Selected quad for the lemma: state_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
state_n	church_n	peace_n	unity_n	1,654	5	9.0086	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26356	The care of the peace of the church, the duty of every Christian in a discourse upon Psalm 122, 6, wherein the main pleas, for separation are examined and the true causes thereof shewed ... / by Tho. Adderley ... ; to which is annexed a letter, briefly shewing the great danger and sinfulness of popery, written to a young gentleman (a Roman Catholick) in Warwick-shire.	Adderley, Thomas, b. 1648 or 9.	1679 (1679)	Wing A509; ESTC R20224	39,054	53

entertainment to the Saviour of the world to the Lord of Life and to the Prince of Glory Let us call for fire to come down from Heaven to consume them Are they Jews let them then starve says the one are they Samaritans Burn them says the other This is the fruit and sowre fruit indeed of dissention in Religion and this is the spirit the Diabolical spirit indeed it makes men commonly of And now ye your selves shall judge whether it 's possible for that State or Kingdom to continue long in peace and safety where there is great difference in Religion Certainly there can be but little peace since it renders men thus malicious and inveterate one against another If some of the Bells of Aaron be rung backwards and made to jangle it portends no less then a combustion in the Kingdom Turbata religio politiam turbat is another saying of the learned Lypsius a saying which I am confident the Papists make great reckoning of do but divide them in their opinions about Religion and then the Kingdom must needs fall into disorder and confusion If there be no peace in the Church there is but little to be hoped for in the State And therefore for this reason also it will highly concern us all to endeavor the safety and to pray for the peace of the Church because the peace and safety of the State or Kingdom doth very much depend upon it Again 3ly and ult It will appear to be a duty highly concerning and much incumbent upon c. because of the blessed and happy effects and fruits of it Had we but peace and unity and an amicable agreement amongst our selves we need not then so much fear all the cunningst plots of the Jesuits that are hatched in the conclave of Rome and acted by their Emissaries here who as our Saviour Christ says of the Scribes and Pharisees do compass Sea and Land to make a Proselite and afterwards make him seven fold more the Child of the Devil than he was before And as we need not then fear the Plots of the Jesuits had we but unity amongst our selves so should we most readily and willingly and without the least compulsion and constraint lay aside all private meetings and unlawful assemblies We should all go to the house of God as friends Psal 55.5 and meet as the Apostles did at the descent of the holy Ghost upon them Acts 2. with one accord in one place Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is says holy David Brethren to dwell together in unity Certainly were but the blessed effects of peace and the pleasant fruits of unity once tasted and throughly relished by us it would prove effectual to the provoking of all men to lay aside all those little picks and quarrels and indeed most unreasonable complaints which they make against our Church and to unite against that common enemy who so vigorously endeavors the ruin of it but knows withal that there is no speedier way whereby this can possibly be effected then by fomenting those little differences that are amongst us and by blowing up those little sparks into a flame which we alas of our selves are too too apt to kindle As the concurrence of multitude of Heresies and mutability in Religion as a late Learned and judicious writer observes was a means to bring in Antichrist so the present differences and animosities amongst our selves fomented by the Factors of Rome will have no small tendency to bring back the infallible Chair For people as he very well goes on to prove it will accept of a quiet harbor though upon hard conditions rather then be afflicted with continual tossings in Stormy Seas 'T is natural to man to covet any quiet Land rather then to dwell with the terror of a continual Earth-Quake How mightily that party hath encreased upon us of late years I think I need not because the former and the very late endeavors of the higher powers to suppress them do sufficiently tell us And from whence the encrease of that party doth undoubtedly proceed I have according to the judgment of all our late writers now shew'd you And if God Almighty should again suffer that common enemy to enter in at the breaches we have made amongst our selves as a just and deserved punishment upon us for it then to use the words of the Learned Doctor Stillingfleet should we begin to wish that we had soon known the difference between the reasonable commands of our own Church and the intollerable Tyranny of a forreign and usurped power between the soft and gentle hands of a mother and the iron sinews of an Executioner betwixt the utmost rigor of our Laws and