and unskilful Mountebanks have long tryed in vain CHAP. III. More of the same subject Twenty things necessary in all that will deliver the Church from Schism Sect. I. BEcause this dividing Spirit goeth not easily out I shall repeat and summe up the common Duties of all men that will herein successefully serve the Church for it is not every man that is fit for so excellent a work though every man be bound to it in his place The sad Experience of the World assureth us that hitherto few skilful and effectual Physicians have been found Sect. II. In short all men that will promote the Churches concord whether Magistrates Pastors or People must observe all these following things as the necessary means which if they be wanting yea but one of them the Churches will be so far disquieted and diseased 1. The foresaid simple Terms of Union must be understood and received and false and ensnaring terms must be avoided 2. Magistrates must preferre Christs interest before their own and see that their own lyeth in preferring his and must value conscionable upright men though dissenters in tolerable cases and not encourage their unconscionable enemies And must keep peace among the Clergy and among all 3. Men must be taught to place their Religion in worshipping God in Spirit and Truth and to study the power and practice of Godliness Sobriety Justice and Charity more than Opinions self-exalting or Will-worship and to love their Neighbours as themselves and do as they would be done by 4. Men must learn of Christ to see the amiableness of Sincerity and Holiness under many differences and weaknesses and so love what is amiable and bear with what is tolerable and pardon what is pardonable in all and to receive the weak even in the Faith but not to doubtfull Disputations and to speak more of the Good that is in upright men than of the Evil yea never speak evil of any man till they be certain of the truth nor then till they be well satisfied that it is like to do more good than harm 5. Men must labour to know themselves and be acquianted with their own fallibility and defectibility mutability and insufficiency and to remember how much they have to be pardoned and tolerated and so to cast the first stone at themselves to fly from Pride and know how unmeet they are to be the Rule of all mens Judgments and Practices or to seem so wise as that none shall be tolerated that differ from them nor speak publickly to God but in the words which they prescribe 6. Men must not be too strange to one another nor keep too distant for neerness and acquaintance reconcileth and distance cherisheth false reports and suspicions and men take liberty to hear think and speak ill of strangers behind their backs which familiarity would cure 7. None but Volunteers must be taken for true Christians nor admitted to holy Communion to receive the Seals of Pardon and Life 8. To use more a friendly discoursing way for convincing Dissenters than disgracefull passionate militant disputations Though dangerous seducers must be confuted by necessary disputation 9. To abhorre Envy and Emulation the Off-spring of Selfishness and Pride and not to grudge at other mens esteem that are preferred before us especially that Preachers and Pastors envy not the preference of other Teachers nor murmur at their liberty honour or success but rejoyce with Paul Phil. 1. that Christ is preached though it be by Contentious men that do it in Envy and Strife to adde affliction to the afflicted 10. To dread Persecution and unjust violence to men of Conscience and not to force them to sin and damnation by bearing down Conscience in unnecessary things 11. To be well furnished with holy Reason and Love and for Ministers to be confined to the use of these from all use of Violence by the Sword and kept to their proper work and Government by the Word and Church-keyes 12. To rebuke and frown away malignant and Religious Calumniators Whisperers Censurers and Backbiters 13. To teach the People wherein the uniting Substance of Religion doth consist and what a sin it is to be censorious and separate causelesly from others and represent their different Opinions Modes and Circumstances of Worship unjustly odious to stirre up other mens hatred and separating distastes and how great a sin and danger Schism or Division is 14. To avoid all needless novelties and singularities and to keep to Vincent Lerinensis's Measure of holding to that which hath ever been received as necessary by the whole Church and was the primitive Faith and Religion 15. To avoid contending about meer ambiguous words and ever to agree of the sence of all the terms before you enter on further disputation and to suspect such ambiguity in all debates 16. As Magistrates must be just and impartial so people must be taught to obey them under Christ in all lawfull things belonging to their Office and that as a part of their Obedience to God 17. Peace-makers must be men of Piety and blameless Lives that may honour their works and not by scandal harden adversaries nor lay Stumbling-blocks before the weak and such as study to do good to all 18. They must submit to men of the lowest and weakest ranks and not despise them and the strong must bear the Infirmities of the weak restoring the fallen with the spirit of meekness remembring that they also may be tempted 19. They must not expect such a degree of Concord on Earth as is not to be expected lest for want of it they be tempted to murmur at God doubt of Religion and make the breach wider by unjust severities against the weak 20. When any are accused of Heresie or Scandal they must be ready with patience to give satisfaction to others to the Churches to Rulers to Equals or Inferiors Referring them to their Profession of Faith and answering what is charged on them and willingly amending what they are convinced is amiss But all this and much more I have formerly written in a Book called The Cure of Church-divisions CHAP. IV. Popery or the Papacie will never unite the Church Sect. I. I Come now to prove the insufficiency and ineptness of the terms of Union which many men have devised and obtruded on the Churches Repeating that few things more divide than false Means of uniting while these engage men to set against all that cannot yield to them And I shall begin with the terms of the Papal party as being the chief Pretenders Sect. II. The Papists think that the way of Union and avoiding Schism is for one Man the Pope of Rome to be taken for the Universal Vicar of Christ on Earth even the governing Head under Christ of all the Christians on Earth yea and of all the World in order to make them Christians and that the Church on Earth is one such politick Body of which Christ is the invisible Head of influence and the Pope is the visible Head
Earth nor from Heaven but only from the narrow interest of themselves are like a withering branch that 's broken from the tree or like a lake of water separated from the stream that will soon dry up A selfish person hath neither the motives to right suffering nor the truest cordials for a dying man Something or other in this sinful SELF will be still amiss And a selfish person will be still caring fearing or complaining Because he can take but little pleasure in remembring that all is well in Heaven and that if he were nothing God would be still Glorified in the world Therefore the more selfish true Christians are the less is their peace and the more their hearts do sink in suffering Their Religion reacheth little higher than to be still poring on a sinful confused heart and asking How should I be assured of my own salvation When a Christian that hath more of the Spirit of UNITY is more taken up with sweeter things studying how to Glorifie God in the world and rejoycing in the assurance that his name shall be hallowed his Kingdom shall come and his Will shall be done yea and is perfectly done in Heaven that which is first in his desires and prayers is ever the chiefest in his thanksgivings and his Joyes CHAP. IV. The VNITY of the Spirit in the welfare of the Church II. AS the UNITY of the Spirit is the personal welfare of every Christian so is it the common interest of the Church and of all Christian Societies Kingdoms Cities Schools and Families And that in all these respects I. UNITY is the very life of the Church and of all Societies as such The word LIFE is sometime taken for the LIVING PRINCIPLE or FORM and so the SOUL is the LIFE of a Man and the SPIRIT as dwelling and working in us is the Moral or holy-spiritual LIFE of the soul and of the Church as mystical And sometime LIFE is taken for the VNION of the said vital principle with the Organical Body or matter duly united in it self And so the UNION of soul and body is the Life of a man and the Vnion of the Political Head and Body is the Life of political Societies And so the Vnion of Christ and the Church is the Life of the Church And the Union of the members among