THE TRUE WAY Of Uniting the People of God In These NATIONS Opened in a Sermon Preached in the Chappel at White-Hall Jan. 1. 1659. By PETER STERRY LONDON Printed by Peter Cole Printer and Book-seller at the sign of the Printing-press in Cornhill neer the Royal Exchange 1660. TO THE Christian Reader Christian Reader I Thought not of troubling the Press with this Sermon untill I had that Task imposed upon me by some worthy Persons and Honorable Members of this present Parliament who were Auditors When I have been meditating upon the Works of God with us in these Daies that Scripture hath come into my mind which our Savior propounds to his Apostles as a Cure of their Ambition and a quickening Cordial for their Mutual Love The first shal be last and the last shal be first As the Apothecary beats his rich Spices very a Compositio perfecta per minimas partes smal to the finest pouder then turns them often over from top to bottom from the bottom to the top again that so he may make a perfect mixture of them into one Body Thus the Lord beateth and bruiseth his People in these Nations thus he raiseth up and casteth down he sets them up over the heads he laies them low under the feet of each other by many Changes and Vicissitudes The end of all is that He may hide Pride Ambition and the Love of this World from our Eyes that He may work us through Humility Meekness and Mutual love unto the Unity of the Spirit and the sweet Fellowship of one Mystical Body in our Lord Jesus The little pleasure which I take in as also the little profit which for the most part redounds from Verbal Apologies have made me long silent while thou mayest perhaps have read or heard reported words as having proceeded from me in a publick Sermon which were absolutely untrue both for the form of Expression and the Sense It seems not unfit upon this occasion of appearing in Print nor improper for my present Subject to give thee this Account of my self First It appears to me a very vain thing for any person in this world to determine with an infallible Assurance the state of any person in the next world without a particular infallible and extraordinary Revelation from Heaven in the case which I never pretended to Secondly According to my poor measure of Understanding in the Gospel nothing can more fundamentally subvert the whol Mystery of Christ together with all Evangelical Spiritual Principles and Truths nothing can more directly oppose the Supream Design of the Father the Peace and Comfort of all his Children than to joyn any Creature with our Lord Jesus in the Great Work of his Mediation a principal part whereof his Intercession is the value and Vertue of which Part as of the whol Mediation consists in this That our Lord Jesus our only and ever blessed Mediator and Intercessor is the only true Eternal God of one undivided Essence with the Father and in all things equal to Him I humbly intreat thee Christian Reader to judg of me according to these Maxims and to beleeve that I never did and through Grace hope that I never shall express any thing unsuitable to them But it is good for us to say to all in all Cases as St. Paul saith to the Galatians You have not b Injury is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the privation of some good but the good things of a good man can never be taken from him Maxi. Tyr. injured me I am as you are be you as I am I am as you are I set my soul in your souls stead Be you as I am in the fellowship of the same Grace and Love of the Father in the Unity of the same Spirit through our Lord Jesus in whom I am for his sake Thy Servant PETER STERRY A Sermon Preached in White-Hall Chappel on the Lords day in the afternoon January 1. 1659. Psal 134.3 the latter part of the verse For there the Lord hath commanded the Blessing and Life for evermore THe Subject of this Psalm is the Vnity of Brethren In the first verse you have a Contemplation of the Beauty Profite or Pleasantness of this Unity with a high Admiration Behold how good and how pleasant is is for Brethren to dwell together in Vnity This is illustrated by a double Similitude The first is taken from the precious Oyntment upon the Head that ran down upon the Beard even Aarons Beard that went down to the Skirt of his Garment This costly Oyntment was a figure of the Holy Ghost poured forth upon our Lord Jesus our true high Priest and from him as from the Head running down upon his whole Mystical Body and going down even to the lowest Member of Christ which is but as the Skirt of his Garment This Annoynting makes them all One Spirit and from this unity of the Spirit as from a rich Oyntment goes forth a sweet savor of Love Spiritual Delight and Joy into the Nostrils of God the Father our Lord Jesus the Holy Angels and all the Saints This is the sence of the second verse In the third verse you have the second Similitude borrowed from the Dew of Hermon and that Dew that