Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
enemy_n	sleep_v	sow_v	tare_n	1,022	5	12.2153	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39931	A gospel-church, or, God's holy temple opened wherein is shewed from the scriptures ... / by Stephen Ford ...	Ford, Stephen, d. 1694.	1675 (1675)	Wing F1510; ESTC R23167	209,792	396

holy ends of God in desiring Communion with them As 1 To enjoy God and hold communion with him in all his ordinances and appointments 2 To worship God there in Spirit and Truth and give him your homage and service in his house 3 To shew and declare your subjection and obedience unto him and to make a publique and open profession of him before men 4 To receive of his Grace to enrich your Souls with his fulnesse and to be sealed by his Spirit unto the day of your Redemption 5 That you may walk orderly and beautifully and shine as Lights in the Churches and in the world before Saints and Sinners 6 That you may be established in the Truth live under the watch and care of Christs Ministers and of fellow Members that by their inspection and faithful dealings with you you may be kept from and brought back from sin to God by their wise Reproofs and holy Instructions 7 That you may yield up your selves in Universal obedience unto Christ and do all things whatsoever he commands you that you may have the right use and enjoyment of all your purchased priviledges and be secured against the Gates of Hell Are these and such like ends in your minds and hearts in your walking in Church-fellowship and can you find the forementioned mark or signs of Grace in you in measure though not so clearly and fully as you would Why then I may boldly and humbly tell you that you are fitted and qualified for Church membership that you are called and invited into the house and Temple of God and that you are indispensibly bound to answer to the call of God and say behold Lord we come unto thee and will freely without delay thankfully without grudying humbly without pride with mourning and rejoycing enter into thy Courts joyn with thy Churches and grow into a holy Temple to thy Praise and Honour We will no longer slight our great priviledges neglect our great and indispensible Duties or walk disorderly as we have done but we do now willingly come and offer our selves unto thee and to enter into a solemn engagement to be thine to walk in all thy ways and do the things that please thee I say that Church priviledges are yours the doors of Gods house stand open for you Christ stands at the door and waites for you he invites you to come in sit down at his Table and you shall be most freely and heartily welcome to your Lord and his people And know that it is your unavoidable and indispensible duty to enter into his house 5. Quest Ought a Church of Christ especially the Guides thereof to let in any that professe the name and waies of Jesus Christ and offer themselves unto them or ought they not to try and prove them first whether they are rightly qualified by the grace of Christ for full membership with his people if so then what are the qualifications they should look for and find in them for their own satisfaction which they admit into the holy Temple of God Answ 1. It is certain that all that professe the name of Christ and his waies ought not may not be admitted into the Lords holy Temples because many if not the most of them are very Ignorant of Christ and his ways and notorious scandalous in their Lives as sad and wofull experience shews 2. It hath been I think sufficiently proved before that not any but real-hearted sound Believers are fit materials for a house and holy Temple of God and if so then a Church or the Guides thereof may not admit any into it but such only as they judge by the word of God and their own charitable discretion are such indeed although 't is possible they may be Hypocrites but they may not admit them if they groundedly know or think them to be such For if they should admit such against their knowledge they betray their Trusts and defile Christs holy Temple by taking in such persons as they know or ought to know Christ would not have there And that they ought to try and prove persons that they may know their worthinesse and fitnesse before they admit them in is clear in Acts 9.26 and because Christ hath committed the keys of his Temple unto them to take in and put out according to his will and Appointment Moreover he blames Some for suffering Tares if meant of persons to be sowen in his Kingdome and not endeavouring to prevent and keep them out Matth. 13.25 says he while men Slept the Enemy came and sowed Tares that is while such as should have kept the Temple Gates shut against them to have kept them out were negligent and carelesse of their duty for they should have done all they could to have kept out the Devils seed for what agreement hath the Seed of the Serpent with the Seed of the Woman the Rebells with the true Subjects of Christ or as Paul saith what concord hath Christ with Belial 2 Cor. 6.14 3. As to satisfying qualifications in persons desiring admission into Churches I say that when they have been well tryed and are found in the Judgment of Charity such as Christ hath received and competently qualifyed for Church membership they ought to receive them in the Lord Rom. 14.1 Rom. 15.7 1. If they can make forth and declare unto the Church their at least seemingly Regeneration Conversion Repentance and Faith in Christ their knowledge of Christ and his ways Laws and Ordinances of their lost and perishing state in Sin and by reason of it and their sincere desires and Resolutions to become the Lords and to walk with him unto all well-pleasing in all his ways 2. If they are sound in the Faith of the Gospel I mean in the chief and principal Doctrines and Truths thereof although they may be ignorant of or err in lesser matters If they have some distinct knowledge and Faith concerning these and other such Truths and matters contained in the word of God As of the state and condition wherein man was first created How he lost that holy and blessed State and the misery he brought himself and all his posterity into thereby Concerning themselves that they are by nature Children of wrath dead in Sins and Trespasses and condemned to eternal Death That they are Enemies to and at enmity with God That they have neither will nor power by nature either to will or do that which they ought and is pleasing to God That they have forsaken God and are under the Curse of the Law and that they are the Children Subjects and Servants of the Devil World and their own Lusts That God left not all men in this State and condition but provided an all-sufficient Remedy namely Jesus Christ and that by an Everlasting Covenant entered into with Christ in the behalf of men before the Foundation of the World Tit. 1.2 2 Tim. 1.9 Prov. 8. and that in pursuance thereof he elected and gave some to Christ that he might

