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A31109
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A sermon preached before the right honourable the Lord Mayor and aldermen of the city of London in Guild-hall chappel upon Sunday the 20th of January, 1688/9 / by Samuel Barton, Chaplain of St. Saviours.
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Barton, Samuel, 1647 or 8-1715.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing B990; ESTC R29508
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11,774
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31
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any causeless Divisions in the Church of Christ The beauty and strength of any Society depends upon the firm Union of its Members and therefore the seeking after and promoting this is what every one that loves the Society must and will do And though sometimes through mistake even very good men may have become Authors or Occasions of Division yet he is an Enemy to Christ and his Kingdom that is wilfully so whatever Interest he may serve by it and he cannot be esteem'd any Friend to either that is not ready to the best of his knowledge and ability to close the Differences and cement the unhappy Breaches that are among Christians 'T is too easie from our own Experience to observe the many mischiefs that they cause and the great advantage which the Devil makes of them in the encrease of Prophaneness and Irreligion among some the scandalizing others and too much diverting the Minds even of the best from the most serious and weighty matters But the Benefits of Unity and Mischiefs of Division are too many to be comprized in a short Discourse He that seriously considers them may be quickly satisfied that it was not for nothing that our Saviour and his Disciples do so frequently and earnestly perswade and require Christians by all means to follow after the things that make for Peace and to be at Unity among themselves But 2. It does more particularly at this time concern us as far as possible to wipe off the Scandal which our Adversaries of the Church of Rome are alwayes ready to cast upon us that we want the necessary Means of Unity and that it is impossible for us ever to have it without submitting our selves to an Infallible Guide 'T is true 't is very disingenuously done to use such base Arts and so much Industry as it is certain they have done to sow Divisions and foment them amongst us and then to upbraid us with them 'T is true also that 't is better for us to bear with all those Inconveniences which our Differences may cause than to seek such a Remedy from them as they do by setting up an Officer with Supream Authority and vainly pretended Infallibility in the Church to whom Christ has never given any such power or Commission and which is worse by cherishing the grossest Ignorance in the People and exercising the most Barbarous Cruelties and Inhumanities toward all that dare to contradict them Better we should differ still and disagree as much as ever than that we should use any such wicked Methods of composing or preventing Differences even as 't is better to live in a Government that is sometimes liable to Disturbances than to throw ones self into perpetual Slavery under an Arbitrary Power But though all this be true yet still it must be confess'd that there is nothing that the Papists have ever made greater advantage of both in the gaining Proselytes from us and doing other Mischiefs to us than those causeless and unchristian Divisions that are among us And no doubt they would now exceedingly Triumph if after so great a Baffle to their long-laid Plots as thro' Gods wonderful Mercy they have met with they could prevail so far as to Embroil us all again and hinder us from reaping the Fruit of so Happy a Deliverance But as I think we have reason to impute it much to the influence that they have had amongst us that our Divisions have been so many and continued so long without a Cure so I do not despair to see the day when many of them shall be happily laid asleep and all sober Protestants though under some different apprehensions may yet maintain so much Unity and Charity among themselves as will be both an Ornament to their Profession and a great strengthening to their Cause O how happy would it be if when Infallibility it self cannot as we see or dares not put an end to those fierce Disputes that are in the Church of Rome but the Kingdom of Antichrist is divided against it self notwithstanding all the Devils Policy to Unite it if in the mean time I say a Spirit of mutual Love and Concord and good Will might prevail and cover over all our Differences But 3. A third Motive to perswade us at this time especially to labour after Unity and Peace and to promote them all we can is a sence of Gratitude and Thankfulness to Almighty God for the great things that he has done for us Certainly it is a very ill return that we should make to God if when he has delivered us from our Enemies we should fall presently to quarrel among our selves and instead of joyning in our Praises and Thanksgiving unto him bring our selves by our own Folly into new Troubles How unworthy shall we then shew our selves of Gods future Mercies and how justly may he suffer us to fall under the most heavy Judgments It is as has bin shew'd the prime Duty of Christians to Love one another and to keep Peace and Unity among themselves And now that God has in so signal a manner engag'd us to it it will be a great Aggravation of our Fault if we neglect it It is very hard indeed for us to set a sufficient value on the Deliverance we have had there are Circumstances in it that render it very astonishing and wonderful above all that this Nation has ever had That it should be brought about without Blood or with so very little in so sudden and surprizing a manner that we may say with the Psalmist When the Lord turn'd again the captivity of his people then were we like unto them that dream Psal 126.1 We could hardly believe that we were awake That the Hearts of so many Men of different Interests and Perswasions through Gods wonderful working on them should all stand enclin'd the same way And that they who had had so long Time and Means and Opportunities to make themselves strong could yet do nothing to oppose These and such like Circumstances in our Case are things that every one easily thinks of and none can sufficiently admire Certainly it is a loud and gracious Call from Heaven to Reformation and a mutual joyning together against the great Corrupters of Christianity who hop'd to have Extirpated the very Name of Protestantism i. e. of True Primitive Christianity from out of the World. This Kingdom had indeed a Hundred Years ago a very great Deliverance And if the Spanish Designs had then prevail'd we might have been brought into as bad a Condition as Popery and Slavery can put Men. But then I think that Design was never so likely to take effect as those of our Enemies in this Age. And as for the Gunpowder Treason though it might have done a great deal of Mischief yet I cannot see that ever it was likely to have prevail'd to a total overthrow of the Protestant Religion among us but rather might have fallen heaviest at last on those that began it But our Popish Adversaries had