the least and mildest of an inquisition None can ever be sufficiently sensible of the blessed effects of the peace of the Church as those that are deprived of it Peace indeed is better known by want than use and is thought most worthy the having by them who have it not Let but your fancy therefore lead you for a while from the consideration of your own present peace into some Kingdom rouling in Blood and into some Church infested with Persecution Ask them who are divided by the Sword which are rosting at the flames torturing upon the Rack such as the Apostle St. Paul speaks of in the 11. Chap. of his Epistle to the Hebrews As are forced to wander about in Sheep-skins and goat-skins to hide themselves in Dens and Caves of the Earth being destitute afflicted and tormented Ask such as those I say what a blessed and happy a State it is to live in the Fellowship and Communion of such a Church as ours is wherein the word of God is truly and sincerely not rashly and unpremeditately Preached the Sacraments rightly and duly and not irreverently given and received where there is nothing enjoyned or commanded but what is altogether agreeable with the prescribed rule and canon of holy Scripture If you should ask them this question I am perswaded that they would be ready to return you an answer in those words of holy David Psalm 144.15 Happy are the People that are in such a case or else in those words of our Saviour Christ Luke 19.42 That you did but know in this your day the things that do belong unto your peace before it be too late before they are hid from your eyes And thus you see the several reasons why it doth so highly concern us all to endeavor the safety and to pray for the peace of the Church 1. because of those many enemies which lay seige against it endeavoring to disturb it's peace and utterly to overthrow it 2ly because the peace and safety of the State and Kingdom doth very much depend upon it And lastly because of the blessed effects and happy fruits of peace Let us now see what uses may be made of this point Use 1. First then Is it so that it is a duty of so great concernment to us all to endeavor the

to be made said a Reverend Prelate and Martyr of our Church but that the eye of the Prophet was so clear that he look'd quite through the Temple of Jerusalem which was but a Figure or Shadow of that which was to come and saw Christ his Church and Kingdom at the end of it So that this Psalm hath a great reach and it is of a very large extent it reaches not only to the Jew but also to the Christian not only to the Temple but also to the Church So that we now as well as they then may and must and ought to pray for the peace of our Jerusalem By Jerusalem here is indeed meant as well the State or body of the Kingdom as the body of the Church For after the Ark of God was placed there it became not only the house of Religion or the House of God verse the 1. But also the house of the State or Kingdom because there also is the Seat of Judgment verse the 5. And therefore it is our duty to pray for the peace of both not only for the peace of the Church but also for the peace of the Kingdom But how rare a thing is it to meet with any but what are ready and willing enough to consult the good of the State and the peace and safety of the Kingdom because the estates and lively hood both of them and theirs doth very much depend upon it But alas The thing which most men are most extreamly forgetful of is the peace of the Church they are but little concerned at the rents and breaches that are made in it never considering that if the Church be disquieted and disturbed the State or Kingdom can never be at peace The word here rendred pray is in the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to ask and enquire after to labor and endeavor the good of any thing Some would have it read quaerite seek it and follow hard after it And then the sense of the exhortation will be much agreable with that of the holy Apostle St. Paul Rom. 14.19 Follow after or most zealously attend to those things that make for the peace of Jerusalem or the Church By the word peace is here meant all kind of blessings all manner of prosperity Pacis nomen generaliter accipitur pro loeto foelici statu sayes Molle●●s in his exposition of this Psalm the word peace is generally taken for a joyful and most happy State because this is that which Crowns all other blessings and is above all others the most to be desired by us And now having thus lay'd open to you the meaning of these three terms here used in the Text and thereby shew'd you what is the import of praying for the peace of Jerusalem I shall lay down and prosecute this following observation which is altogether agreable with it viz. Obs That is a duty highly concerning and much incumbent upon all Christians to endeavor the safety and to pray for the peace of the Church I might here give you a large discourse of peace and of the several benefits of it I might shew you at large that peace is absolutely the greatest temporal blessing that any people or nation can possibly partake of It is a thing so good that