel of God which appears in this thing How unsearchable are his Judgments and his Ways post finding out Thus having given you the Reasons of the Point we next come to Apply it Vse Let what hath been said upon this Head lead us to a Use of Lamentation How may we take up the Apostle's Complaint of old and apply it to our selves Phil. 2. 21. For all seek their own and not the things of Jesus Christ. So how few are there which do truly value the Honour of Jesus Christ in this Matter namely in labouring to keep the spiritual Houses of our Lord clean and pure How have we lost that ancient primitive Spirit in casting out the incestuous Person Where is that sc●aping of the Walls and Pulling out the infected Stones of God's Houses which have their Leprosies visibly upon them How are our faithful Jeremiah's ceased that would put a difference between the Precious and the Vile Jer. 15. 19. Where ●●e our reforming Nehemiah's who so stoutly refused the Sanballars and Tobiah's Men of unsound Principles to build the House of God with them Neh. 2. 19 20. Where are our zealous Pauls who are