Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	apostle_n	faith_n	work_n	3,971	5	6.0202	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

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

thousands Use 2. Hence there ariseth just ground of humiliation before the Lord this day in that this error of separation from the Church of Christ is so overspred these dominions and over this island particularly I told you in the begining of my discourse that this is the Achan the Pest of our lands and that I would clear that unto you which I shall now do but with much brevity that so our hearts may be the more deeply humbled in the presence of God The abomination of this sin of separating from the Church and Ordinances of Christ will appear in these four particulars 1 Separation is the most fruitfull sin of many others it is a very comprehensive evil the womb out of which issues many prodigious monsters If I should begin to shew its rise and growth it may be it would prove offensive to some here present and it would be beside my purpose Observe therefore onely its of spring hence arise many of the heresies and abominations that are how among us we are pestered with Anabaptists Seekers Quakers and the like sorts of vipers but they all began in Separation Men first run out of the Church and then they may be of any religion they please Our late experience doth abundantly confirm this And how indeed should it be otherwise when men forsake the true Church what hindreth but they may erect any Church that they shall devise The fruitfulness of it maketh it the fouler sin 2 Separation is a sin that many of Gods own people as we do conceive in the judgment of charity are smutted and tainted with And the sins of Gods children are aggravated by many more circumstances than the sins of other men are Israel hath sinned was that which God affirmeth to Joshua as a great ground of humiliation Chap. 7. 11. The children of God sin against greater outward light and means of grace than others do they sin against the inward light of the spirit of God they sin against greater mercies than others do they sin against covenants vows and strong resolutions This makes their sin of separation much the greater and more to be lamented in the presence of God it is the sin his own people 3 Separation is a greater sin by far than otherwise it would be in this respect because it is maintained countenanced and preached up as if it were no sin at all but a duty This kind withdrawing from Church and Ordinances is held forth as a great gospel truth by many Satans temptation was the more dangerous and the womans transgression the greater when the forbidden fruit was eaten of under the shew and appearance of good Gen. 3. 5 6. It is a great sin to call that good that is evil in it self God cannot abide it when men are so stupid as to call darkness light This also calleth for mourning 4 Separation is that leaven which leaveneth the whole lump it is that canker or gangren that will if God prevent it not eat out the heart of all goodness as the Apostle speaketh of the doctrine of Hymeneus and Philetus 2 Tim. 2. 17. It is indeed a dangerous sign of a carnal man though he may be cloathed in a religious habit The Apostle propoundeth this question to those that studied to make a rent at Corinth and to those that were led by them 1 Cor. 3. 3 4. Are ye not carnal As if he had said I much suspect your grace and doubt that you are persons carnal sensual having not the spirit because ye run thus into separations and divisions in the Church We have now done with the second use Use 3. If separation be such an old dangerous spreading and contaminating evil then here is exhortation in two branches I. If this be so great an evil then I beg that you flie separation and also those that would entice you to it take heed of being drawn from that Church in which you have been born and brought up for God Meddle you not with them that are given to change their Church It becometh us all to be of Davids mind who professeth Psal 119. 113. I hate vain thoughts It is in the original more emphatical ramos or summitates arborum I hate to be like the upper branches of a tree that are bowed and shaken with every wind to be a weather-cock in religion without ballast changing and turning with every turn of the times O this is an hateful thing indeed Now if you would be preserved from this evil that you may not be seduced into separation I shal prescribe unto you five helps which are all laid down by the Apostle Jude in the two verses that do succeed our Text viz. Verse 20. 21. But ye beloved building up your selves on your most holy faith praying in the holy Ghost keep your selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life 1 He that would be kept from separation must lay a good foundation of faith in his heart This is cleerly hinted in these words Building up your selves in your most holy faith there must first be a foundation laid before we can rear a building Faith is this foundation to build upon building on your faith Faith in Christ Jesus will keep a man from seduction Vpon this rock saith our Savour Mat. 16 18. viz. upon my self whom thou hast now confessed I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it neither Satan nor seducers shall be able to lead him from the church who hath true faith fixed upon Christ faith will conquer 2 When you have digged deep and are come to the foundation you must build upon it unto perfection Building up your selves on your most holy faith He that would stand against wind and weather and not be shaken and rent from the church must be sure to build upon the foundation and upon that onely If a man build partly upon the foundation and partly beside it his building will settle and fall or if a man leave earth and rubish between the foundation and the building the fabrick will come to naught The cause why the house stood when the rain descended and the flouds came and the windes blew and beat upon it was because it was founded upon a rock Mat. 7. 24. 25. On the otherside The cause why the other house stood not but fell when the rain descended and the flouds came and the winds blew and beat upon it was because it was built upon the sand and not upon the foundation Verse 26. 27. The more that a man laboureth for perfection of faith to be made compleat in Christ the more shall he be kept from being a Separatist 3 You must pray fervently for your perfeverance in church-state and fellowship Praying in the holy Ghost that is in the strength of the spirit of God by his motion and inspiration and not with the mouth onely as hypocrites use to do it is not lip labour that

