hath this excellent saying If I did not finde in my selfe a love and desire of all profitable truth if I did not put away idlenesse and prejudice and worldly affections and so examine to the bottome all my opinions of divine matters being prepared in minde to follow God and God onely which way soever he shall lead me if I did not hope that I either doe or endeavour to doe these things certainely I should have little hope of obtaining salvation When I consider of these causes of departing from a particular Church that speech of Tertullian concerning a Martyr comes into my minde Non poena sed causa facit Martyrem Not the punishment but the cause makes a Martyr So Non decâ—ssio sed causa facit Schismaticum Not the departing but the cause makes a Schismatick Aquinas shewing that wherein the vitiousnesse of Schisme lyes sayes As in naturall things that which is by accident does not constitute the species so in morall not that which is beside the intention for that is accidentall therefore sayes he the sin of Schisme is in that it intends to separate from that unity which charity makes and therefore Schismaticks are properly those who of their own accord and intention doe separate themselves from the unity of the Church The next thing considerable in the description of Schisme is the rashnesse of the separation though the cause of separating be just yet the manner of it may be schismaticall if done rashly or violently Those who are joyned in communion with others when they differ from those with whom they have communion they are bound to examine try to make use of all meanes they can to satisfie their consciences in things they scruple and if they cannot yet before they breake off communion they are bound to seek by all means they can for a redress of those things which after most serious examination appeare evill to them they are bound to wait with much forbearance and longsuffering And at last if there be a necessity of departing they must not rend away with violence but shew themselves willing and ready in the spirit of love and meeknesse to open their cause to shew their reasons to the Church why they cannot continue in that communion with them they formerly had and desire that they may peaceably and lovingly depart seeing they cannot with peace of their conscience and love to their soules continue with them and that they may joyne with some other Church where they may enjoy peace and further edification Surely here is no Schisme this is no rending away here is no violence used here is onely a loving and peaceable secession notwithstanding this were it not the pride envy and frowardnesse of mens spirits much love and peace might continue amongst Christians and Churches True indeed if men can beare no contradiction no kinde of blame of their wayes there must needs be trouble but then those who doe contradict or blame though they be in the wrong yet if it be through weaknesse and carryed with meeknesse they are not so much the cause of the trouble as those who cannot beare this weaknesse of their Brethren without frowardnesse and contention There are other names of division the name of Puritan what a divider hath it been but that seeing it self ready to dye divided it self into two Round head and Independent these are now the opprobrious discriminating scornfull names of division amongst us For the first there is so much folly and absurdity in it that surely it will soone vanish of it selfe if you contemne it it is too low and contemptible for a Pulpit or a Pen to meddle with But the other carries in the face of it an open defiance to all kind of government a monstrous kind of liberty for men to live as they list and to be accountable to none whatsoever they hold or doe Certainly such kinde of people as these are not to be suffered shall I say in any Christian society no not in any humane society if there be any such people as these they are one of the most monstrous kinde of people that ever lived upon the face of the earth How many runne away with the word and cry out of men and their wayes under this name which they know not How farre those who are for the Congregationable way are from such an uncontroulable liberty hath beene shewne Chap. 7. Pag. 41. I shall adde this one thing of all kinde of governments in the Church that which hath this name fastened upon it is most opposite to the name of any in that sense it is ordinarily taken for there is no Church-government that holds forth more means to reduce from errour or any miscarriage then this doth examine it with the Prelaticall or Presbyteriall Government and you shall find it for first in the Prelaticall Government if once the Prelates determine any case you must there rest there is no Church helpe for you except you will say it is in a Convocation where we know they ruled both in the choyce of members and ordering all things as they list In the Presbyteriall way if so many associated Elders determine any case it must in them receive the finall determination you must rest in it although the greater part of the Churches and the greater number of Elders in a Kingdome should be of another minde for if you rise to a Nationall Assembly there are not the twentieth part of Elders of the Kingdome in it But those who men call Independents say that if any thing be done by them that is offensive not only those associated Elders but all or any Elders or Churches whatsoever may require account may in the name of Christ doe all in effect for the reducing of them that those associated Elders can doe still remembring that Church-power in one or the other goes no further then mens consciences if men wil not conscientiously regard what is done to reduce them from evill there is no help within the Church but to appeale to CHRIST as for the externall helpe by the Magistrate that concernes not the controversie about Church-government and yet for subjection to that Ordinance of God the principles and profession of those you call Independents leave as much to the Magistrate as the principle or profession of those who are Presbyteriall doe if not more Tolle â—am nominis crimen nihil restat nisi criminis nomen Now take away the crime of the name and there remaines nothing but the name of a crime CHAP. XXVI The seventh eighth ninth tenth eleventh twelfth dividing Practices The seventh Whatsoever personall evill there is in any one who is in a differing way from others is cast upon all that are in that way THis you know was the practice of former times whatsoever evill any forward Professour was guilty of that was cast upon all they are all thus Doe you not see that Hypocrites they are whatsoever their shewes be yet if they have opportunity they
to doe would have all Christians dwelling together so far as they can to unite into a body but there is no such order of Christ that all that dwell on the one side of the street should be of one body and all on the other of another body if they be more then can joyn into one spirituall corporation they are bound to joyne into severall so as they may best to their own and other Churches edification and if they should fail in this not joyning in the best way that possible might be their sin is against that edification that Christ requires but not therefore the sin of Schisme Who ever they were that bounded Parishes surely they did not so bound them to the greatest edification of the Church that possible might be and yet who will say they were therefore Schismaticks But suppose you have joyned with any company of Saints in a spirituall corporation if you now shall uncharitably unjustly rashly and violently break from communion with them then you contract the guilt of Schisme upon you First the separtion must be from want of charity By faith especially we are united to Christ our head and by charity to one another If a man appeares departing from any fundamentall Article of our faith which joyned him to his Head he is to bee judged an Heretick So by his appearing to depart from that love by which he was joyned in communion with the members he is to be judged a Schismatick If his departure proceeds from his love of God his love to his Saints and his owne soule yea his love to that very Church from whence he departs as sometimes it may witnessing in a gratious way against evill in it he is farre from the guilt of Schisme If you say love is a secret thing we cannot judge of what is in the heart We cannot judge of it while it is in the heart but when it appeares we may You may know whether this or other principles act men or no by their behaviour in their breaking off communion Where this is not bitcernesse pride selfe-ends will soone appear and carry them beyond those principles themselves professe they goe upon Secondly If the cause of leaving communion be just then those who give this cause are the Schismaticks not those who withdraw upon it Thus the Governours of the Church may be the Schismaticks and a private member withdrawing may be free Suarez a great Jesuite in his disputation De Schismate sayes in some cases the Pope may be a Schismatick If Governours shall enjoyne any thing upon the Church or any member that is sinne or if they shall mingle evill in the publick worship so that there can be no joyning with their worship but there must be likewise a joyning with sinne in this case if any withdraw from them they are the Schismaticks not those who withdraw they are fugati not fugitivi The blame of Schisme sayes learned Voâ—tius must not be upon those who forsake such as have forsaken Christ and the ancient faith but upon those who have thus forsaken Christ and his truth When the second Councell of Nice set up Image-worship many thousands could not yeeld to it but were forced to withdraw who was the Schismaticall party there but the Synod and those who joyned with it Yea further if they impose that which is not necessary though in it selfe not sinful and will not beare with the weaknesses of such as thinke it to be evill if upon that they be forced to withdraw in this the Governours are the Schismaticks also the cause of the rent is in them they ought in such things to beare the weaknesses of their Brethren and not imperiously to require of them those things that there is no necessity of If such things be sinne to their Brethrens consciences if they will stand upon it to enjoyne them they lay a necessity upon them to withdraw from them God will not lay the Indictment of Schisme thus Such a one departed from the communion of such a Church because he would not doe what was lawfull to be done but thus You imposed that upon your Brother which there was no necessity of and would not forbeare him in what I would have you forbeare him but caused him by your imperiousnesse and stiffenesse to depart from communion with you It is true sayes God the thing might have been done but it was not necessary it was out of conscience to me that they forbore the weaknesse is theirs but the Schisme is yours This hath beene generally received though it be very false that if a man departs from a Church because he refuseth to joyn with it in that which is not in it selfe evill that this mans departure is Schismaticall Certainly no Grant there is a weaknesse in his conscience and so a sinne he should informe his conscience better but cannot and this inability is not without sinne yet this arises not to that height of sinne as to make that which supposing him to be in this condition is better for him to doe then not to doe to become Schisme especially if he be willing to hold communion with that Church still in all acts of worship wherein he can joyne without sinning against his conscience and continues brotherly love to them as Saints in all the expressions thereof as he is able The first great Schisme in the Church that was caused by the Governours of it was that which Victor Bishop of Rome and those who joyned with him caused by that imperious way of enjoyning Easter to be kept at such a time which you have mentioned pag. 15 16 17. The story of which you have in Eusebius lib. 5. cap. 23. Those who denyed not the lawfulnesse of keeping Easter yet have generally accused Victor and such who so violently urged this upon the Churches as the cause of the Schisme not such who did not conforme to what was enjoyned them because the thing was not necessary and there should have beene a forbearance in it No Governour ought to urge such unnecessary things which are but under suspition by tender consciences if they do the Schisme is justly charged upon them Thirdly where a man cannot have his soule edified in some Ordinances and truths of great moment which that Church whereof he now is shall deny and is in great danger of being seduced to evill he may depart from that Church to another if he does it orderly and not be guilty at all of Schisme love to God and his owne soule is the cause of this not want of love to his Brethren It is a good speech I finde Chillingworth hath what the goodnesse of the man was I know not but in that Treatise of his The Religion of Protestants a safe way Cap. 5. Part. 1. Sect. 61. answering that plea of his adversary against Protestants that communion with a Church not erring in fundamentals upon pretence of erring in other matters must not be forsaken he
