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A35528 Of the unity of the church a discourse written a thousand four hundred and thirty years since, in the time of Decius the persecuting emperor / by Cyprian, bishop of Carthage and martyr ; most usefull for allaying the present heats, and reconciling the differences among us. Cyprian, Saint, Bishop of Carthage.; Fell, John, 1625-1686. 1681 (1681) Wing C7714; ESTC R29694 19,253 46

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OF THE Unity of the Church A DISCOURSE WRITTEN A Thousand Four Hundred and Thirty Years Since In the time of Decius the Persecuting Emperor By CYPRIAN Bishop of Carthage and Martyr Most usefull for allaying the present heats and reconciling the differences among us Printed at the THEATER in Oxford 1681. To the READER WHen the Idolatrous violence of heathen Rome under the Emperor Decius attemted the extirpation of the Christian Faith and brought on the seventh bloody persecution Novatian a Presbyter of the Roman Church separated himself from the communion thereof and became leader of a dangerous schism upon suggestion that others were polluted by the conversation of ungodly men and favourd those who were Idolatrous reproching them with the titles of Apostats Idolators and Jews as Pacian informs us Which most unseasonable rupture exceedingly weakned the hands of the Orthodox Christians and as S. Cyprian expresses it became another persecution unto them In this unhappy state of affairs when Idolatry destroied from abroad with all possible violence and Schism divided with like heat and earnestness within the good bishop of Carthage S. Cyprian thought it lay upon him for the privilege of the pope of Rome had not then placed his Church above admonition nor his infallibility set it beyond instruction to endeavor the reducing the dissenters in that Church whose godly labors had very great effect bringing back into communion several of the most eminent partizans in Schism and thereby many others also who by large pretences to godliness and the name of some pious men drawn aside into the party gave reputation to it I need not say how parallel a case we have in the Church of England When we are now assaulted by the plots and machinations of Idolatrous Rome we are molested by domestic dissentions from within upon the same pretences that we are polluted with the conversation of the Vngodly and favor those who are Idolators are lukewarm Professors Popishly affected and protestants in Masquerade It would be most happy if the parallel could be advanc'd yet farther and that as the advices of the holy Bishop and Martyr S. Cyprian were efficacious heretofore they may again be so on the like occasion He being dead above fourteen hundred years since yet speaketh and his discourses cannot be imagin'd to be levened by interest or passion and therefore they are faithfully translated into our English tongue and presented to the view and consideration of Dissenters among us The Christian Church stands under the same terms of duty to God and man as heretofore it did we have as strict obligation to Vnity among our selves Obedience to those who are over us in the Lord as had our first forerunners in the faith We are as forcibly bound to join in the same public Worship as they were and Excommunication especially that which the Schismatic voluntarily executes upon himself will be as penal and as certain a prejudice of the judgment of the great day as it was esteem'd in the primitive Church and 't is declar'd to be by Tertullian And not only the guilt but also the danger of Division is now as great as it was ever heretofore according to the saying of S. Paul If we bite and devour one another we shall be destroied one of another God Almighty grant that we may see at least in this our day the things belonging to our peace before they be hid from our Eies THE Holy Martyr S. CYPRIAN Of the Vnity of the Church WHEREAS our Lord instructing us hath said You are the salt of the earth and commanded us to be simple as to the doing any wrong and yet withall to join wisdom with our simplicity what can be more sit and becoming us then that with watchfull diligence we should endeavour to understand both what are the ambushes of our crafty enemy and how to avoid them that we who have put on Christ the Wisdom of God the Father may not seem destitute of wisdom in securing our salvation for we are not only to fear that persecution which by open force attemts the overthrow of the servants of God T is easie to be cautious where the hazard is manifest The mind is prepared before for the combat where the enemie professes himself Then is he most formidable and most to be took care of when he secretly approches and under a fraudulent pretence of peace by an undiscernible motion steals upon us insensibly from the practice of which methods the Devil has the name of Serpent for such hath bin always his craft and so dark and conceled from all view is the fraud by which he circumvents the sons of men Thus in the infancy of the world he enterprizd upon and by mixing flattery with lies he decieved our unexperienced Forefathers thro their unwary credulity Thus when he attemted our Lord he secretly approched as if by stealth he meant to deceive him but he was immediatly understood and as soon repulsed and vanquishd because he was discoverd and known Whence we may learn to decline the path of the first Adam and pursue the steps of Christ the victorious that we may not again unawars be entangled in the snare of Death but being provident against danger we may at last enjoy the purchased immortality But how can we attain the fruition of this immortality unless we keep those commands of Christ by which death is to be vanquish'd and subdued according to that counsel and saying of his If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments And again Ye are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you Such who are thus minded and resolved he stiles the couragious and stable founded upon a rock of vast bulk and strength firmly compacted and consolidated by an unshaken immovable constancy against all the storms and tempests of the world Whosoever heareth saith he these sayings of mine and doth them I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon a rock And the rain descended and the flouds came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not because it was founded upon a rock It is our duty therefore to regulate our goings by his precepts and to learn and do the things he taught and did for with what face can any one profess he believes in Christ while he neglects to do what he enjoyns to be don or expect to reap the reward of faith who is unfaithful in the observation of his commands It cannot be but such a one must stagger and wander to and fro being hurryed about by the spirit of error like dust driven by the wind Nor shall he by his walking forward ever reach salvation who keeps not the saving way of truth But we must not only take care to decline the Devils more obvious and manifest attemts but those which his subtile craft and fraud hath laid in the dark the more easily to entrap us For what artifice more fine