Churches but who ought to be there Not who thought themselves worthy and crept in of their own accord but who Christ called there and came in in obedience to him I am sure they were not welcome to Christ or his People the Apostles wishes such were Cut off Gal. 5.12 and exhorts Believers to withdraw from them that walked disorderly 2 Thes 3.6 and to turn away from them 2 Tim. 3.5 to mark and avoid them Rom. 16.17 and the Lord Jesus gives in charge to his Churches that they prosecute his Laws against disorderly Church-members even to the casting of them out of the Church in case they repent not Mat. 18.17 and threatens the evil Members of the Churches of Sardis Laodicea severely Rev. 3. and therefore surely if they were Hypocrites he would not have found them there to dishonour his name and grieve his People as they did And as for the instances of the Tares and bad fishes brought into the Kingdome of Heaven no more can be said for the justifing them in what they did than of the other before minded and answered and the same Answer will refell these two likewise But if you mind it you will find that the Tares there if meant of Persons and not of doctrines which is a question are said to be the Children of the wicked one and he that sowed them was the Devil vers 38 39. So that these Tares or Members were not of Jesus Christ his bringing there but of the Devils and who will say then that they ought to be there Will Jesus Christ have the Devils hand and help to enlarge his Church or will he accept and approve of such persons for his Church-members to help forward the building of his holy Temple for the habitation of God that are chosen and sent by the Devil As for others it is expresly said vers 37. that he that soweth the good Seed is the Son of Man and in opposition thereunto it is said his Enemy the Devil sowed Tares in the same field which was hurtfull unto the good seed Therefore as I said before that Hypocrites are not called nor sent by Jesus Christ into Churches but by the Devil which is a good Reason against their being there And to what purpose are they there but to grattify the Devil and their own Lusts to afflict and grieve if not corrupt the good Seed to dishonour Christ and encrease their own misery As to the good and bad Fishes there need no more be said concerning them then that Hypocrites and rotten hearted men will croud into the Churches of Christ amongst his good People but they ought not so to do for they are not called to come because they are of Satans Kingdome of darknesse and have no part or portion with the true Children of God and heirs of his Kingdome So that I think there hath been enough said as to that namely that none ought to be Members of Christs particular Churches but real Believers And now I should proceed to speak of the form of a particular congregated Church of Christ but that I think it necessary to speak a little unto two Questions first 5. Quest What fitness or qualifications should Believers find in themselves for their own satisfaction before they enter into fellowship become Church-members or joyn themselves as members to some Church of Christ Answ First they should have a well grounded hope of their Regeneration or new state in Christ that they have seen their need of Christ singled him out by grace and chosen him upon his own Terms that they have received a measure of his anointings Grace Spirit light and Life and that they are accepted in the Lord Jesus that they have put off the Old Man and put on the New and are renewed in measure by the word and Spirit after the Image of Christ I say they should have at least a well grounded hope For many gratious hearts have such a hope that have no assurance who hold their Title and claim to Christ and Heaven but had never the seal of it on their hearts or if they ever had it they have by their own carelesness lost it and so have only hope left And this indeed will hold their Souls in Life by the Spirit though not in comfort and satisfaction Heb. 6.19 and the Apostle tells such that they are saved by hope Rom. 8.24 and that they are the Children of hope which puts them upon that great and Noble Work of purifying themselves as he is pure 1 Joh. 3.3 and stirs them up to perfect holynesse in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 As faith that precedes it doth Act. 15.9 This Hope is not a dead but a lively hope it is not idle but operative and working it is active and laborious in purging out of Lusts and getting in of Holyness and Grace 1 Pet. 1.3 1 Joh. 3.3 as a sound special Faith is Jam. 2.18 And the Apostle tells us that it is an Anchor of the Soul both sure and stedfast Heb. 6.19 so when God promises mercies unto his People he tells them that he will give them a door of hope Hos 2.15 which hope is Christ in them Phil. 1.27 And therefore if you have this Hope you are in a happy State and ought to joyn your selves unto some Church of Christ give up your selves in universal obedience to Christ and wait in a house of God for his Seal and the full assurance of his love to your Souls But more particularly and briefly I desire you to examine your selves and see how you can answer these few Interrogatories try your selves effectually and throughly by them 1. Can you say indeed that you do seriously and heartily desire chuse and endeavour to see and be more deeply and powerfully convinced of your own vileness and sinfulness of your own weaknesse and wretchednesse and of your wants and nothingnesse and that in order to your deep and Spiritual humiliation and self debasing that you may be more vile in your own eyes and Jesus Christ and free grace more precious high and honourable more sweet and desirable that your hearts may be melted into Godly sorrow and that you may be moved thereby to abhorr your selves and repent in Dust and Ashes Job 42.5 6. 2. Can you say that you do seriously and heartily desire chuse and endeavour to believe in Christ and to receive and accept him upon his own Terms such as you find in Mark 8.34 Luke 14.26 27 28. and elsewhere Do you so desire chuse and endeavour to have him with his Yoke and Cross Matth. 11.28 29. and do you so Deny your selves of your sinful self and righteous self and worldly self and supposed able and powerful self and all other carnal and Spiritual selfs that Christ may only be exalted that you may be nothing in your lustification and Salvation but that Jesus Christ and free Grace may be all and in all things Col. 3.11 Phil. 3.7 8. do you desire chuse