Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	add_v	church_n	faith_n	2,553	5	5.1567	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52054	A sermon preached to the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, and Court of Aldermen of the city of London, at their anniversary meeting on Easter Monday April 1652, at the Spittle wherein the unity of the saints with Christ, the head, and especially with the church, the body, with the duties thence arising, are endeavoured to be cleared : tending to heale our rents and divisions / by Stephen Marshal ...	Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.	1653 (1653)	Wing M782; ESTC R206697	37,461	44

found some Souldiers who at first were forced in or Officers who came corruptly by their places suppose whole Troops or Companies of these who yet being in prove as good Souldiers as faithful skilfull valiant for the Cause as any other it may be beyond any others think you these would not be owned by the Army when they should be found such Or suppose in Marriage at the first the Parties marry while not of years of discretion or to please Parents or the like yet afterward come to love and live in their Marriage-relation according to the Word thinke wee these shall not be owned as Husband and Wife so is the case here Let mee for present suppose these men or Churches to whom I speak to be at their fi●st gath●ring according to the purest patterne and let mee also suppose another Company irregularly joyned it may be forced in and that also whilst they are ignorant prophane c. and that their Minister also was put upon them now if the Lord please to worke upon those effectually so that Minister and people grow sound in the faith holy in their lives pure in their worship zealous for the truth when possibly they who boast of their first joyning are grown like Sardis to have a name to be alive and yet are dead c. shal we thinke the Lord Jesus wil not owne the other before themselves yes doubtlesse and so should all his people give me leave to adde one thing more That the notion of making the first gathering of people into Church-fellowship to be the rule to direct us with whom we may joyne or not joyne this I say may make us refuse some Churches upon whom are apparently seen the Scripture Characters of a Golden Candlestick and imbrace communion with others only upon a humane testimony or report for in that Church above mentioned I may see a visible profession of soundnesse in faith and holinesse there in the other men only tell me the first were not orderly gathered and the others were to conclude this branch this principle of renouncing all Churches for want of a supposed orderly gathering or for want of some such desirable perfection which themselves injoy is so dangerous and schismatical that I feare not to say that it is more lawful to have a Church-standing in the corruptest Church in the world where salvation and life may be obtained by the doctrine held out and the way profest in that Church though there should be very many frailties and corruptions amongst them then with that company how holy soever it seemes to be that wil necessitate such as joyne with them to renounce communion with all the rest of the Body of Jesus Christ upon earth Thirdly another principle of Schism and which I conceive to be of larger and of farre greater extent and may make a fairer plea for it selfe then yet any named is that which shuts up many servants of Christ that they cannot joyne nor afford Christian communion unto others for some particular errours found in their profession of faith or some frailties found in their conversation I say that principle which makes the servants of Christ deny communion to them to whom Christ wil not deny communion to interdict communion with them with whom Christ doth not interdict communion is a renting principle Conceive my meaning in a plaine comparison Suppose in a Corporation there were some rules given by their Charter and Founder concerning their infranchizement that whosoever is so and so qualified shal be a Free-man if that Corporation or any number shal deny freedome to any so qualified or shal disfranchise any for any offence for wch the Charter whereby they all stand doth not warrant them they are guilty of rending their Charter and they usurpe a power not given them by their founder so is it in the Church let me give a few instances Take the Churches in the Apostles time some of them did think it utterly unlawful to eat any meat that had been offered to an Idol some did think all days were alike some thought that it was utterly unlawful to eat any thing but herbes c. Suppose now that the number of those who held these opinions should have gone to the rest of the Church and said You are too lax in your principles unlesse you will renounce that carnall ungodly liberty which you take to eate in Idols temples or to eate meat that hath been offered to an Idol c. we professe we must renounce communion with you they had been Schismaticks in doing so If on the other side the Church had called them and said You by your strict opinions cut short the liberty Christ hath purchased for us by his bloud unlesse you lay aside these conceits of yours we cast you out then the Schisme had laine on their part because the Charter of Christianity hath provided that for these things the people of God should not rent one from another but bear one with another that thereby they might heale one another