Selected quad for the lemma: head_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
head_n	apostle_n	body_n	church_n	6,947	5	4.8310	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47294	A discourse explaining the nature of edification both of particular persons in private graces, and of the church in unity and peace, and shewing that we must not break unity and publick peace, for supposed means of better edifying in private virtues : in a visitation sermon at Coventry, May 7, 1684 / by John Kettlewell ...	Kettlewell, John, 1653-1695.	1684 (1684)	Wing K365; ESTC R13841	32,265	39

End of Gifts Thus we are told of Knowledge which St. Paul rejects when it is used only to build up and please our selves and is not govern'd by Charity that edifies others 1 Cor. 8. 1. And thus also of Prophesie or Preaching that great Means of Edifying Believers For tho it was then an extraordinary and inspired Gift yet was it to be limited by Publick Ends and the Spirit of Prophecy to be stinted and suppressed when it came unseasonably upon them in the Church and by moving several to speak at the same time bred confusion and Publick disturbance The Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets i. e. to govern them in subserviency to the Churches Peace For God is not the Author of Confusion i. e. he bestows no Gifts to serve that end but of Peace as in all Churches of the Saints 1 Cor. 14. 32 33. And to name no more in this case St. Paul as I have shewed makes Charity that uniting Virtue and sure obstacle of all Schisms the most excellent of all Gifts So that when the gifted Men themselves are zealous to exercise their Gifts or others are zealous to be under them they must both have a higher zeal to shew their Charity and maintain it in the first place Follow after Charity says he again and desire Spiritual Gifts So that in all exercise and pursuit of them they must not fail to follow Love and take it along with them 1 Cor. 14. 1. 2. It is also the great end of those Officers whom God has appointed and empowered and whom he has endowed with these Gifts for the edification of his Church such as Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers For they are given says St. Paul for the perfecting of the Saints and the edifying of the Body of Christ. Eph. 4. 11 12. They are given for the perfecting of the Saints i. e. for the edifying particular Christians in Faith and Practice but yet so as to be given also for the edifying of the Body of Christ till we come in the Unity of the Faith to a perfect Man So that when these Officers seek to edifie particular Believers they must be sure at the same time to secure another end i. e. the edification of the Body and Unity of the Church They are given as Members which shews evidently they must make up but one Body and keep Unity with the other parts Nay they are given as joynts which are the very Ligaments of Union and Compactness These Officers are given as Members of the Church and that shews they must make up one Body and keep Unity with the other parts For the Unity of the Body is to be the care of all the Members especially of those which excel in Gifts or are highest in Dignity and Office Thus it is as the Apostle observes 1 Cor. 12. in the Natural Body It has several Members very different in endowments and destined some to more some to less honourable Offices But because of this difference the more able and honourable Members do not set up for themselves and seek a Separate Profit or applause or make a Schism and divide from others Tho there be many Members says he they all make up but one Body v. 20. And the Eye tho a more Honourable Member cannot separate Interests or say to the Hand tho less Honourable I have no need of thee nor again the Head to the Feet I have no need of you v. 21. And none seek only themselves which would cause Divisions but they have all the same care one for another if one suffer all the rest suffering or if one be honoured all the rest rejoyceing with it that there be no Schism in the Body v. 25 26. And like to this in Natural Bodies is the difference of Officers in the Church Tho that have variety of Gifts as Wisdom Knowledge Prophecy Faith Miracles c. v. 8 9 10. And variety of Officers and Ministers some gifted more some less some higher some lower in Authority than others for there are differences of Administrations v. 5 God having set first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers after that Miracles and Gifts of Healing i. e. Persons endowed with them Helps i. e. some distributing Charity as Deacons or attending on Impotent and Orphans Governments as Bishops and Presbyters Diversities of Tongues v. 28. Tho I say in the Church there be this difference both of Gifts and Ministries yet must not those differently Gifted or Authorized Officers draw different ways and form divided Parties but all aim at the Unity of the whole Body as its Natural Members As all the Members in the Body Natural are one Body so also is Christ the different Ministeries and Members making but one Body in him likewise v. 12 And the several Ministeries as Apostles Prophets c. are all the Body of Christ says he and Members in particular which therefore must cement together and not fall off and divide from each other v. 27 28. And as we have many Members in one Body Natural and yet all these Members though the Body be but one have not one and the same Office more than these Members of the Church So we being many Members and Officers the variety whereof is described v. 6 7 8. are still to be but one Body in Christ and every one Members one of another the difference in Offices giving no more liberty to divide the Church than the same difference in the Natural Members doth to divide the Natural Body Rom. 12. 