themselves is as the union of the parts of the organical body the necessary Dispositio materiae without which it cannot have Union with the Head or the effect of Vnion with the Vital principle and so the Union which is essential to the Church As that is no Body whose parts are not united among themselves nor no Living Body which is not united to the soul and in it self so that is no Church or no Society which is not Vnited in it self and no Christian Society or Church which is not united unto Christ It is a gross oversight of them that look at nothing but the Regeneration of the members as essential to the Church and take Vnity to be but a separable Accident Yea indeed Regeneration it self consisteth in the Vniting of persons by Faith and Love to God and the Redeemer and to the body of the Church And if Vnion be Life then Division is no Less than Death Not every degree of division For some breaches among Christians are but wounds But to be divided or separated from Christ or from the Universal Church which is his body is Death it self And even wounds must have a timely cure or else they threaten at least the perishing of the wounded part II. UNITY is the health ease and quiet of the Church and all Societies as well as of each person And Division is its smart and pain And a divided disagreeing Society is a wounded or sick Society in continual suffering and disease But how easie sweet and pleasant is it when brethren dwell together in Unity when they are not of many minds and wills and wayes when they strive not against each other and live not in wrangling and contention when they have not their cross interests wills and parties and envy not or grudge not against each other But every one taketh the common interest to be his own and smarteth in all his brethrens sufferings and hurts when they speak the same things and mind the same interest and carry on the same ends and work O foelix hominum genus Si vestros animos Amor Quo coelum regitur regat saith Boetius Many contrivances good men have had for the recovering of the peace and felicity of Societies And they that despaired of accomplishing it have pleased themselves with feigning such Societies as they thought most happy whence we have Plato's Common-wealth Moor's Vtopia Campanella's Civitas solis c. But when all is done he is the wisest and happiest Politician and the best friend and benefactor to Societies and to mankind who is the skilfullest contriver and best promoter of UNITING LOVE I know that this is like Life in man a work that requireth more than Art But yet I will not say hoc non est artis sed pietatis opus as if art did nothing in it It is Gods work blessing mans endeavours Even in the propagation of natural Life though Deus sol vivificant God is the Quickener and Fountain of all life yet man is the Generator even if it prove true that the soul is created And God will not do it without the act of man So God will not bless Churches and Kingdoms and Families with Vniting-Love without the subordinate endeavours of man And the skill and honesty of the endeavourers greatly conduceth to the success of the work Men that stand in a significant capacity as Rulers and publick Teachers do may do much by holy Art to promote Vniting-Love in all Societies By contriving an Vniting of Interests and not by cudgelling them all into the same Temples or Synagogues as prisoners into a Jaile and by diligent clear teaching them the excellency and necessity of Vnity and Love and mischiefs of dividing selfishness But of this more after in due place All the devices in the world for the felicity of Societies which tend not unto Vnity and all wayes of Vnity which promote not Love are erroneous and meerly frivolous And all that are Contrary to Love are pernicious whatever the contrivers pretend or dream III. UNITY is the strength and preservation of Societies and Selfishness and Division is their weakness their dissolution and their ruine As in Natural so in Political Bodies the closest and perfectest Vnion of Parts maketh the firmest and most durable composition What is the strength of an Army but their UNITY When they obey one General Commander and cleave inseparably together and forsake not one another in fight such an Army would conquer far greater multitudes of incoherent separable men when every Souldier thinketh how to shift for himself and to save his own life whatever become of others a few run away first and shew the
and do so much against their own desired ends that instead of accusing the providence of God we should thankfully wonder that there is so much peace and concord as there is and that all men live not as enemies to each others in continual war or that the devouring Pikes leave so many of the lesser fish alive and the weak and innocent are not wholly a prey to the oppressors CHAP. IX That Christ himself who commanded the Vnity Love and Concord of Christians did prescribe the necessary terms § 1. IF it be once proved that Christ himself hath prescribed the conditions or terms of Christian Union and Communion what remaineth to Christians but to enquire What are those terms Whereas for want of that necessary supposition while men think it is left to them no man knoweth who should do it and the Pope prescribeth his terms and others prescribe their terms and almost each Sect hath different terms § 2. That Christ did prescribe them I shall prove I. Antecedently à Causis II. Consequently ab Effectis III. By proving the necessary exclusion of any other competent prescribers § 3. I. Antecedently it is proved from 1. The universal necessity of the thing 2. And from the office of Christ to do things of such universal necessity and his faithfulness therein § 4. 1. There are few Christians so ignorant or inconsiderate but will confess that the Vnion of Christians is necessary not only to the edification and well being but to the very being of the Church both universal and particular For what is a Church but many Christians united and associated for Church-ends Pull all the Bricks or Timber of the house asunder and it is no house Pull all the Planks and parts of a Ship asunder and it is no Ship Pull all the leaves and sentences of a Book asunder and it is no Book Pull all the parts of a mans body asunder and there remaineth no body of a man considered formally but only materially and in their aptitude to re-union at the resurrection An Army disbanded and dissipated is no Army And certainly it is no Church that hath not Church-unity of parts 2. And all that believe in Christ believe that he came into the world to call and gather his Church and to save them and that he sent his Word his Ministers and Spirit to this end He is the principle of life to the Church his body who first by aggregation uniteth them to himself and one another and then is their constitutive and governing and quickning head It is his undertaken office first to make all his own members and then to govern preserve edifie and save them And how can Christ make his Church without uniting the members Can he build his house and never set the bricks stones or timber together Can you make a Clock or Watch without adapting and uniting the parts And can Christ gather build compaginate and unite his Church and not so much as tell men either Pastors or people what are the Conditions and terms of union and the cement or solder that must unite them § 5. And all Christians confess Christs sufficiency for his office and his perfect faithfulness in performing it He wanted neither Power Wisdom nor Love or Will to gather his own Church or body He was faithful as Moses in all Gods house And he that fulfilled all the righteousness of the Law and whatever was imposed on him as a humbled satisfier of Justice surely no less fulfilled all that belonged to him as the grand Administrator and Benefactor and Executor of Gods mercy and his own will and as Head over all things to his Church Eph. 1. 