210 FIFTH SERMON the mystical body, separations tend to the paining and grieving of that Spirit by which the body lives, Eph. iv. 30, 31. and by consequence hinders the growth of it. Our growth is by the apostle distributed into growth in knowledge, and growth in grace, 2 Pet. iii. 18. and di- visions in the church are of themselves great hinder - ances unto both these ; unto knowledge, because the most usual breaches in the church arise out of diversi- ties of opinions publicly asserted and insisted on by the authors and followers of them. And though acci- dentally, where truth is embraced, it is held with more care, and searched into with more accuracy, be- cause of the errors that oppose it ; (as the fire is hot- test in the coldest weather;) yet corrupt doctrine, being of the nature of a weed, or canker, to spread and eat further and further, it must needs consequently hinder the spreading, and in that kind, the growth of knowledge. Nor doth it less hinder the growth of grace ; for while the people of God are all of one heart, and of one way, then all their communion runs into this one design of mutually edifying, comforting, sup - porting, encouraging one another in their holy faith ; but when they are divided and broken into faction by different judgments, if there be not a greater abun- dance of humility, and spiritual wisdom, the spirits of men run out into heats and passions, and into perverse disputes, and mere notional contentions, which have ever been diminutions unto the power of godliness, 1 Cor. iii. 3, 4. When there are schisms in the body, the members will not have care one of another, 1 Cor. xii. 25. It were a blessed thing if we were in a condition capable of the apostle's exhortation, to speak all the same thing, to be perfectly joined in the same mind, and in the same judgment, to be of one mind, and to live in peace, 1 Cor. i. 10. 2 Cor, xiii.
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