and much worse as far as worse can be amongst such an Heterogeneous Body as this Should we yield to any one of these we were yet as far from gaining the rest as we are now from uniting all Take those two which I called the Elder Parties of the Dissenters How impossible a thing is it for them to agree what will satisfie them They had a numerous Assembly gathered together of themselves mostly which sate many years Did they agree then upon any common terms of Union betwixt themselves Or are they agreed since Let any produce the Accommodation if they can and if not let it be confest that there is Schism amongst even these Again take either of the Parties single Let them shew us what Christian Church upon the face of the Earth owns them as they are broken off from the Establisht Church of England and as indeed they broke down its Order Form of Worship Discipline and whole Frame to their Power Let them shew us I say what Protestant Church owns them as such for a Church or as such holds Communion with them If one of the Parties should answer The Kirk of Scotland the Reply is obvious The Establisht Church of Scotland was the same in effect with that of England and fell by the same hands And as to what the Answerers mean by the Kirk 't was only a Member of the Pars rea a very guilty part of themselves or of the accused Body It is well known there is extant an Harmony of the Confessions of all the Reformed Churches throughout Europe to shew the World their Christian Agreement and Communion In that Collection are extant with universal Approbation two Confessions of the Church of England as by Law it then stood and blessed be God now stands establisht two I say because different in Form but of the same Substance and very near of the same date We can some of us remember the time when the forementioned Assembly compiled also a Confession of Faith and a good Latinist excellently translated it and in that form it was sent abroad with a desire and design to have it inserted in the then new Edition of the Harmony of Confessions But the Foreign Churches stood constant to the Two old ones and rejected the new Judge hence what Church of England they own and whether they hold Communion with that People as a Church whose Confession they would not admit They well saw the Admission of it had destroyed the Harmony that is as well rendred the Collection contradictious in it self as brought too just an imputation of Schism upon the Reformation Further in a word What security can there be from partaking in Schism and indeed as it may happen Heresie too in the Communion of that Church the Form and Order of whose Worship and Administration of Sacraments is not certainly known nay according to their very Constitution is no where twice the same all being left to the gifts and discretion of the Minister who is declared unfit for his Office if he need and consequently will use a constant Form What man can say with any other than an Implicite Faith and therefore what Church will ever declare that they hold Communion or agree in Worship with such a People Herein this Generation of men has departed even from all the Foreign Presbyterian Churches themselves who all have their certain Orders and Forms of Publick Worship It were tedious to pursue more Particulars give me leave to sum up what has bee said on this Head Can it be expected and much less demanded by men of reason that we should relinquish and renounce a Constitution which has made us famous amongst Forreign Reformed Churches and has past their Approbation from the beginning to unite with men who are at a greater distance from one another if you respect at least the several Sects than perhaps we are from them all the very soberest Party of all whom as they would be thought if we would go about to agree to we shall not find as far as I can see one Protestant Church would recommend them to our Fellowship by having first owned them as a Church or having held Communion with them nay we are not sure that we can in Conscience hold Communion with them that is joyn in and consent to their Worship one hour our selves Can this I say be expected or demanded from us It cannot surely Some Circumstantials may be on our hand abated or relaxed and had been doubtless long ago if Men of eager and inflexible Spirits had not hindred but the main Constitution we may not recede from What most of the Dissenters would be at No Liturgy no Episcopacy no Uniformity c. may not be cannot be without Schism Wherefore again to take up my Exhortation Let us resolve upon yielding spirits Let us move towards one another in order to meeting We of the Establisht Church do not say there is nothing amongst us which may be amended Again we do not say there is nothing among you which is to be approved My Exhortation to you here only is That as far as your Cause has any thing good in it you would not blast that good and the hopes of its taking by an Universal stiffness and while you insist on things which are questionable and in the judgment of most others but your selves not sit to be granted keep open the breach to our Common Destruction The only steps by which we can mutually move to Peace I with all submission conceive to be these 1. That we would all seriously betwixt God and our own Consciences severally study Self-denial one of the great Lessons our Lord taught us and that with a peculiar eye and regard to Accommodation One man perhaps must deny himself of a certain kind of Popularity and Vulgar esteem Another of an Idiosyncrasy or particular humour though perhaps that not so much natural as contracted A third of somewhat else All of whatsoever good Conscience tells us is less valuable than Common Union 2. That the soberest of the Dissenters would Categorically and sincerely publish what of the Establisht Order they can agree to 3. That they would actually do and teach their Followers to do what they in Conscience judge lawful If these Points might be obtained certainly in a very short time a Consultation of things would be resumed And then let those be blamed who would not hear and do Reason But if these and such Discourses as these may not be heard if we of the Church must only be Calumniated still as the great Enemies to a Publick Peace and no means will take for the sweetning and allaying the heights of those Spirits we have to deal with we can all of us only expect the fruit of Contention and that is Confusion and every Evil Work one James III. 1â— part of which will be as already intimated our Common Ruin And let it be considered beforehand when we shall have again ruin'd our selves by our