22 23. § 6. Nay as he was the King and Law giver of the Church who was to give them all their Vniversal Laws binding all men could he be supposed to have done this faithfully if he had left out the very terms of Church-unity and concord when such unity is essential to the Church Did he send the Apostles to disciple and baptize all Nations and be in Gods house the Church as Paul calleth Timothy Pillars and bases of truth yea foundations and Master-builders that must gather his Church out of all the world and yet never tell them What a Church is that is how the parts must be united As he is the Teacher of the Church did he never teach them so necessary a thing as what essential Church-unity is These are such imputations against Christ as seem to deny him to be Christ As he would deny God to be God that would deny his providence and government of the world § 7. Christs Law is to be both the Rule of our actions and his judgement And if he have left out so great a point as the essentiating terms of Church Vnion what momentous acts of our lives are left to be ungoverned and unjudged by the Laws of Christ § 8. Above all men those are bound to consent to what I say who hold that Christs Laws have not left so much as a ceremony undetermined and that nothing may be added or diminished in his worship How much less then hath he left the essentiating terms of Church-unity unprescribed § 9. II. And consequently ab effectis we find that Christ did it 1. He plainly declared what maketh a Christian 2. He declared how all Christians should live in love and concord 3. And how the coalition of these Christians maketh his Church § 10. I. It had been strange if he that came into the world to make men Christians had never told men what a Christian is And if he that sent his Apostles to make Christians had set them to do they knew not what and never told them what a Christian is and consequently what they must perswade men to And if he that promised Justification Pardon Adoption and Glory to all true believers that is to true Christians had yet never told them how they may know that they are such And that he that commanded so much Christian duty publick and private and required Christians to suffer so much for his sake and to look for a reward in Heaven should yet never tell them what Christianity is If Christ made Christianity that is the Laws and description objects and principle then he made a Determinate thing If not hath he left it to man to make Christianity objectively Then how shall we know to whom he gave this power And how many several species of Christianity or faith may be made in the world § II. It is evident in Scripture that Christ sent his Apostles and that he taught them what to preach and particularly that he Matth. 28. 19 20. said Go and Disciple me all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatever I commanded you And it is certain that a Baptized person was then accounted a Christian and Baptism was their Christening and that this was the Church entrance
us the Britains rejected them and the Scots would not eat or converse with them The Abassine Empire was never under them nor those of India and Persia And the Councils in which they had the first seat were but of one Empire as is after proved And as for the first three hundred years under Pagan Emperours their own Writers confess the Church of Rome was little set by that is it had no governing power over the rest nor is there any pretence to think they had The first that talk'd very high was Leo the first who called himself the Head of the Catholick Church But by Catholick was then meant usually the Churches in the Empire only and by Head he meant the prime Bishop in order but not the Governour of all Nor was his claim if he meant any more approved by the Churches in that Age. Though the Council of Chalcedon highly applauded him and his Epistle as an advantage to carry their Cause against Dioscorus who had excommunicated the Pope and took him for the prime member of their Council yet they thought meet in their Canons to declare that it was but by humane mutable right in the Roman Empire Let them shew us if they can when and where the universal Church on Earth ever subjected themselves at all to the Pope Much less can they bring any pretense of it for the first three hundred yeas Had they any Meeting in which they agreed for it Did they all receive Laws Ordination or Officers from Rome or from its Emissaries If we were so foolish as to believe that his precedence in General Councils was a proof of the Popes Monarchy yet it 's easie to prove 1. That for 300 years there was no General Council 2. And that it was not the Pope that presided at Nice 3. And that those Councils were but Imperial and not truly Universal But if all the Church ever had been subject to the Pope as being at first except Abassia almost confined to the Roman Empire it doth not follow that it will ever be so again when it is dispersed into so many Kingdoms of the World The Jesuites at first were all under the King of Spain and the Mahometans at first all under one Prince but they are not so now Is it likely that ever all Christian Mahometan and Heathen Kings will suffer all their Christian Subjects to be under the Government of a Foreign Priest But their own Writers agree that the Apostles at first were dispersed into many Countreys besides the Roman Empire and that Ethiopia was converted by the Eunuch mentioned Acts 8. initially its like before Rome and fullyer by St. Matthew And you may see in Godignus Alvarez Damianus a Goez and others full evidence that they were never Subjects to the Pope of Rome I conclude then 1. That Rome is not owned this day as the head of Unity by all Christians 2. That it never was so taken for the Governing and Uniting Head 3. And that the reason of the thing fully proveth that it never will be so I may adde that indeed it is not known among themselves who are the consenting Subjects of the Pope or Members of their Church It is indeed Invisible or a Church not knowable For 1. They are not agreed nor ever like to be what is the essential qualification of a Member of the Church Or what that Faith is that must make a Member Some say it must be the Belief of all the Creed explicitely others of some few Articles others that no more is necessary ad esse than to believe explicitly that God is and that he is a Rewarder of good works and to believe that the Church is to be believed Of which see Fr. a Sanct. Clara in his Deus Natura Gratia 2. And their forcing men into their Church with Tortures Fire and Sword leaveth it utterly uncertain who are Consenters and who are in the Church as Prisoners to save Limbs and Life And if they ever recover England Scotland Ireland Germany and the other Reformed Churches it must be by the Sword and Warrs and Violence and never by force of Argument And if they should conquer us all which is their hope and trust it will not follow that men are of their minds because they cannot or dare not contradict them no more than because they are dead Experience Reason and Scripture then do fully prove to men that are willing to know the truth that the Universality of Christians will never be united to the Roman Papacy Yea that this Papacy is the greatest of all Schisms 1. By setting up a false Head of Union and 2. By cutting off or renouncing three parts of the Christian World even all Christians except the Subjects of the Pope CHAP. V. The Vniversal Church will never unite in Patriarchs or any other humane Form of Church-Government Sect. I. WHether or how far such Forms may consist with Union is a Question that I am not now debating any further than shall be anon intimated by the way But that they will never become the Bond of Union or be received by all and that to make any such thought Necessary to universal Unity is Schism I am easily able to prove Sect. II. And this needeth no other proofs than what are given against uniting in the Papacy in the former Chapter As 1. Patriarchs and other humane Institutions being not of God but Man the whole Church can never unite in them 1. Because they will never all agree that any men have true Authority given them by God to make new Church-Officers and Forms that shall be necessary to the Unity or Concord of the Church Universal 2. They will never agree who those men are that God hath given such power to if they did suspect that such there are A Prince hath no Power out of his Dominions 3. They will never agree that if man made such Forms or Offices they may not unmake them again if they see cause or that their Acts bind all their Posterity never to rescind or change them 4. They will never find that all the Christian World ever agreed herein and so in all Posterity is obliged by their Ancestors 5. Much less will any ever prove that the Institution was Divine Sect. III. If any say that the Apostles settled this Form by the Spirit the Universal Church will never believe it For 1. No Scripture saith so 2. No true credible History saith so 3. If the Apostles settled Patriarchs it was either as their own Successors or as a new Office And it was either by joynt consent or man by man each one apart But 1. Had they settled them as their Successours they would have settled twelve or thirteen But there were but five settled at all besides some new petty Patriarchs as at Aquileia when they cast off Rome 2. No Writer tells us of any meeting of the Apostles to agree of such a Form 3. No nor that ever they settled them 4. History assureth