〈◊〉 in the Greek As if they were to have all but one Soul among them And thus you see what is the Unity which the Apostle exhorts to an agreement in seeking the same common end an agreement in Judgment and Opinion in all necessary and weighty points an agreement also in Opinion in lesser matters as far as may be at least that there be no wilful disagreement and consequently an external agreement in Practice in the same way and manner of Worshipping God and Celebrating Religious Duties as far as that can be attain'd And lastly above all a unity of Affection which ought to prevail above all the little differences that will arise and to cover them as much as may be And now having seen what the Duty is The next Enquiry is By what means a man may best be enabled to practice it or how this Unity may best be promoted And here I shall not go about to prescribe any means in particular for the procuring of Unity to this Church or Nation by any new Regulation of Affairs that is not my business But forasmuch as the great thing that is most necessary is that Mens minds should be well dispos'd toward uniting and sincerely desirous of it and if that were once so other more particular means of attaining it could not long be wanting I shall therefore endeavour to shew you what Temper all Christians ought to be of in order to the promoting of Unity among them and where as I take it the great defect is that hinders it from being attain'd as it is by all good Men desir'd and for this I need not look far For the first thing that offers it self is That all ought to have a zealous concern for the vital and substantial parts of their Religion which is the thing our Apostle may be suppos'd to intimate in the Text when he requires them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to mind the same thing And the second and third things necessary are plainly told us in the two Verses next following my Text viz. Humility and a Publick Spirit For so the words are at the third and fourth Verses of this Chapter Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves Look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others So that St. Paul has not onely told us our Duty of being at Unity among our selves but has also directed us to the best means of performing it And First I say 't is highly necessary that every Christian should have a warm and zealous concern for the vital and substantial parts of his Religion And if there were this generally amongst us we may venture to say that there would not be half that Contention and Disagreement about small matters that there is or has been For he that understands rightly the worth and excellency of true Religion and accordingly employs his most serious Thoughts about it will have but little Zeal to spare for matters that are circumstantial or indifferent farther then as the ordering them one way or other may have a tendency to promote Piety and the General Good. And therefore such a one will be of a Temper very yielding and compliant in such little things whensoever the Peace of the Church and the Publick Interest of Religion shall seem to require it Secure him but that and he will not stand with you for little matters of Opinion nor quarrel because every thing is not order'd so as in his private judgment he would have thought best so long as nothing is requir'd of him but what he may submit to without Sin. Such a one will no more spend his Zeal upon a Trifle than a man would charge the whole force of his Arm upon the throwing out of a Feather It is the proper Genius of a little narrow superstitious Soul to be very eagerly bent upon some of those little things which true Religion consists not in But he who has that Manly Disposition and that largeness of Mind which the Christian Religion rightly understood is apt to beget in us is of a very different Spirit The thing he proposes to himself is the Everlasting Happiness of another World and his business is a due preparation for that by living in the Love and Fear of God and doing all the good he can to his Neighbour This is that he is zealous and earnest for and all things else are but subordinate to this and are valued but according as they more or less conduce to it For as every Man in his Trade and Business if he be Wise will look after the most necessary things first and never pursue Trifles to the prejudice of them so 't is the same in the case of Religion He that do's truly seek in the first place the Kingdom of God which the Apostle tells us consists not in meats and drinks but in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost will be concerned for inferiour things no farther than as they have a tendency to that main End. And the doing thus therefore would certainly be one of the best means to promote Unity and take away Divisions which can hardly be great and lasting where true and serious Piety does prevail For that cuts off the Causes of them It mortifies and kills the Root which is ungovern'd Passion and a Carnal and Sensual Mind So St. Paul tells the Corinthians Whereas there is among you envying and strife and division are ye not carnal 1 Cor. 3.3 And to the same effect St. James speaks From whence come Wars and Fightings among you come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members Jam. 4.1 They are from a want of that serious sence of Religion which should bridle and subdue such irregular Motions There is therefore Secondly A very Excellent Virtue highly conducive to Unity and Peace which St. Peter tells us all Christians should be clothed with 1 Pet. 5.5 and which our Apostle recommends in the Verse next to my Text and that is Humility Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory but in lowliness of mind let each-esteem other better than themselves This advice if we could perswade Men to take it would certainly be a most Excellent Cure of our Divisions For Solomon tells us Onely from pride cometh contention Prov. 13.10 It is so common a Cause of it that there is hardly any strife or quarrelling where there is not a mixture of Pride on the one side or on the other or perhaps on both Pride makes men inflexible and unyielding never willing to acknowledge a Fault though it have been never so plain nor any the least Error in their Conduct though Impartial Men see it easily Yea Pride makes Men think very highly of their own Merits and it aggravates the Injuries that have been done them as if they could never sufficiently be recompensed It tempts Men to a Retaliation of Wrongs