and as to Religion you are safe for you are sure of True Sacraments a saving Ministry the best sort of Worship and what not Ah my Brethren These however in themselves golden Pipes and sacred Conveyances of Grace to those who use them aright are yet in themselves and as the World goes Faciles Parabiles ritus a Godliness easie to be had and which may prove as destructive as easie to be come by when the outward injoyment hereof is the great matter of our Acquiescence But to examine this Cheat a little more narrowly as well for the more effectual delivery of men from it as the clearing the Point in hand That Divisions have brought men to place Godliness in matters most contrary to its nature Admit I place true Religion and so Godliness very much in being of this or that Church I say the Church I am of is either a True one or a False one one that holds to or one that has broken off from Catholick Unity If the later I am then in a Schism by being of it And then by placing Godliness in being of this Church what do I do but place it in Schism An hopeful sort of Godliness indeed And if the former if the Church in adhereing whereto I reckon my self Godly be a true one that is a sincere Member of the true Catholick Church I am never a whit the godlier by my mistake in over-valuing the Communion of the Church For 't is great odds as the stream of mens spirits runs but that my Zeal for such dearly beloved Church transport me into such admiration of it that either I shall confine Salvation to it and insist so far on the necessity of Communion with it as to forget Catholick Charity by which means again I am fallen into Schism though of a different sort from that before mentioned and still placing Godliness in being of this Church thus strictly I place Godliness in Schism Or else rest in the meer injoyment of those advantages and preeminencies I apprehend by it running a round of external Duties and Observances but little or not at all concerning my self as to a real changed heart and renewed spirit and then the Godliness with which I please my self lies only in some Formalities and Church Priviledges which come naturally under what the Apostle styles a Form of Godliness and which he says a man may have and deny its Power that is be void of Holiness without which no man can see the Lord. And is not this as pernicious a mistake Alas alas my Brethren 'T is not the Communion of Saints can save men though it be both our Duty and Interest to maintain it A man may be damned in the purest Church on Earth for a Carnal worldly heart or a disorderly unholy life however our Divisions may delude us into contrary Fansies This kind of men we have spoken of are commonly Zealots of one side or t'other But there are another sort which are Lukewarm indifferent generally to all Religions and Churches in particular Some Religion perhaps they think 't is fit there should be for the better managing the people and if in their judgment they do proceed to any Specialties possibly they will tell you 't is expedient there should be several Religions that every man may find one the profession whereof will suit his Humour A policy not unlike unto which the Church of Rome has now a long time used in inventing and maintaining so many Religious Orders Now as they before-mentioned placeâ— Religion and so Godliness or our Duty to God in being of what they apprehend to be Gods true Church so these Secondly place it in seeming to be of such or such a Church or Party for in reality and as far as Religion â—s Religion they neither believe nor own any such thing nor consequently any Church at all The other perhaps addicted themselves to Factions and Parties out of Conscience though haply erroneous and in the sincerity of their hearts these out of humour or interest seem to do so for the present and when either humour or interest vary then farewel such espoused Party or Religion And now let us put the Question in plain English and as plainly answer it What do these men place Godliness in Verily in an Atheistical humoursome Hypocrisy And is it not true that our Divisions foster and confirm these Wretches Atheistical vein They seem to themselves rationally defensible in disbelieving all Religion and our several Churches Testimonies thereof because the Witnesses are not agreed amongst themselves In a word and to conclude this particular of misplacing Godliness or deceiving our selves as to its whole nature It is sure Godliness primarily consists in a serious Belief of the Being and Nature of God and in an intire Resignation to him whence most naturally and sweetly slow all its inward and outward acts But we have above made it evident Divisions have brought Christendom to that pass that some men place Godliness in such Practices which resolve into Schism others in Formalities and Providential Advantages others in Atheistical and Humour some Hypocrisie and not a few are there of each of these sorts Now what can be more contrary to real Godliness than all these By what we have said therefore of the misplacing of Godliness it appears Divisions so vitiate the spirits of private men as to destroy real Godliness that is the first part of Holiness in them 2. Though the Dammage Godliness must sustain in misplacing wholly its nature is the greatest we can imagine yet certainly it suffers not a little by the mixture of Heterogeneous additions and on the other hand by detraction of some of its Integral Parts or Offices And is it not evident that since the Christian Church has been thus rent in pieces by Divisions each Party as if in their own defence and in justification of their proceedings has made it their business to stand by themselves and pursuant hereto most have been running further and further from one another into the strangest Extreams Which distance must be confest most chiefly visible in Articles of Faith and Offices of Divine Worship Both these on some hands have been wisely multiplyed on others as prodigiously and not without the most dreadful Sacriledge diminished and retrenched From the multiplication of Articles of Faith amongst the Papists Believing with the Multitude is become only a blind Obedience and Resolution of submission to the Church From the like multiplication of Divine Ordinances the Publick Worship with them is mostly Pageantry and Ceremony and Private Devotion little else but some Lip-labour Bodily Exercise or small Money-matter Amongst those who call themselves Protestants there are a People who have run into contrary heights and after denying some Articles of Faith and laying aside others as useless have rejected all positive worship of God all Prayers Sacraments yea even the Ministry of the Word as belonging only to a lower State and Oeconomy than that they are in I