be displaced of their region though they were cast out of the man having further work to do in that place If this be so surely the Devills that are appointed to cause and foment divisions and dissentions above all regions love to be in the region of Churches for no where do divisions such hart as there and at this time especially for now the Devils see they cannot prevail to get men to their old superstitious vanities but some reformation there wil be they now seek to mingle a perverse spirit of division amongst men hoping they shall prevail here though they could not hold their own in the former God put enmity between Satan and the Saints but it is the Devil that puts enmity between Saints and Saints When we hear fearful thundring and see terrible storms and tempests many people say that ill spirits are abroad surely these blustering storms of contention are raised and continued from evill spirits But the truth is all the Devils in hel could do us no great hurt in dividing us from God or from one another were it not for the corruption of our own hearts Wherefore as the Lord says to Israel Perditio tua ex te thy destruction is from thy self So may we now say of England Divisio tua ex te thy division is from thy selfe The causes of our divisions from our selves may be referred to three heads 1. Dividing principles sometimes our divisions come down from our heads to our hearts 2. Dividing distempers sometimes they go up from our hearts to our heads 3. Dividing practises and these come from head and heart they foment and encrease both We will begin with dividing principles Except some care be taken of the head it will be in vaine to meddle with the heart to cry out against our heart-distempers the chief cause of many of our divisions lies here It is to little purpose to purge or apply any medicine to the lower parts when the disease comes from distillations from the head CHAP. IV. Dividing Principles The first There can be no agreement without Vniformity THis Principle hath a long time caused much division in the Church The right understanding wherein the weaknesse and falsenesse of it lyes will help much to Peace to joyn us sweetly together In the substantials of worship Unity is necessary there all are bound to go by the same rule and to do to the uttermost they are able the same thing But the circumstantials of worship have a two-fold consideration They are either such as though but circumstances to some other worship yet have also in themselves some divine worship some spirituall efficacie something in them to commend our service unto God or to cause some presence of God with us or to work us nearer to God by an efficacy beyond what they have in them of their owne natures As for instance Time is a circumstance but the Lords day hath a worship in it commending our service to God and an efficacie to bring God to us and raise us to God this not from any naturall efficacie of the time but from Gods institution Now in such circumstances as these there ought to be uniformity for these have institutions for their rule and are not at mans liberty to be altered as he thinks best in prudence But there are other circumstances which are onely naturall or civill subservient to worship in a naturall or civill way They are conversant about worship but have nothing of worship in them but are meerely naturall or civill helps to it When we worship God we do something as men as well as worshippers hence we have need of some naturall or civill helps As for instance when we meet to worship God wee being men as well as Christians must have a conveniency of place to keep us from the weather to know whether to resort and of time to know when There must be order Many cannot speak at once to edification modest and grave carriage is required of us as a society of men meeting about matters of weight In these circumstances and other of the like nature there is no worship at all there is no spirituall efficacie there are only naturall or civill helps to us while we are worshipping therefore for these circumstances humane prudence is sufficient to order them The right understanding of this takes away a great prejudice that many have against such as desire to keep to Divine Institutions not onely in Substantials but in the Circumstantials of worship they thinke it an unreasonable thing that divine Institution should be required for every circumstance in worship this hath bred a great quarrel in the church and well may it be thought unreasonable if we required Institutions for circumstances in worship which are but naturall or civill helps and have no worship at all in them for that indeed were endlesse and a meer vanity Certainly Institutions are to be required onely in things that are raised beyond what is in them naturally in tendring my respects to God by them or expecting to draw my heart nearer to God or God nearer to me in the use of them The contention about Uniformity is much encreased for want of a right understanding of this difference in the circumstantialls of worship did we understand one another in this wee might soon have Peace as concerning this thing In these latter sorts of circumstances we must also distinguish There are some that must of necessity be determined as time and place it is therefore necessary there should be an uniformity in these in all the members of every society respectively that they agree to meet in the same place at the same time naturall necessity requires this but naturall necessity requires not the binding of severall Churches to Uniformity in things of this kind The urging Uniformity beyond the rule in such things hath in all ages caused wofull divisions in the Church Eusebius tells of Victor Bishop of Rome about two hundred yeares after Christ broke off communion from all the Churches of Asia for not keeping Easter the same time he did The controversie was not about Easter but onely about uniformity in the time Never hath there been greater breaches of unity in the Church then by violent urging Uniformity But further there are other naturall civill circumstances which need not at all be determined though there be a liberty and variety in them yet order and edification is not hereby hindered As for instance In hearing the word one stands as Constantine was wont constantly to do another sits one is uncovered another is covered one hath one kind of garment another another yet no rules of modesty or gravity are broken Now if any power should violently urge uniformity in such like circumstances and not leave them as Christ hath done here they make the necessity of uniformity a dividing principle upon these four grounds 1. This is a straitning mens naturall liberties without satisfying their reason 2. This hath been
account to your Brethren then this This is to abuse your conscience and the indulgence of God and the respect he would have men shew to the consciences of his people this is a hardning conscience against the truth no true tenderness of it Secondly If Conscience be such a thing as none must have the power over it but God such a thing wherein thou hast to deal so much with God thou hadst need keep it very clean it is above all creatures next to God take heed of defiling it oh keep it pure Unclean consciences are good enough to prostrate to men but consciences reserved for God need be kept unspotted and very clean Doves love white houses the holy Ghost loves a pure conscience Thirdly thou wilt have none to commaud thy conscience let conscience then command thee if thou wilt rebell against thy conscience it is just with God to suffer men to tyrannize over thy conscience When you complain of men seeking to have power over your consciences lay your hand upon your heart and say Have not I rebelled against my conscience I have resisted the power of it over me just therefore it is that others should seeke to bring it under their power CHAP. VII They who are for a Congregationall way doe not hold absolute liberty for all Religions BUt for all that hath been said Are there not yet a sort of men who though they would colour over things put fair glosses upon their opinions and ways saying they would not have such an absolute liberty as to have all religions suffered yet do they not come near this in their tenets and practise Doe not men in a Congregationall way take away all Ecclesiastical means that should hinder such an absolute liberty as this for they hold every congregation hath sole Church power within it selfe and they are not tyed to give any account to others but meerly in an arbitrary way will not this bring in a toleration of all Religions and a very Anarchy First I know none holds this and how farr men in a congregationall way are from it shall appear presently In the clearing of this thing I shall not argue for one side or other I shall only shew you that there is in effect as much means to prevent or subdue error heresie schisme in the congregationall way which you call by another name as there is in that way other Brethren endeavour to hold forth I am not here to plead what is right what is wrong but onely to shew you the difference is not great so far as concernes this thing what one holds the same the other holds in effect if this be done with clearness then the great out-cry against that way as fomenting divisions by opening a gap to all kind of liberty will I hope be stilled and your hearts in some measure satisfied I confesse were it as many of you are made to believe that that way gives liberty or at least hath no helpe against all errors heresies it must be acknowledged it were a means of most fearfull divisions and in no case to be tolerated But certainly you will find it far otherwise This argument I am now about namely how far Brethren agree in a matter of so great moment and in that which they are by some thought most to disagree in and their disagreement most feared as a matter of dangerous consequence I know cannot be an unpleasing argument to you although we cannot be ignorant that there is a generation of men that are vexed when they hear how near their brethren come to them in way of agreement it serves more for their turns to have the distance wide they would keep open the wounds yea widen them but God forbid there should be such a spirit in you Wherefore for your help in this thing these two things are to be premised 1. That the only way the Church hath to keep downe errors or heresies is spirituall as for other means they are extrinsicall to the Church this all acknowledge as for subjection to the Magistrate if he pleases to interpose to that both they and we must yeeld 2. The vertue of spiritual power works not upon the outward man by its prevailing upon conscience therefore so far as men are conscientious so far it works and no farther Now then see what difference there is in the Congregationall way from the Presbyterian for the prevailing with mens Consciences to reduce to the trueth those who goe astray from it First Those in the Congregationall may acknowledg that they are bound in conscience to give account of their ways to Churches about them or to any other who shall require it this is not in an arbitrary way but as a duty that they owe to God and man Secondly they acknowledge that Synods of others Ministers and Elders about them are an ordinance of Jesus Christ for the helping the Church against errors schismes and scandals 3ly That these Synods may by the power they have from Christ admonish men or Churches in his name when they see evils continuing in or growing upon the Church and their admonitions carry with them the authority of Jesus Christ Fourthly as there shall be cause they may declare men or Churches to be subverters of the faith or otherwise according to the nature of the offence to shame them before all the Churches about them 5ly They may by a solemn act in the name of Jesus Christ refuse any further communion with them till they repent Sixtly they may declare and that also in the name of Christ that these erring people or Churches are not to be received into fellowship with any the Churches of Christ nor to have communion with one another in the ordinances of Christ Now all this being done in Christs name is this nothing to prevail with conscience You will say What if they care not for all this That is as if you should say What if they be not conscientious What if nothing can prevaile with conscience I demand what can any Church-power do more to work upon mens conscience for the reducing them from evill You will say They may doe all this with more authority then the Congregationall way will allow We need not contend about the word Authority But how much higher is an act of authority in the Church then for the Officers of Christ to act in the name of Christ If you say private Brethren may admonish and declare in the Name of Christ This is more then if any private Brethren should doe the same thing for a Synod is a solemne Ordinance of Christ and the Elders are to be looked on as the Officers of Jesus Christ But our Brethren say There is one meanes more in their way then the Congregationall way hath that is if the sixe former will not worke then Synods may deliver to Satan In this very thing lies the very knot of the controversie between those who are for the Presbyteriall and those
