Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	church_n	hold_v	pillar_n	2,991	5	10.6628	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86190	A peace-offering in the Temple; or, A seasonable plea for unity among dissenting brethren: in a sermon at St. Paul's Church, London, before the Right Honouable the Lord Mayor, &c. on the 14th of October, 1660. By Richard Henchman, Rectour of St. James-Garlick-Hyth.	Henchman, Richard, d. 1672.	1660 (1660)	Wing H1429; Thomason E1048_3; ESTC R208108	22,545	39

saith the Apostle making a difference Certainly when we shall seriously consider how prone it is for men to receive Errour for Truth how naturally Blind and Opposite the Mind of a man is to the Revealed Truths of God and how that it 's the Spirit of God that leads thee into Truth that keeps thee from the Errours and Heresies that others are carried aside with These things if any thing will greatly move thee to Tender Bowels Fourthly Candidly and truly Report or lay down the Opinions of others that do dissent from us There is nothing I am confident hath made the Gap wider and more raked into the Sores of the Church then such a malevolent and ill-Disposition to pervert the Opinions of others and to make them hold such monstrous things as they do with all their Hearts Detest and thefore I desire you candidly and truly to report or lay down the Opinions of others that do dissent from you That 's a fourth Fifthly Question and examine your own Hearts Do not presently believe your own Hearts in every Opinion but have modest Doubtings See how modestly the Apostle determines the Case about Marriage 1 Cor. vii at the last verse I think I have the Spirit of God He was not so confident as many ignorant Zealots The same Spirit that leads into all Truth leads likewise into all humility Consult with those that are Able Orthodox and Learned Conferr with the Chief Pillars of the Church and they will resolve thy Doubts The Spirit of the Prophets is Subject to the Prophets Sixthly Highly labour to Prize and delight in the known plain Truths of Christ Hold fast your Christian Profession The Verb there translated hold fast {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signifies to hold a thing so fast as not to let it go again with Might and Main Totis viribus with our utmost endeavours Shall others hold errours fast and shall not we the Truth Shall we strive to hold Money fast and let loose our Religion Shall others hold a few empty notions fast and shall we let go the Substantial Truths of the Gospel Shall others affect a few Nisities and quirks in Religion and shall we be weary of the plain and Practical Truths of God's Word Saint Paul that was snatch'd up into the third heavens yet desired to know nothing but Christ and him crucified Saint Peter thought it not in convenient to write the same things they knew already Certainly there is nothing hath more rent and torn the Church of God then Affectation of Singular high things to bring in some unheard and unknown notions Oh! this is the Pride of some mens Hearts to have it said Such a man was the first that brought this Notion into the World as the Jesuit of his Scientia media said Ego primus inveni or like that Arch-heretick Herrtick Arius who as Hilary reports of him had menstruam fidem for every moneth a new Faith It 's a sad thing to see how many men in these days forsaking old Truths have wandered from Brownism to Anabaptism from that to Socinianism from that to Quakerism and God knows whether they will go at last So wild a thing is Errour To be weary of the known Truth is in effect to be weary of the same God the same Christ VVhy do not we desire a new Sun a new Earth a new World as well as new Truths That 's a sixth Lastly to name no more If such should be the Corruptions of the Church that thou canst not keep Fellowship with her but by partaking of her sins then before thou leavest her be assured that it is not for Small Matters but that which does Eat up the very Vitals of Religion Do not You dare to leave it till God leave it Do not thou nchurch it till God does But let thy Endeavours be in thy place to Inform and Heal before thou presume to Depart or Separate Plead and Strive with thy Mother because She ha's Committed Whoredom Hos ii 2. Oh let thy Secession be very unwillingly Till thou art compell'd to depart do not And though the Papists charges us with Schism Because we have with-drawn our selves from the Obedience of the Pope as Head of the Church I but we say ours was not a Schism but a Secession They were Schismaticks in falling from the Primitive Order and Institutions in the Church Insomuch that the Pope is the Grandest Schismatick that ever was in the Church And further we departed not from Rome because of petty Corruptions no she was a Babylon e're we left her and then we left her unwillingly They drave us out from them persecuting us with Fire Faggot Take heed therefore of Leaving the Church for some petty Differences But suppose there be many Corruptions in Government and Administrations Yet thou art not to make sinfull Breaches and Rents for these do plus perturbare infirmos Bonos quàm Corrigere Animosos Malos at St. Angustine well Take heed therefore of Pride Ambition and seeking Great Things in the Church It 's Reported that most of those who made the greatest Rents in the Church did it upon Discontent missing that Preferment they looked for The Spirit of Diotrephes who loved preheminences made great Divisions Yea even the Disciples themselves began to Quarrel with one Another De Primatu who should be the Chiefest Therefore does our Saviour so often press Humility and Submission And I pray God I may learn that Lesson Let others hunt and gape after the preferments of this World I bless God I neither seek nor sue for any but shall say as once Mephibosheth said with a little Addition 2 Sam. xix 30. For as much as my Lord the King is come again in peace unto his own house and the poor Church which ha's been for many years ragged and torn with divisions and contentions is like to put on a better dress in hopes of a future settlement Let them take all I shall be contented That 's a Second Use The Third and last Vse shall be by way of Exhortation Let me beseech you Brethren in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that there be no Divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same Mind and in the same Judgment Live as Christians in that holy unity as your Principles and Profession engages you unto Do you not pity those places where Divisions have made Religion to be a Scorn and the tender love and unity of God●s People is turned into uncharitable censures and separations Take warning therefore , that you come not to the like Suspect those Doctrines that tend to Divisions in the Church If it be not for unity it is not for God Christ came to heal and to reconcile and therefore sends not his Servants on a contrary Errand Let us all agree in the great certain and necessary Points of Religion and let us compassionately tolerate the differences that are tolerable

