these Additions to Christianity this proud Church-tyranny I doubt not is the great cause of Schism in the world And when I have had opportunity to write against it I have born my testimony against it as is yet legible But it is not that sort of men that I am here most to speak to but to them that profess to be more teachable and willing to know the truth 3. And yet I add though this Book be written principally to save the darker sort of honest Christians from the sin and misery of Church divisions I write it not principally for them to read For I know their prejudice weakness and incapacity after-mentioned But I write it to remember the Teachers of the Churches what principles they have to Preach and strengthen and what principles to confute and to destroy if ever they mean to save the people from this state of sin and the Churches from the sad effects And if Ministers neglect the faithful discharge of so great and necessary a duty let them remember that they were warned if they find themselves overwhelmed in the ruines II. The Reasons moving me to this work are these First It is my calling to help to save people from their sins and Church division is a heap of sins 2. The more I love them that I hope are tender Conscienced and dare not sin when they are convinced of it the more I am bound to endeavour their conviction remembring who hath said Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer sin upon him Lev. 19. 17. 3. LOVE is not an appurtenance of my Religion but my Religion it self God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him who can speak a higher word of any thing in all the world Love is the end of faith and faith is but the Bellows to kindle Love Love is the fulfilling of all the Law the end of the Gospel the nature and mark of Christs Disciples the divine nature the sum of holiness to the Lord the proper note by which to know what is the man and what his state and how far any of his other acts are acceptable unto God without which if we had all knowledge and belief all gifts of utterance and highest profession we were but as sounding Brass and as a tinkling Cymbal And if all our goods were given to the poor and our bodies to the fire it would profit nothing Love is our foretast of Heaven and the perfection of it is Heaven it self even the state and work of Angels and of Saints in glory And he that is angry with me for calling men to Love is angry for calling them to Holiness to God and Heaven Holiness which is against Love is a contradiction It is a deceitful Name which Satan putteth upon unholiness All Church principles which are against Universal Love are against God and Holiness and the Churches life And he that saith he loveth God and hateth his Brother is a Lyar. To be holy without Love is to see without light to live without life He that said The wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle c. did no more dream of separating them then of dividing the head of a man from his heart to save his life Iam. 3. 17. Nor no more than he that said Follow Peace with all men and Holiness Heb. 1â— 14. No necessity can justifie such a division Holiness and Love to God are but two names for one thing Love to God and to man are like Soul and Body that are separated no way but by death Love and Peaceableness differ but as Reason and Reasoning Love may be without Passive Peace from others to us but never without Active Peace from us to others 4. I have had so great opportunity in my time to see the working of the mysterie of iniquity against Christian Love and to see in what manner Christs House and Kingdome is edified by divisions that if I be ignorant after such sad experience I must be utterly unexcusable and of a seared Conscience and a heart that seemeth hardened to perdition God knoweth how hardly sin is known in its secret root till men have tasted the bitterness of the fruit Therefore he hath permitted the two Extreams to shew themselves openly to the world in the effects And one must be noted and hated and avoided as well as the other I thought once that all that talk against Schism and Sects did but vent their malice against the best Christians under those names But since then I have seen what Love-killing principles have done I have long stood by while Churches have been divided and sub-divided one Congregation of the division labouring to make the other contemptible and odious and this called the Preaching of truth and the purer worshiping of God I have seen this grow up to the height of Ranters in horrid Blasphemies and then of Quakers in disdainful pride and surliness and into the way of Seekers that were to seek for a Ministry a Church a Scripture and consequently a Christ. I have many a time heard it break out into more horrid revilings of the best Ministry and Godliest people than ever I heard from the most malignant Drunkard I have lived to see it put to the Question in that which they called the little Parliament whether all the Ministers of the Parishes of England should be put down at once When Love was first killed in their own breasts by these same principles which I here detect I have seen how confidently the killing of the King the Rebellious demolishing of the Government of the Land the killing of many Thousands of their Brethren the turnings and overturnings of all kinds of Rule even that which they themselves set up have been committed and justified and prophanely fathered upon God These with much more such fruits of Love-killing principles and divisions I have seen And I have seen what fierce censorious proud unchristian tempers they have caused or signified In a word I have long seen that envious wisdom whatever it pretend is not from above but is earthly sensual and devilish and that where envy and strife is upon pretence of Religious precedency of wisdom there is confusion and every evil work Jam. 3. 15 16. And if after so long so sad so notorious experience you would have me still to be tender of the brood of Hell I mean these Loveâ—destroying wayes and to shew any countenance to that which really hath done all this you would have me as blind as the Sodâ—mites and as obdurate as Pharaoh and his Egyptians and utterly resolved never to learn the will of God or to regard either good or evil in the world 5. The same sins are continued in without repentance The same pride and ignorance is still keeping open our divisions And if after such warnings as the world scarce ever had the like we shall be still impenitent