the Line of Truth and beyond it we dare not venture in the least The controversie is not about little or great trouble or inconvenience if it were such a charge might well make us blush the inconvenience or trouble is little yet a few men wil not yeeld to their Brethren who are many for peace sake but the controversie is about sin now whether that be little or great the difference cannot but remain if one part shall urge upon another that which to them is sin as to acknowledg any one thing to be a power of Christ which he cannot see Christ hath owned in his word must needs be therefore the way to peace is not the necessity of coming up one to another because the thing is little but the louing and peaceable and brotherly carriage of one towards another because the difference is but small CHAP. VIII The third dividing Principle That nothing which is conceived to be evill is to be suffered THis is the other extream some think all things should be suffered and they are loose and cause divisions on the one hand others thinke nothing is to be suffered and these are rigid and cause divisions on the other hand If any thing be conceived evil either in opinion or practise if instructions and perswasions cannot reform there must be means used to compell This is a harsh and a sowr Principle a disturbing Principle to Churches and States to mankind This Principle seldome prevails with any but those who have got power into their hands or hope to get it This must needs be a dividing Principle First because of the infinite variety of mens apprehensions about what is good or evill scarce three men agree any long time in their apprehensions of some things to be evil if then nothing that is conceived to be evill must be suffered there must needs be continuall opposition between man and man This subjects the generality of men to suffer for many things which they can see no evill in but are perswaded is good this raises an animosity against those by whom they suffer though a man can subject his body and estate to another he cannot subject his reason to another In the common ways of justice men are punished for those things which if they be guilty of they cannot but acknowledg themselves to be worthy of punishment as in Theft Murder Drunkennesse c. And for the fact they are tryed in such a way as they cannot but acknowledg is fit in reason to be subjected to and therefore though they suffer much yet they will yeeld it without disturbance But if this Principle prevails every man almost is made lyable to punishment for thousands of things that he can see no reason why he should be punished It is very hard to bring mens spirits to yeeld in such things But you will say May not men be punished for things that they see no reason why they should be punished for many malefactors may easily escape thus guilt will quickely blind men they will see no reason why they should be punished It is not what men say they see no reason for or what it may be they indeed see no reason for but what men cannot see reason for though they should bend their understandings and strength to the uttermost yea what the generality of man kind and of that community of which a man is cannot possibly see reason for it is impossible for the generality of mankind the community of any Church or State though they should be never so diligent to find out what is good and what is evill yet to be able to understand every thing that is evill to be so If you will have laws made against all things that such as are in authority conceive to be evill then you must give them power to judge not only by the rules of common justice and equity and punish for the breach of them but by the apprehensions that their own raised parts shall suggest unto them and to punish men for not being raised to that height of understanding themselves have but this power is more then is fit to be given to any men upon earth This would bring tyranny both in State and Church For first from whence is the rise of all Civill Power that any man or society of men are invested with is it not from the generality of the men over whom they have power Is it not the power which they themselves had and which they might have kept amongst themselves For who can say that a Democracy is a sinfull Government in it selfe True God establishes it upon particular men by his Ordinance after it is given to them by the people but the first rise is from them and if so then they should make no law to bring those men under punishment who gave them their power but such a Law as these men may possibly come to understand to be equall and just for they act their power and it must be supposed that they never intended to give a power beyond this Those who give power may limit power they may give part to one part to another they may limit the matter about which the power shall be exercised it shall goe so far and no further the utmost limits cannot goe beyond these rules of Justice which they are capable to understand Hence it is that all men in our Law are tryed Per pares by their Peers because it is to be supposed that they are to be accounted offenders and to be punished only so as those who are equall with themselves shall judg them worthy and this likewise is the reason that Courts are in publique no man is to be shut out because all men that will may behold the tryall and justifie the proceedings of Justice against offenders It must needs be supposed then that the rules by which the Judges go must be the rules of common equity and justice that all men may understand beyond what these rules will reach to the Civill State is not to punish not every thing that men of deep judgements and strong parts may apprehend to be evill The power of the Church likewise extends not to the punishment of every thing that either may by the Governours of it be conceived to be evill or that is indeed evill As the rise of the Civil power shews that only such things are to be punished by it as are against the common rules of Justice and Equity so the rise of Church power will shew that only such things as are against common rules such things as some way or other appeare to be against conviction and are obstinately persisted in are by Church censure to be punished The rise of Church power is indeed different from the rise of the Civill yet agrees in this that it limits the Church as the rise of the Civill doth the Civill power The power of Governors in the State arises from the people and they act their power that the
mind of the Holy Ghost is dare not yoke you as they did all that we burden you with is these necessary things no Church-officers no Synod can go further then this but certainly every matter in controversie amongst godly and peaceable men cannot be conceived to be necessary Rom. 14. is a very usefull place for this Him that is weak in the faith receive but not to doubtfull disputations Receive him though he understands not all you do do not trouble him neither with nor for doubtfull things One believeth he may eate all things another who is weake eateth herbes let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not neither let him that eateth not judge him that eateth vers 5. One man esteemeth one day above another another esteemeth every day alike let every man be fully perswaded in his owne minde Upon this he gives generall rules to doe all to the glory of God all these people were not in the right for a man not to eate flesh out of conscience when the thing was not forbidden certainly was a sin or to make conscience of a holy day which God required not was a sinne Now the Apostle did not come with his authority and say I will make you leave off keeping such days or you shall eate or to abstain thus as you do is evill and it must not be suffered in you No the Apostle lays no Apostolicall authority upon them but tells them That every man must be fully perswaded in his own mind in what he doth and who art thou that judgest another mans servant the Lord hath received him And yet the Governors of the Churches in the Primitive times might upon much stronger grounds have stood upon such a principle then any Governours of the Church now can there was lesse reason why they should suffer any difference in opinion or practice amongst them then why we should suffer differences amongst us for they had men amongst them immediately inspired who could dictate the mind of Christ infallibly they could tell them the certaine meaning of any Scripture The burden of being under the determinations of such men in points of differences had not been so great as subjection to any Governors now in such cases would be our differences are usually about the meaning of such or such Scriptures in which both sides think they have the right profess one to another as in the presence of God the searcher of all hearts that if they could but see the meaning of such a Scripture to be so as their brethren believe it is they would soon agree and yet though there were in those Primitive times such meanes of reconciling differences more then we have yet there was much mutual toleration amongst them they used no compulsive violence to force those who through weakness differed from them to come up to their judgments or practice Yes It is also more tolerable in Papists not to tolerate any difference in opinion or practice because First they believe they have an infallible Judg to decide all Controversies 2ly They hold implicite faith in the judgment of their Clergie to be sufficient warrant to justifie the belief or practice of the people or of any particular man and yet they suffer differences in opinions and practices amongst them They have their severall orders of their Monks Priests Friars Jesuites they differ very much one from the other and yet agreeing in the root they are suffered supposing those two helps to union they have an infallible Judg and implicite faith wee have cause either to admire at their moderation in their mutuall bearing one with another or at the disquietness the rigidness of spirits amongst us who cannot bear with far lesser things in their brethren differing from them for we professe we know no such externall in fallible Judg upon whom we may depend neither dare we warrant an implicite faith We teach men that every man must be perswaded in his own heart must see the rule of his own actions must give an account of his own way to God now what can men that have the most gracious peaceable spirits you can imagine doe in such a case Before they believe or do what their brethren believe or do they must see the authority of the Word to ground their faith or actions and for the present though sincerely willing to know Gods mind and diligently laborious to search it out yet they cannot see it and yet according to this sowr rigid principle they must be forced to it by violence what is it but to command the full tale of brick to be brought in where no straw can be had if this be not Straw might be had in Egypt by seeking for it but here after the most carefull and painfull seeking for it yet it cannot be had 5ly By this principle the finding out of much truth will be hindered it will stifle mens gifts abilities in arguing and discoursing about truths We know fire is beaten out by striking the flint Although differences be very sad yet the truth that comes to light by them may recompence the sadnesse You cannot beat out a place for a window to let in light but you must endure some trouble Children will think the house is pulling down when the window is beating out but the Father knows the benefit will come by it he complains not that the dust and rubbish lies up and down in the house for a while the light let in by it will recompence all The trouble in the discussions of things by Brethren of different judgments may seem to be great but either you or your posterity hereafter may see cause to blesse God for that light hath been or may be let into the Churches by this meanes men of moderate spirits doe blesse God already But if according to this principle the governors of the Churches must suppress whatsoever they conceive not to be right to what purpose should should there be arguing and discussing of severall judgements and severall ways You will say Those who are the Governours they or those whom they call to consult with may argue and discusse but not others Is not this to deny the Church the benefit of the gifts and graces of thousands of others The Church may soon receive as much prejudice by this as the trouble caused by some differences comes to Sixtly This lays a great temptation to idleness and pride before the guides of the Church Men are naturally subject to sloth and may not this principle suggest such a temptation as this What need we take care or pains to search into truths to be able to convince gain-sayers to câ—râ—y things with strength of Scripture Reason seeing we have power to compel men to yeeld to us And men who can do least by Reason and Scripture are many times strongest in their violence this way this strength must come in to make up their other weaknesse But it may be Conscience will not let them compell