4 5. Nay these Officers are not set only as Members which as we have seen is enough to prevent Schism but they are set in the Church as joynts which are to compact all the other parts and are the very Bonds and Ligaments of Union The whole Body says St. Paul fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplies Eph. 4. 16. Every joynt i. e. Every Officer and Church-governour for in them the other Members are joynted and united to one another And since they are joynts they must fasten and unite all the other parts together not tear them from each other what they supply says the Apostle must compact the Body and therefore must in no wise divide it and of one make many So that as for the extraordinary Abilities and edifying power of some Pastors and Teachers it must never occasion or head Schisms and Divisions But must be so applied by them and so sought to by others that whilst it labours to build up Faith and Good Life in particular Persons at the same time it build up Unity in the Church and Body of Christ. When an increase is endeavoured by the effectual working in every part that must be in such measure as the Apostle says again as secures the whole Body and consists with Publick Peace and settlement The effectual working in the measure of every part makes increase of the Body to the edifying it self in Love Eph. 4. 16. 4.

as the Great Point whereat they are to aim on all sorts of Christians And here had I time I should urge all Christians to lay out themselves in improving useful Knowledge and obedient Practice and peaceable Inclinations to stir up and cherish in themselves devout Affections and daily renew and strengthen Holy Purposes and express in the whole course of their Lives the power of Godliness in all due submission to their Governours and tender care of the Churches Peace as well as in all Duty towards God and exercise of Private Virtues For this is truly to grow in Grace and be edified Believers I would intreat you my Reverend Brethren in the Name of Christ whose Ministers we are not only to be exemplary and shining Lights in edifying thus your selves but also to be wise and unwearied in your Labours in carrying on this Edification among all others you can any ways work upon especially those committed to your Charge That you would instruct the ignorant with all assiduitie and plainness convince the erroneous with all gentleness and calm arguings yea with all Patience and Perseverance remembring that it is an hard matter and a work of time for a Man to cast off old and rivited Opinions and that any one is troubled enough in being shewed his error without hearing of it in Anger and Invective Speeches and labour to win all Men over to an universal Holiness with your utmosh skill and diligence That you would study to be plain and useful in all your Sermons Prudently bold and impartial in Reproofs warning Men against all even their beloved Vices with such freedom as may keep their Consciences awake and yet with such shew of tenderness and prudent timing of Reproof as may not tempt them to fly out from us endeavouring to reclaim them from Schism which is most mischievous to the Church and which nothing can excuse before God but an honest Ignorance and the pitiableness of unmasterable Prepossessions and from all Prophaneness and Immoralities which without particular Repentance and Amendment are most surely mischievous to their own Souls which have no Plea of Pardonable Ignorance and Involuntariness and for which there is no Excuse at all In all which by the Love of Christ I would beseech you to shew all Wisdom and Diligence and Patience and unwearied Perseverence and compassionate Tenderness and Love for Souls I would in all Christian Love beseech our Dissenting Brethren and be instant with them since it so nearly concerns both the Church and them that they would seek no longer to build up only themselves but to edifie the Church of Christ which they certainly pull down by their Separation In very deed they may have great Means of Private Edification in our Church and need not seek for better in any other Place They will edifie sufficiently by our Sermons as I have noted if they bring along with them prepared Minds and and without them the Jews could not edifie by the Sermons of Christ and his Apostles And if they cannot edifie by the Churches Prayers too the Fault I am sure is not in the Prayers but in themselves For consider Brethren the