that they will consider what they say If we had no Conscience which they would be very uncharitable should they conclude of us if it were all one to us in point of Faith what Religion were establisht or went up yet except they will also think us mand and that we have renounced our worldly Interests together with our Consciences they cannot think we are any Friends to Popery or would make any Advances towards it Can they perswade themselves we are so sottish or our Memories so short as that we have forgotten the Marian days Do not we know that if ever Popery get up again we of the Ministry and especially those of us who are in the highest Order must first go to Stake As to the People they may scape These Sheep what have they done But their hands will surely be upon the Shepherds Or if we should by flight or any other base way save our lives which as the world goes we could scarce expect if we should as Job expresses it Job XIX 20. come off with the skin of our Teeth yet is that such a mercy or boon which any can judge men in our present conditions fond of Are our Families or Liberties our Honours our Preferments nothing to us Sometimes these men think and say we love the World well enough Is there any Vicar Parson or Bishop in the Kingdom that sees not or knows not of the Priest of his Parish or the Titular of his See in present being Do we not daily behold them walk the Streets or know their Confinements Are we ignorant of their Claims or that they look upon us only as Vsurpers and themselves the true Proprietours and that they now have a long time looked for the blessed hour You cry out of us I say sometimes that we are worldly carnal men that we only mind the Fleece not the Flock If we do even that we cannot be Popishly affected There is nothing so destructive of our worldly interest as Popery That has already left no Benesices or Livings vacant for us and if it prevails will soon not leave us Air to breath For shame then interpret some mens Actions otherwise than you do and if in all humane probability they act against their own Secular interest in the things which they cannot but see and do see as well as you impute not those actions to Popish affection but good Conscience They dare not do evil that good may come or be unjust for their own preservation Thus as to one Party Now I will not deny but some of our men are quit with these false Accusers and pay them home in their own Coyn. God forgive both Hence so many bitter Invectives instead of Sermons so much raking into old forgiven and it were to be wisht forgotten Crimes charging the Villanies of the Absaloms upon every Individual of those who went in the simplicity of their heart and knew not any thing Hence in common Discourse so many upbraidings of men with those which were the sins of their ignorance youth and education rather than of the men such care to stigmatize some persons with the miscarriages which they have long ago repented of and if occasion should serve would expiate with their lives such aggravating some Peoples innocent expressions and drawing those Conclusions from them which the poor men abhor but never intended with a world of like practices familiar amongst all Partisans Certainly my Brethren these things are very iniquitous If my brother has repented of a sin God has taken it away from him and the meaning he never had was never his I may not therefore impute either such sin or such meaning to him or upbraid him therewith We would think they gave us more than our due who should deal thus with us Let us therefore our selves unlearn such vile and pitiful Arts. I confess 't is much another case where men retain their sins still and will not without such remembrances be brought to acknowledgment or sense of them But even herein also care is to be had and much prudence used for we may bâ— injurious to our Cause by too much exposing our Adversary An uninteressed stander by will call such discourses Recriminations not Defences and will say the Case needs them because the Advocate uses them And as to the Persons or Parties concerned this kind of treatment can only tend to mutual exasperation upon which no good because no divine blessing can be expected If therefore we will be just to our selves or our own beloved Cause let us on both sides forbear immoderate Charges as being infallibly derogatory to whatsoever there is of true Justice either in our Cause or Defences thereof 2. Men may spoil a good Cause by too much Stiffness and Tenaciousness of their own Sense and by this means keeping open such Breaches which might happily be closed There is such a thing in Solomon's â—udgment as Being righteous overmuch and making our selves over-wise Eccles VII 16. by which he suggests there men may destroy themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 become desolate even to the admiration and amazement of the Beholders or else stand single and by themselves as the Marks of Common fury If contending Parties may be ever guilty of this Evil it is certainly in such cases wherein the Differences betwixt them being but small neither will recede the least from their own Sentiments or which is with such the same for their own apprehensions are too often herein made the measures from their own Right as if nothing could be more Righteous than each of their Causes nothing more infallible than each of their Judgments And if ever men may expect such punishment of issue it is when such Differences are perpetuated upon such mutual heights Wherefore A sectâ infallibili libera Ecclesiam tuam Domine I confess there are some who publish such Principles and Positions of late as infer Vnity in the Church not to be necessary These make the breach irreconcileable and therefore are not to be heard There 's an Argument now for Vnity amongst us in this Kingdom I speak to those who call themselves Protestants which must be heard and is uncontrolable We must unite or be destroy'd At all times Christian duty obliges us thereto now Necessity and Self-preservation Two or more parties may ballance One when any single Other cannot I speak plain enough Now if we must Unite the only question will be Upon what terms Must we of the establisht Church come over to you who Dissent or You come over unto us We declare we cannot without Schism but are ready to sacrifice all we can otherwise to the Publick Peace and Safety And this Pretence is real You who dissent are very far from being all of a piece Besides those Elder and less Anomalous Factions of Presbyterians and Independents there are Antinomians Millenaries Anabaptists Quakers and Sects which know not what they are nor we what to call All the world must allow there are Schisms
