CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

Thou sayest, ⟨p. 571⟩it's for the truth thou art thus contentious, It's for the truth thou hast made these divisions, No, the truths of Christ are to be maintained by the Spirit of Christ, As the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God, so neither doth the perverseness of man the truths of God, so far then as any in the Church of God are contentious and striving, so far they demonstrate the power of the flesh reigning in them.

Thou saist, ⟨p. 571⟩it's for the truth thou art thus contentious, It's for the truth thou hast made these divisions, No, the truths of Christ are to be maintained by the Spirit of Christ, As the wrath of man worketh not the righteousnesse of God, so neither doth the perversenesse of man the truths of God, so far then as any in the Church of God are contentious and striving, so farre they demonstrate the power of the flesh reigning in them.

2. This Unity is necessary, because all other things in Religion are reduced to one;¹ If therefore all things agree in unity, every thing in Religion tends to this; Why should not the people of God embrace it? The several Unities are notably made an Argument to our purpose, Eph. 4. For the Apostle at v. 1. having exhorted believers to walk worthy of their calling, he instanceth in such graces as procure Unity with all lowliness, meekness, forbearing one another; See these graces are the comely, worthy graces of our holy calling, and you have the end of these graces, v. 3. endeavouring, we must make it our aim, our labour, our study and prayer to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, hereupon he enumerates v. 4. why there should be such Unity, There is one body, Christ hath not many bodies, no more then a man hath; All the people of God are one body; Now how destructive is it when one part of the body should conspire against the welfare of another? Let grace do that in this mystical body which nature doth in this natural; Then there is one Spirit, There is but one Spirit that enlightens and sanctifieth the whole Church of God, why then should there be so many contrary opinions and ways, yet pretended to be of the same Spirit? Indeed the Apostle saith, there are diversity of gifts and operations, yet the same Spirit; He doth not say contrarieties and the same Spirit, for that is as impossible as darkness to come from the Sun; If then there be but one Spirit, let not the godly give occasions to the adversaries to blaspheme, saying, the Calvinistical Spirit is one thing, and the Lutheran spirit another; Again, there is one hope of our calling, we are called to one Inheritance, there is only one Heaven prepared for all the godly, Why then should they be so different by the way, when at our journeys end we must all be received into the same place of glory; It is true our Saviour saith,