without it nothing can be good with it says Solomon an handful of hearbs without it an house full of Sacrifices is not good Pro. 17.1 These things which I shall anon lightly touch at I might insist upon at large and thereby engage and perswade you all to this great and important duty of praying for the peace of Jerusalem or for the prosperity and safety of the Church But I question not but that I shall effectually engage you to it and convince you all of the great necessity of endeavoring the safety and of praying for the peace of the Church from these following reasons and considerations As 1st It will appear to be a duty highly concerning and much incumbent upon all Christians to endeavor the safety and to pray for the peace of the Church because of those many enemies which continually lay siege against it endeavoring to disturb it's peace and as much as in them lyes utterly to overthrow it In the 16 Chap. of St. Matthews Gospel and the 18. verse When our Saviour Christ upon St. Peters acknowledgment and confession of his being the true Messias and the son of the living God told him thou art Peter and upon this Rock i. e. upon this confession which thou whose name signifies a Rock or Stone hast made I will build my Church and withal made that promise that the Gates of Hell i.e. all the power and strength wisdom and policy authority and empire in the world no not the grave or Satan himself which proverbially are said to be irresistable should ever prevail against it or destroy it By this promise I say he does insinuate and inform us thus much that those open Gates and Gates of Hell gape not wider for any thing than for it Though the Ark of God was setled in Jerusalem and though the people as you have heard were so resolvedly constant in the performance of their devotions yet the holy Prophet knew that the Philistines those enemies of God and of his Church waited only for an opportunity of taking it again Captive And therefore upon this account or more especially for this reason pray says he for the peace of Jerusalem No sooner had the Apostles planted the Christian Church but the Gnosticks the followers of Simon Magus that first Priests of the Church presently sowed their Tares of discord and dissention in it and raised up the unbelieving Jews in every City and in every place where they might be suffered for to come to disquiet and disturb it And hence were all those pathetick exhortations laid down by the Apostles in their several Epistles to the several Churches of following the things that make for peace of having peace amongst themselves of keeping the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace and the like That they should by no means hearken to any of those Sowers of discord and sedition though they made never so fair a shew and specious pretence of piety and holiness Who came indeed according to our Saviour's prediction in Sheeps cloathing as the true Prophets of old used to do thereby pretending the greatest innocency and meekness that could be but inwardly they are ravenous Wolves they design nothing in the conclusion but devouring and rapacity Saint Paul at that visitation of his Brethren held at Miletum and recorded in the 20. Chap. of the Acts of the Apostles after he had told them of his going up to Jerusalem and of the bonds and afflictions which by the testimony of the holy Ghost in every City should attend him there he commits to them the care of his flock charges them to feed the Church of God which he had purchased with his own blood and to be the more

careful and watchful over it for this reason because that after his departure grievous Wolves would enter in amongst them not sparing the flock and men would arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them i. e. because they would soon be solicited with false Teachers seducing the faithful and doing great mischief amongst them The Christian Church by reason of that false Doctrine of Simon Magus and the Gnosticks which spread like leaven or like the Leprosie quickly overrun the whole body of the Church and by reason of those grievious persecutions of it by the heathen Emperors soon after the first plantation of it may not unfitly be compared to that Man-child of which the Woman Travelled Revel 12.4 Which was ready to be devoured as soon as ever it was born Had it not been for the extraordinary assistance of Divine Providence the Church of Christ could never have been planted and when it was planted it could never have been preserved had not God himself most miraculously upheld it For on the one hand the heathen Emperors Nero and Domitian Maxentius and Dioclesian and the rest of those that make up that decuplum flagellum Dei that Ten-stringed Scourge of God sought to batter it down by violence and to suppress it And on the other hand Simon Magus and his followers by sowing their Weeds and Tares sought to choke it or at least to stop the growth of that Vine planted by Gods own right hand and by their secret workings to undermine it The former like the Wild Boar out of the Wood sought to root it up the latter like the little but cunning Foxes sought for to devour her Grapes And therefore the Church of God may again be very well compared to that house in the parable that was built upon the Rock Matth. 