But as it was that solicitous care I had of your present and everlasting Welfare that did at first engage me to Preach upon these subjects so the very same fire burning still in my heart being earnestly desirous the truths herein delivered may not be forgotten by you even while you have use for them this almost irresistibly urged me to enter upon the stage to encounter the harsh Censures I seriously expect for it These Sermons you know together with others upon other texts relating to this subject which to imprint also would swell the book to too great a bulk was preached both in Church and Chappel The design of them was evidently to deal with your Consciences and inform them aright in this present juncture of publick affairs what your Obligation is to your own Pastors and to prevent your Chismatical forsaking the Publick Assemblies to joyn to an Independant Conventicle Pardon me if I mistake it for I believe it cannot as it is circumstantiated consist with the principles of the old sober Presbyterians nor yet with the Modern that have any remains of settled principles concerning Church unity and Church Assemblies in them But having preacht them I easily perceived all my labours utterly lost and useless to many that either would not or could not hear them or else basely without any shew of reason reflected on them Hence I began to desire they might have some way of approving themselves further to the World and especially that they might be exposed with better advantage to your more serious and retired consideration and perusal and if it were possible that they might be known unto and narrowly examined by all under my charge These and other Motives especially knowing that other books of better worth of this or like subjects have never reacht your hands nor in likelyhood ever will do being entertained prevailed and wrought a trembling resolution in me to offer them first to some Christian friends perusal and after to put them upon this publick tryal though at first in composing them I never purposed more than the delivering them vivâ voce to your private audience It is admirable to consider how this perticular national Church suffers by Traduces and Blasphemies on all hands Meet as Christ was crucified betwixt two thieves so on the one side the Papists Anathematize us the Faithful Ministers and Members of the Church of England because we are the most professed enemies to their usurpations Idolatries and superstitions on the other side the separating Members of our Church do hate and maligne us and sometimes saucily and petulantly brand us with Popery and Idolatry and so make us limbs of Anti-christ and therefore no true or faithful Churches of Christ and that meerly for those few innocent indifferent significant ceremonies which we retain and observe for the order and decency of the Worship of God Thus are Christs sheep in the midst of Wolves His Spouse a woman in the Wilderness of wilde Beasts of all sorts this is Ephraim against Manasseh and Manasseh against Ephraim but both against Juda Herod and Pontius Pilate made friends Pharisees and Sadduces combining and agreeing against Christ But blessed be God so safe is our Church and so warrantable is our standing in it that this Flag of Defiance we can hold out against all Sadduces and Opponents that we have in most of our adversaries confessions those things in the Midst of us that in the judgements of all the Reformed Churches as may appear by the Harmony of their confessions are the only undoubted marks and infallible characters of a true Visible Church where ever they are Such are the pure preaching of the Word of God and the Right Administration of the Sacraments And this I made good to you upon that text Acts 2.42 which I trust you will remember Now whoever is once assured that the National Church he lives in and in which he was baptized is a true Visible Church of Christ He can never have just cause while it remains such essentially to separate from it but ought to live and rest with quietness and chearfulness of Spirit in communion thereof For it is every mans duty to profess himself a Christian and to own his Religion publickly and therefore publickly to partake of and frequent the Ordinances and Sacraments of the Gospel in order thereunto but this he cannot do without society and communion with some Church or other Every Christian as such is bound to look upon himself as a member of a Body viz. The Visible Church of Christ but how can he be known to be a member who is not united with the other parts of the Body Hence follows that upon all Christians there lyes an Obligation to engage in a Religious society with others for partaking of the ordinances of the Gospel Now a Christi an being actually joyned in Church society with other Christians is so long bound to maintain society with them till his communion with them becomes sin The separatist must