Come a little nearer our own times Take the Reformed Churches as now they stand all the Churches of France and Geneva though they be sound in their faith yet generally they are against the divine institution of the Lords day Goe to Helvetia amongst the Switzers generally the Churches there are against all Divine-right of any Church-government and require nothing but the help of the Magistrate to keep their people in order Go from them if you wil among the Lutherans among them are many as we judge dangerous opinions the Arminian points and besides them Consubstantiation and the ubiquity of Christs body and the like The like might be said in many particulars of the Swedes and Danes all these Churches being sound in the fundamentals and owned by Christ ought also to own one another there are indeed some doctrines wherein if men or Churches be not sound the Lord Christ wil have nothing to do with them or if a Churches worship be Idolatrous the Lord Christ wil not hold communion with them but there are some errours in doctrines and corruptions in conversation for which though Christ like them not he doth not reject them apply this to our purpose At this day the Socinians deny the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ the Deity of the Holy Ghost the Trinity of Persons they deny that Jesus Christ hath merited or satisfied for his people these doctrines overthrow our Christianity and we count the holders of these to have nothing with Christians in common but only the name therefore we renounce them The Papists also besides some fundamentall errours as justification by the merit of our owne workes c. are most abominably Idolatrous in their worship and the Lord therefore bids us come out from them but take all the rest of the Churches of Christ in Europe and I humbly conceive that we ought and must owne them to be Churches of Christ and therefore when the Calvinists and the

together that they have a reall union one with another So in this mystical and spiritual body all the Saints have not only each for his owne part a union and conjunction with Jesus Christ but also a reall union and conjunction one with another which is the foundation of many duties which every one of them are thereby bound to perform one to another and of many priviledges which thereby they injoy with and by one another as shall God willing be afterwards opened unto you Now this my Text speakes as plainly as any man could wish when it saith that we being many that is all we Christians all that truly beleeve in and professe the name of Christ being very many are all one body in Christ that is we all meet and are one in him and that is not all but we are also all of us members one of another Now the first of these the reall indissoluble and spirituall union that all the people of Christ have with Christ their head is a most divine excellent and necessary truth and indeed is the foundation and principle of all our Christian life and therefore most worthy to be understood by all Gods people But that not being the maine drift of the holy Ghost in this place I forbear to speak of at this time and shal treat only of the second and that is the union and conjunction that is and ought to be between all the people of Jesus Christ one with another they being members one of another and therein shall indeavour first to prove and clear it and then hasten to the application of it For the proof of it I shall not need any other Texts then those that I have mentioned already that 1 Cor. 12. how fully and clearly doth the Apostle teach that the eye the hand the foot and every member are for the good and use of the whole and none of them can say I have no need of thee or I have no need of thee God having so ordered it that every one of them needs one another and every one of them are and ought to be usefull one to another yea that even the most mean and feeble of all the members are not onely of the body as well as the rest but are necessary to the good of the whole and those members which we are prone to think lesse honourable and more uncomely God hath appointed in this mysticall body as well as in our naturall bodies to have the more honour put upon them And so in that other fore-mentioned place the fourth of the Ephesians where he saith That the whole body being joyned together by that that every joynt supplieth c. there is not the least joynt but it makes for the supply for the edification of the whole To these might be added all those places which speake of the Church as one corporation or body under other resemblances one vine one house one City c. whereof very many do occur in the holy Scriptures but all these things will be clearer in my subsequent Discourse wherein for the fuller clearing the doctrinal part I shall a little insist upon two maine questions and then endeavour to resolve a doubt or two which may seem to lye as objections against all the Saints making but one body First If the Saints bee one body c. it may bee demanded wherein this unity of the Saints stands or what are the things wherein all the members of Christ have union one with another Secondly If they be thus all one what are the bands and ligaments whereby this vast multitude are all of them tyed thus firmly together For the first If all the Church and people of Jesus Christ be all really one one with another and have thereby a communion one with another the Question is what are those things wherein they are thus one To which I