7.25 It has hitherto and it shall for ever stand firm and unshaken though the rain still descends the Flouds come and the winds do still blow and beat upon it It 's true indeed the Church of God has ever since the time of Constantine the great the first of all the Roman Emperors that publickly owned and embraced Christianity enjoyed some halcyonian days days of peace and of some freedom from those former bloody persecutions But still the Devil hath other Instruments and Engines at work either by violence to batter it down or else by Heresie and Schism and Division and other politick contrivances secretly to undermine it As Saint Paul at his first being at Athens was encountered by two different Sects of Philosophers the Stoicks on the one hand and the Epicureans on the other So is the Church of God at this time most miserably infested by two differing enemies the Papists on the one hand and the dissenting Sectaries amongst us on the other And as it was heretofore Ephraim against Manasses and Manasses against Ephraim but both against Judah So the Papists make a great clamor and out-cry against our Sectaries and our Sectaries cry out as eagerly against the Papists when as they are both of them really and truely against the true Church of God And by this means alas they do contribute too much towards the growth and encrease of each other and indeed as might easily be made out to the growth and encrease of Atheism and of all manner of wickedness and profaneness So that for this reason I say it will appear to be a duty highly concerning and much incumbent upon all Christians to endeavor the safety and to pray for the peace of the Church because of those many enemies which continually lay feige against it endeavoring to disturb it's peace and utterly to overthrow it 2ly It will appear to be a duty highly concerning c. because the peace and safety of the State and Kingdom does very much depend upon it Here I may ask St. James his question whence come wars and fightings among you Whence have all those Wars and Broils and Bloody Massacres which have happened within less then one Century of years in several of our neighbor nations proceeded but only from diversity of opinion in Religion Whence proceeded our own late civil yet most uncivil and unnatural Wars wherein some Hundreds of Thousands lost their lives when Brother fought against Brother Father against Son and Son against Father but only from the same diversity of opinion in Religion and about the Worship and Service of God From whence springs that inveterate and implacable malice of the Papists at this present even to the endeavoring of the utter destruction of our King and Kingdom but only from a false supposal of our being Hereticks in religion and schismaticks in the Church Ut fratrum odia sint acerrima sic e●rum ferè qui consortes aliquando ejusdem religionis says the learned Lypsius As the hatred of Brothers if once they fall out is the most inveterate and irreconcileable so none do more envy and hate one another then persons that have been but now are not of the same opinion in matters of Religion This indeed ought not to be especially amongst Christians whose Religion enjoins them not only to bear with one another and to be ready to do all acts of kindness one for another but also to love their very enemies to do good to them that hate them and to pray for them that do despitefully use them But alas this is too too little observed and the other viz envy and hatred despite and malice evil speaking and slandering and the like are the most usual and ordinary effects and consequences of difference in Religion If you look but into the 9. Chap. of St. Lukes Gospel and compare it with the 4. Chap. of St. Johns you will find all that I now speak of to be true The Jews and the Samaritans were of a different opinion as to the place of Gods Worship The one thought Jerusalem to be the only place for it the other Mount Gerisin And therefore our Saviour Christ coming to a Village of the Samaritans because he did but seem to them to be going towards Jerusalem they would not so much as give him the least kind reception and entertainment amongst them Did any but seem to them to be Jews or to be going towards Jerusalem they shall neither have meat nor drink nor lodging they may starve for any relief they are like to find from them How is it that thou being a Jew says the Samaritan Woman to our Saviour Christ askest drink of me who am a Woman of Samaria For the Jews have no dealings no communication or familiarity with the Samaritans And as the Samaritans dealt thus unkindly with the Jews meerly because of their dissenting from them in Religion so the Jews even James and John two of our Saviour's immediate Disciples and Attendants shewed as great or rather greater malice against the Samaritans and that too upon the same account because of their dissenting from them in matters of Religion What! will they not give