the charge of Christ upon them not to acknowledge it as truth till they understand it to be so this causes much contention amongst good men through their weaknesse and corruption of their hearts The lesse distance men apprehend between themselves and others in regard of power the more differences there are amongst them as they say the greatest and sorest stormes are about the Equinoctiall Men are kept more at peace in the Common-wealth then in the Church because there is a greater subjection of one to another there then may be admitted in the Church Thirdly godly men give up themselves to the strictest rules of holinesse they walk in the narrow way of Christ it is broad enough to the spirituall part but in regard of our corruptions it is a narrow pent way they dare not give way to themselves to decline a haires bredth from the rule to gratifie others they dare not bend to them that they might sute more with them but must keep themselves to the straight rule they must keep just in their path they cannot go aside to give way to others hence there is clashing every one not having the same thoughts of the rule and way that others have those who walke by loose rules in wayes that are broad even to their flesh they can sure themselves one to another easily they can gratifie their friends yea the corruptions of their friends more then others can do godly men cannot yeeld for peace sake to such termes as other men can Fourthly the things that the Saints are conversant about are great things things of a high nature about their last end their eternall estates hence every one is very charie and carefull and strongly set to maintain what he apprehends those who understand not the infinite consequence of those things who have not had the feare of them fall upon their hearts they wonder at the stifnesse of mens spirits that they can be brought to yeeld no more in such things that they conceive they might yeeld in and where there are different apprehensions of those things that concern mens eternall estates even amongst godly men they must needs stand out one against another till God causes one of them to see things otherwise then now he doth Fiftly the things of Religion are hidden mysteries they are the secrets of God they are hard to be understood God reveals them in a differing way they are not ordinarily so clearly revealed but that the apprehensions of them are like to be different Sixtly the Saints are bound to watch over one another each is his brothers keeper they ought to advise admonish reprove one another not to suffer sinne to be upon their brethren now this through our corruption is very displeasing we doe not love to be medled with to be crossed in what we have a mind to but other men can better preserve their own quiet by letting their brethren alone I will not trouble them lest I be troubled my selfe Hence it is that they many times live more quietly one with another then godly men do yet this is a great evill a shame to those who are godly that it should be so upon any termes Seventhly ungodly men are dead in sins the Devill hath them sure enough he doth not seek to stir their corruptions so much as he doth the corruptions of the godly he shall not get so much advantage by the one as by the other therefore he labours to keep the corruptions of the godly acting as much as he can that he may disquiet their owne spirits and the spirits of those with whom they converse Thus you see it is no such wonder why there are dissentions amongst men that truly feare God Suppose they should live all together yet so long as they live here in this muddy world it cannot be but there will be sometimes foule weather amongst them but if you look into the Church and consider of the dissentions there there is a farther reason for them for usually there are many hypocrites mingled with the godly there they taking up a profession of religion and so creep into the Church they finde spirituall things unsuitable to them hence they fly off their spirits not being brought under the yoke of Christ they fling against those things that pinch them We read Num. 11. 4. that the great trouble the Children of Israel had among them after they were got out of Egypt was from the mixt multitude that was among them these are as ill humours in the body that do much disturb the quiet of it None have more turbulent cruell impatient spirits then hypocrites none are so desirous of revenge as they sayes Luther Yet further the fourth thing propounded is to shew that those that come nearest together yet differing in some things are many times at greater variance one with another then those who differ in more things from them The Jews and Samaritans were at greater variance then Jews and Heathens Epiphanius tells of a sect of the Jews the Nazarites who continued the Customes and Ceremonies of the Jewes but acknowledged Christ also and the Jews in hatred to them cursed them solemnly three times a day morning noon and evening when they went into their Synagogue to pray The Turks have a honourable esteeme of Christ which the Tartars have not yet they say that the Tartars turn Christians sooner then the Turks The Turks and Persians are both Mahometans they are both circumcised but the Turks follow the way of Ebubezer