Selected quad for the lemma: honour_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
honour_n	abundant_a	body_n	member_n	1,662	5	10.0159	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30122	The barren fig tree, or, The doom and downfall of the fruitless professor shewing that the day of grace may be past with him long before his life is ended : the signs also by which such miserable mortals may be known / by John Bunyan ; to which is added his Exhortation to peace and unity among all that fear God.	Bunyan, John, 1628-1688.; Bunyan, John, 1628-1688. Exhortation to peace and unity among all that fear God.	1688 (1688)	Wing B5485; ESTC R29145	71,178	194

every Brother that walks disorderly I cannot but wonder that any should bring this to justify their separation or withdrawing from the Communion of a true though a disorderly Church For 1. Consider that this was not writ for a few Members to withdraw from the Church but for the Church to withdraw from disorderly Members 2. Consider that if any offended Members upon pretence of Error either in Doctrine or Practice should by this Text become Judges as well as Parties of the Grounds and Lawfulness of their Separation Then it will follow that half a store notorious Hereticks or scandalous Livers when they have walked so as they foresee the Church are ready to deal with them and withdraw from them shall anticipate the Church and pretend somewhat against them of which themselves must be Judges and so withdraw from the Church pretending either Heresy or Disorder and so condemn the Church to prevent the disgrace of being condemned by the Church How needful then is it that Men of peaceable Dispositions and not of froward and factious and dividing Spirits be chose to rule the Church of God for fear lest the whole Church be lea●●●ed and sower'd by them Fourthly As there must be care used in chusing Men to rule the Church of God so there must be a consideration had that there are many things darkly laid down in Scripture this will temper our Spirits and make us live in Peace and Unity the more firmly in things in which we agree this will help us to bear one another's Burden and so fulfil the Law of Christ in as much as all things necessary to Salvation and Church-Communion are plainly laid down in Scripture And where things are more darkly laid down we should consider that God intended hereby to stir up our diligence that thereby we might increase our Knowledg and not our Divisions for it may be said of all Discoveries of Truth we have made in the Scriptures as it 's said of the Globe of the Earth that though Men have made great Searches and thereupon great Discoveries yet there is still a terra incognita an unknown Land so there is in the Scriptures for after Men have travelled over them one Age after ano●●●● yet still there is as it were a ●●rra incognita an unknown Tract to put us upon farther search and enquiry and to keep us from censuring and falling out with those who have not yet made the same Discoveries that so we may say with the Psalmist when we reflect upon our short apprehensions of the Mind of God that we have seen an end of all Perfections but God's Commands are exceeding broad and as one observes speaking of the Scriptures that there is a Path in them leading to the Mind of God which lieth a great distance from the Thoughts and Apprehensions of Men. And on the other hand in many other places God sits as it were on the Superficies and the Face of the Letter where he that runs may discern him speaking plainly and no Parable at all How should the consideration of this induce us to a peaceable deportment towards those that differ Fifthly If we would endeavour Peace and Unity we must consider how God hath tempered the Body that so the comely Parts should not separate from the uncomely as having no need of them 1 Cor. 12. 22 23 24 25. There is in Christ's Body and House some Members and Vessels less honourable 2 Tim. 2. 20. And therefore we should not as some now a-days do po●● the more abundant disgrace instead of putting the more abundant honour upon them Did we but consider this we should be covering the Weakness and hiding the Miscarriages of one another because we are all Members one of another and the most useless Member in his place is useful Sixthly If we would live in Peace let us remember our Relations to God as Children to a Father and to each other as Brethren Will not the thoughts that we have one Father quiet us and the thoughts that we are Brethren unite us It was this that made Abraham propose Terms of Peace to Lot Gen. 13. Let there be no Strife saith he between us for we are Brethren And we read of Moses in Acts 7. 26. using this Argument to reconcile those that strove together and to set them at one again Sirs saith he you are Brethren why do ye wrong one another A deep sense of this Relation that we are Brethren wou●d keep us from dividing Seventhly If we would preserve Peace let us mind the Gifts and Graces and Vertues that are in each other let these be more in our eye than their Failings and Imperfections When the Apostle exhorted the Philippians to Peace as a means hereunto that so the Peace of God might rule in their Hearts he tells them Chap. 4. 8. that if there were any Vertue or any Praise they should think of these things While we are always talking and blazoning the Faults of one another and spreading their Infirmities no marvel we are so little in Peace and Charity for as Charity covereth a multitude of Sins so Malice covereth a multitude of Vertues and makes us deal by one another as the Heathen Persecutors dealt with Christians viz. put them in Bears Skins that they might the more readily become a Prey to those Dogs that were designed to devour them Eighthly If we would keep Unity and Peace let us lay aside provoking and dividing Language and forgive those that use them Remember that old Saying Evil Words corrupt good Manners When Men think to carry all afore them with speaking uncharitably and disgracefully of their Brethren or their Opinions may not such be answered as Job answered his unfriendly Visitants Job 6. 25. How forcible are right Words but what do your Arguings reprove How healing are words fitly spoken A word in season how good is it If we would seek Peace let us cloath all our Treaties for Peace with acceptable words and where one word may better accommodate than another let that be used to express Persons or Things by and let us not as some do call the different Practices of our Brethren Will-worship and their different Opinions Doctrines of Devils and the Doctrine of Balaam who taught Fornication c. unless we can plainly and in expressness of Terms prove it so such Language as this hath strangely divided our Spirits and hardened our Hearts one towards another Ninthly If we would live in Peace let us make the best constructions of one another's Words and Actions Charity judgeth the best and it thinks no evil if Words and Actions may be construed to a good sence let us never put a bad construction upon them How much hath the Peace of Christians been broken by an uncharitable Interpretation of Words and Actions as some lay to the charge of others that which they never said so by straining Mens Words others lay to their charge that they never thought Tenthly Be willing to hear and