prove that every one sins that keeps in the Communion of the Church of England or else he himself must inevitably lye under the guilt of sin for separation from it there being nothing that can justifie the withdrawing from the society of that Church wherein a Christian was baptized but the unlawfulness of continuing it Nor is it any corruptions that are crept into a Church which still remaines true and and Faithful as to its constitution and Essentials that will make it a Christians duty to withdraw from it or to gather new Churches in and out of it though it be upon pretence of purer administrations Which by the way is all that is pleaded by most of our adversaries against us viz. Some defects or Corruptions in the exercise and administration of Church order and discipline for there is no Church on earth perfectly free from these and as it is proved in these ensuing Sermons especially upon the latter text So is it excellently done by the famous Mr. Norton in his answer to Apollius as I find him quoted by Dr. Edward Stillingfleet in his Irenicum p. 111. That it is Lawful for Christians to joyn with Churches so defective and if it be Lawful to joyn with them it must needs be unlawful to separate from them for how can the God of Love and Vnity endure any rents or Schismes in the Body of Christ and then how dare any one forsake the Communion of that Church whereof they are natural and immediate members if they be not assured that it is either no Church or a false one or that it is unlawful to hold communion with it This is evidently is the Case of our Church in her separation from the Church of Rome the main ground hereof being the sin of Communicating with that Church in her Idolatry and superstition and the impossibility of Communicating with her and not partaking in her sins the practice of her Idolatry being made a necessary condition of her
thought he need say no more to his Brethren to prevent their falling out by the way than to remind them that they were all one mans Children and Brethren to each other Gen. 45.24 And Abraham to procure an everlasting Amity and utter cessation of all Debates thenceforth between himself and his Nephew Lot and their Servants made use of this one Argument the most prevalent of all others that they were Brethren Gen. 13.8 Psa 133 1. Ecce quam bonum Behold how good and joyful a thing it is Brethren to dwell together in unity Prophane Esau durst not avenge himself on Jacob lest he should vex his Father Isaac Gen. 27.4 And shall not Christians then who are Brethren not only by Generation but by Regeneration much more tender the displeasing of their one Father by disagreements and molestations of one another the nearer the dearer we use to say and there are few Relations nearer than that of Brotherhood but no Brotherhood in the world so closely and surely knit together and with so many and strong tyes as the Fraternity of Christians in the Communion of Saints which is the Brotherhood in the Text And therefore as we are Brethren and tender the glory of that God who is the Father of us all it concerns us to speak the same things and that there be no divisions amongst us 2. Consider also God the Son we are all redeemed by that one price of his precious Blood and methinks that calls for love and unity It 's implied in that of the Apostle One Faith Eph 4.5 One Faith is fixed on one and the same object the Mercy of God and Merits of Christ or Gods Free Grace in Christ and being ingrafted into one and the same Vine should we not all bear one and the same fruit We are all Fellow-Captives redeemed by the same Saviour Fellow-Patients cured by the same Physitian even Jesus Christ the object of our Faith Hence he that redeemed us did in like manner pray for us that we may be one John 17.21 23. perfectly one that the world might know that God sent him but this can never be if we speak not the same things but there be divisions amongst us 3. There is also but one Spirit and that 's the Apostles Argument also There is one Body one Spirit Eph. 4. and therefore endeavour the unity of the Spirit The Spirit is a Spirit of Unity this Spirit is the very Essential Unity Love and Love-knot of the two Persons the Father and the Son of God with God yea it was the very Union and Love-knot of the two Natures in Christ of God and Man he is the Spirit of Unity and therefore cannot delight in us unless we keep the unity of the Spirit That Spirit the Soul of man that gives life to the natural body yet can it not animate and give life to members dismembred unless they be first united and compact together Ezek. 35.7 8 9. We read there of the dead and scattered bones that to the end they might be revived they first came together every bone to his bone then the sinews came and knit them then the flesh and skin covered them and then and not before the Spirit came from the four Winds to give them life So the