shift for himself In mens lusts there are contradictions no vertue is contrary to another but vices have nothing but contrarieties and contradictions in them Mens lusts oppose and fight against one another in mens hearts no marvail then when there are such stirs within though they break forth into quarrels and contentions without If a man be quarrelsom in his family no wonder if when he comes abroad he quarrels and contends with his neighbours also Sixtly In mens lusts there is violence violence and peace cannot stand together Isa 60. 18. God promises peace and there promises that violence should be no more heard in their Land Mens lusts are boisterous and unruly especyally when they have been acting a while at the first venting they seem to be fair but after a while they grow outragious violent and boisterous dispositions are unfit for society You shall find in experience men who seem to be of weake spirits of softly tempers very remisse in what they do ordinarily yet let the lusts of these men be engaged in any cause to any side O how violent and impetuous will they be they care not what they say or do they will divide from God from the publique from their dearest friends from their neerest relations from what themselves have made profession of heretofore from their credit profit from their own peace from any thing and all to serve a lust engaged in such a businesse it is a dangerous thing to have a mans lust engaged nothing can stand against an engaged lust a man runs on head-long he will break his conscience he will desperately endanger his eternall breaking to maintain the engagement of his lust 7ly In the lusts of mens hearts there is an antipathy against God against his wayes purity of his Ordinances his Saints Gen. 3. 15. I will put enmity between thee and the woman between thy seed and her seed In Antipathy the opposition is 1. In the nature of the things therefore it s deeply rooted it comes not in accidentally you may find two sheep fighting upon some accident but the natures are not opposite like the Wolfe and the Sheep 2. The cause of this opposition is secret wicked men have their spirits rise against the godly but they are not able to say why The husband loved his wife while she was carnall now God hath turned her heart she is more obedient then ever she seeks to give him content in all things more then before she is more usefull to him in all occasions more faithfull every way more lovely then before only she is godly now and was not so before but his heart is now quite off from her he dares not say that it is for her godlinesse if he hath any conviction himself but so it is that now he looks upon her with an evil eye an estranged heart So a wicked Father or Mother who loved their child exceedingly before God was pleased to work upon him yet now the child is more dutiful then he was but the heart of the father or mother is taken off from him can hardly endure him ready to take any exception against him their countenances are lowring and sadd towards him they can give no reason for this their change but as they were wont to say of Christians Such a man is a good man but he is a Christian Bonus vir Caius Seius sed Christianus non amo te I love you not but I can give no reason Hoc tantum possum dicere Non amo te all that I can say is this that I do not love you 3. It is a setled constant opposition This hath been in all generations the great cause of division between the men of the world and the Saints and still it continues the same you may see the same spirit of the old opposers of godlinesse and godly men working in our days the names of things may be changed but the same kind of men for the same things are opposed and hated now in the same manner as in former generations 4. It is very strong ungodly men are exceedingly imbittered against the Saints Ezek. 26. 6. Because thou hast clapped thine hands and stamped with the feet and rejoyced in heart with all thy despight against the Land of Israel This spirit of bitternesse and indignation that was in them against the people of God is seminally at least in all wicked men 5ly The enmity of Antipathy is incurable it can never be taken away except one ceases to be in its nature what it was there can be no compounding things that are so contrary one of them must cease to be or turned into another nature or else the â—pposition will be everlasting The great divisions amongst us are those that are between the seed of the woman and the seed of the Serpent some division there are between those who are the seed of Christ but the great stirs in the Kingdom come from the evill spirit there is in the seed of the Serpent against the godly in the Land In the beginning of the Parliament when mens liberties and estates being involved in one there was good agreement all men rejoyced generally the countenances of those who were not Popish and Prelaticall were serene they had comfortable aspects one upon another but when those whose spirits were opposite to the power of godlinesse saw how the godly amongst them rejoyced how their heads were lifted up how their hearts were filled with hopes of good dayes wherein Religion should be countenanced and honoured that Antipathy that was in their hearts against the ways of God boy-led in them though they were glad that they should be freed from some burdens yet to see those whom they hated in their hearts to rejoyce so much they could not beare but their spirit rose against them and in opposition to them they have raised these stirs they have made these woful distractions that are amongst us Lastly the lusts of mens hearts are the cause of our divisions because God requires every man according to his place to make opposition against them the cause of the strife lyes not in those who oppose them they do but their duty but in in those who nourish such lusts within them yet we finde it ordinarily that those who are most corrupt will cry out against those who oppose them in their wicked wayes as the cause of strife and divisions as if they were the troublers of Israel whereas indeed themselves the wicked lusts of their own hearts are the troublers of Israel those who oppose their lusts desire all good to their persons I remember Augustine in his Book about the unity of the Church hath this passage The Son doth more grievously persecute his father by living naughtily then the father him by chastising him duely Sarahs Maid did more trouble her by her wicked pride then shee her Maid by her deserved correction Those men who are most faulty are the men who are to be charged to be the
me thus proud men and women in their families whatsoeuer children or servants do amisse what you do it on purpose to anger me do you When the winde comes crosse the streame the waters rage So does the will and affections of a proud heart when any thing crosseth it 3ly Pride makes men swell beyond their bounds the way to keep all things in union is for every man to keep within his bounds the swelling beyond tends to the breaking all in pieces Hab. 2. 5. He is a proud man neither keepeth at home who enlargeth his desire as hell and cannot be satisfied If any humour of the body goeth beyond its bounds it brings much trouble to it the health and peace of the body consists in the keeping of every humour within its vessell and due proportion 4ly Pride hardens mens hearts Dan. 5. 20. His minde is hardned in his pride If you would have things cleave you must have them soft two flints will not joyn the Spanyard hath a Proverb Lime and stone will make a wall if one be hand yet if the other be yeelding there may be joyning and good may be done not else 5ly Pride causes men to despise the persons actions and sufferings of others nothing is more unsufferable to a mans spirit then to be vilified A proud man despises what others do and others what he does every man next to his person desires the honour of his actions If these two be contemned his sufferings will likewise be contemned by the proud This also goes very neer to a man one man thinks what another man suffers is nothing no matter what becomes of him another thinks his suffering's nothing and no matter what becomes of him O at what a distance now are mens hearts one from another 6ly Pride causes every man to desire to be taken notice of to have an eminency in some thing or other if he cannot be eminent on one side he will get to the other he must be taken notice of one way or other when he is in a good and peaceable way God makes some use of him yet because he is not observed and looked upon as eminent he will rather turn to some other way to contend strive to oppose or any thing that he may be taken notice of to be some body that he may not goe out of the world without some noyse What shall such a man as I of such parts such approved abilities so endued by God to doe some eminent service be laid aside and no body regard me I must set upon some notable worke something that may draw the eye of observance upon me I have read of a young man who set Diana's Temple on fire and being asked the reason he said That he might have a name that the people might talk of him Because he could not be famous by doing good he would by doing evill Proud spirits wil venture the setting the Temple of God yea Church and State on fire that they may have a name whatsoever they do or suffer to get a name they will rather venture then dye in obscurity that of all things they cannot bear 7. A proud man would have others under him and others being proud too would have him under them he would have others yield to him and others would have him yield to them where will the agreement then begin What is that which hath rent and torne the world in all ages that hath brought woful distractions perplexities confusions miseries in all Countreys by wars but the pride of a few great ones seeking to bring one under another Those wasting Wars of the Romans between Sylla and Marius Caesar and Pompey were they not from hence It is hard for men in great places and of great spirits to accord long Melancthon in his Comment upon Prov. 13. 10. says concerning such men there was wont to be this Proverb Duo montes non miscentur Two mountains will not mixe together 8ly A proud man makes his will to be the rule of his actions and would have it to be the rule of other mens too and other men being proud too would have their wils the rule of though there be nothing else but pride and in the Hebrew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dabit jurgium give contention if there be no cause given it will make it Now let every man looke into his own heart and see what pride hath been and still is there and be humbled before the Lord for this All you contentious froward quarrelsome people you are charged this day from God to be men and women of proud spirits and what evill there is in our sadd divisions that pride in your bosome is a great cause of Saint Paul did beat down his body left after he had preached to others he should become a reprobate Let us all and especially Ministers labour to beat down our spirits lest after all our profession and glorious shews we at last become Reprobates at least such as God may cast out for the present in this world taking no delight in making use of what in such times as these are to have hearts swoln and lift up in pride God is now about the staining the pride of the earth How unseasonable and dangerous is it for a Marriner to have his top-sails up and all spread in a violent storme it is time then to pull downe all lest he be sunck irrecoverably The point of a needle will let the wind out of a bladder and shall not the swords of God the swords of Warre and Plague that have got so deep into our bowels let out the windy pride of our hearts The haughtinesse of men shall be bowed downe and the Lord himself will be exalted The Lord humble us that he may reconcile us not only to himselfe but to one another CHAP. XVI Selfe-love the second dividing distemper THis is neer akin to the former Phil. 2. 3. Let nothing be done through strife Ver. 4. Looke not every man on his owne things but every man also on the things of others This is the cause of strife because men looke so much on their owne things Many will have no peace except their own party be followed Jehu-like What hast thou to do with peace follow me It is not Peace but Party that they mind Maxima pars studiorum est studium partium The greatest part of their studies is to study sides and parts Luther upon Psal 127. hath a notable speech I am of that opinion sayes he that Monarchies would continue longer then they doe were it not for that same litte Pronoun Ego that same I my selfe Yea certainly could this same Selfe be but laid aside all governments and societies would not only continue longer but flourish better Selfe-love is the cause of our divisions First where this prevails men love to take in all to themselves but let out nothing from themselves this must needs divide societies in Church and State