conclude no worse of the ingneous Element nor yet of sensitive or Intellectual spirits For 1. How far they are passive and partible being many we know not Most of the old Fathers especially the Greeks as Faustus Regiensis cited them in the book which Mammertus answered thought that God only was totally Immaterial or Incorporeal And it must not be denyed that every creature doth pati à Deo is passive as from God the first cause and many Philosophers think that all Passivity is a consequent or proof of answerable Materiality And many think that we have no true notion of substantia besides Relative as it doth subsist of it self and substare accidentibus but what is the same with Materia purissima 2. But supposing all this to be otherwise spirits being true substances of a more perfect nature than grosse bodies as they are more inclined to Union inter se so there is as little if not less danger that they should be losers by that Union than that a drop of water should be so For the perfection of the highest nature must needs be more the perfection of all the Parts Physical or intelligible than the perfection of the lowest And the noblest inclineth not to its own loss by desiring Union which to the lowest is no loss 38. It is called in the Text The Vnity of the spirit 1. As it is One species of Spiritual Grace which all the members are endowed with which is their Holiness or Gods Image on them which is called The Spirit in us because it is the immediate and excellent work of Gods spirit As the Sun is said to be in the room because it shineth there 2. As the Spirit is the efficient cause hereof 3. And because this One spirit in all the members inclineth them to Vnity even as the soul of every animal inclineth it to preserve the Unity of all its parts and to abhor wounding and separation as that which will be its pain and tendeth to its destruction by dissolution 39. The Holiness or spiritual qualification of souls which is called The Spirit is Holy or Divine Life Light and Love or the holy disposition of the souls three natural faculties Vital Power or Activity Vnderstanding and Will As all men have One species of humanity so all Saints have this One spirit 40. Though Quickning by holy Life and Illumination be parts of sanctification or this spirit yet the last part Love is the compleating perfective part and therefore is oft called Sanctification specially and by the word Spirit and Love is oft meant the same thing And when the spirit is said to be given to Believers the meaning is that upon and by believing the wonderful demonstrations of Gods Love in Christ the habit of holy Love is kindled in us 41. This holy Love which is gods Image for God is Love usually beginneth at things visible as being the nearest objects to man in flesh And as we see â—od here as in a glass so we first see the Glass before we see God in it And accordingly we first see the Goodness and Loveliness of Gods blessings 〈◊〉 us and of good people and of good words and actions But yet when we come up to the Love of God it is Hâ— that is the chiefest object in whom all the Church by Love is centred so that we thenceforth Love God for himself and all his servants and word as for his sake and impress on them And our Vnion by Love would not be perfect if it United us together only among our selves and did not Unite us all in God and our Redeemer So that the Vnity of the spirit is the Love of God in Christ and of all the faithful yea and of all men so far as God appeareth in them to which Gods spirit strongly enclineth all true believers including holy Life and Light as tending to this Vnity of spiritual Love 42. Therefore Love is not distinctly named after among the particular terms of Vnity as faith and hope are because it is meant by that word There is One spirit 43. The love and Vnity of Christians as in One Church supposeth in Nature a Love to man as man and a desire of the Vnity and concord of mankind As Christianity supposeth humanity 44. But Experience and Faith assure us that this humane Love and Vnity is wofully corrupted and much lost and that though mans soul be convinced by natural light that it is good and have a general languid inclination to it yet this is so weak uneffectual as that the principles of wrath and division prevail against it and keep the world in miserable confusion 45. It is the predominancy of the corrupt selfish inclination which is the great Enemy and destroyer of Love and Vnity 46. Christianity is so far from confining all our Love to Christians that it is not the least use of it to revive and recover our Love to Men as Men so that no men have a full and healed Love to mankind and desire of universal Vnity but believers 47. The purest and strongest Love and Vnity is universal And it is not genuine Christianity if it do not incline us to Love all men as men and all professed Christians as such and all Saints as Saints according to their various degrees of amiableness 48. Love and Vnity which is not thus universal partaketh of wrath and Sâ—hism For he that loveth but a part of men doth not love the rest and he that is Vnited but to a part whether great or small is Schismatically divided from all the rest 49. But Love to All must not be Equal to all nor our Vnity with all Equal as on the same terms or in the same degree As the Goodness of meer Humanity and the meer Profession of Christianity is less and so less amiable than is the Goodness of true sanctification so our Love and Vnity must be diversified All the members of the body must be Loved and their Unity carefully preserved But yet not Equally but the head as an head and the heart as an heart and the stomach as a stomach and all the essential parts as Essential without which it is not a humane body and all the integral parts as such but diversely according to their worth and use The eye as an eye and a tooth but as a tooth Goodness being the object of Love and Love being the life of our Vnity it varieth in degrees as Goodness varieth 50. That Love and Vnity which is sincere in kind may be mixt with lamentable wrath and Schism as all our Graces are with the contrary sin in our imperfect state Not but that all Christians have an habitual inclination to Vniversal Love and Vnity but the act may be hindred by the want of due information and by false reports and misrepresentations of our brethren which hide their amiableness and render them to such more odious than they are 51. Sincere and genuine Love and Vnity hath an Universal care of
their Vnion maketh all to be common to them Are not Parents pleased to see their children prosper and every one delighted in the wellfare of his friend what then if all the world were as near and dear to us as a husband a child or a bosome friend would it not be our constant pleasure to think of Gods blessings to them as if they were our own A narrow spot of ground doth yield but little fruit in comparison of a whole Kingdom or all the earth And he that fetcheth his content and pleasure from so little a clod of earth as his own body must have but a poor and pitiful pleasure in comparison of him that can rejoice in the good of all the world It is Vniting Love which is the great enriching contenting and felicitating art An Art I call it as it is a thing Learned and practised by Rule but more than an Art even a Nature as to its fixed inclination 3. And Vnion maketh other mens Good to be all ours as efficiently and objectively so also finally As all is but a means to one and the same end in which we meet It is my ends that are attained by all the Good that is done and possessed in the world They that have One holy spirit have one end The Glorifying of God in the felicity of his Church and the perfection of his works and the Fulfilling and Pleasing of his blessed will in this his Glory is the end that every true believer doth intend and live for in the world And this One End all Saints all Angels all Creatures are carrying on as means If I be a Christian indeed I have nothing so dear to me or so much desired as this Pleasing and Glorifying of God in the good and perfection of his works This is my Interest In this he must gratiâ—ie me that will be my friend All things are as nothing to me but for this And in this all the world but specially all Saints are continually serving me In serving God they are serving me while they serve my chiefest end and interest If I have a house to build or a field to till or a garden to dress do not the labours of all the builders and workmen serve me and please me while it is my work that they do This is no fancy but the real case of every wise and holy person He hath set his heart and hope upon that end which all the world are joyntly carrying on and which shall certainly be accomplished O blessed be that Infinite Wisdom and Love which teacheth this wisdom and giveth this Vniting Love to every holy soul All other wayes are dividing narrow poor and base This is the true and certain way for every man to be a possessour of all mens blessings and to be owner of the good of all the world They are all doing our Heavenly Fathers will and all are bringing about the common end which every true believer seeketh It is this base and narrow SELFISHNESS and inordinate contractedness of spirit and adhering to individual interest which contradicteth all this and hindereth us from the present