And therefore it was that he prayed so earnestly for his Disciples before he left them That they may be on That 's the first Secondly Vnity amongst Christians is very necessary that God thereby may be glorified because it is a special Means to bring the world to believe the Truth and receive Christ See this is twice affirmed to be the consequent of unity Joh. xvii 21 23. That the world may believe thou hast sent me It is a special way to convince all the enemies of the Truth What confirms the Papists and Hereticks and Prophane persons in Errours and Wickedness nothing more then the differences and strange Opinions that are amongst us Do they not by Books and otherwise in derision say One Sect says That ha's the Spirit of God Another saith That hath and yet both are contrary one to another Can the Spirit of God be contrary to it self Can it be a Spirit of Truth in one and a Spirit of Falshood in others This is a great stumbling-block in their way and confirms them in their evil ways So that if nothing else should make us tender about causing any breaches in the Church of God this should Wo be unto us if we hinder others from embracing the Faith by our divisions Oh then in these Times of differences and breaches amongst us what should we run unto what should we plead for in Prayer but this O Lord it is a sad Judgement to be thus miserably divided as we are to have Altar against Altar Church against Church Minister against Minister what is preached one day is decryed the next Is this to have one heart and one way is this to be alike-minded one towards another according to Christ Lord what will become of us if we continue thus Oh that all those that do confess thy Holy Name may agree in the Truth of thy holy Word and live in unity and godly Love because this is a special Means to bring the world to believe the Truth and receive Christ That 's a Second Thirdly Vnity amongst Christians is very necessary that God thereby may be glorified because hereby a serviceable and beneficial helping one another in spiritual things is preserved There is strength in unity Vis unita fortior A Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand says our Saviour When one piece of the wall divides from the other it foretells ruin As that Heathen to his Sons giving them a Quiver of Arrows intimating thereby as long as they agreed they were invincible All the united power of the Church is little enough against their common enemies and shall they weaken themselves The People of God are compared to living Stones built up together now whilest the stones keep in the Building they bear up one another but if once removed it falls down They are compared to Members in the Body while they are joyned togather there is a mutual Ministration to each other but when divided from the Body no part can receive any nourishment Thus it is with us while we are in union Oh the wonderfull help we shall be one to another We provoke one another to love and to good works but take these Coals from one another and the Fire goes out Fourthly Vnity amongst Christians is necessary that thereby God may be glorified because God many times suffers sad and heavie Persecutions to befall them that thereby their discords and divisions may be removed and they be more endeared to one another Times of Prosperity in the Church made the greatest Heresies and Schisms but the times of bloody Persecution made the godly more united Thus the Martyrs some of them in Queen Mary's days did bewail their differences and contests they had formerly one with another but the Prison and Persecution made them highly prize one another Joseph's Brethren in their Plenty envied and fell out with one another but in their distress they were glad to cleave together and truly so it may one day come to pass with many of us who are now so shie and strange to one another God may in time work so that we may be glad to enjoy one another's company to have society and communion one with another The Sheep that are scattered one from another when a sudden Storm arises it makes them company together And therefore if love and godliness do not unite us take heed God does not make some outward Trouble and Affliction to put us together If we will not embrace one another willingly he may bind us in chains together and then we 'le be glad to hug one another That 's a Fourth Lastly There ought to be unity and concord amongst Christian Brethren that God may be glorified thereby because they are but a Few in comparison to those that bandy themselves against the Church therefore they had need united * Fear not says Christ little Flock Christ's Flock is but a little Flock the Divel 's is a great Herd And one says excellently upon that Place Justorum tanta paucitas ut unitas videatur And the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. ix 24. All run in a Race but one receives the Prize to teach us unity in all our undertakings And Luke xvii 15. when ten Lepers were cleansed there was but One returned to give Thanks intimating to us that we should join unanimously in blessing and praising God for his Mercies Deo grata Vnitas ingrata Divisio It 's worth our Notice that when Christ's Body was rent and crucified they did not suffer them to break his legs john xix 33. Now Expositours give an excellent reason for this They understand the Church Christ to be as his Bones Signifying that he suffered his real Body to be rent and torn and wounded but his Mystical Body which is his Church he would not have any Discord or Rent amongst them His Coat was without Seam they said therefore amongst themselves Let us not rent it John xix 24. Intimating to us that we should not onely be united but as One as many Members in one Body Though a Multitude of Spiritual Gifts yet joyned in the unity of the Spirit And therefore when the Apostle heard there were Divisions amongst the Corinthians he tells them Ex parte credit non ex toto that He partly believed it He could not altogether It seemed almost an incredible thing that Members of one and the same Church should be so much to pieces You see the wicked Multitude unites in Sin and Prophaness Oh that we were once united in Truth and Holiness Now the God of Patience and Consolation grant you to be alike-minded one towards another So much shall serve for the Proof of the Point Come we now to make some Practical Improvement of it to our selves Vse 1. Is it so that Christian Unity is to be preserved That thereby God may be glorified then there are a great many People amongst us liable to a sharp Reproof who delight to sow the Tares of Strife and Contention amongst their