plagues Those that will needs sin together must also suffer together this is a just and righteous thing with God Both these reasons should mightily prevail with us to hate idolatry and to avoid and separate from them that are idolaters in that worship and service they pretend to do to God And this is the second branch of lawfull Separation III The godly must separate from all conjugal society with idolaters they may not contract marriage with them at all This is that separation spoken of Ezra Chap. 10. 11. Separate your selves from the people of the land and from the strange wives and also Deut. 7. 3. Thou shalt not make marriages with them thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son Of this kind of Separation it is that the Apostle speaketh in the 2. Cor. 6. 17. if you compare it with the verses precedent Be ye not unequally yoaked with unbeleevers Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing It is utterly unlawful for the true worshippers of God to soder in affinity with such as are idolaters for them that profess the true Protestant religion to marry with heathens or with Papists Yet this that I say in this matter is to be understood with those Cautions that the Apostle giveth in this case 1 Cor. 7. 10-15 For if it be so that any one that is a beleever hath contracted marriage with one that is an unbeleever or heathen this difference of religion is not a sufficient cause of divorce or separation in the dayes of the Gospel Though it be a sin to marry with them of a false religion and so a just cause of humiliation yet after marriage this is not a just ground for a divorce IIII It is a duty appertaining to the servants of God to separate themselves from the unnecessary civil society of all wicked men even of all such as walk and act in an ungodly manner This was Jacobs care Gen. 49. 6. O my soul come not thou into their secret unto their assembly mine honour be not thou united He resolveth to have nothing to do unnecessarily with cruel and merciless men though they were his near relations If godly men come into ungodly company without good occasion so to do they may ruine themselves thereby For Solomon informeth us Prov. 13. 20. that a companion of fools shall be destroyed This is a most certain truth that the godly may come into the company of such as are most wicked and prophane and converse with them upon just occasions viz. 1 If necessary civil affairs whether publique or private do call for it The Apostle forbiddeth not to forbear company altogether with fornicators or covetous or extortioners or idolaters for then we must needs go out of the world 1 Cor. 5. 10. Doubtless it is lawful for any good Christian whether Minister or other to converse with the worst of men upon a necessary civil account and none ought to pass a rash judgment against his neighbour for so doing 2 If a beleever have any cause to hope that he may win another to God or to the love of religion by companying with him he may also company with him lawfully upon that account Of this the Apostle speaketh 1 Pet. 2. 12. Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles that whereas they speak against you as evil doers they may by your good works which they shall behold glorify God in the day of their visitation You see then that it is lawful and convenient for the godly upon some occasions to converse with the worst of men But if such like special occasions do not intervene then the company of the ungodly must be quite forborn and a separation made from their society which is the fourth branch of an holy and lawful Separation V When the children of God have a just cause to be in the company of ungodly men they must always be sure of this that they do Separate from their wicked courses they must hold no eommunion with them in their sins though they do converse with them that is a thing utterly unlawful It is a thing absolutely required of all beleevers 1 Tim. 5. 12. that they be not partakers with other mens sins A man truely gracious will let such a watch over himself when he is necessitated to be among ungodly men that he will not give the least approbation or countenance to any of their lewd and ungracious courses and it is a great sin to keep them company when they are acting their wicked prancks This the godly are oft advised to beware Prov. 23. 20. Be not among wine-bibbers among riotous eaters of flesh Come not among them when they are committing their sins meddle not with them in their drunkenness and gluttony We must ever be such Separatists VI. The godly may and must separate from the pollutions of any Church they live in It is one thing to separate from the Church of God and another to separate from the defilements that are in the Church If that a Church be corrupted so as any of Gods Institutions be broken and his standing rules transgressed and swerved from it concerneth all godly men to take heed to themselves that they be not also defiled A notable pattern and example of this we have in our Lord Jesus Christ himself It was one of Gods statute Laws concerning the Passeover that it should be kept every year on the fourteenth day of the first month at even as you may see in its first institution Exod. 12. 6. Ye shall keep up the paschal Lamb until the fourteenth day of the same that is to say of the first Verse 2. month and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening And so the Lord speaketh expresly Levit. 23. 5. In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lords passeover But the Church of the Jews did transgress this in regard of the circumstance of time For they had made it a tradition among them that when the Passeover fell upon the evening before their ordinary Sabbath they did put off the keeping of the Passeover unto the Sabbath day and so kept the Passeover upon their ordinary Sabbath performing both duties under one Thus it fell out in that year wherein our Lord was crucified as appeareth by comparing Mat. 26. 20. with Mar. 15. 42. and John 18. 28. where you may note that the Jews kept the Passeover that evening the Lord Jesus was crucified at which time began their ordinary sabbath Yet the Lord Jesus who held close communion with the Church of the Jews declineth their practise in that very circumstance of time in which they failed and observeth the Passeover in its proper season appointed by the Lord and this is carefully observed by the Evangelists Mat. 26. 20. Now when the evening was come he sate down with the