joyful tastâ— of the fruits of UNITY which we now hear and read of Yea I can dye with much the greater willingness because besides my hopes of heaven I live even on earth when I am dead I live in all that live and shall live till the end of all I am not of the mind of the selfish person that saith when I am dead all the world is dead or at an end to me But rather God is my highest object His Glory and complacency is my End These shine and are attained more in and by the whole Creation than by me while these go on the End is attained which I was made for And I shall never be separated living or dead from the universal Church or universal world so that when I am dead my end my interest my united fellow-Christians and Creatures will still live If I loved my friend better than my self it would be less grief to me to be banished than for him to be banished And so it would be less grief to me to dye than for him to dye And if I loved the Church and the world but half as much more than my self as my reason is fully convinced there is cause it would seem to me incomparably a smaller evil to dye my self than that the Church or world should dye As long as my Garden flourisheth I can bear the death of the several flowers whose place will the next spring be succeeded by the like And as long as my Orchard liveth I can bear the falling of a leaf or an apple yea of all the leaves and fruit in Autumn which the next spring will repair and restore in kind though not those individual What am I that the world should miss me or that my death should be taken by others or by me for a matter of any great regard I can think so of another and another can think so of me But unhappy selfishness maketh it hard for every man or any man to think so of himself Did UNITY more prevail in men and SELFISHNESS less it would more rejoice a dying man that the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God will continue to shine forth in the Church and world and that others shall succeed him in serving God and his Church when he is dead than it would grieve him that he must dye himself Yea more than all this this Holy UNITY will make all the Joyes of Heaven to be partly ours Even while we are here in pain and sorrows we are members of the Body whose Best part is above with Christ and therefore their joyes are by participation ours as the pleasure of the head and heart extendeth to the smallest members Would it be nothing to a mother if all her children or to a friend if all his friends had all the prosperity and joy that he could wish them The nearer and stronger this holy UNITY is the more joyfully will a believer here look up and say Though I am poor or sick or suffer it is not so with any of the blessed ones above My fellow Christians now rejoyce in Glory The Angels with whom I shall live for ever are full of Joy in the vision of Jehovah My blessed Head hath Kingdom and Power and Glory and Perfection Though I am yet weak and must pass through the gates of death the Gloriâ—ied world are triumphing in perpetual Joyes Their Knowledge their Love their Praises of God are perfect and everlasting beyond all fears of death or any decay or interruption UNITY giveth us a part in all the Joyes of earth and heaven And what then is more desireable to a Believer 5. And in all that is said it appeareth that UNITY is a great and necessary part of our preparation for sufferings and death without this men want the principal comforts that should support them They that can fetch comfort neither from
peace they did not serve the Lord Jesus whose great and last command was Love which he made the Nature and character and badge of his true disciples but by those good words and fair speeches deceived the hearts of the simple and deceivable Here there are four words especially to be noted 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate good words is commonly translated flattery but as Beza well noteth it signifieth a speaking of things that are plausible in themselves for some good that is in them and that are pretended to be all spoken for the hearers good as Satan pretended when he tempted Eve yea perhaps to be necessary to their salvation or to make them the most knowing and excellent sort of Christians 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth both to Bless them as ministers do that desire their happiness and to praise them and speak well or highly of them And so almost all sects and divided bodies are gathered by flattering the hearers into a conceit that thus they shall become the surest and most excellent Christians and all others are far inferiour to them 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the Hearts of such hearers that are deceived and not their heads or reason only or chiefly For the good words first take with them by moving their Passions or affections And then the Praise fair promises and speeches kindle a kind of secret spiritual pride and ambition in the heart as Satans words did in Eve to be as Gods in Knowledge And the Heart thus infected and puft up promoteth the deceit of the understanding 4. And this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hominum minime malorum as Beza translates It is not simple fools but such simple persons as we call harmless or innocents as the Vulgar Latine translates it well meaning men or not ill men People that fear God and have good desires and meanings are for want of Judgement and watchfulness overcome by dividers And on the contrary the amiable examples of Vnity and Concord and their happy effects are recorded in Scripture to make us in Love with them but none so eminent as that of the first Christians It is very remarkable that when Christ would shew the world the work of his Mediation in its notable effects and when he would shew them the excellency of his disciples about the common world and of his Church under the Gospel above that under Moses Law he doth it by shewing them in the power and exercise of Vniting Love Love was it which he came to exercise and demonstrate his Fathers and his own Love was that which he came to kindle in their souls and bring them to possess and practise Perfect Love is the perfect felicity which he hath promised them Love and Unity are the matter of his last and great Command These are the Characters of his genuine disciples and of the renewed Divine Nature in them It was Love and Vnity which must in them be the witness of Christs spirit and power to convince the unbelieving world And therefore it is Love and Vnity which is the matter of his last excellent prayer for them John 17. 22 23 24 25. 15. 12 17. 13. 34. 1 John 3. 14 23. 4. 21. And all these his preparations precepts examples and prayers were accordingly exemplified in the wonderful Love and Concord of his followers When the day of Pentecost was come in which the Holy Ghost must be most eminently communicated to them they were all with One accord in one place Acts 2. 1. The Apostles had an Vnanimity and Concord before proportionable to the measure of their grace which was preparatory to their reception of the eminent gift of the Spirit which increased their unanimity And v. 41 42 43 44 45 46. the three thousand that were suddenly added to the Church continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers And all that believed were together and had all things common and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need And they continuing daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart praising God and having favour with all the people What greater demonstration could be given that Christ is the great Reconciler the messenger gift and teacher of Love the Prince of Peace and the great Vniter of the divided world both with his Father and Himself and with one another In this text Acts 2. and marvellous example you see the design and work of the great Reconciler When men fall out with God they fall out with one another when they depart from the only Center of Vnity they can have no true Unity among themselves when they lose the Love of God they lose the Love of Man as for Gods sake and interest And he that cannot see and Love God in man can see nothing in man that is worthy of much love As he that loveth not a man for his soul and its operations more than for his body loveth him not as a man And few have any great Love to a dead Corpse Cicero could say It is your soul that we speak to and converse with were that departed we should speak to you no more God is more to every man than his soul If God were not their life and amiableness all men would be unlovely loathsome carkasses Therefore wicked men that cannot Love God and Goodness can Love none thoroughly but themselves and for themselves or as Bruâ—es by a low or sensitive kind of love For it is self that they are fallen to from God and Man And yet while self is carnally and inordinately loved instead of God and Man it is but destroyed and undone by that inordinate idolatrous love And he that loveth Himself to his own destruction with a Love more pernicious than anothers hatred doth love his friends but with such a kind of killing love as I have seen some Brutes kill their young ones with the violence of their love that would not suffer them to let them alone Thus all love to man saving a pernicious love doth dye where the love of God and goodness dieth And Cain giveth the world the first specimen or instance of depraved nature in envy and wrath and finally in the murder of his Brother and undoing Himself by setting up and adhering inordinately to himself But when Christ reconcileth God and Man he reconcileth Men to one another For he teacheth men to love God in Man and Man for God with a Holy noble reasonable kind of Love And so to love all men as far as God hath an Interest in all And to Love all Christians with an eminent Love as God is eminently interessed in them And this is Christs work on the souls of men and much of his business which he came for into the world And therefore he would have his