answer the particulars are both many and excellent but because I would not burden your memories I desire you to turne to and consider with me but one onely Text which indeed doth comprehend the sum of all that can be said about it and that is Eph. 4. ver. 4 5 6. the Apostle exhorting all the Saints to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace the better to encourage them to it useth this motive For there is one body and one spirit and one hope of your calling one Lord one faith one baptism one God and Father of all who is above you all and through you all and in you all Now in these seven Unities are comprehended all the things wherein all the Saints of Christ are one therefore I shall endeavour briefly to open them First They are all of them one body that is all Gods people throughout all the world are but one incorporation and there is no one of them but hee hath as really a membership in the body of Christ as any other of them as in an Army though every one be not an Officer nor every Souldier equally valiant or skilfull yet every one is equally a member of the Army and as in a City or Corporation every Free-man though no Mayor Alderman or Master of a company c. yet is as really a member of the City as any other or look as in a building it may be some rooms may be larger beautifuller and usefuller yet there is not the least stud the least naile the least pin but it is as really a part of the building as the maine post that upholds it So take the Church of Christ which is made up of the collection and aggregation of all Gods people there is not one of them but hee may truly say I am a part of that house body or building of Jesus Christ as reall as any other Secondly and they are all one in this that there is but one Spirit which I thinke signifies these two things for other Scriptures teach me so to interpret it First they are all of them animated and led by the selfe-same Spirit that as the members of the body though they be it may be many hundreds yet there is one individual soule that animates them all so in the Church of Christ all the Saints every one of them have the selfe-same Spirit of Jesus Christ which is the principle of their life and animates every one of them but that is not all but by the same Spirit he secondly means the Spirit as it is the Administrator or distributor of all the gifts of Christ that whatsoever gifts graces operations administrations are to be found in the whole Church the self-same Spirit distributes his gifts variously as he pleaseth to some more and to some lesse yet gives them all to and for the good of the whole Church in generall and for every member in its particular so the Spirit of God himselfe interprets this in the first of the Corinthians and the twelfth from ver. 4. to 14. There are diversities of gifts but the

of Schisme from their principles of judgement their principles of judgement carry them to the practice of that which is a rending of the Church Others though their principles of judgement be right yet are Schismaticall through principles of a corrupt heart and spirit I shall speake to both these but principally to the first sort First all those whose erroneous judgements make them Schismaticall as I conceive may all be brought to these foure First Independency properly so called is one of the highest principles of Schisme all such Christians whether they be single persons or associated bodies yea though all the Christians in a Nation associated into a body doe looke upon themselves as absolute and independent from the rest of the Church of Christ with whom the rest of the Church of Christ hath nothing to doe this I say is one of the highest principles of Schisme in the world but doe not mistake me I know there are some called and branded with the name of Independency who professe they abhor both the name and thing I meane such as conceive that a particular Church hath all power in it selfe and that no other assembly can authoritatively call them to an account so as to dissolve their sentences or excommunicate them because they conceive that the government of the Church is not placed in Synods or in any other Assembly then that of a particular Congregation yet readily acknowledge that themselves are but part of the Church and ought to be countable to the Church of Christ for their wayes and that if upon brotherly counsel given by other Churches they reforme not they may and ought to with-draw from all Christian communion with them whether their way of being countable be right or no I dispute not only I say this is not the Independency here intended but I meane any man or company of men who looke upon themselves as an intire Civil State or Common-wealth lookes upon it selfe how small soever it be as in Italy there are some such which containe not above one City or two yet they count all the world hath nothing to do with them nor are they to be countable to any other State no not to the whole world any further then their owne interest carries them either for their owne safety or as they make use of them this is true State independency so is it here when any persons or company of Christians looke upon themselves as totum quid seorsum as men by themselves and in their intentions carry not themselves as parts of the great Common-wealth accounting it a thing little or nothing materiall so they professe the Name and faith of Christ and serve him whether they doe it in the communion of the Catholick