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A67684
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Divine rules for Christian unity opened and urged a sermon / preach'd in the Cathedral Church of Norwich, October 16, 1692 by Erasmus Warren, rector of Worlington in Suffolk.
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Warren, Erasmus.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing W964; ESTC R28908
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20,645
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38
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is or can be compleatly Pure Some kind of Drossiness cannot chuse but be Inherent in it as being indeed of the very Nature of it And can it consist with Reason to pull a living Body to pieces to rinse its Bowels from such an Impurity as is rather Natural than Noxious Especially if we consider that when all is done Natural Feculence will still be necessary and remain inseparable unless the Body wherein it rests be clarified from it by some mighty Change And when the Church has undergone the Change she hopes for she shall then be a Pure Church indeed For she shall be Glorious not having Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing but shall be Holy and without Blemish Eph. 5.27 But this being the Privilege of her Triumphant State it is not to be look'd for in any part of her while it is Militant As to forbearing Punishment Care is taken And I own it is my Hearts desire and I nothing doubt but it is Yours also and even meer good Nature without the additional Tenderness of Religion cannot methinks but prompt all to wish it That Penal Laws may never touch the Harmless but have the Dint of their Severity turn'd upon the Obstinate Penal Inflictions must be improper to lay upon Men of good Minds and hurtless Principles that Innocently go on in wrong ways meerly because they scruple the Right For such harsh Methods instead of inward Satisfaction the thing they want do only give them outward Trouble And as for honest well-meaning Christians who are no whit leavened with Perverseness or Contumacy and whose Fault lyes wholly in their Vnderstanding Poor Souls they are Unhappy enough in erronious Consciences and need not be punish'd too because they are miserable Again therefore I wish that all who err in Simplicity may escape with Impunity and none may smart for what they cannot help Nor needs this Forbearance which is supposed to make all Cautious Discrimination betwixt the Tender-conscienc'd and others be a Ground or Occasion of Jealousie to the State For where GOD sees it impartially exercised He will find the Government so like his Own that his watchful Providence will take due Care that such a Lenity shall rather establish than weaken or overthrow it And so I pass to the sixth Rule Live in Christian Love The Church of CHRIST in this very Chapter is compared to an Humane Body and elsewhere in Scripture to a Stone Building Now as such a Body must have Sinews to knit its Joynts and such a Building must have Mortar to cement its Stones So the Christian Church must have Christian Love to unite its Members And therefore the Apostle for preserving Unity in the sixth place exhorts us to Amity Yea he gives a broad Hint that even Toleration or Forbearance it self will no farther promote Unity than as it proceeds from this Principle by beseeching us to forbear one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Love Love is the very Life and Soul and Essence of Unity so that where the one is not the other cannot be As there can be no Fire where there is no Heat and no Day where there is no Light As there can be no Musick where there is no Harmony and no Beauty where there is no Symetry so there can be no Unity where there is no Love Look what the Root is to the Tree or the Foundation to the House What the Basis is to the Pillar or the Center to the Circle And the same is Love to Unity It cannot be produced it cannot be preserved it cannot be increased or perfected without it Here then let us do our part again Let us Love as Brethren as we are counsel'd from on high and let Brotherly Love continue Let us be knit together in Love and be rooted and grounded in Love and walk in Love as CHRIST hath loved us And truly though Unity were not the Effect of this yet who would not chuse and study and strive to live in Love considering how delectable a thing it is Delectable I must own beyond my Ability of describing it Only this let me say It is an inexhaustible Fountain of singular Pleasure A Spring of secret but high Contentment and a Source from whence flows the incessant Streams of a noble Satisfaction There is nothing more Soft nothing more Sweet nothing more Generous and throughly gratifying amongst vertuous Passions than an exalted refined universal Love And therefore GOD has injoyn'd it and made it the second great Commandment like the First not only to give us matter of Duty but to lay a Foundation of Happiness for us And truly did we love all the World as our selves and did they love us so again according to the Tenour of the Divine Law how could we be Happier here upon Earth or what could raise us nearer