to the Churches concord He is either for Tolerating all prâ—pagation of Heresie and practise of wickedness or else he is so much for Vnity that no difference almost is to be tolerated For he well knoweth that while men are imperfect such differences will still be And then if he can but perswade the world that for Concord sake they must not be endured what followeth but that the dissenters must be fined imprisoned or banished to bring them or the rest to unity And so he will seâ— all the world together by the ears in cruelties and blood-shed and in hating one another and all under pretense of making them one You may think that till mankind be all turned Bedlams they can never be so cheated by such a gross deceit nor ever guilty of so mad a work But what will you say if this be the common case of the far greatest part of the Christian world And what will you say further if after above a thousand years universal experience of the unhappy success they continue it still as the only way to unity and peace Look but about you with opened eyes and see whether it be not so Were not he a gracious promoter of Unity in the world that would say Unity is so excellent a thing that it is meet we should be all of one complexion or at least that the world should speak but one language and therefore no other but one should be tolerated And here how easie is it to dilate of the great inconveniences of many languages I could write a Volume in folio of it my self and all true and evident Methinks I see hereupon how these Books are scattered and read and how those called Learned men and politicians applaud them and shake their heads and gnash their teeth at those that would have so great a mischief tolerated And hereupon they set about the business and desire a Law that upon pain of imprisonment and banishment I know not whither no one in the world shall speak any other language but one And now I hope Unity will be promoted indeed when all the world is thus engaged in a war to perfect nature and make men one But me thinks I hear one man that is awake thus bespeak the promoters of this Concord Unity and Concord in those points where God hath made them necessary cannot be over-valued But yet it is visible that there is a marvellous diveâ—sity which nature is delighted in when of all faces and of all voices and of all the sorts of animals and plants there is so discernable a difference yea of all the millions of stones in the field no two is perfectly like each other And where greater Unity is most desirable it must first be considered how much of it is possible or to be hoped for and next what are the proper means to attain it For first the medicining of all incurable disease especially with violent Physick is not the way to make it better but to exasperate it and hasten death when a palliate and patience might do better It is very desirable that all the Kings subjects were strong and beautiful and ingenuous and Learned but it is not to be hoped But that they may be all Loyal and honest in their dealing with others may be well endeavoured And secondly a wrong kind of medicine will much more hasten and ascertain death than to let the disease alone to nature It is desirbale that all the Kings subjects be as is said both wise and Learned yea and perfect in honesty and piety without fault But if you make a Law that for the honour of Vnity all that are not Learned and perfect in vertue shall be fined imprisoned or banished the King nor his subjects will be but little beholden to you for their Unity So one Language is very desirable to the world But first it is not attainable and secondly a Law to punish all that speak another Language is not the way to procure it but to set them together by the ears You must appoint Parents and Schoolmasters to teach them all one language by degrees and keep them to their duties and remove impediments and thus stay the time and what cannot this way be attained must not be expected in this world The speech being ended the hearers derided it and made a Law for Unity to destroy it and set every man on hating and fighting against his neighbour to make all one It is very desirable that all Christians were perfect in knowledge gifts and graces and consequently that there were no different opinions nor no different forms or modes of worship but that all were equal to the wisest and to the most sober pious zealous and sincere But if a Law be made that none shall be endured in any Kingdomâ— that are not of this temperament and stature the subjects of all Princes may soon be numbered Set ` Parents Schoolmasters and Ministers at work to make men wiser and drive them on to diligence in their duty and restrain men from hindering them and from intollerable wickedness and sin and patiently expect the success of this And what this will not do expect not And I intreat the Separatists who will think this doctrine of forbearance gratifieth them to observe that I speak all this to them as well as to Magistrates I told you that there is a Church-persecution and a Church-forbearance as well as a Civil If Christ will have Magistrates frobear the weak he will have you forbear them and not say We will have no Communion with those that pray by such Fâ—rms and Lâ—ttâ—rgies or that use such a Ceremony or are not of our own opinions Read Rom. 14. and 15. and you will see that it was a Church-forbearance towards one another and a Receiving dissenters to Christian communion even as Christ receiveth us for all our weaknesses which Paul there pleadeth for and not only a forbearance of smiting them with the sword What a wonder and what a lamentation is it that those men that cry out so much for forbearance to the Magistrate should themselves be as rigid and more by Church-severities and less forbear dissenters even in a form or ceremony as to communion and yet never see the same sin in themselves which they so much complain of And here my principal business is to warn you of the Papal way of Vnity They are so great enemies to divisions and sects that they must have all the Christian world united not only in one Christ by one profession baptism but also in one mortal Monarch as his Vicar that men may know at the Antipodes when they understand not the Scripture or differ in opinions who to step to for the ending of their controversies and to give them an infallible commentary on the Bible and to tell them with whom they must hold communion And all their differences may thus have a speedy dispatch If it be doubted whether one in Abassia or much further off be