and the Persians are of the Schohle of Haly they detest one another more then they do the Christians they will both tolerate Christians to live amongst them but they will not tolerate Mahometans who are in a different order from themselves Luther complaines much of those who acknowledged the same doctrine professed the same faith with himself came to the same Sacraments yet were worse enemies then the Papists so that the Papists laughed at them and said They bite one another and are consumed one of another I have read of a profane speech of one Cosmus Duke of Florence against some perfidious friends You shall reade sayes he that we are commanded to forgive our enemies but you never read that we are commanded to forgive our friends Breaches of friends of such as are otherwise nearest are the greatest Prov. 18. 19. A brother offended is harder to be won then a City and their contertione are like the bars of a Castle 1. We see it in nature the nerrer the union is the more grievous is the usurpation t is not so great an evill to a man for his arme to be seperated from his body as his soule for the union of the one is integrall of the other it is essentiall The bone is more firmly united in all the parts of it then the flesh and the least breach in that is farre more hurtfull then a greater in the flesh 2. Those who agree in many things have hope it may
of closing common gifts are of a middle nature between nature and grace as the spirits of a man are neither of the same nature with the soule nor of the body but between both and serve to unite the soule and body together which otherwise are of natures very different The common gifts that men who are not yet sanctified have may and should cause some union between the godly and them while they live in this world so far as to be usefull one to another in what God hath given them The second joyning Consideration Let us consider how farre we can agree VVE differ thus and thus but what doe we agree in doe we not agree in things enough wherein we may all the dayes of our lives spend all the strength we have in glorifying God together Many men are of such spirits as they love to be altogether busied about their brethrens differences their discourse their pens and all their wayes are about these and that not to heale them but rather to widen them You shall not hear them speak of or meddle with their agreements their strength is not bent to heighten and strengthen them if at any time they do take notice of their agreements it is to make advantage of them to render their disagreements the more odious or to strengthen themselves in what they differ from them they desire to get in men and to get from them only to serve their owne turnes upon them this is an evill spirit No marvaile therefore though some be so loath to discover to them how near they can come to him Pliny tells us of Apelles that drawing the face of Antiochus the King who had but one eye that he might hide this deformity he devised to paint him turning his visage a little away so he shewed but the one side of his face and from him sayes Pliny came the invention first of concealing the defects and blemishes of the visage But the Painters of 〈◊〉 time are quite in another way if there be any deformity or defect on any side they will be sure to paint that side in all the linâ—â—ments of it that must be set forth fully to the view of all men yea if it may be made to look more ugly and monstrous then it is all the skill they have shall be improved to do it But my brethren this ought not to be God doth not so with us he takes notice of the good of his children but conceals their evill There was but one good word in Sarahs speech to Abraham Gen. 18. 12. she called him Lord the speech otherwise was a speech of unbelief yet the holy Ghost speaking afterwards of her in reference to that speech 1 Pet. 3. 6. conceals all the evill in it and mentions only that reverend title she gave to her husband commending her for it Thus should we do had we peceable hearts thus we would do all the good of our brethren we would improve to the uttermost and what is evill so far as with a good conscience we might we could conceal When I shall see this temper in mens spirits I shall hope there will be peace The third joyning Consideration Let us consider of mens tempers spirits temptations education yeeres gifts THere must be a due consideration of all these and we must indulge something to them all This would allay much strife as we read Numb 31. 