own hands how poor a mitigation of mutual misery it will be to excuse our selves with our Ignorance and Good meaning Of which when God comes to judge the former perhaps will be found Stubborness Heedlesness or Pride and the later not what its name imports but somewhat which we mistook for it called in true and proper speaking Self-flattery or too good a conceipt of our own Deceitful hearts and ways To prevent then this misery if it be the will of God Let us all Search and Try our Ways and Hearts and be content to see our selves genuinly what we are and to judge of our ways according to Truth and Soberness And because our own Scrutinies may be partial Let that Appeal and Prayer of Davids dwell in all our hearts and lips Psalm CXXXIX 23 24. Search me O God and know my heart Try me and know my thoughts And see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting Let us inculcate such Petitions as these and beat them into our hearts at the Throne of Grace till being brought under the Power of them we become content to be led into the ways of Charity Peace and Righteousness yea though they should be found far different from those which we have traverst before with the greatest Affection and Delight The good God pour into all our hearts such Christian Sincerity and Honest Temper the true Fruit of the Holy Spirit through his Son Jesus Christ To whom c. THE CRY OF HOLINESS FOR PEACE A SERMON on Sunday in time of the Assises there By the same Author LONDON Printed in the Year 1682. The Text. HEBR. XII 14. Follow Peace with all Men and Holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. IT were easie from so pregnant a Passage of Holy Scripture as this read to suggest great variety of particular Subjects each of which would administer matter for much a larger Discourse than I may be allowed at present The Holy Spirit in laying out our Christian Duties considers us either as single persons and so the sum of all that concerns us is Holiness Or else as Members of some Society more or less Publick and so our main Duty is Peace Of both these the most zealous Endeavours and Practice we see strictly injoyned in the Text. Follow Peace that is Pursue it with all urgency yea though it fly from you And this in the greatest extent With all men Then as to Holiness this is not only injoyned with equal Emphasis but the pursuit thereof inforced with the most moving Consideration without which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immediately relates to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is without Holiness no man shall see the Lord. That at present incomprehensible fruition of the Supream and Infinite Good which shall at once transport and satisfie all the powers of the Humane Soul shall be vouchsaf'd to none but the Holy man I will not hold you in suspense but immediately fix on these two as considered injoyn'd in conjunction And whereas such joint injunction of them may be conceived to have different respects I shall not at present consider much their Connexion as the Later may be thought the Condition or Qualification of our pursuit of the former thus Follow Peace with all men and Holiness that is so far seek and maintain peace with all as Holiness will permit a sense not to be neglected But as the Former is a means to or a Causa sine qua non of the Later thus Follow peace and holiness that is Follow Peace as it is a means unto Holiness and without which Holiness will be very imperfectly if at all attained A little more distinctly yet Peace according to the different Society to which it relates may be either Civil or Ecclesiastical The study and pursuit of both is undoubtedly our duty designedly comprehended in the Text and conducive to Holiness and the injoyment of both to be reckoned as one of the greatest Blessings The one of them Peace in the State blessed be God and the Conduct of our gracious Soveraign we have had much of and still have notwithstanding all our Fears and Murmurings which God cure and forgive The other Peace in the Church we neither have had now a long time no not since our Soveraigns blessed Restauration nor have at present so much of as we might were we not on all sides much wanting to our selves And this is that which I design now to press and to press under this consideration as it connects with Holiness in the present injunction of both as it tends unto Holiness and as certainly we should have much more of Holiness than is now publickly to be seen amongst us had we more of Peace and Holiness in the Church My Brethren there are many amongst us pretend a great deal of Zeal for Holiness nothing is more frequent in their mouths and I wish there lay nothing closer to all our hearts than Reformation and the need of it I censure none but only shall at present endeavour to demonstrate that the most likely and proper way to a Publick Reformation is Ecclesiastical Peace and Union and that those who with all their might pursue not this are so far forth as they are negligent of it or averse to it real Enemies to Reformation and true Holiness whatever their pretences otherwise may be By Peace in general we mean such a Conjunction of mens Minds and Manners that one man is not in any thing designedly troublesome to another but rather favours every others advantages And this being applyed particularly to Causes and Matters Ecclesiastical will amount to no less than such an Union of Judgment and Affections as engages Christian people to maintain Fellowship and Communion in all Offices of Divine Worship and Matters pertaining to the Glory of God In whatever Church this is wanting in that proportionably is wanting Peace By Holiness we understand an Habitual Separation or being separate from all Vice and Vitious Practices and a like Devotedness of Heart and Life to God according to the Rule of the Gospel Now I say the first much conduces to the second Publick Peace in the Church to real Holiness and whatever practices are at present contrary to Peace amongst us are proportionably destructive of Holiness The main Evidence I shall give shall be to set forth the pernicious Effects of Faction and let none suspect I will in the least be bitter or invective herein I promise to speak the words of meekness and soberness as well as of truth I shall then present to your consideration the Effects of Faction or Church-division First upon the State Secondly upon the Church And Thirdly upon the spirits of Private men And if all these are found most fatal to Holiness I shall hope it will be concluded there is no following Holiness without Pursuing Peace 1. I begin with the sad effects of Church-division upon the States and Kingdoms within which such divided Churches lye
this evil Lastly I must not conceal a third Mischief which our Divisions bring on the Church and that is a sad number of insufficient Pretenders and Intruders to the Ministry Amongst too many of the Factious whoever can but boldly pretend to Gifts and we know what pittiful reproaches of the Spirit of God some men are used to call so falls on exercising and if after some practice he gain a few ignorant Admirers these shall be his Followers otherwise perhaps styled his Converts and he may set up especially if such his Adherents choose him for their Pastour he may set up I say by the very Principles of divers of them without any other Ordination for a Minister of the Gospel This is up and down the Country a great Evil. But I am very far from saying all the Ministers amongst the Dissenters are such There are divers of them of Learning and good Conscience and possibly some of Legitimate Ordination However even these in the Point in hand we fear will find themselves to have acted prejudicially to the Interest of Holiness not only by conniving at and joyning with such insufficient Intruders into this Holy Office but also in not doing what they profess they can and what would have sufficed them and by this means in leaving their places to be filled sometimes with men much less serviceable to the Interest of Holiness than themselves who unhappily occasion many weak peoples following such Intruders and whose Admission as the Laws and Constitution of things stand the Governours of the Church cannot now hinder God be blessed there are few that I know or no Instances of this case hereabouts but too many elsewhere in our Israel Whose is the fault God will judge To conclude this Point Corruptions in Religion whether in Doctrine or Manners can never prevail much without corruption of the Holy Order Jerohoam could not effect the Alienation of the people from the Temple and true Worship of God meerly by his setting up his Golden Calves at Bethel till he had made of the Vilest sort of people Priests which were not of the sons of Levi persons no wise qualified for their Office of Priesthood by Education or Exercise 1 Kings XII 31. XIII 33. Let those who have been guilty of doing occasioning or contributing to the like evil look to it and lay it home to their hearts and Consciences The generality of such insufficients is a consequent of our Divisions and hereby Holiness has suffered and will suffer till such practice can be remedied which will never be effected till Union and Regularity may take place and operate Thus as to the Effects of Divisions upon the Church destructive to Holiness 3. The third Head proposed now only remains viz. the Consideration of the Effects of Faction prejudicial to Holiness on the spirits of private Christians and these I say it strangely vitiates I have already stated what I conceive genuinly meant by Holiness and according to the Account given in it signifies in a word an Habitual Complexion of all Christian Graces and Virtues Now let us look through the whole three Families or Tribes of Christian Duties towards God Men and Our selves and see how miserably peoples practice is corrupted under each Head by our Divisions I. I begin with Godliness but must admonish here as before none may expect I should touch on all particulars Time would fail Some enumeration of Points more obnoxious may suffice 1. The greatest corruption or adulteration of Religion and Godliness in the world is the misplacing it I mean mens taking up and holding to somewhat in stead of it which perhaps in their and some others judgment has some appearance and likeness of it or remote pretence to it but is very far from being it And if men shall not only do this themselves but teach others so to do and vent this false Godliness they are more dreadfully guilty of corrupting Religion and destroying Holiness according as he who should disperse as much false Money as he could were more a Criminal in adulterating the Kings Coin and abusing the Nation than he who fondly should please himself with the lustre of some few base pieces in his own private Cabinet Now I complain that the Divisions of the Church have brought men to place Godliness in points most distant from its nature nay some most contrary to it and not only to practice so themselves but to teach accordingly I shall assign only for the present a double instance First Some men mainly place Godliness in being of such or such a Church that is in other terms in being of this or that Sect or Party And the persons guilty herein are not meerly some weaker and ordinary people which yet some account the greatest part of Mankind but divers of a far different Grain at least as their Discourse and Conversation in other things bespeaks them How plausibly amongst men of tolerable judgment does the following Plea proceed Out of the True Church there is no Salvation And the True Church can be but one For there is One Body as one Spirit Ephes IV. 4. And we Believe One Catholick and Apostolick Church saith the Nicene Creed It therefore concerns a man in the first place in the Choice and Entrance upon his Religion to look hereto that he joyn himself to the true Church How few see the Snare which is here laid or are wary enough to extricate their perplexed minds by distinguishing that though the Catholick Church be but One yet Particular Churches may be and must be Many and of those many God forbid but we should think several to be true ones that is true Members of the one Catholick Church And 't is most likely she 's the worst which ingrosses to her self alone at least would ingross the Title of The True and Catholick In the mean while what a stir has this Question made in Divided Christendom Which is the true Church What are the Signs and Characters of it How many private Conferences publick Sermons voluminous Treatises taken up on this Subject And when men have from these Signs or Characters agreeing to such or such a Church in some tolerable measure satisfied themselves to their own apprehension and concluded such or such A True Church to which therefore they forthwith addict themselves is not this generally the next conclusion that the same is The True Church and presently this the final Result that Themselves and all in the Ark are safe by being in it Who sees not that this wile destructive flattery and delusion derives its Original from our Divisions Every divided Party look upon themselves as the Godlier and consequently quo id hoc the Holier by how much the purer Worship they conceive their Church to have and that they take for certain The truer the Church the Purer its Worship its Sacraments its Communion and in fine the surer its Members So that with the Multitude this passeth current Get into the true Church