Prayers we use are not to give Affections to us but to express those we have so that when we come to Pray we must bring them along with us And if we come with an awful sense of God in our Minds with serious and good Purposes and devout Affections we need no better Helps to express them than the Churches Service For therein are sound suitable and well-composed Prayers which extend to all Necessities begging all needful Graces and praying particularly both against Sins and Calamities and requesting outward Blessings and giving Thanks for Receipt of Mercies and interceding for all States and Conditions of Persons and suited to the Great Periods and States of Life In all which they pitch upon the most pertinent and proper things and express them in Grave Plain and Significant Language and are intermixed with Responses to fix Attention and call back wandring Thoughts and are parcell'd into Collects to give Breath and not weary us out with an uninterrupted continuance of intense Affections So that if we bring with us a Heart to desire these things here we have Prayers to suggest and express our Desires of them yea such as whilst they do express are greatly fitted to increase them Thus fit are they to edifie in themselves and this great Numbers of truly Pious and Devout Souls have found and from their own Experience can testifie concerning them And now if any shall still charge such excellent Prayers as unedifying where lies the blame whether in the Deadness of the Prayers or the Indevotion and Unpreparedness of their own Hearts If a Man thinks the most wholesom and substantial Food distasteful or insipid 't is a sign he has a depraved Appetite And if he feels no Devotion in the use of such Pious Wise and Profitable Forms 't is a sign his Soul is sick and that his Spiritual Sense has lost its Taste since the most agreeable Food is no better rellish'd by it He is Indevout not because the Prayers do not suggest Devout things nor cloath them in Proper and Devout Expressions but because he doth not hold his Mind attent or has not prepared his Heart to be affected with them So that if these our Brethren will take the Godly Care and Pains to mend this Fault which is in themselves and come with Reverent and Prepared Minds they will not I believe complain any longer of Deadness and want of Edification in the Churches Prayers which are not only Good but as those who use them without prejudice and with Devotion in their Hearts can testifie very excellent for that purpose But tho they could not so well edifie themselves in them yet by the Love of Christ I would beseech them to seek no longer to build up only themselves but to edifie the Church of Christ which they pull down by their Separation Make Conscience of Peace and Unity Brethren and think them as Necessary things as any others in Religion Remember it is one of the necessary Properties of Charity to have such care of others as keeps out Schism and that without this Charity there is no Benefit in any Services no not in Martyrdom and how then can you account to your selves the throwing that away for any other thing Esteem your selves as Members of the Body and consider that the Body is built up by Unity This Christ has founded upon himself and the Apostles those Master Builders have edified by compacting it into one and how then will you look either upon him or them who pluck asunder what they put together and pull it down by Division The Design of God in all the most Powerful Gifted Ministers is to build up the Body and keep out Schism and what account will you give to him for crossing that Design in making these not only the Heads of Parties but the Pretence

of Separation If you had lived in Corinth when Men separated as you do here to follow more Gifted Guides would not you have returned again to the Unity of the Church upon the Apostle's Admonition And why then should you not do the same now upon this Intimation that his Reproof reaches you as much as it did them The Way of Separation my Brethren is a most unedifying Course for Unity builds up but Schism destroys the Church and all Societies So that if you would edifie the Church which is Christ's Spouse if you will be at any pains to build it up as he was at the pains to die for it it must be in the way of Peace and by submitting to any thing which you think may be done with a safe Conscience as this Plea it self shews you do think in our Case it being against our Way only because as you say less Edifying not because of any Unlawfulness rather than upon account thereof to divide and form separate Parties I would exhort you the Church-wardens to be careful of edifying not only as Private Christians but also in the faithful discharge of your Oaths considering that Perjury has in it a most horrible Guilt and in the Duties of your Places That when you endeavour to suppress Vices you would be impartial and intire in such endeavours considering that all Notorious Swearing Drunkenness and Immoralities as well as staying away from Church and that all staying away out of Irreligion and Carelessness as well as out of Scruples