themselves though their lives be ill There is a mighty change in mens spirits now from that which was heretofore Times have been when any opinion that tended to loosenesse was presently distasted as unfavoury and rejected by such who made profession of Religion Sleidan in the tenth book of his Commentaries sayes The Devill that sought to doe mischiefe at Munster was not a skilfull Devill but rude and simple because he sought to prevaile by tempting men to loosenesse whereas sayes he if he had beene a cunning Devill he would rather have deceived by abstaining from flesh by abhorring Matrimony by shewes of wonderfull lowlinesse of minde c. he might sooner have taken men this way but truly now the most cunning Devill sees it to be the best way to attaine his ends to raise up and foment opinions that â—end to the liberty of the flesh so be it he can carry them on under the colour of magnifying free grace he findes that these things are exceeding suitable to mens spirits in these times that they are taken in by such who formerly appeared so conscientious that hee feared hee should never have beene able to have prevailed with them hee never found a way like to this to prevaile with such men yea never a way like to this to choake the Word when it first begins to worke upon the heart he hath blasted more young seeming converts this way then ever hee did by any way since he was a Devill Heretofore the way was to stirre up others to deride them for following the Word and for praying now he hath a way worth two of that to make them to deride others for their conscienciousnesse in following the Word and praying and this strengthened with a high perswasion that hereby they are the great magnifiers of the free grace of God in the Gospel the only men who understand the Gospel way This Devill now lookes upon himselfe and his fellowes as simple and foolish in all their former devices here is an experiment beyond them all seeing this Christ must needes be magnified hee will magnifie him too seeing the Gospel must goe on hee will put it on too hee will finde out a device here to strike at the practise power life of godlinesse in a more secret and prevailing way then ever formerly was done it is like in this generation the former principles of godlinesse will not be got out but if this way prevails still in proportion to what it hath done in a generation or two it is like to bring generall prophanenesse and licentiousnesse upon the face of the Christian world more then any way of Satan ever did since the world began for here is a way to be loose and prophane and to satisfie Conscience too CHAP. XXII The third Dividing Practice Men no keeping within the bounds that God hath set them FIrst when men will be medling with that whith concernes them not that is out of their sphere 1 Thes 4. 11. Study to be quiet and doe your owne businesse Prov. 20. 31. It is an honour for a man to cease from strife but every foole will be wedling Choller in the gall is usefull to the body but if it overflow the body growes into distemper presently we may be all usefull in our places if we keepe to them contenting our selves with the improvements of our talents in them thus both our selves and others may have quiet When Mannah was gathered and kept in that proportion God would have it it was very good but when men must have more and keep it longer then God would have them then it breeds worms Thus it will be in all that we have or doe let us keepe our proportion God sets us and all will be well but if we thinke to provide better for our selves by going beyond our measure wormes are presently bred in all But especially where men will not keepe within their bounds in their power over others for what is all our contestation at this time it is not about mens stretching their power beyond their line both in State and Church From whence are our State-divisions our Warres but because Princes have been perswaded their power was boundlesse at least not to be kept within those bounds the State sayes it ought to bee They think there is such a distance between them and others that the estates liberties lives of all men within their country lie at their mercy not considering how they come to be raised so high that what they have above others is given to them by those above whom they are No man inheriteth more then was given to his forefathers and so to him whereby they might see that they are not limited onely by the lawes of God but by the lawes of men also namely The agreement between them and the people when they are raised to such dignities There is nothing weakens their right more then the pleading it by conquest Princes have little cause to thank those who plead their right that way The surest foundation for Princes to set their feet on is the agreement between the people and them or their progenitors but if they will goe beyond this agreement what stirres what wofull disturbances doe they make Secondly if either they or any Governours of the State shall instead of being helpfull to the government of the Church take it all from it into their owne hands in this they goe beyond those bounds Christ would have them it is by the Civill power that the Governours of the Church have the peaceable exercise of what power Christ hath given them but they have not their power from them Civill authority cannot put any spirituall power into a man or company of men which they had not before it can onely protect encourage and further the exercise of that power that CHRIST hath given They are inconsiderate men sayes Calvin who make Magistrates too spirituall This evill sayes he prevailes in Germanie and in the Countries about us we finde what fruit growes from this root namely that those who are in power thinke themselves so spirituall that there is no other ecclesiasticall government this sacriledge comes in violently amongst us because they cannot measure their office within its due bounds And for Church-Governours if they would keep within their Limits we might enjoy much peace if first they would assume to themselves no more power then Christ hath given them Secondly if they would not extend it over more congregations then Christ hath committed to them Thirdly if they would not exercise it in more things then Christ would have them Let us looke a little into these three for the want of a right understanding in them hath caused and may yet further cause much disturbance For the first That Christ hath appointed some to rule in his Church and that all the members of the Church are not in the office of ruling is apparent in Scripture 1 Cor. 12. 28. Rom. 12. 8 but that these Officers
that first gave him his powver shall also extend it Now the Charter by which any Church-Officer is invested with power is the Word therefore we cannot streighten or enlarge the power of a Minister otherwise then we find it in the Word for Civill power it may be streightned or enlarged as the Governours of State shall see cause because their Charter is from man it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secondly man naturally is of nothing more impatient then to have Jurisdiction challenged over him except hee sees the claime to be right and in the point of spirituall jurisdiction man is the most tender of all because in that men come in the Name of Christ to him challenging authority to exercise the power of Christ over him not over the outward man so much as over his soule to deliver it up to Satan Surely there had need be shewne a cleare and full Charter that any men have that gives them such a power as this that men in conscience shall be bound to submit to Now then here lyes the division on sayes his Charter does extend so farre the other sayes hee does not finde it so in the reading of it There is yet a further consideration of the stretching either Civill or Ecclesiasticall authority beyond their bounds which hath been and may be the cause of much division that is their challenging and excercising power in things indifferent beyond what God hath given them for the opening of which we must know First no man either in State or Church hath any authority given him by God to command any thing meerely because hee will especially when the things concerne the worship of God Our Brethren of Scotland in their dispute against English Popish Ceremonies part 3. chap. 8. pag. 127. have this passage Princes have enjoyned things pertaining to the worship of God but those things were the very same which Gods written Word had expresly commanded when Princes went beyond these limits and bounds they tooke upon them to judge and command more then God hath put within the compasse of their power And pag. 136. of the same Booke they say The Apostle 1 Cor. 7. 23. forbiddeth us to be the servants of men that is to doe things for which wee have no other warrant beside the pleasure and will of men This was the Doctrine in Tertullians time You exercise sayes he an unjust dominion over others if you deny a thing may bee done because you will not because it ought not to bee done It is onely the Prerogative of God of Jesus Christ to command a thing because they will God hath appointed Civill Governours to be his Ministers for our good Rom. 13. Those things onely which they can doe in Gods Name as his Ministers and are for the good of a State are the object about which their power is to be exercised they are not to require a thing because there is nothing against it but because this thing is for God And Church-governours are to require onely such things as Christ requires all the exercise of their power ought to be in the Name of Christ hence not because they will or because nothing can be said to the contrary In all they require of us they must be able to say as Paul 1 Cor. 14. 38. giving rules about order and decencie If any man thinke himselfe to be a Prophet or spirituall let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the Commandements of the Lord. You will say But are Governours alwayes bound to shew a reason of their will to those who are under them or may not they obey except they know some good in the thing besides their doing the will of those who doe command them Though no Governours may command but upon reason yet the Governours of State need not alwayes discover the reasons of their commands Wee may give up our Civill liberties so farre as to be bound to yeeld to our Governours commands if wee see nothing against what they command but have cause to suppose that they see some reason that we do not which is not fit to make known to us This is grounded upon this reason that there are Arcana imperii mysteries of State that are not fit for every man to know the secrecie of them conduces most to the good of the State But it is otherwise in the matters of the Church which are spirituall there are no such mysteries in the Church wherein any members of it can be required to be active but it concernes them to understand as well as to doe All the actions of the Church as such must be done for spirituall edification now a man cannot doe a thing for the edifying his soule or the soule of another but he must understand his action and the rule of it he must see it required by the Word or otherwise he cannot expect any spirituall efficacy in what he does I may doe a thing for a civill good wherein I may trust another mans reason and this may be sufficient to attaine my end the procuring of some good meerly civill but this will never be able to reach to a spirituall good I must see the reason the ground the rule of the action my selfe I must judge by the Word that this action at this time cloathed with all its circumstances is by Christ sitted for such a spirituall good that I aime at Besides if things meerely indifferent be enjoyned then is Christian liberty violated No say some Christian liberty is in the conscience so long as a man keepes his conscience free the thing may be still indifferent to him in regard of his conscience though his practise be determined and so Christian liberty is preserved This is the put off that the Prelaticall party made use of against our Brethren of Scotland many yeeres since when they pleaded that by their usurpation Christian liberty was taken from them To that answer of the Prelates they thus reply When the authority of the Churches constitution is obtruded to binde and restraine the practice of Christians in things indifferent they are bereaved of thir liberty as well as if an opinion of necessity were borne in upon their consciences They urge that place Colos 2. 21. where the Apostle gives instances say they of such humane ordinances as take away Christian liberty he saith not you must thinke that you may not touch but touch not you must not practise not be subject to such Ordinances telling us That when the practice is restrained form touching tasting handling by the ordinance of men then is Christian liberty spoiled though conscience be left free if the outward man be brought in bondage this makes up spirituall thraldome say they though there bee no more And further the Apostle gives these two Arguments against these things First sayes he they perish in the use that is there is no good comes of them It may be you will say What hurt is there in them