Church or out of it as if they were not persons contained within the whole or part of the same Common-wealth this I say is high and deep Schism the very nature of Christs Church being one Body requires that whatsoever any whether persons or Churches do in matters of Religion teaching or being taught praying fasting Almes-giving in word and Sacraments yea in beleeving loving hoping c. should all be done intentionally with relation to and communion with the whole Church of Christ this first principle lies deep rooted many live by it though few wil own it 2 Others are deeply schismatical from principles of judgement who are so farre in love with their own constitution or way of Association into Church-Order that they condemne all the other Assemblies throughout the world as no Churches of Christ because they be not modelled and moulded according to the Plat-form of their own particular Church-order and association I doe not deny but it is possible that some of Gods people may have some such great mistakes lye upon them that they cannot possibly joyne in all Christian ordinances with any congregation in the world as the converted Christian Jewes while they were under that apprehension that no man ought to be owned but he that was circumcised I say as long as that errour possest them they could never joyn in all Ordinances with the rest of the Gentiles and how farre the rest of the people of God should beare with such and still own them as Christs servants is a thing worth the studying but certainly the principle it selfe is most destructive to the unity of the Church To refraine fellowship and communion with such Churches or Companies who professe Christ their Lord whose faith is sound whose worship is Gospel-worship whose lives are holy unlesse they will come into that very particular way of Church order which they have pitched upon is a dreadfull renting of the Church of Christ to peeces for if all Christs people in the world are one body and all thereby bound to have communion one with another then certainly that principle which necessitates men to cast off it may be nine hundred ninety nine parts of a thousand must needs be dangerous and Schismatical of this none are so guilty as the Church of Rome who circumscribe the Church of Christ within the precinct of the Roman Jurisdiction and cast off all Christians and all Churches in the East West North and South yea cast them off from all hope of Salvation who subject not themselves to their way 2. Nor can our rigid Separatists bee any way excused who censure and condemne all other Churches whatever their faith worship and conversation be meerly because they are not gathered into Church-order according to their own patternes This so strict bounding of our christian communion by outward formes I humbly conceive hath been a great and almost generall fault among the Churches of Europe ever since the Reformation in some Churches the large forme of the confession of their faith is made the Shibboleth without owning and subscribing to this without abating of a tittle no communion to be injoyed in other Churches without conforming to their formes of Prayers Rites and Ceremonies in administration of the Sacraments no communion to be injoyed in others without submitting to their forme of Church-government no communion and with these of whom I now speake without submitting to their manner and forme of gathering into Church-fellowship none to be owned or acknowledged to be Churches of Christ but alas how little is to be found in Scripture to bound our fellowship and communion of Saints by any of these things In the Scripture Churches are cryed up or downe commended and blamed according as their fundamentall faith was sound and their lives holy and I doubt not but one day we shall all judge those Churches the best whose substantial faith is soundest and lives most holy whether their first manner of gathering were every way regular or not Suppose that in an Army the Lawes of that Army were That none should be prest to serve but all to come in as Volunteers that their Officers should bee so and so chosen and qualified now suppose in this Army should be

into their errors and labour to infect all yea to put all into flames of division and confusion unlesse they can prevaile Shall we indure to see our brethren and our people before our eyes drawne into errors although those errors it may be are not fundamentall I answer First I know no great hurt for men to be permitted modestly and humbly to debate among their Brethren the things wherein they differ But Secondly I answer If men who hold differing opinions in these lesser points can neither be content to follow Pauls counsel to have their faith in these to themselves before God nor modestly propound their arguments and grounds and so be quiet but must make it their work to draw it may be weak ones into doubtful disputations and thereby take them off from the study and prosecution of more weighty things I can bee no Advocate for such people if they judge the spreading of their opinions to be such a duty that they take themselves bound in conscience to do all that is possible to draw all others in to them I know no remedy but such people must be contented to with-draw and joyne with such Churches where their opinions are received for it cannot be conjectured that in any Society of any nature men will be quietly tolerated who shall professedly be boutefues and kindle-fires to disturbe their