as a Mine of Gold or Silver is the Princes in whose ground soever it be discovered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have our Faith and our Appellation from Christ and not from any other Person and therefore they who upon any undue respects can with equall facility hold or let goe Truth the Fathers fear not to call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men that make marchandise of Christ and his Truth contrary to that of Solomon Buy the Truth but sell it not Prov. 23.23 And therefore wee find the Orthodox Beleevers still keeping themselves to the Stile of Antioch Christians and refusing the names of Petriani or Pauliani or Melitiani or pars Donati And indeed partiall and personall respects will be ever apt to lead unto contention I cannot affirm any thing but a conjecture I think we may make that if Barnabas had not been Marks uncle the difference betweene him and Paul had not been so hot 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To bee Wise unto sobriety Rom. 12.3 When we are to deale in things divine to set bounds unto our selves that wee breake not through to gaze Exod. 19.12 21. Not to draw every thing in Religion to the Rule of our Right or rather crooked and presumptuous Reason to take heede of Quomodo in things of Faith the Fathers call it a Judaicall word and unbeseeming Christians Saint Paul chargeth us to Take heed of Philosophy and vaine deceits Col. 2.8 Not but that there is admirable use of sound Philosophy and of Reason raised and rectified so long as it is subordinate to Faith but when it shall bee so proud as to judg of Faith it selfe and to admit or reject it as it shall be consonant or disagreeing with her prejudices this is a tyranny which would quickly overthrow all Other cause there hath been none of those desperate Heresies wherewith the Socinians have pestred the World but that they will have all Truths to stand or fall at the Tribunal of their presumptuous Reason as if all the present and ancient Churches of God besides consisted but of brute Creatures and they onely in a corner of Polonia as sometimes the Donatists in Africa the onely reasonable and holy men Foelix Ecclesia cum nova curiosa de Deo dicere lascivia crederetur Happy indeed the Church of God when curious novelties and as it were Tourneaments in sacred things are esteemed profane when men doe not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor disparage the Majesty of so Honourable and solemn a Foundation with the levity of slight chaffie and triviall superstructions It was a grave and serious speech that of Seneca and worthy the consideration of the greatest Divines Nunquam nos verecundiores esse debemus quam cum de Deo agitur 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To keepe our selves to the forme of sound words Rom. 12.6 2 Tim. 1.13 to hold those Doctrines which accord best with the grounds of faith love in Christ those which ascribe most glory to God and his Grace which most conduce to the humbling and debasing of the pride of man which most tend to the practice of godlines to the purifying of Conscience to the edifying of the Body of Christ. Our Doctrine must be according unto godlinesse 1 Tim. 6.3 and our knowledge the acknowledging of the Truth which is after Godlinesse Tit. 1.1 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Custom of the Churches of God To retaine that when there is no expresse and evident variation from Divine Authority which is most consonant to the received usage of the ancient and pure ages of the Church This Rule the Apostle gives for suppressing of differences If any seem to be contentious wee have no such custome neither the Churches of God 1 Corin. 11.16 Inquire of the former age saith Bildad and prepare thy selfe to the search of their fathers Iob 8.8 Look to the old way saith the Prophet Ier. 6.16 It was not so from the beginning saith our Saviour Mat. 19.8 Onely this Rule is to be qualified with this necessary distinction That no Antiquity hath any Authority in matters necessary of Faith Worship or Doctrines of Religion to prescribe or diliver any thing as in it selfe and immediately obligatory to the Conscience which is either contradicted or omitted in the written Word which we beleeve to be fully sufficient to make the man of God perfect and throughly furnished unto every good worke 2 Tim. 3.16 17. But 1. In matters accessory of indifferency order decency and inferiour nature 2. In matter of Testimony to the truths of Scripture and for manifesting the succession flourishing and harmony of doctrines through all ages of the Church the godly learned have justly ascribed much to the authority and usage of the ancient Churches The study of the doctrine and Rites whereof is justly called by the most learned Primate of Ireland a noble study I wil conclude this particular with the words of S. Austin In those things saith he wherein the holy Scripture hath defined nothing mos Populi Dei instituta majorum pro lege tenenda sunt The custome of