That is not enough sayes the Apostle to justifie them though there should be no hurt in them yet seeing they perish in the use seeing there comes no good by them you must not doe them But what if they shall be commanded by authority may wee not doe them then No sayes the Apostle that is another argument against them they are after the commandements and doctrine of men if it be a meere ordinance of man and there be no other reason in the thing but because man enjoynes it in the Church you are not to doe it Yea in some respect we have not so much liberty in things indifferent if they be enjoyned by men as we had before This is thought to be a very strange assertion by some but consider this one thing and it will not appear so Though I might doe such a thing before yet if man shall take upon him this authority to command meerly because of his will and pleasure if I now obey I am in danger to edifie him to strengthen him in his sinne he challenges this authority and I seeme to yeeld it to him certainly he is strengthned in it by my subjection except I doe this at least professe against any such authority of man granted by Jesus Christ But say some If you take from Governours power to command things indifferent you take away all their power for things necessary are required without them and things sinfull they may not command Surely this conceit comes rather from tradition then from due consideration for it is not power enough to see to the keeping of the commands of God that the Ordinances be kept pure that there be justice between man and man to reward those which doe well and to punish the evill doers Yet thus farre must be granted to the Officers of the Church they have authority from Christ to declare dogmatically when a thing in it selfe indifferent yet by reason of some circumstances comes to be a duty and this is to be regarded more then the declaration of any private brother or brethren for they doe it by way of office in the name of Christ This we finde Acts 15. the Apostles and Elders sent their Decrees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their dogmaticall determinations about some things in themselves indifferent but as cloathed with those circumstances they call them things necessary they determine them to be done from the reason of the things not from their authority those things were duties before they decreed them and had been had they never decreed them Even forbearing the eating of blood was a duty in case of offence though their decree had never been and otherwise it was no duty notwithstanding their Decree for afterward Paul sayes that whatsoever is sold in the shambles they might eate of it asking no question for conscience sake and every creature of God is good if it be received with thanksgiving Thus we have seen what the bounds are which God hath set to men in authority or at least the controversie about them Let them be carefull to keep within their bounds as they are set to keep others within theirs by this Church and State may enjoy much peace CHAP. XXIII The fourth dividing practise Gathering of Churches disorderly THis is cryed out of as the greatest dividing practice of all You may speak of this or that to be dividing amongst us say some but above all things this Gathering of Churches is the great divider amongst us To this I shall speak in these six things First it is not absolutely unlawfull for a Church to be gathered out of a Church Voetius that learned Professor of Viretcht answering Jansenius pleading against us for seperating from the Romish Church which was the most ancient and famous Church No sayes he it is not absolutely evill to separate from such a Church for then the Christians gathering themselves out of the Jewish Church were Schismaticks which is false Doctor Jackson a Prelaticall man in the 14. Chapter of his Treatise of the Church gives two reasons which he sayes are just and necessary for which men whether few or many may and ought to seperate themselves from any visible Church First because they are urged or constrained to professe or beleeve some points of doctrine or to adventure upon some practices which are contrary to the rule of Faith or love of God Second in case they are utterly deprived of freedome of Conscience in professing what they inwardly beleeve or bereft of some other meanes either altogether necessary or most expedient to salvation For which latter he quotes 1 Cor. 7. 23. Ye are bought with a price bee not ye servants of men Although sayes he we were perswaded that we could communicate with such a Church without evident danger of damnation yet inasmuch as we cannot communicate with it upon any better termes then legall servants or bondslaves doe with their Masters we are bound in conscience and religious discretion when lawfull occasions and opportunities ore offered to use our liberty and to seeke our freedome rather then to live in bondage This doctrine was allowed of in the Bishops times Now suppose upon these two grounds there be a withdrawing from a Church Christ does no where require his people to live without Ordinances all their dayes rather then they should joyne themselves together into another body Secondly yet where these causes are not but men may communicate without sinne professing the truth and enjoy all ordinances as the freemen of Christ Men must not seperate from a Church though there be corruption in it to gather into a new Church which may be more pure and in some respects more comfortable First because we never finde the Saints in Scripture seperating or raising Churches in such a case and secondly There would be no continuance in Church fellowship if this were admitted for what Church is so pure and hath all things so comfortable but within a while another Church will be more pure and some things will be more comfortable there The generall peace of the Church should be more regarded by us then some comfortable accommodations to our selves Thirdly Although you cannot for the present communicate with the Church in which you are without sinne or bondage yet you are not presently to withdraw to gather into another or to joyne with another you are bound to give so much respect to the Church as to continue with much long-suffering to seeke the good of that Church to remove the sinne that is upon it with all good meanes you can You must beare much with a brother much more with a Church Fourthly If things were in that ordered and settled way as they ought there ought to be no gathering of any new Churches without consulting and advising with neighbour Churches Christ would have all Churches unite themselves and have conjunction one with another being all of the same body of Christ If then there be to be raised a new Sister Church
cruelty and revenge her husband delighting in her caused her Image to be made lively representing her and apparelled with costly garments but indeed it was an Engin to torment men withall he made use of it thus when he could not have his will upon men by his owne perswasions he tooke them by the hand telling them that perhaps his wife Apega who sate by in a chaire could perswade more effectually so he led them to the Image that rose up and opened the armes as it were for embracement those armes were full of sharpe iron nayles the like whereof were also sticking in the brests though hidden with her clothes and herewith she griped these men to death At which Nabis standing by laughed to see the cruell death of these miserable men The Lord deliver us from revengefull spirits CHAP. XXVII The evill of Divisions They hinder much good EVsebius reports of Constantine That he was more troubled with the dissentions of the Church then with all the warres in his dominions that he took them so to heart that he could not sleep quietly for them yea although he had a spirit full of heroick valour yet the dissentions of the Church were such evils to him as to cause him to cry and sob Thus he writes in an Epistle to Alexander and Arius Let me enjoy the dayes in peace and the nights without molâ—station that the pleasure which riseth out of the pure light of concord and quiet life may henceforth inviolably be conserved if it otherwise happen it behoveth us to sob and sigh and to shed many a salt teare What heart that hath any tendernesse in it bleeds not in the sense of those sore dreadful heart-divisions there are amongst us The evill there is in them is beyond what tongue or pen can expresse Take a view of it under these three Heads 1. The good they hinder 2. The sinne they cause 3. The misery they bring First the quiet comfort sweetnesse of our spirits is hindered by divisions They put the spirit out of tune men who heretofore have had sweet spirit full of ingenuity since they have interessed themselves in these Divisions have lost their sweetnesse their ingenuity is gone When the Bee stings she leaves her sting behinde her and never gathers Honey more men by stinging one another doe not lose their stings but they lose their honey they are never like to have that sweetnesse in their hearts that heretofore they had Shall I lose my sweetnesse sayes the Fig-tree and goe to be promoted over the trees Why doest thou not reason thus with thy spirit Shall I lose my sweetnesse in contending to get my will to be above others God sorbid There was a time that both my my selfe and others found much sweetnesse in the temper of spirit there was nothing but peaceablenesse quiet calmnesse contentednesse in it and how comfortable was such a temper of spirit me thought when my spirit was in that sweet frame all things were sweet to me but since I have been interested in quarrels and contentions it hath beene farre otherwise with me Prov. 15. 4. Perversnesse in the tongue causes a breach in the spirit Contentions cause much perversnesse in mens tongues and this causes a breach in their spirits Your contending costs you deare though it were in nothing else yet the losse of this sweetnesse of spirit makes it very costly to you All the wrong that you should have put up if you had not contended had not been so great an evil to you as this one thing is There is nothing more contrary to ingenuity then quarrelsomnesse It is reported of Melancthon that when he was to dye he had this speech and Strigelius at his death had the same I desire to depart this life for two causes First that I may enjoy the desired sight of the Sonne of God and the Church in heaven Secondly that I may be delivered from the fierce and implacable hatred of Divines There was much disputing contending quarrelling in those times which was so tedious to the spirits of these good men as it made them the willinger to dye that they might be where their souls should be at rest That Saint of God old M. Dod never loved to meddle with controversies he gave that reason He found his heart the worse when he did Men seldome come away from hot disputes or any other contentions but their spirits are altered for the worse They finde it so and others finde it in them If a man has beene abroad and met with company with whom he hath been contending his wife children servants finde that he comes not home with the same spirit that he went out with Secondly they hinder the freedome of a mans spirit which a wise man sets a high price upon the strength of many mens spirits is spent in contentions they have no command of them to any thing else When a man is once engaged in a contest he knows not how to get off Contention is a great snare to a man he wishes he had never medled with it he is weary of it but knowes not how to come off fairely I have read of Francis the first King of France consulting with his Captaines how to lead his Army over the Alpes into Italy whether this way or that way Amarill his Foole sprung out of a corner where he sate unseene and bad them rather take care which way they should bring their Army out of Italy back again It is easie for one to interest himselfe in quarrels but the difficulty is to be disengaged from them when you are in Thirdly they hinder the good of the body many men contending with their Brethren are so full of stomach that they have no stomach they hinder their sleep men lye tossing up downe a great part of the night sometimes whole nights musing plodding and contriving how they may make their party good what advantages they may get of those they contend with Have the thoughts about the breach sinne hath made between God and thy soul broke thy sleep so much as the thoughts of breaches between thee and thy neighbours and brethren We reade of Moses Deut. 34. 7. that he was an hundred and twenty yeeres old when he died his eye was not dimme nor his naturall force abated Some give this to be one reason of such a wonderfull preservation of his health and strength the meeknesse of his spirit God witnesses of him Numb 12. 3. That he was the meekest man upon the face of the earth That good old man Mr. Dod came very neere to Moses in the one and in the other Fourthly they hinder mens judgements if the water be muddie we cannot see what lies at the bottome These dissentions disturb the medium of our sight you cannot weigh gold in the middest of blustring windes you cannot consider and give a judgement upon truth except the heart be calme Gregory Nazianzen hath this similitude As the