being uppermost in the world the wicked did turn Hypocrites and keep Holy dayes for the honour of their names whom their fore-fathers murthered At last when it was observed that the Papists who burned the living Saints were the greatest honourers of the dead the most religious people turned quite to dislike and reject those very dayes which their predecessors had set up in thanksgiving to God for the doctrine example and constancy of the Martyrs The same all along I may say about the Relicts of Martyrs and pilgrimages to their shrines which the Religious sort begun at first and loathe at last So also those forms of Liturgy which now are most distasted were brought in by the most zealous religious people at the first The many short invocations versicles and responses which the people use were brought in when the souls of the faithful did abound with zeal and in holy servours break out into such expressions and could not well endure to be bare auditors and not vocally to bear their part in the praises of God and prayers of the Church And in time those very words which signified their raptures were used by formal hypocrites without their zeal who first exprest them and so being mortified and made dead Images and used but by rote in a senseless canting among the Papists and also forced upon others it is now become a point of zeal to avoid them and take them as unlawful and it is a great reason because they are in the mass-Mass-book when the mass-Mass-book received them from the predecessors of many of those men that now refuse them But though indeed the highest expressions of zeal and rapture are most lothsome when they are counterfeited and turned into a meer lifeless form Yet it is the privation of life which is the fault of the Image and not the thing as in it self Restore the same spirit to those words and they will be as good as they were at the beginning I might instance in most of the Popish superstitions and shew you that for the most part it was the godliest sort of people of that age who at first did either set them up or that which did occasion them and that the hypocrite after made them his Religion taking up the form without the life and that upon this the godly of after ages did abhor them But what is my inference from all this Why first I would advise you to look more to the nature of the things themselves and less to the persons and regard the honour of humanity if you regard not the honour of Religion and make not the Infidel world deride you while they see you alter your opinions and practise in meer opposition to one another and to take up and lay down as the two ends of the ballance move which must be contrary to each other Secondly that you truly understand what interest such zealous persons as your selves had in those opinions forms and practises at the first that if you will avoid them for some mens sake you may think the better of them for other mens so far as to bring you to some impartiality Thirdly that you suspect that zeal in your selves which you think so much miscarried in your ancestors I do not take all that I have mentioned for superstition but I shew you the circulation which zeal and formality and maligniâ—y make both in things warrantable and unwarrantable But especially take heed of that which is true superstition indeed By which here I mean the making of any new parts of Religion to our selves and fathering them upon God who never made them Of this there are two sorts Positive and Negative When we falsly say This is a Duty commanded by God or when we falsly say This is a sin forbidden by God Take heed of both I do not speak here of doing or not doing the same things upon any other account as humane duties or meer conveniences or the like but as they are falsly pretended to be Divine For first this is properly a belying of God and that adding to his word whether precepts or prohibitions which he hath so strictly forbidden us Ier. 5. 12. Deut. 12. 32. Secondly it debaseth Religion objectively considered as mixture of base mettals debaseth the Kings coyn To joyn things humane with things divine and say they are Divine when they are not is putting of dung into the treasuries of God Nothing will be found fit for Divine reverence and honour which is not Divine indeed Thirdly it corrupteth Religion in the minds of men and causeth them to fear where no fear is and to be devout erroneously As if one should mistake the person of the King and give his honour to another who is like him or should run into a play-house to do his devotion and think that he is in the Church Ye worship ye know not what we know what we worship Ioh. 4. 22. Fourthly This superstition tendeth to destroy true Religion by gratifying and increasing aversation and opposition by making it seem an unlovely tiresome thing All that is truly of God is Rational and amiable and wisely contrived for our good And the enemies of Godliness have not a word of solid Reason to say against it But that which is brought in by corrupters may be confuted And unnecessary things become a burden Act. 15. 28. What a toilsome task doth Popery contain of positives and negatives ceremonies and austerities and useless labours And then they that take their pilgrimages and penances and night-risings and multiplied formalities to be a burden and hear them called by the name of Religion do account Religion it self a burden as taking this to be a part of it And when Religion is not loved it is lost To make it seem bad and unlovely is the way by which the devil destroyeth it in the world Fifthly Superstition is the great dividing engine which satan useth to cut the Churches of Christ into Sects and pieces and consequently to stir up party against party to the hating and persecuting of one another For while some take that for Religion which is none others will see their errour and avoid it And thus the division will lay the foundation of disputes and quarrels of enmity and opposition For who can think that all the Churches should ever be so blind and slavish as to take up that as a part of Religion and a divine institution which was forged by the private spirit of some erroneous person of an over-heated brain Sixthly Lastly Superstition much displeaseth God and maketh us sinners even in that in which we think especially to honour him Math. 15. 9. In vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandements of men Though God in mercy can distinguish between his own and ours and doth not count the whole worship to be in vain where any degree of superstition is mixed For then most zealous persons were undone yet the superstitious part of worship is alwayes in vain and all the