very natural Spirit the Soul doth not inform the body unless there be an accord and unity in it much more is this required as a proper disposition to make us meet for the habitation of the Holy Ghost even this quality that is like that his Nature and Essence Unity and Unanimity for us to be of one mind and judgment and to speak the same things and that there be no divisions amongst us divisions are a token we are led by divers Spirits and not by this one There is a Spirit indeed in these divisions but it is an evil spirit such as was between Abimelech and the men of Shechem Judges 9. And such as are for a toleration of such divisions we may write upon them as our Saviour did upon the man possessed Legion for they are many pretend they to the Spirit as they will of walking and praying by the Spirit we need not believe them unless we list to be led by any other than a devillish spirit The Devil shews himself to be a Devil by his Cloven Foot if we would receive and not grieve nor quench nor dishonour the one Spirit by which we pretend all to be governed let us speak the same things that there be no divisions amongst us As we tender the glory of God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost we must do this 3. So while we look upon the Church of God for that is but one body which is the Apostles argument also It is but one and only one My Love my Dove Eph. 4. Cant. 6. my undefiled is one she is the only one of her Mother So are we Christians made all up into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one mystical body Eph. 3.6 and that by such a real though mysterious incorporation as that we become thereby 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as all of us members of Christ Rom. 12.5 so every one of us members one of another Noâ— the sympathy and supply that is between the members of the natural body for thâ—ir mutual comfort and good of the whoâ—e The Apostle setteth it forth elegantly and applieth it very fully to the Mystical Body of the Church at large 1 Cor. 12. It were a thing prodigiously unnatural and to every mans apprehension the effect of a frenzy or madness at the least to see the head plot against the tongue revile the hands buffet the teeth devour his fellow-members No if any one member be it never so small and despicable be in anguish the rest are sensible of it There is a mutual sympathy and communication betwixt them there are no terms of bitterness stood upon in the natural members I am better than thou and I than thou no terms of disgrace heard I have no need of thee nor I of thee but they are all ready to contribute their several supplies according to their several measures and abilities to give ease and relief to the grieved part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That there be no rent or schism 1 Cor. 12.25 saith the Apostle using the very word of the Text no division or disunion of parts in the body And as we may consider the Church as one Body so as one Houshold and our selves as fellow-servants of the same Family Gal. 6.10 the same houshold of Faith So ought we then to behave our selves in the House of God 1 Tim. 3.15 which is the Church of the Living God as becometh fellow-servants that live under the same Master We all wear one Livery 1 Cor. 10.3 4. having all put on Christ by solemn profession at our holy Baptism and we are all fed at one Table eating the same spiritual meat
many as walk according to this Rule peace be upon them and the whole Israel of God Now that you may see how Christians are to speak the same things and how they may and must order their endeavours to avoid divisions give me leave to close my Exhortation with sundry Directions picked out of the Analogy of Faith The skilful Physitian must not only discover the disease and perswade his Patient to use all means to prevent and remedy it but he must also direct him what remedies to use and how to use them The directions I shall give you you cannot like the worse because most of them I confess I have though in a different method out of that excellent Sermon of Doctor Edward Reynolds of the Peace of the Church to which I have added some Heads and some inlargements better I could not find let him do it that can such wholesome Rules being therein offered as would compose the most turbulent spirits to some moderation if they would walk up to them and joyntly considered exceedingly conducing to heal the breaches of the Church of God Then by way of caution Direct 1. that you mistake me not know that though you must speak the same things and avoid divisions and labour to be of the same mind and judgment yet this Exhortation admits of a limitation it must be only if it be possible and as much as lieth in you without any shipwrack of truth and holiness For howsoever Unity Unanimity and Uniformity be well pleasing unto God yet is it not such an Unity as he desireth