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	spirit_n	unity_n	1,402	5	10.2899	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44671	The carnality of religious contention in two sermons preach'd at the merchant's lecture in Broadstreet / by John Howe ...	Howe, John, 1630-1705.	1693 (1693)	Wing H3019; ESTC R1703	46,035	129

our selves united in Mind and Spirit with all serious Christians in the plain and necessary things wherein they all agree That we preserve in our own Spirits a resolved unaddictedness to any Party in the things wherein they differ That for actual and local Communion which we cannot have with all the Christians in the world and can have comparatively but with a few we joyn with them that come nearest us i. e. that we judge come nearest to our common Rule That as some means hereto we especially labour to center in some such Scheme of Doctrinals as for which all these profess to have a common Reverence that while our Union cannot as yet be so extensive as it ought it may be as extensive as we can that the Gospel be not hindered and that our Ministry may be the more successful and profitable to the promoting of the common Salvation among those that attend upon it Such Schemes or Collections of Doctrines reduced into an Order as Gold formed into a Vessel whereas Truth as it lies in the Holy Scriptures is as Gold in the Mass may be of use as they have always been used in the Church in all Ages more distinctly to inform others concerning our Sentiments tho' the use is less that after thorough search and enquiry they can be of to one self provided they be avowed to be lookt upon but as a mensura mensurata reserving unto the Scriptures the Honour of being the only mensura mensurans and so that we only own them as agreeable to the Scriptures And again that we declare we take them to be agreeable thereto in the main or for substance without attributing a Sacredness to the very Words of a meer humane Composition which indeed we cannot attribute to the words used in the Translation of the Bible it self And that for the things we believe them with a degree of Assent proportionable to their greater or less Evidence This through the blessing of God such as have used a sincere and ingenuous freedom with one another have found an effectual Expedient to deliver their minds from mutual doubt concerning each other that because of some different modes of expressing their Sentiments they held very different Opinions which they have found to be a Mistake on one hand and the other and have given and received satisfaction they intended nothing that ought to be reckoned into the Account of Socinian Pelagian Popish Arminian or Antinomian Errours That fraudulent and unjust way of making the Estimate being justly exploded that whosoever shall in some things that touch not the main Points of difference say as some other of these do must therefore be of their minds thorough-out VVhich Rule of Judging would make any Christian be taken for a Jew a Mahometan or a Pagan There being no intelligent Christian but must say many things that they do But it is to be hoped this Engine of the Devil 's is by the mercy of God broken so as that the People shall be no more frighted from attending to the Ministry of such be their Denomination what it will as use apt and proper methods to awaken convince and save Souls by being told they are Antinomians or Arminians c. It being upon enquiry found that persons so and so charged by the rash Folly of some that understand nothing of the difference besides the different sound of those odious Names do really detest the Doctrines imputed to them And that furthermore while we look upon an Agreement therein as a sufficient Character of one sound in the Faith we do not profess to reckon every one of the things therein contained without distinguishing their Importance necessary to that purpose And do never intend our Communion shall be limited by other Bounds than only an Agreement in those things for Doctrinals which we take to be of such importance and necessity as without the belief whereof a man cannot be a sincere Christian. Which cercainly cannot but be a very few less-disputed things among them that profess to believe the Divine Authority of the Scriptures and that will allow them to be interpreted according to the ordinary ways of interpreting other Writings That for matters of Practice in the Worship of God we be satisfy'd not to be obliged to do things which we think unlawful our selves without entertaining the least Surmise but that many good men may judge some things lawful that we do not and may practise accordingly That we always keep our selves in a prepared Temper of Spirit to receive further Information about doubtful things That we cherish in our Souls an universal sincere Love to Christians as such and to Men as Men. That we stud●ously endeavour in our several Stations 〈◊〉 doing the most general good we can And that our whole Design do termina●● 〈◊〉 what so far as we can succeed 〈◊〉 it must be acknowledged by all good men to be a real Service to the Church of Christ by gathering into it as many as we can considering it as made up of Persons that with Judgment and in Practice own the very Substance of Christian Religion VVith such Dispositions of Mind as these we shall in this divided state of the Christian Church be innocent of the sinful Evil of its Divisions and keep as much as in us is the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace And do we yet entertain in our minds any hope that the Christian Religion shall spread and be more generally propagated through the world Or do we desire it should Or do we dread that it should not through our default Let us then look back to the years of ancient time and consider what it was when it grew and encreased mightily when without other advantages than it 's own self-recommending excellency it every where made it 's own way subdu'd Nations proselyted Enemies defy'd the most fervent Oppositions and Persecutions when the Professors and Preachers of it triumph'd over Martyrdoms the Fierceness and Fury of Wild Beasts and Flames overcame by the Blood of Jesus and the Word of his Testimony not loving their Lives unto the Death VVhen as Pliny writing to Trajan in favour of the Christians intimates to him they were every where so encreas'd both in Cities and Countreys that the Pagan Temples had lain almost quite desolate and that there had scarce been any to buy off their Sacrifices VVhen about an hundred years after Tertullian representing in Apology for them their Peaceableness and how easie it were otherwise to them to relieve themselves of their Sufferings says they were become so numerous in the Empire that if it were possible to them to withdraw themselves into some remote obscure place they who were left would even tremble at their own solitude Christianity was then all Life and Spirit The Christian Church in those dayes flourisht in purity power and vigour But when for the space of about three Hundred Years together it had enjoy'd the protection and benignity of Christian Emperors