Gods people and appointments of our fore-fathers must be held for laws Lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Submission to the spirits of the Prophets and the judgments of the godly learned not to be stiffe and inflexible in our owne conceits nor to be Acceptors of our own persons but to be willing to retract any errour and with meekness and thankfulness to be led into the right way by any hand Excellent was the resolution of Iob in this case Teach me and I will hold my peace and cause me to know wherein I have erred Iob 6.24 In which one disposition did all men who otherwise differ firmly agree and were not too partially addicted to their own fancies nor had their judgments which should be guided only by the truth of things too much enthralled to their own wils ends or passions soon might they be brought if not wherein they erre to change their judgments yet at least so to allay them with humility and love as Saint Cyprian did his that they should never breake forth into bitternesse towards their Brethren or disturbance of the Church of God Thus have I with as much light as my weaknesse could discover and with as much brevity as the weight of the Argument would allow opened the meanes of procuring and preserving Peace amongst Brethren The other Particular in the Text would require as large a portion of time as this hath already spent I shall spare to bee so injurious to your patience and to the businesse wee attend upon onely because those things which God hath joyned together no man ought to put asunder I shall therefore as Architects use to doe give you in but a few lines a Modell of the building here by the Apostle
In case of Idolatry If Israel play the harlot let not Iudah transgresse for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols 3. In case of Tyranny when any shall usurp and exercise Domination over the Consciences of men to bring them into bondage unto Doctrines of errours and make Articles of Faith for all Churches to submit unto In which case the Apostle had no patience Gal. 2.4 5. Neque enim quisquam nostrum Episcopum fe esse Episcoporum constituit aut tyrannico terrore ad obsequendi necessitatem collegas suos adegit they are the words of Saint Cyprian in the Councel of Carthage upon the case of Re-baptization This then being laid for a firm foundation that Christ where he is King of Salem must be King of Righteousness too that the wisedome which is from above must be first pure and then peaceable that our unity must be the Unity of the Spirit Ea enim sola Ecclesiae pax est quae Christi pax est as Saint Hilary speaks The state of this Point is in these two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 War there must be I speak in a spiritual sense with Principalities and Powers and spiritual Wickednesses For the Church is Militant and hath Weapons of spiritual Warfare given of purpose to resist Enemies Christ came to send a Sword against all dangerous Errors of minde or manners And as in this Warre every Christian must have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Saint Paul speaks The whole Armour of God so above all Timothy and such as he was must be good Souldiers 2 Tim. 2.3 with the Eye to watch with the Tongue to warn with the Sword of the Spirit to convince and to correct gain-sayers War there must be but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Contention and inward jarres there must not be and that for this very reason because there is War for as our Saviour saith A Kingdom divided within it self cannot stand at any time much lesse when it wageth War with a Forreign and Potent Adversary such as Satan and all other Enemies of the Church are who by the advantage of an intestine Commotion would save himself the labour of drawing the Sword and become rather a spectatour than a party in the Conquest A notable example we have in Meletius and Peter Bishop of Alexandria both Confessours of the Christian Faith both Martyres designati and condemned Ad Metalla for their Profession who upon a small difference touching the receiving of the Lapsi into Communion fell unto so great a Schisme that they drew a partition between each other in the Prison and would not hold Communion in the same worship of Christ for which notwithstanding they joyntly suffered which dissention of theirs did the Church of God more hurt by causing a great rent and Sect among the members thereof than any persecution the Enemy could have raised Greatly therefore doth it concern all of us in our places and orders to put to all our power prayers interests for preserving the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace and for pursuing and promoting the Peace of Ierusalem that in nothing we give offence to the Church of God rather be willing to silence and smother our private judgements to relinquish our particular liberties and interests to question and mistrust domestica judicia as Tertullian calls them our singular conceits and fancies than to be in any such thing stiffe and peremptory