union Is it that they all unite in Cephas Peter or in One Patriarch or Pope Or that they adhere to men with greater estimation No but contrary It is this that divided them while one was for Paul and another for Apollos and another for Cephas He calls them to unite in Christ alone and not to think of men above that which is written nor to be puffed up for one against another nor to take any Pastors as the Lords of their faith but as Ministers of Christ and stewards of his mysteries given for their good and helpers of their joy and edification c. 3. 4. He tells them that neither is he that planteth any thing neither he that watereth but God that giveth the increase and he that planteth and he that watereth are one c. 3. v. 7 8 9. And in case of eating things offered to Idols as to so much as was lawful in it self he chargeth them to deny their liberty when it will be a stumbling-block to the weak and tells them that he will never eat flesh while the world standeth if it make his brother to offend c. 8. 13. Telling them that when they sin so against the brethren and wound their weak Conscience they sin against Christ v. 12. And he himself would labour for his bread and not take a lawful and due maintenance from them when he saw it would hinder his success c. 9. and would rather dye than any should make void this his glorying v. 15. To the Jews he became as a Jew to gain the Jews and to the weak he became as weak to gain them and was made all things to all men that he might by all means save some v. 20 21 22 23. His rule is Give no offence to Jews or Greeks or to the Church of God even as I please all men in all things not seeking my own profit but the profit of many that they may be saved c. 10. v. 32 33. Their divisions at the Communion he reproveth ch 11. not caused by ceremonious impositions but their own partiality and selfishness The great difference among Christians in gifts and strength he largely openeth c. 12. to shew them that all this must stand with unity and that yet there must be no Schism in the body but the members must have the same care one of another v. 25. yea the less comely parts must have the more care v. 23 24. And ch 15. 1 2 3. he giveth us this sum of the Gospel which he preached Moreover brethren I declare to you the Gospel which I preached which also you have received and wherein ye stand by which also ye are saved if ye hold fast what I preached to you unless you believed in vain Are not here the terms of Christian unity and salvation For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received how that Christ dyed for our sins according to the Scriptures and that he was buried and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures and was seen c. whence our resurrection is proved Here is nothing but the common articles of the Creed and this was the Gospel Indeed St. Paul is an Anathematizer too but it is not of men that differ about words or humane forms but of all them that love not the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 16. 22. § 15. The same Apostle sharply reprehendeth the faults of the Galatians But what is it for not for differing about things unnecessary but for making such necessary that were not For which he wisheth those cut off that troubled them And he concludeth all with this uniting true Canon c. 6. v. 15 16. For in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a New Creature And as many as walk according to this Canon or Rule peace be on them and mercy and on the Israel of God I Can any thing be plainer No say the battering Canoneers As many as walk according to this Canon but conform not to all our Canons or Decretals let them have no peace or mercy but be cut off from the Isreal of God so contrary is the Papal Spirit to Christs And Paul there giveth also this rule and the reason of it c. 6. 1 2. Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted bear ye one anothers burdens and so fulfil the Law of Christ And because he knew that self-esteem and contempt of dissenters lay at the root of impatience towards others he addeth If a man think himself to be something to whom all must needs consent when he is nothing he deceiveth himself § 16. The same Apostle to the Ephesians accurately openeth the terms of Christian Unity and Church Concord in my Text purposely describing both the end the instruments and the terms so that I know not how we could have desired more The End is For the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ That we henceforth be no more Children tossed to and fro and carryed about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive but speaking the truth in love may grow up in him in all things which is the head Christ From whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joint supplyeth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body to the edifying of it self in love Can all the Canons in the world attain more Concord and higher ends than these exprest And the Instruments are the gifts which Christ gave to men even to Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers and the loving endeavours of all believers § 17. And the Terms of all this Union and Concord are these seven 1. One Body of Christ the only Head that is all true Christians in the world 2. One Spirit given by Christ to quicken illuminate and Sanctifie and confirm and comfort them 3. One Hope of their calling that is the Glorious coming of Christ and our Heavenly Glory 4. One Lord the King Head and Saviour of the Church 5. One Faith that is Christianity expressed in the Churches Creed or common profession 6. One Baptism that is One solemn entrance into the Church and Covenant of God in the publick profession of this one faith 7. One God and father of all who is above all and through and in us all But all this consisting in various degrees of grace and gifts ch 4. v. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. These are Gods own terms of Christian Unity and Concord sufficient in their kind but judged insufficient by the ignorant proud tyrannical
Church-tearing Spirit And to shut out false anathematizing he concludeth with pronouncing Grace to all them that Love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity whoever condemn them § 18. The same Apostle leaveth the same Canon to the Philippians c. 1. v. 15 16. Though some preached Christ not sincerely but of contention supposing to add affliction to his bonds so far was he from silencing them or forbidding men to hear them that he rejoyced that Christ was preached though in pretence and contentiously And ch 2. 1 2 3. he most vehemently importuneth them to be like minded of the same Love of one accord and of one mind But how can that be and on what terms Let nothing be done through strife and vain glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves Not say say as I say or be silent Look not every man on his own things but every man on the things of others And not tread down others that you may be great nor think of your own case and reasons only Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant c. This is the Pastors pattern Let him that is Greater than Christ refuse to stoop so low And his Canon for the Concord is ch 3. 