23. Every thing that may abide the fire ye shall make it goe thorough the fire and all that abideth not the fire ye shall make goe thorough the water We must deal with every man according to his temper Some men are by their complexions of a more harsh and rugged temper then others Consider what is the best way of dealing with such in the main they are faithfull and usefull they will joyn with you there and spend their lives for you if the harshness of their natures cause some excrescencies unpleasing carriages consider their tempers though no evill in them is to be justified yet deal tenderly with them indulge them what lawfully you may Some mens spirits though upright to God and you yet they have a fervor in them that is not qualified with that wisdome meekness humility as they ought do not presently take these advantages against them that they in their heat may perhaps give you do not fly upon them as if those unjustifiable expressions that com from them came from a spirit of malignity You know the man and the manner of his communication pass by weaknesses accept of uprightnesse Some mens temptation are very strong it may be their hearts are pressed with disappointments it may be they are pricked with the want of many comforts you have they have family-temptations and personall temptations that you are freed from you do not know what you might doe if you were under the like temptations Blesse God that you are delivered from them but do not adde to your brethrens affliction by taking advantages against them but according to the rule of the Apostle Gal. 6. 1. If a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spirituall restore such a one in the spirit of meekness considering thy selfe lest thou also be tempted Beare ye one anothers burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ Consider their education Some men have been brought up altogether amongst Prelaticall men perhaps among Papists some all their dayes have lived in wicked families they never were acquainted with the society of the Saints with that way of godlinesse that hath the most strictnesse and power in it You must not deale with them for all things you see amisse in them in the same way you would deale with such who have had godly education who have had acquaintance with the most strict and powerfull wayes of godlinesse but now manifest a spirit against them Consider mens yeares old age looks for respect and justly especially such as have gone through the brunt and suffered much for your good though some infirmities should break forth that are incident to old age we must cover and passe by what we can not forgetting that reverent respect that is due to the hoary head found in the way of godlinesse Consider mens gifts it may be they are not able to rise to your height to understand what you do thank God for your strength but be not angry with your brother because he is weaker This was one of the arguments for peace that Constantine in that forementioned Letter of his to Alexander and Arius used we are not in all things like minded neither have we all the same nature and gift engrafted in us The fourth joyning Consideration What we get by contention will never quit cost A Merchant thinks it an ill venture if when he casts up his accounts he finds the charge of his voyage rises to more then his incomes If thou hast so much command of thy spirit if thou canst so farre overcome thy passions as to get a time in coole
having used sometimes in their Families to take a Scripture and speak something out of it upon this they think it is a better thing to be exercised in preaching Gods word then to fit in a shop all day at some meane worke or selling out wares therefore they thinke they are bound to give over their Callings which they look at as too low mean things and be Preachers of the Word not regarding those due ways that Christ would have men come into such an employment by Although I do not think but that Tradesmen who have good knowledg in the Scripture and are gifted by God to speak the Word to people for their edification when there is a want of able men who have been all their lives preparing for such a work and are set apart for it rather then people should continue in ignorance and so perish if those who are able and fit to judg shal judg them meet for such a work they may be employd to make Christ known to them yet for every man that takes himself to be a gifted man and it may be is so judged by some who are willing to flatter him to take upon him of himselfe or by the advice of two or three of his friends to leave his other employment for the work of the Ministry because that is a more noble and excellent work this is not a way of God but a way of confusion and disorder Again it is in it selfe a better thing to enjoy a Ministry of the most eminent gifts and graces then one of lower but if this should be made a rule that a man who is under a Pastor who is faithfull and in some good measure gifted upon another mans coming into the Countrey that is more eminent he should forsake his Pastor and joyn to the other and if after this still a more eminent man comes he should leave the former and joyn to him and by the same Law a Pastor who hath a good people yet if others be more likely to receive more good he may leave his own people and goe to them what confusion and disorder would there be continually in the Church Men must consider not only what the thing is in its own nature but what it is to them how it stands in reference to their relations If you be joyned to a Pastor so as you believe he is set over you by Christ to be a Pastor to you not because the Bishop hath sent one or an old Usurer dyes and leaves the Patronage of a living to some Ostler or Tap-wench in an Alehouse and he or she shall send one by vertue of their right to the patronage this cannot tie a mans conscience to depend upon him for the ordinances of Christ all his days in case he cannot remove his dwelling but if you cannot but look upon the man as the Pastor that Christ hath set over you Though this man hath meaner gifts then others and it would be more comfortable to you to have another Pastor yet this is not enough to cause you to diseâ—t him whom Christ hath set over you and if people may not leave their Pastors because others have more eminent gifts then surely Pastors must not leave their people because others have more eminent Livings To instance yet further that you may see how this Principle disturbs mens spirits Many being in the works of their Calling have some thoughts come into their mind that prayer is a better work more noble and spirituall then to be employed as they are therefore they must needs presently leave their worke and go toe prayer How many have been perplexed with temptations this way by which their lives have been made very uncomfortable Prayer in it selfe is better but is it better at this time for me all things considered am not I about that which God hath called me to do By this Principle many decive and trouble themselves in respect of their souls as some by a conceit of the like nature deceive bring great trouble to themselves in respect of their bodies some who have sickly bodies their flesh is decayed they think such and such things have most nourishment in them such things are hot and full of spirits and juyce therefore they will eate and drink altogether such things leaving their ordinary dyet by this means thâ—y many times overthrow their bodies for though a man wants flesh yet the way for him to have it it may be is not to take nourishing things but purging and though he be troubled with faintness it may be the way to get good spirits is by eating ordinary dyet and cooling his body that so some distemper may be cured and he may get his veyns filled with good blood and spirits got from it rather then by drinking hot waters that are full of spirits which perhaps burns his heart and dries his body that there is no good blood generated from his dyet It is not enough therefore to say the thing is in it selfe better but is it better in all the references I have and it hath is it better in regard of others in regard of the publique for the helping me in all my relations May it not help one way and hinder many ways If a Physitian should come to a man and see his disease is hot and shoâ—ld therefore presently cool him by giving him water the man may like it for the present why is it not better to be cool then so burning hot but thus the Physitian discovers his folly and the Patient loses his life A Physitian in prescribing some physick had need have forty considerations in his head at once how one part stands affected to the other of what yeers the man is of what complexion how long the disease bath been upon him what was last done to him c. So it should be in the duties of Religion a Christian who desires to walk orderly to beautifie and honour his profession to enjoy communion with God peace in his own soul and be useful to the publique had need have his wits about him not presently to fall upon a work because it is now presented as good to him in a single consideration he must compare one thing with another and see what it is in all its references or otherwise he will but enterfeir hee will but hack and hew and bungle and disturb himselfe and others in the ways of Religion he will make Religion tiresome to himselfe and others he will be in danger in time to cast off strictnesse and to grow so much the more loose then others by how much more streightned he hath been in a disorderly way then others I believe some of you have known those who in their young time have been very strict and tender whatsoever they have conceived to be better then other they have presently followed it with all eagernesse never considering circumstances references or consequences but the thing is good it must be done yet being wearied with
Prelaticall party they wrested what was said or written these feigne what was never said or written who are the fire-brands amongst us if not such men as these as fire-brands plucked out of the fire and now they seeke to fire those who plucked them out but if this be too hot what will you call them what will you say of them O is this the fruit of all prayers for them reliefe of them respect to them Tanta ne vos generis tenuit fiducia vestri Sed motas praesta◠componere lites Whosoever shall reade that Booke of Bancroft entituled Dangerous Positions published and practised by those who pretend Reformation for the Presbyteriall Government shall find the whole subject of the booke to be the blasting the names of the most eminent godly Ministers that lived in those times rendring them to the State as men not fit to be suffered in any Christian Common-wealth The State at that time being wholly for Prelacie and discountenancing that way of government these men sought for their adversaries thought they might be bold to take what liberty they pleased to calumniate traduce and to render them as vile as possible they might there was no such way to keepe them downe as this in this they being like those in the Primitive times who put the Christians into Beares and Tygers skins and then cast them to the Dogges to be devoured Let the servants of God but appeare as they are they will gaine reverentiall