bloud to cast up thy accounts truly what good thou hast done or what thou hast got by such and such contentions and on the other side cast up what the hurt thou hast done what sin hath been committed what evill hath got into thy spirit I fear you will have little cause to boast of or rejoyce in your gains To be freed from that expence that comes in by strife is not a little gain says Ambrose In strife you will finde there is a very great expence of time of gifts and parts Many men in regard of the good gifts God hath given them might have proved shining Lights in the Church but by reason of their contentious spirits they prove no other then smoaking firebrands It may be by all the stirre you keep you shall never get your minde if you do it will not quit cost the charge you have been at for it comes to much more then it is worth God deliver me from having my minde at such a dear rate The fifth joyning Consideration The strongest hath need of the weakest LEt not the hand say it hath no need of the foot nor the eye it hath no need of the hand God hath so tempred the body that every member hath need of every member It was a sweet spirit in Peter that great Apostle writing to the scattered Christians he begins his Epistle thus Simon Peter a servant and an Apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious faith with us Little nayles may be usefull where great wedges can do no good Little chips may help to set great logs on fire The sixth Consider when any thing falls out that occasions strife it may be this is but for a triall this is a temptation WHen men provoke us we are ready to flye upon them looking no further then the men with whom we are displeased But if you look a little further perhaps you may see the Devill is on the other side of the hedge and hath been the chief agent in this business Augustine presseth this by a most excellent similitude When a Fowler saith he hath set his net to catch Birds he sets it at a distance from the hedge and when he has done he takes stones and throwes at the hedge upon this the Birds flye out and flutter about The Fowler does not intend any hurt to the hedge neither does he think to hit any Birds with his stones but that which is in his eye is the net on the other side of the hedge he hopes to drive the Birds in there So sayes he the Devill prepares his net to catch men in he raises up contentions and causes much trouble to be in Churches and among brethren you think all the evill is in the trouble of your present contentions Oh no the Devill is behinde he intends to bring some of you into some great sin by these he hath set his net for you when you are troubled and vexed by such contentions the Devill sees you fit for a temptation now I hope I shall get him to do such and such things which otherwise I could never have got him to Oh that we had hearts when we find contentions stirring to consider But is there not a temptation in them The seventh Consider how the heart of God is set upon making peace with us and what it cost him GOd was in Christ reconciling the world to himself this work hath taken up the thoughts councels heart of God from all eternity above any thing that ever he did this is the chief master-piece of all the works of God There is more of the glory of God in this then in all that God hath done This is and shall be the object of the admiration of Angels and Saints the matter of their praises to all eternity The heart of God was so in this that he was resolved to have it whatsoever it cost him it cost the dearest that ever any thing in this world did yea the price of it was more then ten thousand worlds are worth it was no lesse then the bloud of the Sonne of God of him who is the second person in Trinity God blessed for evermore Col. 1. 14. In whom we have redemption through his bloud who is the image of the invisible God the first borne of every creature by him were all things created he is before all things by him all things consist in him all fulnesse dwels and having made peace through the bloud of his Crosse ver 20. What God hath done for peace with us cals aloud to us to prize peace one with another It is the Apostles argument 1 Joh. 3. 16. He laid down his life for us we ought to lay downe our lives for the brethren It cost his life to make our peace with God We should be willing to do any thing we are able even to the hazard of our lives to make peace among the Saints Christ laid down his life even for this peace also Ephes 2. 14. For he is our peace who hath made both one and hath broke downe the middle wall of partition betweene us having abolished in his flesh the enmity to make in himselfe of twaine one new man so making peace and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the Crosse Christ reconciles both unto God but how it is in one body Lay this Consideration warm at your hearts and it will comfort your hearts and so preserve and encrease peaceable dispositions in you towards one another The eighth Consider how unworthy we were when Jesus Christ received us into union with himselfe WHat uncomely what loathsome creatures we were yet Christ took us into his bosome into his heart and resolved that never any thing should seperate us from him againe But that those embracements of his should be everlasting and yet shall every trifle take us off from one anothers hearts shall every jealous spusitious conceit every little difference be enough to seperate us and that almost irreconcileably Have we the spirit of Christ in us is the same minde in us that was in Christ Jesus The ninth Consider that we are called to Peace GOD hath called us to peace 1 Cor. 7. 15. That case upon which the Apostle mentions our calling to peace is as difficult a case to preserve peace in as any can fall out in ones life It was the case of man and wife unequally yoaked one is a Beleever the other an Infidell yet being man and wife the Apostle determines that the Beleever must be content to live with the unbeleever as it becomes a wife or a husband except he or she of themselves will depart but they should give them no occasion of departing but rather by their holy humble conversation seek to convert them this no question was accounted a hard task but it must be sayes the Apostle and upon this he grounds it for God hath called us to peace There is another case almost as difficult as
this where the patience and quietness of spirit is very much tryed and that is when a servant meets with a harsh rugged cruell master that abuses him very injuriously if any thing would put ones spirit into a rage one would thinke this would do it No saith the Apostle such must be the command you must have over your spirits as you must patiently bear this and he grounds it upon this For hereunto were ye called 1 Pet. 2. 21 22. But though husbands and wives should live at peace though they suffer one from another though servants should put up wrongs from their masters yet it followes not that the like patience should be required in us when we are wronged by our equals by those to whom we have no such band of relation to tye us Yes this argument of calling is strong in this case also 1 Pet. 3. 8 9. Love as brethren be courteous not rendring evill for evill or railing for railing but contrariwise blessing knowing that ye are thereunto called The tenth Consider the presence of God and of Christ OUr God our Father our Master our Saviour stands by looking on us It is a most excellent passage that I finde in an Epistle of Luther to the Ministers of Norimberg There were great divisions amongst them he writes to them that he might pacifie their spirits one towards another Suppose sayes he you saw Jesus Christ standing before you and by his very eyes speaking thus unto your hearts What do you O my dear children whom I have redeemed with my blood whom I have begotten againe by my Word to that end that you might love one another Know that this is the note of my Disciples Leave this businesse ye wholly cast it upon me I le look to it there is no danger that the Church should suffer by this though it should be stilled yea though it should dye but there is a great deale of danger if you dissent amongst your selves if you bite one another Do not thus sadden my spirit do not thus spoile the holy Angels of their joy in Heaven am not I more to you then all matters that are between you then all your affections then all your offences What can any words of a brother can any unjust trouble penetrate your hearts stick so fast in you as my wounds as my bloud as all that I am to you your Saviour Jesus Christ Oh that we had such reall apprehensions of Christ looking upon us speaking to us The eleventh Consider what account we can give to Jesus Christ of all our Divisions WHen Christ shall come will you stand before him with scratched faces with black and blew eyes 1 Thes 3. 12 13. The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one towards another and towards all men To what end To the end saith the Apostle he may establish your hearts unblameable in holinesse before God even our Father at the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ with all his Saints It will be a sad thing to be found in our divisions at the comming of Jesus Christ Mat. 24. 50. the comming of Christ is mentioned as a terror to those who shall but begin to smite their fellow-servants We may wrangle stand out one against another in our contentions now but it will not be so easie to answer Jesus Christ as it is to answer one to another In the Name of Jesus Christ I now speak unto you yea as from him charge you let no reason move you to contend with dissent or seperate from your brethren but that which you are perswaded in your conscience and that after due and serious examination will hold out before will be approved of Jesus Christ at his comming The twelfth Let every man consider his owne weaknesses YOu are ready to take offence from others within a while you are as like to be offensive to others There will be as much need they should beare with you as now there is you should beare with them The Common Law of those who intend to live at peace one with another is Veniam petimus damusque We desire pardon and we doe pardon The thirteenth Let us consider our mortality IT is but a little time we have to live shall the greater part of it nay why should any part of it be ravel'd out with contentions and quarrels I have read of Pompey that upon a time passing over divers hils where there lived many people in caves but their order was that the man lived in one cave and the wife in another he asking the reason they said In those parts they live not long therefore they desired that the little time they did live they might have peace and quiet which they had found by experience they could not have if man and wife lived constantly together Though the means they used for their quiet was sordid yet the good use they made of the shortnesse of their lives was commendable Virgil sayes if swarms of Bees meet in the ayre they will sometimes fight as it were in a set battell with great violence but if you cast but a little dust upon them they will all be presently quiet Sprinkle upon your hearts the meditations of death that within a while this flesh of yours will be turned to dust this will quiet you The fourteenth Consider the life of heaven THere is and will be perfect agreement there We are here as Bees flying up and down from flower to flower all day but at night they come all into the same Hive That is a place where Luther and Zuinglius will well agree Shall not we whom God from all eternity hath ordained to live co-heires in heaven to joyn together in praises there agree together here on earth CHAP. XXXIII Joyning graces 1. Wisdome THe deepest Seas are the most calme so men of the deepest judgements are most quiet A man of understanding is of an excellent spirit Prov. 17. 27. or thus is of a coole spirit for so the word signifies his spirit is not heat with passion there is a coole dew of examination and deliberation upon his spirit he weighs the circumstances consequences and issues of things he orders and disposes of things so as jarres contradictions and oppositions are prevented The wisdome that is from above is pure peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated Jam. 3. 17. Reason and Wisdome have a majesty in them and will force reverence Let Passion reverence the presence of Reason sayes Basil as children doing things unseemly are afraid of the presence of men of worth 2. Faith 1. THis unites us to Christ and God and in them to one another 2. Faith commits all causes all feares injures to God 3. Faith layes hold upon and improves those gracious promises that God hath made to his Churches for union Faith sues out the Bond. 4. Faith is able to descry the issue of troubles and afflictions Though Sense sayes It will not be Reason It cannot be yet