13 14 15 16. To confess our selves imperfect seekers of perfection pressing forward for the prize Let as many as be perfect be thus minded This is your measure here and if in any thing you be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you Nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same thing As if he said while you agree in true Christianity take it for granted that you will all have imperfection for I have so my self and therefore there will be different judgements in tolerable cases but let this be your Canon notwithstanding such difference while you press towards perfection walk by the Rule of Christian Love in searching after the will of God and mind with Concord the great things which you are all agreed to pursue And bear lovingly with each other in lesser differences and God in this way will teach you more § 19. The same doctrine he delivereth to the Colossians reprehending those that would lay Christian faith or Concord on their will-worship worldly rudiments and ordinances Touch not taste not handle not after the Commandments and doctrine of men in things which have a shew of wisdom in voluntary humility and neglecting the body in worshipping Angels and intruding into unseen things vainly pufft up by fleshly minds And instead of this he exhorteth them to hold the Head Christ who is the true wisdom and bond of unity and believe that in him they are complete and to take heed lest any spoil them of their faith love and concord by Philosophy pretending greater subtilty and vain deceit after the traditions of men and after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily in whom we are compleat And he instances in some such snares Let no man judge you in meat or drink or in respect of an holy day or new Moon or of the Sabbath which are a shadow of things to come c. that is Let no man bring you under such Laws and lay salvation or unity and Concord on them And ch 3. he largely sheweth that in the New Man there is neither Greek nor Jew circumcision or uncircumcision Barbarian or Scythian bond or free but Christ is all and in all And that the true bond of perfection is charity by which the peace of God must rule in their hearts that are called into One body And the subordinate Canons are bowels of mercy kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man have a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave you so do ye § 20. If any say These are not precepts for Church-Governours but for subjects I answer still They are the precepts of the Holy Ghost by an Apostle that had more authority than any of our Church-Governours and that to all the Churches about their common duty unity and interest binding them and binding us even all the Churches § 21. It would seem tedious to recite all other texts to the same purpose His prohibitions of vain disputes and janglings about the Law and genealogies and his confining men to the common doctrine of Christianity and his warning men to preach no new or other doctrine may be seen in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus § 22. And it is much to be observed 1. That all the hereticks of those times pretended to greater wisdom and curiosity than the Christian Churches had and by such pretences brake their Concord as may be seen in all the Epistles especially Col. 2. Jam. 3. 2. And yet that whenever the Apostles or Christ himself Rev. 2. 3. censure any such hereticks to be forsaken and cast out it is never for any little matter but for denying some common article of the faith as Christs Incarnation the Resurrection c. or for some gross wicked doctrine and practice as fornication and eating things offered to idols or rebelling against Rulers c. Which shews what then were the terms of Church unity and by what Canons they were governed by Gods appointment § 23. I will add that one great warning of Paul which summeth up all 2. Cor. 11. 3. a prophesie of the deceit and corruption of the Churches would to God you could bear with me a little in my folly as proud corrupters account it and indeed bear with me For I am jealous over you with godly jealousie For I have espoused you to one husband and not to usurpers that I may present you as a chaste Virgin to Christ But I fear lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve though his subtilty flattering her with the hopes of higher knowledge so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ Christianity is not a snare for mens wits but a way to their salvation It is a plain and simple thing though most mysterious 1. It consisteth of simplicity of doctrine a few great plain and necessary things and not of philosophical curious subtilties though it forbiddeth not but encourageth the utmost improvement of reason and true learning especially for method elucidation and defence 2. It is a simple and spiritual worship that it commandeth for God is a spirit and will be so worshipped in spirit and in truth The Schismaticks contended whether in this Mountain or at Jerusalem but Christ rebuked that contention 3. And it is a simple sort of Government or Discipline that Christ hath instituted commanding him that will be Greatest to seek his preeminence in being most
renounce all doctrines and practices of Rebellion sedition or Schism I believe not that subjects may take up Arms or use any force or conspiracy to violate the Rights Authority or Persons of those in supreme Power over them I believe not that by any Laws of God or Man the Bishop of Rome hath the right of Governing all the world or all Christian Kings and Kingdomes nor the King or Kingdome of England in particular in matters secular or religious Nor that it is the duty of this Kingdome or the King to subject themselves unto him and obey him Nor that the said Bishop of Rome hath any true authority or right to impose oaths on Kings or other temporal Lords or otherwise oblige them to judge their subjects to be Hereticks who deny the Popes universal Supremacy over all the Churches on earth or who deny that the universal Church hath any Visible Head but Christ or who believe that the truly consecrated Bread and Wine in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper remain true Bread and Wine after the Consecration or that believe they are not to be adored as their God nor the Wine to be denyed to the Laity communicating Nor may the Pope oblige Kings or any others to exterminate burn or kill or punish any such as hereticks nor excommunicate Kings or temporal Lords for not doing it nor depose them being excommunicated nor give their Kingdomes or Dominions to others nor authorize any to kill them or to raise arms against them and to invade their Countreys by hostility Nor hath he right or authority to forbid Kingdomes or Countreys the publick celebration of Gods worship or holy Christian Communion Nor to oblige any Rulers or others to destroy any as Hereticks or judge them such because they are so judged by the Pope or Councils And I believe not that the Clergy are exempted from obedience to the Secular Powers or from being judged and punished by them by any Laws of God or any valid Laws of man not made or consented to by the said Powers And I unfeignedly believe that if any Pope or Council how great soever do decree or assert any of these things which I have hereby renounced and disclaimed or shall hereafter decree or assert any of them they err and sin against God in so doing and are not to be believed therein nor do oblige any thereby to obey them And all this I profess as in the sight of God my Judge without fraud or dissimulation in the sincerity of my heart THe errours which men should be restrained from preaching or propagating are innumerable and not necessary to be all put into a subscribed or professed renunication so they be actually forborn I will recite part of a Catalogue of false and doubtful dangerous points not fit to be published by preachers I. Of the nature and acts of God 1. The God is corporeal or material 2. That God is essentially only in Heaven or in some finite space 3. That God hath parts and is divisible 4. That God hath the parts or shape of humane bodies head face eyes hands feet c. properly so called 5. That God is the Universe or whole world or that he is meerly or properly the soul of the world as his body and so but a part of the world 6. That God or any essential of God is really new changeable or finite 7. The God can suffer hurt or hath proper real grief and passion 8. That God knoweth not all that hath been is or will be and all that is intelligible 9. That Gods own essential perfection goodness and love is not the ultimate and chief object of mans love to be loved chiefly for himself as most amiable and above our selves and all things created but that he is only or chiefly to be loved as our Benefactor or as good to the creature And so that man is Gods end and his own chief and ultimate end and not God mans chief and ultimate end 10. That God is the first and chief or any proper cause of sin or that God doth by efficient premotion as the first cause predetermine every mans mind will tongue and members to every forbidden act that is done as it is determined to and specifyed by the object with all its forbidden circumstances and modes and so to every lie perjury hatred of God and goodness murder c. that is committed 11. That God ruleth the world only as an engine by physical motion and doth not rule any free agents by moral means as precepts prohibitions promises c. in any acts saving as these are parts of his physically necessitating motion 12. That God