against the quiet of Gods Church The Weak to be humble and tractable the strong to be meek and merciful the Pastours to instruct the ignorant to reclaim the wandering to restore the lapsed to convince the froward with the spirit of meeknesse and compassion The People to obey honour and encourage their Ministers by their docible and flexible disposition to suspect their owne Judgements to allow their Teachers to know more than they not to hamper themselves nor to censure their Brethren nor to trouble their Superiours by ungrounded Scruples or uncharitable prejudices or unquiet and in the end uncomfortable singularities How did our Saviour poure out his Spirit in that heavenly Prayer for the Unity of his People That they may be one and one in us and made perfect in one How doth the Apostle poure out his very bowels in this respect unto the Church If any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies be ye like minded Take heed of strife of vain-glory of pride in your own conceits of censure of your Brethren of private respects Lay aside your own reputation be in the forme of servants have such humble judgements as that you can be willing to learn any though unwelcome Truth to unlearn any though darling Errour have such humble lives and purposes as that you can resolve to obey with duty whatsoever you are not able with reason to gainsay The godly Princes how carefull have they ever been to suppresse and remove Dissentions from Gods Church Constantine the Great writeth Letters publisheth Edicts makes large Orations to the Bishops of the Nicene Councel at their Sitting and Dissolution to no other purpose than only for preservation of Peace Anastasius in the great Dissentions of the Easterne and Westerne Churches about the Councel of Chalcedon touching the two Natures of Christ how severe was he to require his Bishops to promote and conserve Peace in the Church as Euagrius and Nicephorus note To say nothing of the Pious examples of our Dread Soveraign and his most Renowned Father who both by Writings and by Injunctions by Pen and Power by Argument and by Authority have shewed their care to supresse those unhappy Differences wherwith by the cunning of Satan the Churches of God have of late yeers been too much disquieted Consider we beloved that we are Brethren that we have one Body one Spirit one Faith one Hope one Baptisme one Calling brought out of the same womb of common ignorance heirs of the same common Salvation partakers of alike precious Faith sealed with the same Sacraments fed with the same Manna ransomed with the same Prize comforted with the same Promises in so much that Iustine Martyr and Optatus have been charitable so far as to call Judaizing Christians and Donatists by the name of Brethren Whosoever therefore by Pride or Faction or Schisme or Ambition or novel Fancies or Arrogance or Ignorance or Sedition or Popularity or vain-Glory or Envie or Discontent or Correspondence or any other Carnal reason shall rend the seamlesse Coat of Christ and cause Divisions and Offences I shall need load him with no other guilt than the Apostle doth That he is not the Servant of Christ Rom. 16.17 For how can he who is without Peace or Love serve that God who is the God of Peace whose name is Love and whose Law is Love Besides this we in our Calling
are Brethren Consortio muneris and there is a special tie upon us to be no strikers 1 Tim. 3.3 not to strike our fellow-labourers with an Eye of scorn or a Tongue of censure or a Spirit of neglect or a Pen of gall and calumny We need not in any Controversie flie to stones so long as our Reason and Learning holdeth out Not to strike the People of God either with the Rod of Circe to stupifie and benum them in sensual security crying Peace Peace where there is no Peace or with unseasonable and misapplied terrours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaks To wound the Conscience and to make sad the hearts of those whom the Lord hath not made sad Christ our Master was Consecrated to this Office by the Spirit in the shape of a Dove as an embleme of that meeknesse which was in him and which from him should descend upon all his subordinate Officers And as the love of Brethren should hold us so our jealousie of Enemies should drive us to keepe up the Tower of David the Peace of the Church that by intestine differences we cause not the Adversary to rejoyce and to speak reproachfully When all the members of the Church are fast joyned together vinculo fidei glutine charitatis by the bond and cement of faith and love when Governors Teachers People joyn hand in hand the one to rule with authority and meeknesse the other to teach with wisdom and compassion the third to honour both by humble submission to the judgment and willing obedience to the guidance of their Governours and Pastours then do they cut off occasion from those who seek occasion and disappoint the expectation of those who as a learned Civilian speaks do Captare tempora impacata inquieta whose best fishing is in troubled waters for as the Divel as Optatus speaks is tormented with the peace of Brethren so is he most quickned and put into hopes of successe in his attempts against the Church by those mutuall ruptures and jealousies which the members thereof foment and cherish among themselves When by the defection of Ieroboam Iudah and Israel were rent asunder then came Shishak and troubled Ierusalem 2 Chron. 