peace and alwayes putting them into flames Suppose a man were of Erastus his opinion that there is no Church-Government by Christs appointment and yet withall should joyne in a Congregationall or Presbyterian way and they also willing to joyne in Church-Fellowship with him as knowing his errour not to be fundamentall if this man will now make it his worke to draw them off from what they beleeve to be Christs Ordinance and their duty that they must either all yeeld to him or enjoy no quiet this I say will prove intolerable thus also it is in Civil associations Suppose in any Corporation where a Court of Aldermen or Common-Counsell should bee Judges if the major part judge any Cause before them and the residue who judge otherwise wil not be content to sit downe but be alwayes quarrelling and calumniating the rest charging them to be erroneous or unrighteous Judges such unquiet and turbulent carriage over-throws all and is not compatible with humane Society Beloved I beseech you pardon me that I have been so long upon this third Branch for I confesse it is deeply settled upon my spirit that were this rule received it would have a great influence upon the healing of our divisions I know indeed that many learned and holy men think otherwise and doe conceive that their zeale for Christs truth must not suffer them thus far to tolerate them who hold errors derogatory to the truth of Christ but I humbly conceive that zeale for Christs truth should never use other meanes to preserve Christs truth then Christ himselfe hath appointed zeale to preserve Justice and Righteousnesse and to punish disorders in a Common-wealth is very commendable but yet that zeale would not be commendable in a Magistrate who should hang a man for such a fault for which the Law hath only appointed the house of Correction or Whipping-post Let us confine our selves to Christs rules and then let our zeale burn as hot as may be Fourthly There is yet one sort more and they are such whose principles carry them to separate from particular Churches for light causes suppose some defects or some miscarriages in their Church-government it may be some too great connivence at unworthy or scandalous persons or it may be some defects or miscarriages in their publick administrations I say the renting off and departing from particular Churches for such causes as these wil be found to be but Schism to separate from Churches from which Christ doth not separate is schismatical now it is cleare in the Scripture Christ Jesus owneth Churches who are defective in many things and if as I said before Churches should bear with particular persons in their errors certainly particular persons should bear with Churches and therefore when a Churches faith is sound for the substance and their worship Gospel-worship though their Government be not perfect and other defects found among them we must not separate and separation from them is the more unjust if that Church bee seeking for light and willing to be informed I grant there may bee slitting from one Church to another for greater edification which is without condemning that Church they slit from but separation from a true Church for want of some desirable perfection is a fruit of this bitter root of Schisme because it rents where Christ rents not for if we looke into the Scripture we shal find there were Churches who had many errours in Faith others disorderly in their Worship others had many among them loose in their conversations but not one word of the Holy Ghosts counselling the Lords people to with-draw from them or to go and gather into a body by themselves they are often called upon to do what they can to heale them but not one word of separating from them or with-drawing from them indeed we sometimes read of some who separated themselves but we may also read in the same places what sad brands the Spirit of God gives them and should it bee lawful for every errour and every miscarriage or for the want of some desirable perfection thus to rend off we must rend and rend and rend for ought I know to the end of the world and the union and communion of Christs people would come almost to nothing whereas he would have all his throughout the world as they injoy communion with himselfe so to injoy as their occasion and need requires communion with all his Saints now such limitations and restrictions as these are make such a communion impossible I am veri●y perswaded that were the union and communion of the people of Christ rightly knowne there is no Saint in any part of the world but where ever he comes might demand upon the profession of his faith and his voluntary subjection to the Gospel his right in the Ordinances hear the Word with them pray with them receive the Sacrament with them I say onely upon that ticket that hee professeth that faith which is the common faith of Gods people and while hee is with them walkes according to the Gospel rule now where mens principles doe shut them up after the manner I have been treating of these things are not practicable I shut up all this discourse concerning all these who are schismatical through erroneous judgements with this briefe corollary The communion of Saints one with another is not only a priviledge but a duty injoyned by Christ he hath not left us at liberty to chuse with whom we wil hold communion and to refuse whom we lift no as ever wee wil appear before him with comfort wee must hold communion with those who professe his