unless it be truth and peace together such a peace and unity as is according to truth and godliness in Christ Jesus there may be an agreement together in falso when men hold together for the maintenance of one and the same common errour Such as is an agreement as our Learned Davenant g Epist de pacificat observes 1. Of Hereticks in case of Heresies when Adversaries speak all the same things to deny or deprave the Faith of the Gospel as Hymenius and Philetus did h 2 Tim. 2.18 who sought to overthrow mens Faith in the Resurrection 2. Of Idolaters in case of Idolatry i Hos 4.15 if Israel play the Harlot let not Judah transgress for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols k 2 Cor. 6.16 3. There may be an agreement of Usurpers 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 as the Romish Church and especially as the Tridentine Councel have done In which case the Apostle had no patience to give place by subjection to them no not for one hour * Gal. 2.4 5 Neque enim quisquam nostrum Episcopum se esse Episcoporum constituit aut Tyrannico terrore ad obsequendi necessitatem collegas suos adegit saith S. Cyprian in the Councel of Carthage in the case of Rebaptization m Lib. de sentent Episcoo de haretic rebapt Yea 2. There may be an agreement in malo when men combine together in a Confederacy for the compassing of some mischievous design as did those forty and odd that bound themselves with a Curse to destroy Paul n Acts 23.12 13. such as is the agreement of Thieves Cheats Drunkards Whoremongers and Fornicaters and Rebels among themselves such agreements as these no Christian ought to joyn with or be of the same mind or judgment with them The wisdom of the Flesh and cunning of the Devil will bring men fast enough to those cursed agreements without which he and his knows well enough his Kingdom cannot stand Gods Servants have rather evermore bent themselves by their prayers and endeavours to dissolve the Glue and break these Confederacies of the ungodly Destroy their tongues O Lord divide them was holy David's prayer o Psa 55.9 And S. Paul when he stood before the Sanedrim at Jerusalem to take off his malicious Accusers the better perceiving both the Judges and by standers to be of two different Factions some Pharifees who believed a Resurrection and others Sadduces that denied it he did wisely to cast a bone amongst them p Acts 23.6 7 10. In this case then the Rule is certain that though we must labour for Unity yet are we 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Jude speaks q Verse 3. to contend earnestly for the great things of the Law and Gospel those that are either Foundations themselves or are most visibly and immediately adjacent and contiguous to the Foundation Hence Paul and Barnabas had no small dissention and disputation with the false Brethren that taught the necessity of Judaical Rites unto Salvation r Acts 15 2 And Athanasius the Great would not have the Orthodox Brethren to receive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any Forms or Letters Communications or Pacificatories from George the Arrian Persecutor ſ Aust Epist 130. opt lib 2. And Basil the Great t Epist 325. ad Epiph. giveth an excellent reason of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If once saith he we shake the simplicity of the Faith and retain not that as a Rule and Measure of Inferiour Differences Disputes and Contentions will prove endless therefore the Unity that must be laboured after and maintained amongst Christians in the Church must be a Christian Unity that is a happy Concord in walking together in the same path of truth and godliness The Word of Christ is the Word of Truth u Col. 1.5 and the Mystery of Christ is the Mystery of Godliness w 1 Tim. 3 16. and Christ that is the King of Salem is the King of Righteousness also x Heb. 7.2 Whatsoever then is contrary to these Truth o◠Godliness or Righteousness cannot be acceptable unto Christ y Iames 3.17 The wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable and our Unity must be the Unity of the Spirit z Eph. 4.3 Ea enim sola Ecclesiae pax est quae Christi pax est saith Hilary Here are our bounds set us our nè plus ultra beyond which if we pass we transgress and are exorbitant usque ad aras The Altar-stone is the mear stone all Bonds of Friendship all Offices of Neighbourhood must give way when the Honour of God and his Truth lies at stake we must buy the Truth and not sell it for any temporal advantages The Church is Militant and must maintain Wars with Principalities and Powers and Spiritual Wickednesses and Christ came to send a Sword upon Earth against all dangerous Errours of mind and manners If peace will be had upon fair terms or indeed upon any terms Salvis veritate pietate without impeachment of truth and piety it ought to be imbraced but if it will not come upon harder conditions better let it go A man may