Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	church_n	faith_n	unity_n	1,807	5	9.0990	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67684	Divine rules for Christian unity opened and urged a sermon / preach'd in the Cathedral Church of Norwich, October 16, 1692 by Erasmus Warren, rector of Worlington in Suffolk.	Warren, Erasmus.	1692 (1692)	Wing W964; ESTC R28908	20,645	38

is a BLESSED Agreement and that in several Respects In respect of its Origin as springing from Blessed Principles In respect of its Influence as producing Blessed Effects In respect of its Tendency and Subservience as promoting our present and ministring to our future endless Beatitude And thus it is distinguish'd from all other Agreements upon Earth Now to preserve and promote this Spiritual Unity I shall humbly offer some plain Rules or Directions Six of them shall be taken out of the Context and for that reason they must be of the more Weight and I hope will be of the more Efficacy They are these 1st Be sensible of the great need of Unity 2ly Learn to be deeply Humble 3ly Labour for a meek Temper of Mind 4ly Arm your selves with Long-suffering 5ly Exercise mutual Forbearance 6ly Live in Christian Love They are all couched in the two first Verses of the Chapter I beseech you that ye walk worthy of the Vocation wherewith ye are called with all Lowliness and Meekness with Long-suffering Forbearing one another in Love First Be sensible of the great need of Vnity It is absolutely necessary upon the Account of our Calling Of our high holy Heavenly Calling as it is denominated in the Sacred Volume And therefore that we might go the right way to work and be inclin'd to endeavour it from a just Sense of the Necessity of it the Apostle directs us in the first place to walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worthy of the Vocation wherewith we are called Intimating we can never do that never be worthy Disciples of CHRIST without Unity For impossible it is that any should walk worthy of their Calling whatever it be unless they answer the Nature of it and advance it But there is no doing either of these as to our Christian Vocation without Unity Without Unity we cannot answer the Nature of our Calling And the Reason is evident because a main part of that Vocation is Unity As GOD has called us to Peace and called us to Holiness and called us to His Kingdom as the Divine Oracles testifie So he has called us to Unity as much as to any thing as appears there Nor must we forget that the Holy JESUS honoured Christians with many excellent and noble Gifts and sometimes with glorious or miraculous ones on purpose to bring them into Unity and keep them in it The Glory which Thou gavest me I have given them And why That they may be one even as we are one St. John 17.22 Yea the great things of our Religion not to say the whole of it seem to be design'd to this End to indear us mightily and closely to unite us The very Genius of it leads that way directly and invites and draws most powerfully to it For says St. Paul just after the Text There is one Body and one SPIRIT even as ye are called in one Hope of your Calling one LORD one Faith one Baptism one GOD and Father of all Such a Divine Sorites or heap of Arguments perswading to Unity as can no where be parallell'd Were Christians incorporate in different Bodies or were the one Body in which they are incorporate animated by different Spirits or did the one SPIRIT which animates them allot them different Callings or did the one Calling allotted them allow them different Hopes or did the one Hope allowed them tye them to different LORDS or did the one LORD they are obliged to give them different Faiths or to the one Faith given them were they admitted by different Baptisms or in their one initiating Baptism were they devoted to different GODS or were the one GOD to whom they are devoted not their Father they might then be divided and could not well help it Yea Division which is now their Sin might then be their Duty But the Case is nothing so On the contrary there is but one Body that is the Church into which true Christians are grafted But one SPIRIT the HOLY GHOST by which they are illivened But one Calling the Evangelical Religion in which they are engaged But one Hope that of Salvation by which they are encouraged But one LORD that is CHRIST by whom they are redeemed But one Faith that is of the Gospel which by them is professed But one Baptism that is of JESUS by which they are consecrated But one GOD that is the living and true GOD by whom they were created are governed and shall be preserved and this GOD is their Father too and therefore they must all be nearly related So that here is such a number of Motives to Unity and of strong Obligations binding to it that none more need and few more can be added of the same Nature Were they rightly considered how is it possible that Christians should divide When in so doing or suffering it to be done they must break the Frame or Contexture of their Religion and go against the Temper and Constitution of it and fail most shamefully in their proper Vocation If at any time therefore or upon any occasion we grow too hot and our Minds ferment and our Passions boil so as to threaten any thing of Division let us but take our Bibles in our Hands and deliberately read and seriously ruminate on this Paragraph and surely it will be enough to cool that Heat and quench that Fire which would inflame us to Dissention Let me ask are we willing to unchristian our selves Why if we do not endeavour to keep Unity we take too great a step towards it At least we fall very short of our Calling and whatever Figures we seem to make in a great measure we are no better than Cyphers Christians without Unity and without endeavouring to keep it are somewhat like Scholars without Learning and without studying to get it They want an Essential of their Profession or a most necessary Piece of it nor do they take due care to attain unto it and be accomplish'd in it And as we cannot answer the Nature of our Calling without Unity so neither can we advance it And therefore when our LORD prayed for his Disciples as we noted at first that they all might be one He gives this Reason why He sued for their Unity That the World might believe that Thou hast sent me So that Unity in the Church of GOD is to propagate Faith in the Messiah or Son of GOD and to advance Christianity in the World And is it not highly needful then and does it not behove us to endeavour to keep it amongst our selves and to promote it so far as we can with others Our Blessed LORD taught us to Pray and I hope we do it every day more than once that His Kingdom may come That His Heavenly Religion may grow great and powerful and rule in the Hearts and Lives of Men That it may take deep root in all places and yield much Fruit That it may thrive and flourish more than ever it did ascending to the highest Pitch and spreading to the