12.2 It hath been we know one grand Objection of the Papists against the Reformed Churches That the Dissentions amongst themselves are evident signs of an Heretical spirit as Bellarmine Stapleton and others argue and Fitz-Simon an Irish Jesuit hath written a just Volume of this one Argument which he calleth Britannomachia the Warres of the Divines of our Country amongst themselves How happy they are in that pretended Unity which they make a note of their true Church I refer to any mans judgement who shall reade the crosse Writings of the English Seminaries and Iesuits the Iesuits and Dominicans Smith and Kellison Loemly and Hallier Daniel Iesu and Aurelius the different judgements concerning the Judge of Controversies between the Gallican Church and those more captivated to the Popes Chair in Italy and Spain to say nothing of the two hundred and thirty seven Differences observed by Pappus and three hundred and odde by a Reverend Bishop of ours amongst the Romane Doctours so that were all this calumny a truth we could Answer them as Gregory Nazianzen did those in his time who used the same argument 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they are never the lesse faulty how ever we may be blame-worthy too Onely this want of Charity in them should teach us never to want Unity within our selves but to let such a Spirit of Peace and Meeknesse shew it self in our Lives Doctrines and Writings Ut nihil de nobis male loqui sine mendacio possint that they may never have advantage with the same breath to speak both truly and reproachfully against us And hereby as we shall stop the mouth of the Adversary so shall we preserve the honour of our Religion the successe of our Ministery the Reverence of our Persons and Functions in the minds of the People who may haply be apt enough to catch hold as of others so most of all of those occasions which our selves by our mutual Differences shall at any time administer to neglect both our Preaching and our Persons and when they shall observe hot disagreements amongst Learned men in some things how easily think we may such as are more led by the force of examples than by the evidence of light be induced to stagger and to question all Domesticae calumniae gravissimum fidei excidium no greater hindrance to the growth of Faith than Domestical disagreements Desired it may be but hoped it cannot That in the Church of God there should be no noise of Axes and Hammers no difference in Judgements and Conceits While there is corruption in our Nature narrownesse in our Faculties sleepinesse in our Eyes difficulty in our Profession cunning in our enemies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hard things in the Scriptures and an envious man to superseminate there will still be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men that will bee differently minded no instrument was ever so perfectly in tune in which the next hand that touched it did not amend something nor is there any judgement so strong and perspicacious from which another will not in some things finde ground of variance See wee not in the ancient Churches those great lights in their severall ages at variance amongst themselves Iraeneus with Victor Cyprian with Stephen Ierome with Austin Basil with Damasus Chrysostome with Epiphanius Cyril with Theodoret In this hard necessity therefore when the first evill cannot easily be avoided our wisedome must be to prevent the second that where there is not Perfection yet there may be Peace that dissention of Judgements break not forth into disunion of hearts but that amidst the variety of our severall conceits we preserve still the unity of faith and love by which only we are known to be Christs Disciples Give me leave therefore out of an earnest desire of Peace and Love amongst learned men in the further handling of this Argument briefly to inquire into these two Questions 1. How Peace may be preserved amongst men when differences do arise 2. How those differences may in some degree be composed and reconciled For the former let us first remember That Knowledge is apt to beget Pride and Pride is ever the mother of Contention and in Saint Austins phrase the mother of Heresies too Raro quisquam circa bona sua satis cautus est saith the Historian A very hard thing it is and rarely to be seen for a man endued with excellent parts to be wary temperate and lowly in the employment of them And therefore Satan hath usually set on work the greatest wits in sowing Errours in the Church as Agrippina gave Claudius poyson in his delicatest meat or as Theeves use to pursue their prey with the swiftest