as to Obdurateness pag. 235. Neither the Wars nor lasting Plagues nor dreadful Flames which followed move you says he to see so great and grievous sins No nor the instances of the Obduration of Pharaoh and the Pharisees with the Consequents make you afraid lest wrath should come upon you to the uttermost 7. It would be indeed endless to set down those several Passages he has which in humane appearance could have no other design than to expose our Church and Clergy To this purpose the corrupt Manners not unjustly taxed in the Romish Clergy both by Ancient and more Modern Censors of them are carefully summed up and a charitable suggestion made that our Lives are the Commentary with which they are to be read pag. 172 173 174 175. And because many Readers haply understand not Latin the same or worse Characters of us are scattered and insinuated up and down throughout the Book in English Pag. 50. According to this rule which we dissent from all the World should be suffered to be hanged and damned for ever rather than a Conformist should lose a game at Chess or a cup of Sack or abate a Ceremony And again at the bottom of the same Page Were I of this opinion I should not stick to make merchandise of Souls and to sell an hundred for a Benefice and twenty thousand for a Bishoprick nor to give over preaching c. Then as to our Labours and what we do in discharge of our Ministry hear how vile all that is as well as our Lives and Hearts Pag. 203. If these Preachers speaking of the Nonconformists would have talked a little half-sense as they do often and print it too and have read a cold Oration and lived like those that have little sense of God and Heaven and would save men by a charm of words and shews without serious Godliness and Christianity they might have had Maintenance and as much Honour as such men as these can put upon them But judicious serious hearty godliness is intolerable to all the fleshly Tribe whose Mind neither is nor can be subject to the Law of God to which their interest and disposition hath an Enmity I again will return nothing hereto but only ask whether these things tend to Peace Nay do they not evidently infer That no Peace ought to be with us For if Holiness be the Condition and Measure of Peace with such men as he makes us what Peace can genuine Christians enter or maintain Or finally is this agreeable to his own Principles expressed pag. 8 That we ought not to vilifie our Brethren and represent them as Odious and Intolerable and overlook that of Christ which is amiable in them 8. But as to some of our particular Persons we would have borne more silently such Calumnies though there are enough of us that could never play a Game at Chess in our lives the doing of which in season notwithstanding we take not to be a sin nor ever made merchandise of Souls nor have left off preaching c. we would have borne this I say without complaint were he not pleased to deal as unkindly to say no worse with the very Constitution it self It is small perhaps that he says our Articles to which we require subscription are not intelligible or have contrary meanings to fit the use of every Subscriber pag. 122. of which imputation perhaps I may speak anon Yet that is not so easily to be passed by that in order to the fixing Looseness upon our Principles and Cause to use his terms i. e. in plain English on our Laws and Church he accuses the Laws and Practice of the Church of loosness in seven Particulars and of those seven Proposiâ—ions he brings five are notoriously false whether he knew it or no I will not say viz. 1 3 4 5 7 The Second is impertinent for it pronouncing only touching baptizing Infants dying before actual sin can be no incouragement to loosness of life and the damning of Children for the Vices of their immediate Parents is a Doctrine which I believe Mr. Baxter would be loath to be put upon to make good and the Sixth is an uncertain Inference of his own from the words of the Liturgy taken in nequiorem sensum Too tedious would it be to speak severally to each In short to them all I say No person by the present Law of the Church is to be Confirmed till he understand in some good measure as well as be able to repeat the words of the Catechism being presented and therefore approved as such by the Minister This is plain enough from the Rubricks and from the Preface to the Office of Confirmation Next No person is to Communicate till Confirm'd or in case of necessity be desirous of Confirmation which desire thereof in probability imports an Understanding and some sense of Religion at least herein the Minister is Judge and the Admission of such will be the fault of the Minister not of the Law Ignorance therefore is provided against especially if gross by the Order of Confirmation And as to Scandal the Rubrick is severe enough The Minister alone is not only to suspend the scandalous person from the Communion but to signifie it within fourteen days to the Ordinary that such scandalous Members of the Church may be proceeded against according to her Laws Further the Minister is to admit no Child to Baptism without God fathers and Godmothers nor any to undertake that trust but such who have received the Communion Now what Communicants that is it is to be hoped what understanding conscientious serious persons will become Sureties and Sponsors for the Christian breeding up of the Children of Atheists Infidels and Scorners of Religion Christ and the Holy Scripture except they be well assured the Children shall be under their power as to the direction of their Education that is to say retrived out of the hands of such wicked Parents to be bred in a Christian sort And if any such persons will become Godfathers and Godmothers to such Children and will so promise why such Child may not be baptized and that without any detriment to serious Religion I must profess I see no reason To insist on the Faith of the Parents may I confess do some Parents good though he who will not be vertuous for the sake of his own Soul will scarce become such for his Childs but the want of Parents Faith ought not with the Church to prejudice in this case the Children of such Parents But a more manifest prevarication scarce can be than what he delivers as to the Visitation of the sick Pag. 167. When they are sick says he if they will but say they repent and desire it they must be absolved in absolute terms though they give the Minister no satisfaction that they are truly Penitent and have lived till then a most ungodly life and perhaps by cursing swearing and railing at an holy Life on their Sick-bed It is plain by the