to Heaven Where I dare confidently affirm that the choicest part of the Saints Felicity lyes in their Love to GOD and one another In Compliance therefore with the Holy Direction let us be kindly affectioned one to another and let us provoke one another to love Let our Love be of the right kind without Dissimulation And let it be of a just Extent reaching to all without Exception Only it must be freer and more fervent to some than it is to others according to the Grounds and Measures of a wise Distinction And since our LORD bids us love our Enemies that any are such must be no Bar to our Affections Yea there is reason enough for that Love besides His Command For if we be his unfeigned Disciples the worst our Enemies can do us be they never so bad is but to benefit us To give us occasion to act our Duties and exercise our Virtues and so to improve our Graces here and our Glories for ever And have we not sufficient reason to love the Instruments of our so great Good Yea should any prove such Enemies to us as to persecute us to the very Death they would be but our eternal Benefactors For even while they kill us their kindly cruel Hands would help to set a Crown of Life upon our Heads and a Brighter too than other Saints shall wear So that indeed we ought not only to love our Enemies but to love them for the very Injuries they think to do us for even by them they advantage us mightily and while they design us nothing but Mischief they do obliquely and beyond their Intention serve our best Interests I note but one Rule more which is included in the Text and it is this If you would preserve Unity be careful to maintain Peace As that helps to tye us fast together in one so without it we inevitably fall into Divisions as a Sheaf of Corn falls asunder that has no Band. And therefore the Apostle as a true Promoter of the Unity of the SPIRIT injoyns us to keep it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Bond of Peace And great reason we have to do so there being no
one single Duty which GOD has charged upon us more strictly For in the Holy Writings what is more forcibly recommended more peremptorily required more frequently and also more earnestly inculcated than Peace Seek Peace and pursue it Have Peace one with another Be at Peace amongst your selves Follow Peace with all Men. If it be possible as much as lyeth in you live peaceably with all Men. So that it is not enough for us to accept Peace when it is offered to embrace it when we meet it to hold it when we have it But when we have it not we must seek it when it flees from us we must follow it and never stop till we overtake it Though the Terms be hard yet if they be reasonable if they be lawful and so possible Our LORD commands us not to refuse them His Gospel binds us to submit to them and that with all Men. Be they who they will what they will if they be but Men we must if possible live peaceably with them And no wonder such solemn Injunctions from Heaven should be laid upon Christians to maintain Peace when it is a thing not only transcendently Excellent in it self but attended with many inestimable Benefits I beg leave to mention but a few of them It defends from many Sins He that is not at Peace with his Brother is ready to be Angry with him without a Cause To revile him and call him Racha or Fool To be reveng'd on him for his Oversights or petty Injuries To quarrel him and fight him as the unhappy Custom is it may be to kill him at least to Hate him whereby in St. John's account he is a Murtherer though he kill him not Peace is a good Defensative from these Evils and from many other which now I cannot reckon up It is a mighty Friend to Justice Then had thy Peace been as a River and thy Righteousness as the Waves of the Sea says the Prophet Isaiah 48.18 Where Peace flows as a River there Righteousness swells like an Ocean But if the River of Peace be dried or damn'd up the Sea of Justice will be at a low Ebb. It fits us for the Enjoyment of GOD's propitious Presence Live in Peace and the GOD of Love and Peace shall be with you 2 Cor. 13.11 But He that suffered not David to build Him a Temple because he was a Man of Blood will never make them Temples for Himself to reside in that are not Children of Peace For GOD's sake therefore live in Peace that so ye may be Happy in the Fruition of his Presence I might go on and add it is an Help to Duty a Safeguard to Truth a Furtherance of Love the Fewel of Joy a Support of Order an Encouragement of Learning Arts and Sciences the thing which Seasons and Sweetens all Accommodations and crowns the highest Prosperity with Happiness But I give only one Hint more of its Worth It is a main piece of our future Recompence and a Branch of the Eternal Worlds Felicity To every Man that worketh good there shall be Glory Honour and Peace Rom. 2.10 Not only a peaceful Mind and Conscience but a peaceful State and Condition above As there shall be no Difference there betwixt GOD and Man by reason of a perfect Reconcilement and no Feuds betwixt a Man and Himself by reason of absolute Contentment So there shall be no Discord betwixt one Man and another by reason of a thorough Composure of all things and