Selected quad for the lemma: diversity_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
diversity_n	church_n	faith_n	unity_n	1,026	5	9.9897	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33459	A treatise of humane reason	Clifford, M. (Martin), d. 1677.	1674 (1674)	Wing C4707; ESTC R21053	22,005	94

to pay unto them As well the Mud by growing hard as the Wax by melting obeys the Sun nor is it less glorified by one than by the other nor are those diversities of powers in the Sun but of capabilities in the object that receives him even so Faith is still properly one though according to the diverse receptions of it it produce not only diverse but contrary effects It is not unobservable that the Unity of the Church of God is compared not to the unity of one Man but of a Man and Woman joyned in Marriage so the Church in general is one with Christ so the Church Militant with the Triumphant and so every particular man with the Church militant Now this Unity is of one part more weak more infirm more ignoble than the other and the Female part in the similitude is the erring part in the Church it self and as that by the bond of Love so this by the bond of Charity is to be accounted one and the same with the other Can any thing be more irrational than to say that a foot when it hath the Gout or a hand when it shakes with the Palsey or a Head when it akes ceases to be a part of the body Sound or sick great or little well or ill shaped are outward considerations to the nature of a Member if it be informed by the same Soul it requires no other condition to make it such Nor can you make this Soul which is required of such necessity to give it life to be a full and entire agreement in all points of Faith of one member with another for then in matters of Belief you make no distinction betwixt sickness and death and the least indisposition of health is a total Corruption Men of the contrary Opinion I foresee cannot chuse but say here that in dangerous and infectious diseases cut off the affected member to save the rest and that he who in a Gangreen spares the Patient is the most hard-hearted and unmerciful Physician and truly if Errours in belief draw so ill a tail af●er them as the Devils and Damnation if they be to be esteemed Gangreens as well in respect of their mortality as their spreading and infectious Nature not only Prudence but Charity it self will put a sword into our hands to cut them off But alas these diseases are not so deadly as the Physicians of the Soul would make them for the exalting of their own reputation and he that would presently lop off an arm if the Gangreen be moving in it would not I hope prescribe the same remedy if it be but infected with an Itch both Evils would extend themselves over the whole body but the one to the perpetual destruction of the being the other only to the temporary loss of the beauty and quiet of it and therefore we rather patiently endure the trouble and vexation of continual scratching which is the true Metaphor for the Controversies of Ecclesiastical Writers with the loathsomness and deformity of so many sores than take away a Member which may possibly hereafter recover its former health and comeliness and is even now without them of great and necessary uses to the whole body Now as for those men who accuse us of pride and vanity for attributing so much to our own Reason making presumption and self-flattery the fountain of this Opinion it is a scandal so false and so ridiculous that without much humility I should disdain to answer it Are those to be accounted proud and tyrannical who being governed by their own Reason are content that all others should enjoy the same liberty or those who whilst they deny that they themselves are ruled by their own understandings would nevertheless have all others to submit to it Is it the voice of Pride to acknowledge that they who differ from me may possibly be in the right or if they mistake may do it without ruine or to say Whosoever is not of my Opinion is in the wrong and whosoever is in the wrong is eternally to perish for his Errour Is it the custome of Presumption to be ready to lay down an Opinion once entertained which is almost as great a Martyrdom as laying down our lives for the Truths sake when cause shall appear for so doing or by claiming to our selves the infallibility of our Party for he is infallible himself who agrees with them that are so to harden our selves into a necessary Opiniastrete These are the common Objections against this good-natur'd and gentle Doctrine But Mr. Hobbs according to his extraordinary wit has found out an odd and extraordinary Argument For in his first Chapter of Religion in the state of Gods natural Empire making every City the supream Judge in matters that belong to Gods worship and to which we ought to render an entire obedience saies thus Otherwise all absurd Opinions of the Nature of God and all ridiculous Ceremonies which have been admitted by any Nations would be seen at once in the same City by which it would happen that every particular person would believe all others to blaspheme or irreverently to behave himself towards God so that it could be said of no man that he worship'd God because no man worships God that is honours him externally but he who does those things by which he may appear to others to honour him But methinks if this be true the several unappealable Tribunals which are set up by Mr. Hobbs in several Cities or Commonwealths are as well destroyed by it as those which are placed by us in every Mans breast for several Cities appointing several kinds of worship or honour consisting in the Opinion not of the worshipper or honourer himself but of the witnesses and spectators of the worship or honour now if he say that when a whole Commonwealth has but one sort of worship none will be witnesses or spectatours of it but those who believe it honourable first as much scandal from the report as from the sight of it and besides the same I say will happen if there were an hundred Religions in one City for still their Religious Congregations were to be made up of men of the same Opinions Again Those who deny that a Commonwealth ought to enforce an unity of Worship upon all its Subjects will likewise as much deny that men ought to think those Worships dishonourable which are not practised by themselves and if he say there is no hindering of this latter he must needs pardon me if I cannot believe that impossible which has been in the world even in a more ridiculous variety than is at present at least in our parts for so many Ages and which is now exercised in some places And if ignorant or malicious Physicians in this violent Feavour did not apply new heats instead of Julips they might by Writing Disputing Preaching living Charitably which is all the former reduce the world in a short time to its ancient healthful and natural temper Lastly