widest Latitude But when we pray thus if we do not endeavour to keep Unity like egregious Dissemblers we not only frustrate our own Devotions but to GOD's Dishonour and the great prejudice of our selves and others set back the Blessing for which we supplicate It is the Judgment of Learned and Pious Men that before the End of the World there shall be an happy Change in it The Jews shall be converted the Gentiles more fully called and true Christianity greatly exalted Now would it not be huge Satisfaction to us to have this Glorious Elevation of Religion come to pass in our days Why then let all unfeigned Servants of JESUS do what in them lyes to hasten it And amongst other things conducive thereunto let them endeavour to keep the Unity of the SPIRIT So we shall see Religion rise and help it to culminate or advance apace to its wished Heighth And when once it gets into its Zenith in the Church and shines forth in its full Strength and Lustre who knows what an Influence it may have far and near and how much of the World may be taken Captive with the Charming Beauty and Glories of it Whereas Divisions do naturally throw Contempt on Christianity and grievously diminish and eclipse it for it makes strangers to it apt to suspect that it is too weak to carry on its own Designs whereof Unity is one Or else that its Professors who are fittest to judge have no great opinion of its worth and therefore slight it in one of the grand Necessaries of it And when they who are unacquainted with our Religion or have little esteem and love for the same have occasion given them to take such crooked Measures of it no wonder if they be prejudiced and set against it and so its Propagation be check'd and hindred Upon this account in the first place let us zealously endeavour to keep the Unity of the SPIRIT else we plainly declare that we have no thorough Sense of the Nature of our Calling and no just Concern to advance it as we ought and so neither do nor can walk worthy of it And therefore St. Paul exhorting Christians to a Conversation becoming the Gospel which is the same thing as to walk worthy of their Vocation adviseth them to stand fast in one Spirit with one Mind Phil. 1.27 That for the first Rule Secondly Learn to be deeply Humble Pride in a Society is like Motion in Matter which naturally works a Separation of Parts and the Dissolution of Continuity and is able to turn the hardest Rock into volatile or fluid Atoms But Humility on the other side is like Rest which unites and Consolidates And therefore to preserve Unity the Apostle will have us in the second place to walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all Lowliness Pride makes Men conceited and Self-conceit makes them singular and Singularity makes them differ from others and Difference from others be it in Opinion or Practice breeds Dissention and Dissention shatters Unity Pride makes Men Morose and Moroseness makes them Peevish and Peevishness makes them Captious and Humorous and captious Humorsomness hinders Compliance in requisite things and Non-compliance hinders Conformity and Non-conformity disturbs Unity Pride makes Men Heady and Headiness makes them Unruly and Unruliness makes them Disorderly and Disorderliness makes them Disobedient and Disobedience disjoynts Unity Pride makes Men Contentious it is the sole or chief cause of their being so Only by Pride cometh Contention Prov. 13.10 And Contention begets Division and Division is an actual Breach of Unity Pride makes Men Ambitious and Ambition makes them Furious in driving to what they aim at And when their Fury is up and they are hot in their Chase they care not through what they run so they attain their End If Heresie or Schism Sedition or Rebellion lye in their way they matter not rushing into any of them perhaps not plunging into all But then Unity is sure to be overthrown and trampled on Nor are particular Churches only thus rent to pieces by Pride but also the Church Universal is filled with Schisms For what is it that makes one Church Vsurp upon another that sets one Church to Domineer over another that causes one Church to Excommunicate and Anathematize another whereby Catholick Unity is destroyed but Pride chiefly As we prize and love Unity therefore let us down with Pride and resolve to walk humbly with GOD and all Men towards our Betters Equals and Inferiors towards them that are our Friends and them that are our Enemies towards them that agree with us and them that dissent from us let us walk with Lowliness If they be haughty and insolent towards us let us for inestimable Unity's sake demean our selves with all Lowliness towards them And why should we not For Lord What have we to be proud of Are we not Frailty and Dust and so Nothing Are we not Corruption and Sin and so worse than nothing And for such Nothings and worse than Nothings as we to swell with Pride would be Folly and Sin enough though the Poyson of it wrought only within us But when its Venom is spreading and diffusive and breaths out a Contagion fatal to Unity not to throw off Pride and put on Humility must be sinful Folly of a larger size and GOD forbid we should be guilty of it Thirdly Labour for a meek Temper of Mind As the Wise Man assures us Wrath is Cruel and Anger is Outragious Prov. 27.4 And truly so Cruel is Wrath that it will kill Unity where it is not restrained And as Solomon there expresses it such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or outragious Inundation is Anger that if it be not kept within Bounds it will not fail to overflow and drown it And therefore to preserve Unity the Apostle urges us in the third place to walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Meekness Anger we know is a short Madness as the Moralist teaches And where it Tumultuates and Rages it even degrades Humanity and makes Men to act in ways unworthy of themselves It distracts the Mind and roils the Spirit and throws it into wild and ruful Disorders It puts down the use of Judgment for the time and exalts Phrensie into the Throne of Reason It quite overthrows Wisdom's Empire and putting the Scepter into Folly's hand sets it up to domineer in all our Capacities For then it is to use Philo's Distinction that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Feminine Part of us prevails against 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Masculine That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Child in us according to Simplicius is too hard for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inner Man as the Christian Doctrin calls it That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Beast according to Plotinus vanquishes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the intellectual Power That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Stoicks Vnreasonableness bafles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mind That Passions which according to Maximus Tyrius are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