respect even from the multitude but when these ugly things are put upon them they are prepared to be the objects of their fury I have read in Suetonius of the cruelty of Tiberius who because it was unlawfull that Virgins should not be put to death caused the Hang-man to ravish them and then to execute them This is the cruelty of some amongst us they can doe some men no hurt but by offering violence first to their names and if they be defiled then they thinke they may doe any thing with them Of such as these are who make divisions amongst us in so ungodly a way as this all that I shall further say is The Lord rebuke them As for the Servants of God they commit their names and wayes to God knowing that the Lord takes care of their names as well as their soules If dirt be cast upon a mud wall it sticks but if upon Marble it soon washes or moulders away God will in time justifie his servants even in your consciences by the constancie of their peaceable carriage toward men and their gracious holy walking with their God onely take you heed that you involve not your selves in the guilt of that wrong that is done unto them by readinesse of your spirits to close with and take content in what evill you heare of those whom God accounts faithfull CHAP. XXV The sixt Dividing Practice the giving Characterizing names to men names of Division THis is an old continued practice of the Devill he hath gained much by it and therefore is loath to leave it The Orthodox of old were called Cornelians Cyrillians by the followers of Novatus and Nestorius in time of Reformation Lutherans Zuinglians Hussites Calvinists Hugonots Tertullian sayes in his Apology for the Christians of his time their crime that they are persecuted for hath no name that for which they are hated and persecuted is the crime of their name such men are cryed out of under such a name but when things come to be examined their name is all their crime And among other that of Schismaticke is not onely a charactising but a stigmatizing name whereby of old and lately many have had a brand of reproach upon them which upon examination will be found to be as it is applyed by many nothing but a scaring word taken up by such who understand little what Schisme is I shall therefore endeavour to open this briefly The word Schisme comes of the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to rend from thence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scisura a rent It is amongst Divines a Tecnologicall terme Schisme in the Church is much like to what Sedition is in the State When the Church grew up to the state and outward glory of an earthly Kingdome much use was made of this terme as a brand upon those who would not subject to the yoakes of them who loved preheminence in the Church But the true nature of Schisme is this An uncharitable unjust rash violent breaking from union with the Church or the Members of it The Church is that from which the rent is Heresie divides from the head Schisme from the body Apostacy from both This rent is either from the whole Church or some part if from the whole it is Donatisme Donatus denyed any to be of the body of Christ to be beleevers to be such as could be saved except that company that joyned with him and with those in his way This is clear from the whole discourse of Augustine against him in that Tract De unitate Ecclesiae Wherefore those who censure such as deny communion with some particular Congregations as Donatists discover either ignorance or malice if not both Yet Schisme may be though the rent be but from some part of the Church but this must needs suppose union with that part now there may be a twofold union with the severall parts of the Church either that which all who are to be accounted Christians have with them as they are of the same body Catholick or that which is by agreement to grow up together into a speciall fellowship The rending from any of these unions in such a way as before was mentioned is Schisme If we seperate from or refuse that communion with such as are to be accounted Christians that is due to all Christians this is the more grosse Schisme Or if we thus breake off that communion which is by speciall agreement which may be either when Christians joyne together in a private way for mutuall edification and comfort or when they so joyn together as to make up a distinct spirituall corporation to set up the publick ordinances of Christ which the Scripture calls a Church Now though there may be Schisme in the breaking the former yet the censure of Schisme is especially applyed to the undue breaking off communion in the latter Now this implyes an union by a Church agreement where there never was such an agreement there cannot be the guilt of this Schisme Although they who dwell within such a perambulation such a compasse of ground should not joyne in some ordinances with some within that compasse whatsoever offence there may be against some civill constitution yet the guilt of Schisme they doe not contract upon themselves for that union they never had cannot be broke But you will say Yes they are Schismaticks though they were never so united because they were bound to unite thus and they have not It must be granted that CHRIST by what he ordered the Apostles