tale of such and such your heart is hot presently but do you understand the matter You begin to make a stirre but can you give account of it Be silent forbeare take heed what you do meddle not in way of strife till you understand where the controversie lyes and that from both parties The fifth joyning Practice Be ingenious 1. do not lye at the catch to take advantages 2. make the best interpretation of things you can IF God should catch advantages against us what would become of us This is most unseemly when men are seeking to finde out truth if then they shall piddle about words catch at phrases get hold of expressions and seek to make their advantages out of them and in this shall be the greatest strength of their answer though this may have a specious shew before men who are willing to receive any thing which makes against what they would have crushed yet this will not abide before the throne of Christ We reade Matth. 4. Christ had a great dispute with the Devill in which he had him at great advantage in his quotation of a Scripture ver 6. He shall give his Angells charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall beare thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stoue This was quoted out of the 91. Psal ver 11. there it is He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keepe thee in all thy wayes Yet Christ did not catch this advantage he did not so much as upbraid him for leaving out that passage which he might justly have done but he answers to the thing Yea Christ might have taken a further advantage against the Devill for the words following in the Psalm are a prophesie of Christ destroying the power of the Devill Thou shalt tread upon the Lyon and Adder the young Lyon and the Dragon shalt thou trample under thy feet Christ did not take the advantage of this neither and upbraid him with it he had enough against him in the thing it selfe he brought It is a signe that men have lesse advantage in the matter when they seek so much to catch at all the advantages they can in the manner of the expressions of those whom they oppose 2. Make the best interpretation of things you can 1 Cor. 13. 5. Love thinkes no evill It may be if you meet with a man in the streets if he stayes not to talk with you if he takes not speciall notice of you you presently think it is his pride his sleighting disregarding you this is the worst interpretation that can be Why is it not possible that it may be thorough multitude of businesse in his head that you know not of May it not be that his eyes and thoughts were another way he did not take notice of your passing by him is it not thus often with your selfe in respect of others Againe perhaps such a man you find not in his behaviour towards you when you are with him looking so smilingly upon you carrying himselfe in that familiar affable way as you expected you presently think and say Surely it is his pride and surlinesse whereas it may be it is because his head is fuller then yours which may afterwards be for your good if you would be but patient a while it may be it is from some trouble of his spirit at that time it may be it is from the temper of his body his constitution or some weaknesse in it at that time if such a faire interpretation may be made why should not an ingenuous candid spirit make it This very exception I find was taken against Basilius Magnus and Nazianzen in one of his Orations in which he highly commends Basil answers it and justifies him It is hard to keep unity love and peace with men who are of exceptious carping dispositions if God were strict to mark what we doe amisse what would become of us God is strict to mark what good there is in his Saints if there be any little good in the midst of much imperfection Gods way is to passe by the imperfection and take notice of the good but our way is often if there be a little bad though but through a very pardonable mistake in the midst of much good to passe by all the good and to seize upon the mistake to make it the seed of contention to brood over it and so beget the brats of contention from it Certainly this ought not thus to be The sixt joyning Practice So farre as Reason and Conscience will give way yeeld to those whom you contend withall THat standing at a distance with those that dissent from us even to the utmost is the way of many but certainly it is a false way God is not in it It may be some yea many will judge this yeelding to be a faire handsome turning about to the other side take heed of such bold censures Is every difference from that rigid stout spirit of thine a warping from the truth a sinfull temporizing for private ends The Lord judge between you and his servants Some men who have been of yeelding spirits in things that God would have them have stood out undauntedly when God hath called them to witnesse to his truth when those who have been stout and harsh in their owne wayes have basely betrayed it when they have beene tryed with greater sufferings Ambrose was a man of a sweet and moderate spirit witnesse amongst other things that notable saying of his If that end of vertues be the greatest that looks at publique good Moderation is of all the most beautifull Ay but I warrant you Ambrose was a man who saw which way the times went he was loth to hazard himself in standing out against men who had power in their hands this temper of his made him thus plead for moderation No Ambrose was a man of an invincible spirit in the wayes of God In all Ecclesiasticall Story we read not of a braver spirit then his contesting with men of power in the cause of Christ For when Theodosius the Emperour had been the cause of a great slaughter in Thessalonica though provoked to it by a sedition there the Emperour a while after comming to Milan where Ambroses charge was after the usuall manner he came to the Church Ambrose meets him and forbids him entrance reproving him before all the people Doe you not know oh Emperour sayes he the barbarousnesse of that vile fact of yours or doe you not remember we have another Emperour above you what bold impiety is thiâ— doe you not feare to bring those feet of yours polluted with the blood of innocents into this holy place or to stretch forth those hands of yours wet yea dropping with blood to take the most holy body of the Lord or to put that mouth of yours which forgetting not onely the clemency which belongs to an Emperour but the justice gave out the sentence for the killing so many innocent men
inconsiderati qui faciunt illos nimis spirituales hoc vitium passim regnat in Germania in his etiam regionibus nimium grassatur nunc sentimus quales fructus nascantur ex illa radice quod scilicet principes quicunque potiuntur imperio putant se ita spirituales esse ut nullum â—it amplius ecclesiasticum regimen hoc sacrilegium apud nos grassatur quia non possunt metiri officium suum certis legitimis finibus Calv. in Amos c. 7. ver 13. Consulo ut disciplinam quanto ocyuâ— fieri poterit in vestras ecclesias invchatis nam si ab initio non recipiatur cum homines fervent non facile cum aliquod frigus obrepscrit admittetur periculum aiunt imminere ne disciplinae colore ministri tyrannidem occupent excommunicent pro libidine non attendunt ii â—omines nil a ministrorum tyrannide posse timeri ubi evangelli regula servatur in excludendis à fratrum societate ecclesiae consensuâ— est adhiâ—endus cujus autoritaâ—e si agatur nemo de unius aut paucorum tyrannide â—ure poterit conqueri P. Mart. ep 21. Statuerim nihil fine conâ—ilio vestro â—ine consensu plebis agere Cyp. ep 6 Part 3. cap. 8. digres 4. l. 181. Dispute against English Popish Ceremonies Iniquam excercetis dominationem si ideo negatis licere quia vultis non quia debuit non licere Tertul. Apol. advers Gentes Answ Dispute against English Popish ceremonies p. 1. cap. 3. pag. 6 7. Answ The 4. Dividing practice Alioquin Christiani collecti ex Judaeis divulsi ab eorum Ecclesia antiquissima celeberrima essent schismatici Voet. Despera a causa papatus l. 3. sect 8. Two causes for which a man may seperate from a visible Church Answ Answ 1. Answ Object Answ Answ Mald. in Lam. 1 2. Answ Answ The 5. dividing practice Fortiter calumniare aliquid haerebit Existimet omnis publica calamitatis omnis popularis in commodi Christianos esse causam si Tyberis ascendit in maenia si Nilus non ascendit in arva si coelum â—â—etit si terra movet si fames si lues statim ad Leones acclamatur Tertul. Apol. advers Gentes cap. 39. Tam magnus apud amiâ—os ut fere deus factus tam vituperatus ab inimicis ut mirum fuit ne cum terra devoraret Quia more tradito nefas esset virgines strangulari vitiatae prius à carnifice de in strangulatae Suet. Tybeâ—â—us num 61. The 6. dividing practice Nullum criminis nomen nisi nominis crimen Tertul. Apo. Answ Schismatis peocatum speciale vitium est charitati oppositum Aquin. 2. 2 q. 29. Art 1. conclus Schismatici discissionibus iniquis a fraterna charitate dissiliunt Aug. lib de Fide Symbolo cap. 10. Answ Culpam schismatis non debere conferri in eos qui desertores deserunt sed in ipsos desertores qui Christum antiquam fidem deserum erant Voet. desper causa papatus lib. 3. sect 3. Answ Sicut in rebus naturalibus id quod est per accidens non constituit speciem ita in rebus moralibus id quod est intentum Quod sequitur praeter intentionem est quasi per accidens ideo peccatum schismatick proprie est speciale peccatum ex eo quod intendit se ab unitate separare quam charitas facit ideo proprie Schismatici dicuntur qui propria sponte intentione se ab unitate Ecclesiae separant Aquinas 2da 2dae Quest 39. Art 1. C. Vide Stanisâ—â—um Reschium in centur Evang sect Jer. 1. 1. Ethnici Philosophi hoc ambierunt ut discipulos quos habuerunt suo cognomine à reliquis distinguerent ut aliqui Platonici aliqui Pythagorici alii Epicurci vocarentur Christiani esse desierunt qui Christi nomine omisso humana externa vocabula induâ—runt Lactant. lib. 4. c 30. Attamen Socrates visus est modestior caeleris quod se non faceret authorem doctrinae quam docebat ut qui diceret se fimilem obstetricis quae parientibus opem ferret ita is existimavit suis interrogationibus juvenibus adesse ut scientias quas babu issent in animo in lucem exire faceret Abhorret à charitate imâ— Ã recta ratione ut quis propter consequentias rec intellectas nec à se coâ—â—esas putetur fundamentaleâ— articulum negasse aut regecisse quem sâ—â—mitâ— credit explicite 〈…〉 ejusdem vel sanguine suo obsignaâ—et verio◠〈…〉 est non quid ex quovâ—s sequata◠〈…〉 Daven fentintia de pace inâ—er 〈…〉 pag 6â— Haeâ— est ultio cum Reuben dicit ad Simeonem Da mihi accomodatam securim tuam respondet Non accommodabo in posterum Simeâ—n dicit Da accommodatam securim tuam respondet Reuben Nequaquam siquidem tu mihi non accomodasti 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil Hom. 10. De ira Plutâ—â—ch vitae Phâ—cion Rawleigh Hist l. 5. c. 4. sect 10. Eusâ—b l â— de 〈◊〉 Constantin Eusâ—b l. 2. de vâ—t Câ—nâ—t Cupio ex hic vitâ— migrarc propter duas causas ut fâ—uir desideratâ— conspectu Fâ—lii Dei colesâ—â—â— Ecclesiae 〈◊〉 ut liberâ—râ—â—ab imâ—â—a nibus implacabilibus odâ—is Theologorum Melchiâ—r Adam in vita Strigehi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Naz. orat 14. 〈…〉 Pliâ—y Nat. hist l. 9 â— 35. Bidulâ—h in his travell to Jerusalem p. 98. Plutarch in Reguâ— Iâ—pâ—rat apoth Stob. Serm 82. Peccatum poeâ—a peecati causa peccatj 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Greg. Naz. Orat. 14. Mallem me solis Romanistarum manibus perire ne Carolus in hanc causam involveretur scio quae miseria Sigismundum consequuta est c. Melchior Adam in vita Lutheri 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Orat. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Naz. Orat. 14. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Orat. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Orat. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Orat. 14. Bellum erat inter lupos canes cumque nunciatum esset lupis venire ingentem exercitum canum ad lacerandos lupos missus est speculator unus ex vetulis lupis renuntiat esse quidem multitudinem canum longè majorem quam luporum sed benê sperandum esse quia vâ—derit multas esse dissimilitudines colâ—rum in canibus hac voce confirmati lupi dissimiles facile pelli posse sperebant Melancthon Epist 108. T. Walsingham in eodem anno Plutarch in the life of Pelopidas Liv Hist l. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrystost in Act. c. 15. Nova atque inaâ—dita est ista praedicatio quae verberibus exigit fidem Gr. lib. 2. Ep 52. A verbo ad serrum ab atramento ad armamenta à pennis ad bipeâ—â—nes confugere Gerard. Nec religionis est cogere religionem