do not say but these mens Opinions fairly enough derive from some old Romish Fanaticism however the men themselves at present pretend the greatest contrariety to Rome Far be it from me totally to excuse all middle and interjacent Parties but certainly by all these Divisions in Faith and Worship Holiness suffers much amongst us in things appertaining to God II. So does it in things appertaining to Men. Though all the Individuals of each Party were Righteous and ought no Debt of strict Justice to one another so that this part of our Duty to men were no whit at all infringed by our Divisions the contrary to which is yet most notoriously apparent notwithstanding there is one Debt which in St. Chrysostom's language we must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 always be paying yet always owing namely Charity and Loving one another This Debt alone of all others says he knows no end But how much this part of Holiness suffers by our Factions is unconceivable as well as inexpressible How few of any Party maintain so much as Charitable hopes of one another much less such Judgment as they would have exercised towards themselves And hence in every common affair of Life what abominable Male-construction of one anothers Actions yea even of Intentions and Thoughts As if men rather than not be Uncharitable to one another were resolved violently to invade the Prerogative of the Almighty and to become Judges of Hearts Nay happy were it with Humane Concerns if the Uncharitableness of Factions stuck here What Detraction Contempt Scorn and Reproaches do the Parties mutually proceed to What Ill-will Envy and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rejoycing in one anothers Miseries as well as Sins and Miscarriages every where abounds Yet further What contrivances of Mischiefs upon one another What unmerciful Intrigues Plots and Labours to expose one another No ill Offices I had almost said no Diabolical Arts of Trapanning Circumventing false Accusing spared Good God! what more contrary to Holiness It too plainly appears hence our Divisions have trampled upon Justice as well as Charity But there is one particular sort of Injustice the genuin though cursed Off-spring of Church-Faction which I must not silently pass over and that especially is against Governours though herein the Righteous Judge undoubtedly will also one day Pronounce They have not rejected thee but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them How little do the Commands of Authority signifie with many men Is it not too generally with some grown a Maxim That which was in it self indifferent and lawful to be done before it was Commanded by Law being Commanded may not be submitted to such Command being an Invasion of the Liberty Christ has left us A Principle destructive to all Peace and Government even to the very Root of both and indeed highly Vnchristian as being truly but an old strain of stubborn Judaism which proved too fatal both to that peoples souls and state To admit no Christ but what should set them above Caesar But I must not expatiate on this lest I seem to some to forget a promise I made in the beginning III. It remains now only to set forth the Effects of Division upon Holiness as that comprehends the Duties to a mans self And of this nature as well on one side as the other are the High conceits of our selves of our own Judgments Gifts Graces and general Attainments The strange Confidence we entertain of that singular favour God has for us and our Party whence commonly proceed marvellous Capriccio's Self-flatteries boasting of and setting up our selves at least resentments that it is fit others should set us as the Patterns and Measures of Holiness or Reformation This has ever been the temper of Parties since there were Parties and since Sects entred into the Church When the old Jewish Church was in a manner only Bipartite or divided but into two great Sects of Pharisees and Sadduces how did the one value themselves above the other The Prophetical Character of them answered exactly Isai LXV 5. In their hearts at least they said to those who were not of themselves Stand by thy self come not near to me for I am holyer than thou And however this is ordinarily charged as the fault of one sort of men amongst us I fear there is no Party at all but has too many Members of such arrogant vein I do not say the Evils taxed under this Head are only sins against a Man's self They are also certainly contrary to Charity whose Property it is not to vaunt it self not to be puffed up not to behave it self unseemly 1 Cor. XIII 4 5. and so against our Neighbour They are contrary to Humility and that holy awe and reverence we owe to God and so also sins against him But still Practices thus complicately sinful must needs be the more opposite to Holiness and proportionably such must needs be whatsoever introduces them into the Christian World and particularly Church Divisions In sâ—m then to conclude our proof It is apparent let us pretend what we will for Holiness and Reformation yet if we either privately foment and lengthen out the Divisions of the Church or labour not all in us lies to compose and reconcile them we keep alive those Coals whence we can expect no other than the dismal flames of a Civil War a state of things which above all others depraves National manners insomuch that the usual Tenour of Sobriety is not commonly recovered in an Age or two after We ruin the Discipline of the Church the great Curb and Cure of Vice amongst Christian men provided by Christ We for the main pervert or divert the ordinary means of Sanctification the Ministry of the Word We set open a door for blind Leaders of the blind We besides otherwise contribute much to the vitiating the private spirits of men by introducing by our selves or others unnatural kinds offices and instances of Godliness by the like retrenching genuine Godliness by perpetuating nâ—cessarily uncharitableness unmercifulness injustice and especially Disobedience to Government and finally by cherishing the Seeds of Spiritual Pride Ostentation Presumption and whatever is contrary to that Meekness Sweetness and Comliness of Mind which constitutes the Christian temper By all which means and possibly many other unseen ones we in real truth subvert and destroy what we profess most Zealous Endeavours for namely Holiness and a through Reformation Give me leave now in a word to resume the Text and pursue it as an Exhortation in the sense and with the Design I have propounded Follow Peace with all men and Holiness Let us study and promote the Union of the Church the accord and agreement of all serious Christians as the most effectual mean of a compleat Reformation Were the good men of the several Perswasions or the Generality of them of one piece of one Communion Profaneness Vice and Looseness would not find amongst us where to take Refuge Men would be compell'd to amend in
their own defence and for meer shelter in the Church the reproach of an Outlier would be so intolerable I must profess with all sincerity I cannot in my poor insight into the state of our Dissentions conceive of any possibility of an Union of all honest minded men of the different Perswasions amongst us that call themselves Protestants but by the coming in of such several Dissenters into the Establisht Church The Approaches perhaps must be Gradual and the Methods of effecting them I will confess beyond my Comprehension Only I will adventure to say I am apt to think the sweeter the better Yet though I dare not pretend to shew how all may be done I see no reason to apprehend the thing as some do not seasible Are we not on all hands sensible that the things which keep us asunder are far from being of so great moment as are the Reformation of the scandalous Multitude and the Edification of the Pious Why then may we not hope but by such mutual advances one towards another which the aforesaid sense of things is apt to beget we may in some time meet And why should we hope it and not honestly with all our might and skill endeavour it We see the abominable Vanity and Self-flattery in pretending to a Zeal for Holiness when we are Lukewarm to Peace and adherents to Faction Let us be ready to sacrifice somewhat to peace if it be only to approve our selves not to be Hypocrites in our Pretences to Holiness or Saintship I speak this to men of all Parties and particularly to all considerable of our own Church I take it to be a greater fault in Conformists to be stiff and averse to Union than in any other sort inasmuch as the Principles we profess are more truly Catholick and Charitable than those of any others I know Let all therefore be prevailed with to unite their Endeavours and whatsoever they have of interest to promote so great a blessing Have we any power over our own spirits any influence upon others any interest at the Throne of Grace let all be imployed 1. Let us never cease by Consideration and Prayers night and day enforcing upon our selves all the Obligations to and Counsels of Peace and Union which we can contrive or collect let us not cease I say to enforce them till we feel our hearts really brought under the power of them and are able to approve our Consciences to God that he who knows all in us knows we are from the bottom of our hearts studious of Peace and will do all we can in our places to compass it Especially that we will in all meet things deny our selves and recede from whatever on our parts may be spared which really hinders it Certainly my Brethren Peace could not be far off could all particular men especially those of note and power on all sides go before God and appeal to him as the Searcher of all hearts that they are sincerely resolved to the utmost of their might to pursue Union and bring their own and their Brethrens spirits together We may many of us pretend to this but it is to be feared such pretence is but a Copy of our Countenance It has been ingenuously confest even by some Consciencious men who dissent that if our Hearts were not further from Peace than our Principles or our Pens it would soon be effected Let us put it home to our selves Why should it be so Nay how can it be so without abominable Hypocrisie Either we must bring our hearts to the temper perswaded or farewel our Saintship We are but vile Pretenders to what we are not and in truth Self-deceivers and false to God and the World 2. Let us imploy all the Interest we hold in others whether in any Grandees and powerful Patrons that we have or in Familiars and Friends Followers and Disciples with any and all with whom we can hope our entreaties power or any kind of importunity can prevail let us be dealing effectually that they would in their places joyn their Endeavours and work together to the sweetning and uniting the minds of good men Let us not rest till we have made them what we are supposed to have made our selves resolute cordial and zealous in this blessed Design But more especially if any of us impartially reflecting before God upon our past Life and Actions find we have influenced any towards the present Dissentions Let us remember their Schism is ours their Uncharitableness ours all they do to defend or disperse their dividing Principles is still an Accumulation of our Guilt Let therefore no poor shamefacedness or base tenderness of our own Repute and Esteem with-hold us one day from acknowledging our Errour and from recalling and regaining such into the Unity of the Church whom unhappily though possibly with a good meaning we drew from thence And let us do this instantly by the first opportunity we can lay hold on to day while it is called to day God knows how little time there may be left us for such work And it would be we will easily believe as fruitless an attempt as dreadful inhancement of our Woe should we come one day to be at Our Father Abraham send Lazarus unto my Brethren that they come not into this place of Torment the reward as well as original of Schism and Contention Lastly That no stone may be left unturn'd in so heavenly an Engagement let us all try our Interests with the God of Peace and ply his Mercy-seat with our Supplications and Tears night and day that he would pity his Church here rending and tearing out her own Vitals with her own hands Let us pray that if there be in our hearts any latent and to us unseen Seeds of Discord God would open our eyes and enable us to winnow them out of our selves and the World that he will on all hands remove Errour obstinacy and self-will and that he will pardon them too to the end our past guilt may not blast the acceptance and success of our Repentance Let us at least thus far obey the Injunction in the Text of Following Peace as with pure and fervent hearts to Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem if we have no other means of effecting it This is an Endeavour out of none of our Orb or Power And would the Protestant World at home I mean take up this spirit and conspire in this practice God would certainly soon accomplish what man looks upon as impossible The Union of Protestants For with him nothing is impossible Now the God who maketh men to be of one mind in an house send down the Spirit of Peace and Union into his Church which is the House of him the Living and True God To whom c. The End Postscript HAving iust now read over these Two Sermons which I have transcribed since I preached I am not a little thereby confirmed in the belief of an Observation I have long ago made or taken up