may or ever doth lie or by his inspiration or his works of nature or providence necessitate innocent persons de facto or oblige any as a duty to believe that which is false 13. That God hath so committed the affairs of this world to Angels or any creatures or natural means as not to mind them or particularly govern and dispose of them himself 14. That God is essentially or virtually absent from the effects which he causeth 15. That God hath not power to do any more or otherwise than he doth though he would 16. That Gods will is not the fountain and the measure of all created good or that things are not good because they are willed by God 17. That Gods proper and absolute will desire and decree may be disappointed and not come to pass 18. That somewhat of or in the creature may be a true or proper cause of somewhat not only relative but real in God or make a real change on God 19. That God hath no vindictive or punishing and no rewarding justice 20. That God may be formally conceived of and comprehended by man and not only known analogically and as in a glass II. Of the Blessed Divine Trinity 1. That there are three Gods or three divine essences or substances 2. That the Trinity are but Three Names of God or three relations of him to the creature 3. That they are Three parts of God 4. That the three Persons are one God only in specie as Abraham Isaac and Jacob are One man because they have but one humane sort of nature 5. That one person in the Trinity is in time or dignity before or after other or greater or less than other 6. That in the Trinity there are three Fathers three Sons or three Holy Ghosts 7. That the doctrine of the Trinity is contradictory or impossible to be true 8. That it is unnecessary to be believed or preached 9. That there are no Impressions or notes of the Trinity on the soul of man or any other known works of God 10. That the works of Creation Redemption or Sanctification are no more eminently or otherwise ascribed in Scripture to any one Person in the Trinity than to the other That Creation is no otherwise ascribed to the Father than to the Son and Holy Ghost nor Redemption to the Son than to
with the People or that he must worship Bread and Wine as his God or that he may give a half-Sacrament of Bread without Wine contrary to Christs Institution the Apostles Doctrine 1 Cor. 11. and all the Churches constant practice till of late And that instead of a Commemoration he offereth a real present Sacrifice for the quick and dead Will all agree to their Image-worship Why then did so many Councils condemn it Will all agree that the Assemblies pray in an unknown tongue He is mad with errour who believeth that ever the Church Universal will receive all these and the rest which pretended Infallibility maketh to be uncurable Errours in the impenitent Roman Sect. 3. And briefly as to the rest there is no Calvinist believeth that ever all the Churches will receive the Lutherane Consubstantiation or Church-Images Nor any Lutherane that believeth that ever all the Church will be of the way called Calvinism a Name even here in England honoured by many that yet disown it as a note of Schism and reproached with the bitterest scorn and accusations by others Indeed the Behmenists the Quakers and some Anabaptists have said that all the Churches would at last and shortly be of their mind But few others believe them nor have cause Sect. IV. That which hath divided the Churches will never be the cement of their Concord But every one of these parties as Sects by that whence others denominate and oppose them have done something to divide the Churches what the Greeks Armâ—â—ans Nestorians Eutychians or Jacobites have done the Papists and others tell you at large what the Abassines do by their Baptizings and other Fopperies I need not declare What the Papists do above all oâ—â—ers I have opened before What the Anabaptists do by differing from almost all other Christians is known What the Diocesans have done in Councils and by silencing others c. enow have shewed What Independents and their way have done towards Divisions and Separations it is in vain in this Age in England to recite And many wise men think that the Presbyterians over violent rejecting of all Episcopacy setting up unordained Elders and National Churches as headed by National Assemblies c. are divisive and unwarrantable As the same men think their making by the Scots Covenant the renouncing of the Prelacy to be the test of National Concord also was And who can think that Erastianism deposing the true use of Church-Government as it hath begun will not still more divide than heal Sect. V. I deny not but Universal Concord may take in almost all such parties but not as such by receiving any of their Errours but as Christians who agree in the common Essentials of Faith and Piety We can unite with sober Anabaptists but not by becoming Anabaptists Christïanity is our Religion and with all that hold the Essentials of Christianity we can hold essential Unity And with those that hold the Integrals most purely we have more and neerer Concord than with the rest that have more errours And if any of these parties be sounder than the rest we love and honour them above the rest and preferre their Assemblies for our local Communion But though my Parlour or Bed-chamber be a cleaner part of my house than my Kitchin or my Coâ—-house I will not say therefore that the whole house must be a Parlour or Bed-chamber or that the hand and the foot are no parts of the body because they are not the head or heart or that all the body must be an Eye or one of the Noblest parts St. Paul hath taught me better than so 1 Cor. 12 We must expect that each party should labour to propagate that which they take to be the truth But to force all to their sayings or persecute or cast off all Dissenters is schismatical whatever be pretended CHAP. IX The pretended Necessity of an uninterrupted Canonical or Episcopal Ordination will never unite the Church but is Schismatical Mr. Henry Dodwells Sâ—hismatical Treatise against Schism considered and confuted § 1. BEcause the City of Rome hath not been conquered and kept by Infidels nor Christianity thence ejected the Papists think that they excell other Churches in an uninterrupted Succession of ordained Pastors and therefore they bend their wits to prove this necessary to every true Church and then to prove others to be no true Churches or Ministers of Christ that want it And because they think that our Pastors can prove no such continued Succession unless as derived to us from Rome and that to acknowledge such a derivation is to acknowledge them a true Church on which we have and must depend therefore they most earnestly manage this Argument against us as their strength Sect. II. And there is lately a young unordained Student of Trinity-Colledge neer Dublin come out of Ireland to propagate this and such like Doctrines in London to which end he hath lately written a large and wordy Volume as if it were only against the Non-conformists Which being new and the most audacious and confident attempt that ever I knew made against the reformed Churches by one that saith himself he is no Papist and being the moâ—t elaborate enforcement of the Papists grand Argument on which of late they build their cause I think it needful to the Readers satisfaction not to pass it by though it will not stand with the order of this undertaken work nor with my want of leisure to write a particular Answer to all the words of so exceeding prolix and tedious a discourse Sect. III. I have oft handled this case already especially in my Disput of Church-Government Disp of Ordination and in my Ecclesiastical Cases in my Christian Directory and that more largely than I must here doe And the Reader that would see more may read the Protestants Cause fully vindicated against Cornelius Jansenius a stronger adversary by Gisb. Voetius in a full Volume de desperata causa Papatus But I shall here first briefly assert the Truth Sect. IV. 1. Christ and his Spirit in his Apostles have already instituted and described the Office of the sacred Ministry and determined what Power and what Obligations to the work it doth contain and what the work is to which they are designed so that it is not left to any Church now to make or amend or change the Oâ—â—â—ce what it is I have described in the Second â—art Sect. V. 2. Christ also and his Spirit in his Apostles have told us what are the necessary qualifications of such as shall receive this Office and be received into it viz. what is necessary to the Being and what to the Well-being of a Minister of Christ And consequently who are utterly uncapable so that Men may by Canons enforce the Execution of these Canons of Christ and may instruct each other how to understand them but they cannot make a Pastor of an uncapable unqualified person no more than they can make currant Coin of forbidden Mettal or Meat of