ob What is ChriRs body. Wherein the union of it ftandcrh. How the Chu:ch is one. Dots. To confider our being fel- low- members h 4 motive to concord. rfe. Suffer this mo- tive to ltrevai le with us. Gen.r3. 8. Ephefians Chap, 4.. nwnwommal Vita. q.,! Wce all of us are one body. Ergo, 6-c. For the openingofit, three thingsare to be marked. What this body is . Chapter r 23. the Church. Chapter 5.23. the ChurchPaved by the blood of Chrift. 2. In what the Vnionofthis body ftandeth : For Anfwer. Look as the Vnionofthenatural! body (ands in this , that parts are joyned all with the head, and one with another: So this ma- keth the body one, or the multitude offuch asare called out of i this world, to the gloryof God, one; becaufe there is Faith which doth as a ligament the them to Chrift their Head , and thereis love, which as a finew, doth knit them one with ano- ther. 3. The third thing is,how the Church can be Paid [one] when the Scripture maketh mention ofmany Churches; Rom. 16.4. the (even Churchesofvlfia. So different Churches in regard of time, as one Church in the timeof vldam, another in the time ofvibraham, of David another. The Church is confidered, e. asa whole, the number of all fuch whom God hath purpofed to call to himfelfe. 2. As in part, that is, as parts of this whole have in divers times and divers places appeared. In the firft fenfe the Church is one: in the latter, viz. in regardof theappearing in divers times, and being in divers places, the Church isPaid manifold, not that many Churches, but many partsofoneChurch put on this confederation. Look as in the natural! body inbringing forth, one part in time commeth forth after another, when one is forth with us, though the other bee in the wombe, yet this comming forth in divers times and being in divers places, makethnot the Infant many but one body : So the Lord in bringing forth his Church, which within himfelfe he hath conceived, though fome come forth at one time, Tome at another, fornebee in heaven and fome in earth , Come (as it were) lye Hill in the wombe of his purpofeundelivered, yet all make not many bodies, but one body. Now for the doltrine. We are taught hence, That this is a great motive to Cbriflian Con- cord, to think how all ofus arejoynedaxfellow-members in one body; this argument is urged Col. 3.15. Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the whichye are calledin one body. For look as in thenatural! body, the fellow members of is keep together, and mutually ferve one ano- ther, the eye looketh for the foot, the hand prote6teth the head; and it were monftrous if one part fhould feparate from another,and fay it were not of the body : So we all being one myflicall body, it is as monftrdus in grace, as the other is in nature, if we fhould not live in Vnity together, ferving one another. Wherefore we mutt hence Puffer our felves tobe provoked to Chri- ftianConcord; ifthis were with 4braham forcible enough, Let there benofrife betwixt thee and me,for we are brethren. Much more this; Let
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