A49252:256
The natural mans case stated, or, An exact map of the little world man…The naturall mans case stated, or, An exact map of the little world man…
The natural mans case stated, or, An exact map of the little world man considered in both his capacities, either in the state of nature or grace / as is laid down in XVII sermons by that late truly orthodox divine, Mr. Christopher Love ... ; whereunto is annexed The saints triumph over death, being his funeral sermon, by that painful labourer in the Lords vineyard, Mr. Tho. Manton ...The naturall mans case stated, or, An exact map of the little world man considered in both his capacities, either in the state of nature or grace / as is laid down in XVII sermons by that late truely orthodox divine, Mr. Christopher Love ... ; whereunto is annexed The saints triumph over death, being his funeral sermon, by that painful labourer in the Lords vineyard, Mr. Tho. Manton ...
London: printed by E. Cotes for George Eversden, 1652
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. I may infer from the Churches being a spiritual Commonwealth, the necessity of union in the Church. Commonwealths are preserved by union, you see what four years war have brought upon our kingdom, it hath almost destroyed the face of our commonwealth: Union ⟨p. 111⟩are the sinews and ligaments of a commonwealth, if men be disunited, and disjointed, that commonwealth cannot subsist, A Kingdom divided against it self cannot 1stand, and the Church of God being a spiritual commonwealth, this argues the great necessity of unity in the Church, and the great danger of division, the Church of God cannot be safe without union. I must tell you (to the grief of our hearts be it spoken) there were never less unity in the Church of God, since the very first plantation of it, by the Apostles in the Primitive times, then there is at this day, wherein every man almost is set one against another; truly I look upon it, as a very sad Omen and prediction, that God is bringing in upon us the most dismal persecution that ever yet our eyes beheld. I have read in the book of Martyrs, that the coming in of the eighth persecution, was occasioned by the division & falling out of Christians one with another; I wish it may not be so with us (Beloved) it is ordinary amongst a great many men to cry out & exclaim against the Ministers of the Gospel, as if they were the great incendiaries and causers of divisions and dissensions amongst you, but I would have you know that those that preach against division, are not dividers, but those that make divisions they are dividers, as the ⟨p. 112⟩Apostle says, Mark them that cause divisions among you, and avoid them, those men that have caused divisions, and brought in strange opinions, and Sects, and schisms into the land, they are the make-bates of the Nation; the staff of Union and the staff of Beauty, when one is broken, the other is broken. I have read a story of a man that had fourscore children, and lying upon his death bed, he caused his children to come before him, and desired that a bundle of small rods might be brought to him, his children began to wonder amongst themselves, what should be his design and purpose in doing it, but when they had brought them, their Father commands every one of his sons beginning from the youngest to the eldest, to take the bundle, and try which of them could break it, but none of them was found able to do it: