Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
cause_n great_a let_v lord_n 2,934 5 3.6705 3 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A23668 A perswasive to peace & unity among Christians, notwithstanding their different apprehensions in lesser things Allen, William, d. 1686. 1672 (1672) Wing A1068; ESTC R38421 62,276 166

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

into and more uncharitable in censuring others as carnal as time-servers as Men of the World only because of the National way and not of theirs though otherwise never so worthy Many of these are growing indeed but it is farther and farther into separation till at last they commence Quakers 4. If you prize your comfort prize harmony and good agreement not among this or that sort or party only but among all that do agree in things of absolute necessity to Salvation to all For those that are living and not dead or benumb'd Members of Christ's Body cannot but be pained with the rending of one Member of that Body from another If one Member suffer all the Members suffer with it 1 Cor. 12.26 Was it not a sad sight to see the Man in Mar. 5.5 cutting himself with stones And an Argument that he was possessed with an evil Spirit And I pray you how much less doleful is it to see the People of God Members of the same Body cutting and wounding themselves For so they do when they cut and wound one another For they are Members one of another Rom. 12.5 Alas how unnatural is this For no Man yet ever hated his own flesh Certainly where thus it is they are under a Spiritual phrenzy and madness and are objects of very great commisseration as well as occasions of great trouble and disturbance in the Church of God But O the Comfort of Love as the Apostle phraseth it Phil. 2.1 and the pleasantness of Peace and the delight of harmony which is like a well-tuned Instrument where there is no jarring Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is for Brethren to dwell together in Unity Psal 133.1 A great part of the comfort of a Christian in this World lyes in his Communion with Saints David said the Saints and excellent were all his delight Psal 16.3 And therefore a breach in this must needs make a breach in a Christians comfort 5. The Christian cause and interest in in the World calls loudly upon all such as would approve themselves to have any Love for it or to be any Friends to it and not betrayers of it to Unite and to close up the Divisions that are among us and not to persist in separating practises or to do any thing that contributes thereto but the contrary One great means of facilitating the belief of the Gospel and of propagating the Christian Religion and of bringing it into reputation in the World is the Union and good agreement of all Christ's followers And therefore he prayed so earnestly as we heard before that they all might be one as he and the Father are one that they also might be perfect in one and all for this end that the World might believe that the Father had sent him Joh. 17.20 21. That Men might believe that he came from God indeed and that he was no Impostor but that his Gospel is the infallible Truth and that Religion which is taught thereby is the only true Religion For Christ's followers are those by whom the Gospel is upheld in the World and held forth and witnessed to the World They hold forth the Word of Life Phil. 2.16 they are the Pillar and ground of the Truth 1 Tim. 3.15 And the more unanimous these are in judgment affection and testimony the stronger and more authentick will their testimony be the more Men will be drawn to consider it and to lay to heart the import of it But the more they are divided about it the more this Gospel this Religion comes under suspition in the minds of many and from their differing about lesser things the ignorant the weak and unbelieving will draw arguments of suspition and hesitation about the greater and be ready to conclude the uncertainty of the whole by their differing about a part especially when their difference rises so high and becomes so notorious and publick as it does when they separate about it This is lamentably experienced not only in the continued infidelity of Jews and Turks but also in that Atheism and Sceptiscism which hath so exceedingly increased upon us since these sad times of Division and Separation among us Our Divisions unsettle the minds unhinge and distract the Souls of many that they know not whom to follow or where to fix and by this means they are exposed to be practised upon by seducers and carried away Your Divisions encourageth seducers and the Adversaries of our Reformed Religion in their designs against you and invites them to attempt upon you So that as long as you keep up your Divisions they will make an advantage of it grow upon you and get ground and by little and little draw away your strength and in conclusion over-master you if by Uniting you prevent them not Your Adversaries know the meaning of divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel if you do not and of those words A Kingdome divided against it self cannot stand It hath been no doubt their practice by all the artifice they could to raise and foment your Divisions as it is still to continue and increase them as designing ruine to the Protestant interest thereby And will you gratifie them herein And become their Instruments to accomplish your own destruction and the destruction of that cause and interest which should be more dear to you then your Lives God forbid And therefore let no lesser interests of worldly advantage be it profit be it honour among Men or reputation among a party tempt you to betray this greater interest of your Lord and Master of Religion and of your Souls Be not herein penny wise and pound foolish Revive not that complaint Phil. 2.21 All seek their own not the things of Jesus Christ Expose not Religion to loss and dammage in the main and in the substance of it by being too tenacious of mutable Circumstances Be not so concerned for your Cabbin as to expose the Ship to sinking through your neglect I have now done Only remember I pray you that the things wherein the divided parties professedly agree are such as carry in them the main of Christianity and will make good Christians indeed if lived up to Whereas the things upon which we divide are but disputable opinions the best of which on the one side or the other will never make a good Christian without the other And you know what account God made of Men's zeal though it were for his own institutions as among the Jews of old when they were greatly guilty of sins against Charity Though Men be never so Orthodox in and zealous for their opinions yet if they have not Charity they are but as sounding brass or a tinkling Cymbal A wise Man will not therefore value himself by that which is proper to such or such a party but by that Charity Humility and Sobriety of mind with other graces which are common to those that are good indeed in each party and by these he will value any man of