an entire Pacification on all sides fixing the whole Body of Blessed ones in a sweet Agreement As our Sins shall there be turned into Innocence our Corruptions into Holiness our Sorrows into Joys and our Troubles into Triumphs So all our various Enmities and Dissentions shall exspire into endless Peace and Quietness O then let us in some measure live now as we shall do hereafter Live here upon Earth for one short Moment as we must do in the Heavenly Regions for ever if at last we be worthy to inhabit them I now conclude with one Direction which if well observed will conduce effectually to the settling of an Happy Peace amongst us Let us be sincerely Religious The Wisdom that is from above is first Pure and then Peaceable James 3.17 And where this Wisdom which is true Religion prevails in us and gets the Ascendent over all evil Principles it will certainly Impregnate us with its own noble Properties making us not only Pure in our Nature but pacifick in our Temper And nothing indeed can be more powerful either to procure or establish Peace than true Religion For the truly Religious mortifie their Lusts from whence come Wars and Strifes amongst us both Naturally and Judicially at once they subdue their Passions bridle their Tongues bear Affronts suffer Injuries shun Debates obey Magistrates submit to Ministers hate Divisions love Concord offend none oblige all So that would every one of us be sincere Christians no farther Care need be taken for Peace It would as certainly be the Result or Product of our Religion as it is the Law and end of the same And as true Religion would make for Peace verifying its Character of first Pure and then Peaceable so GOD would see that Peace should be the Effect or Consequent of it When a Mans ways please the LORD He maketh even his Enemies to be at Peace with him Prov. 16.7 So that were our ways sincerely Religious and pleasing to the LORD Peace and we should quickly meet and after that should never part our very Enemies would be unable to ravish it from us Then it would not matter in the least how Numerous Malicious Potent Politick Furious Implacable our Adversaries are or at any time prove for they should all be at Peace with us If they would not chuse to be so GOD would make them to be so and would some way or other bind them to the Peace and bind us up in it And when once we are bound up in the Bond of Peace how fast shall we stand in the Unity of the SPIRIT and how securely shall we keep it Provided that is that we always endeavour it And as it behoves us all to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diligently and strenuously endeavouring to keep it by all good Means So particularly by the Use of those good Rules now delivered Which as I dare not so You must not call my Rules For though I have opened and urged them yet as has been noted they are the Rules of St. Paul and so the Divine Rules of GOD Himself Of that GOD Who maketh Men to be of one Mind in an House Of that GOD who best knows by what Rules and Means to make the whole Christian Church be as once it was of one Heart and one Soul Acts 4.32 Which that it may be let us humbly implore it at the hands of GOD Let us make it a daily Petition in our private Devotions And as often as we can let us joyn with the Church in her Publick Prayers and supplicate for Unity with becoming Earnestness Where she prays in the Litany That it may please GOD to give to all Nations Vnity Peace and Concord And in the Collect for all Conditions of Men That all who profess and call themselves Christians may be led into the way of Truth and hold the Faith in Vnity of Spirit in the Bond of Peace and in Righteousness of Life And in the Prayer for the church-Church-Militant That GOD would inspire continually the Vniversal Church with the Spirit of Truth Vnity and Concord and grant that all they that do confess his Holy Name may agree in the Truth of his Holy Word and live in Vnity and Godly Love Where our Church I say prays thus for Vnity let us humbly and heartily joyn in the Petitions pouring them out with an elevated Zeal and the highest Streins of a most intense and vehement Fervency And at present let us beg the invaluable Blessing in part of that Collect which is the last save one in the Office for the late solemn Monthly Fast Which I could wish all Holy Supplicants that are Lovers of Unity would constantly use in their devout Retirements and Addresses to Heaven till such time as they either compose or meet with a more pregnant Form O GOD the Father of our LORD JESUS CHRIST our only SAVIOUR the Prince of Peace look down in much Pity and Compassion upon this Church and Nation Give us Grace seriously to lay to Heart the great Dangers we are in by our unhappy Divisions Take away all Hatred and Prejudice and whatsoever else may hinder us from Godly Union and Concord That as there is but one Body and one SPIRIT and one hope of our Calling one LORD one Faith one Baptism one GOD and Father of us all So we may henceforth be all of one Heart and of one Soul united in one Holy Bond of Truth and Peace of Faith and Charity and may with one Mind and one Mouth Glorifie Thee O GOD through JESUS CHRIST our LORD Amen FINIS