and pretence of Conscience is equally a matter of your Oath and a Point wherein you may do God and the Souls of Men Service The Church-wardens swear indeed to discharge this only according to the best of their Knowledge but then they must use a competent endeavour to know it and this is no warranty at all to affect Ignorance and much less to pass over what they do know in negligence or connivance And many it may be of those that fail would discharge it so far as they know were it not that they are afraid to anger and displease their Neighbours But 't is most unreasonable any Man should be angered with them for performing their Oaths and discharging a Good Conscience Can any Man if he has left the Conscience have left the Modesty withal so far as to desire them to forswear themselves and destroy their own Souls to do him a kindness Or will any Man that is Conscientious and stays from Church out of Conscience take it ill that they should be tender of their Consciences as well as he is of his and dread the horrid Sin of Perjury the greatest wound to a Good Conscience They have no liberty of Connivance being bound up by Oaths so that if any favour and indulgence be expected it must not be from them but at higher Hands And therefore no Man in any Reason or Modesty can be angred at them for acting faithfully according to their Oaths But if any be that Anger at Men for performing Oaths and a Good Conscience is nothing less than frighting them from their Duty and laying Stumbling-Blocks before others and putting the Burden of the Cross on Good Mens Shoulders for good Actions which has so many Woes denounced to it in the Scriptures And as for the Church-wardens themselves when they incur any Displeasure or Malice of Men on this account they may encourage themselves with this that therein they suffer for Righteousness sake and endure the Cross for keeping a Good Conscience wherein they may comfortably commit themselves to God expecting that either his Providence will prevent any ill effects or infinitely make them up to them afterwards because they have thus exposed themselves only to be faithful in his Service FINIS Books lately Printed for Robert Kettlewel at the Hand and Scepter in Fleet-street THe Measures of Christian Obedience or A Discourse shewing what Obedience is indispensably necessary to a regenerate state and what defects are consistent with it for the promotion of Piety and the Peace of troubled Consciences By John Kettlewel Vicar of Coles-hill in Warwick-shire The second Edition with large Additions in Quarto Price bound 8s An Help and Exhortation to worthy Communicating or A Treatise describing the Meaning Worthy Reception Duty and Benefits of the Holy Sacrament and answering the Doubts of Conscience and other reasons which most generally detain Men from it together with suitable Devotions added By John Kettlewel Vicar of Coles-hill in Warwick-shire In Twelves Price bound 3s Two hundred Queries Moderately propounded concerning the Doctrine of the Revolution of Humane Souls and its conformity to the truth of Christianity together with a Dissertation concerning the Pre-existency of Souls In Octavo Price bound 2s 6d * See a Discourse of Profiting by Sermons and another Of Edification * Eph. 3. 19. Heb. 3. 6. 1 Pet. 2. 5. † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theoph. Comment in Eph. 2. v. 21. * Rev. 2● 13. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theoph. in Eph. 2. v. 22. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theoph. in 1 Cor. 8. 1. † Unde utique manifestum est eum qui non est in membris Christi Christianam salutem habere non posse Membra vero Christi per unitatis charitatem sibi copulantur per eandem capiti suo cohaerent quod est Christus Jesus Aug. de Unit. Eccl. cont Ep. Pe●il Donat. c. 2. † It grieves my very Soul to think what pitiful raw and ignorant kind of Preaching is crowded most after in many places for the mere affectionate manner of expression and loudness of the Preachers voice How oft have have I known the ablest Preachers undervalued and an ignorant man by Crowds applauded when I that have been acquainted with the Preacher abincunabulis have known him to be unable well to answer most Questions in the common Catechism Mr. Baxter Cure of Ch. Divis. p 215. And againe The worlds experience puts it past doubt that the generality of the Vulgar Unlearned and Injudicious sort of men do value a man by his Tone and Voice more than for the Judgment and excellency of his matter if not put off by such Advantage Id. Defence of Cure Ch. Divis. p. 108 109. Also Hildersh Lect. 58. on Jo. 4. p. 270. † 1 Cor. 14. 1. 5. † c. 12. v. 25. * Tales etiamsi occisi in confessione nominis fuerint macula istae nec sanguine abluitur Inexpiabilis Gravis culpa Discordiae nec Passione purgatur Ardeant licet flammis ignibus tradite vel objecti Bestiis animas suas ponant non erit illa fidei corona sed Paena Perfidiae c. Occidi talis potest coronari non potest Esse Martyr non potest qui in Ecclesia non est Cyp. de Unit. Eccles. p. 113 114. Ed. Ox. † 1 Cor. 12. 3● * Eph. 4. 4. Col. 3. 15.