descends upon the Mountains of Sion As these Hills ow all their freshness and flourishing to the Dew or Rain that comes down from Heaven upon them so doth all the Beauty Pleasantness Fruitfulness of the Saints proceed from the Unity of the Spirit After this comes in the Conclusion of the Psalm which like a ful Close in Musick brings a fulness of Blessings along with it There the Lord hath commanded the Blessing even Life for evermore There that is where Brethren dwel together in Vnity there God hath commanded Blessing the fulness of all blessings which according to the Language of the Jews the Holy Scriptures is wont to be expressed by the single term of Life Together with all this goes the Establishment and Everlastingness of these Blessings Life for evermore It is manifest by what hath been spoken that the Brethren here mentioned are the Brethren of our Lord Jesus the Children of God his Father and their Father For among these Brethren alone is the true Vnity every Unity of every other sort of men being only a Conspiracy and Combination of Enmity and upon the Vnity of these Brethren alone is founded the Everlastingness of Life and Blessing The Doctrine which I shal from these words insist upon is this That God hath there ordained Establishment and a Lastingness of Blessing where his People dwel together in Vnity I shal satisfie my self with one full and clear Scripture for the opening and proving of this point 1. John 4.16 God is Love he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God dwelleth in him There is a threefold Love First There is Love in the Fountain which is the Love of God to us the Riches of free Grace Secondly There is Love in the
and hastens the end of all But besides this Solomon hath a Proverb which I humbly pray that it prove not a Prophesie concerning us The Beginning of strife is as the letting out of Waters I know the common interpretation of this Scripture yet may I without wresting apply it to this sence also The People of God in these nations are as a little Medow encompassed on every side with a stormy Sea of raging Spirits at home and abroad The only Sea-wall that defends this Meadow from these multitudes of waters roaring round about it is the Unity of these Brethren in one Spirit If the least breach be in this our Sea-wall and not suddenly made up How will that Sea of domestick Enemies and foraign Nations break in with its waves foaming and roaring upon us untill it have overwhelmed us so that our place shall know us no more To conclude this first part of my Vse God promiseth by Zachariah to pour out upon his Children a Spirit of Grace that they shal see him whom they have pierced and mourn over him O! that the Lord would at this day fulfil this Scripture in the midst of these Nations that he would pour forth upon al the Members of Christ in England Scotland and Ireland such an Enlightning Spirit such a Melting Spirit of Grace that they may see whom they have pierced even their own Heart their own Life the Lord Jesus in their own Bosomes and in the Bosomes of their Brethren while they pierce one another that they may see how they pour Coals of fire rak't from Hel below upon the Head and into the Bosom of that Body of His of which they are al fellow-fellow-members and that having our Eyes opened to see this our hearts might be touch't to mourn kindly over this Jesus over our selves and over each other in Him The second Head Thus I have shewn Why we should mourn Now it follows to let you know What we should mourn for I shal divide this into four Particulars First Let us mourn for the Causes of these Divisions St. James teacheth us Jam. 4.1 that Warrs and Fighting among us are from hence even of our Lusts Let every one now go home into his own Soul and where he finds Covetousness Ambition Self-love Love of Pleasure Love of this World or any other Lust let him bring it forth before the Lord and say This is that Fire-brand which I have brought to kindle or encrease this flame of Contention that devours us Then let him give no rest to himself until he have quench't this Fire-brand and contributed to the quenching of the universal Burnings by repentant Tears and the Blood of Christ 1 Cor. 3.3 St. Paul thus expostulates For ye are Carnal For whereas there are amongst you Envying and Strife and Divisions are ye not Carnal and walk as men See the Reason of our Divisions our want of Spirituality our Carnality O that there were a man whose voyce were heard in the ears of the Lord saying If I had been Spiritual if I had walked in the Image and Likeness of God according to the vertues of God according to the Divine Nature I might have been that poor wise man spoken of by Solomon that might have Saved the City of God among us from these Desolations by its Divisions But now Alas I have been carnal and walked as a man I have been so far from suffering injury that I have done wrong Instead of Beleeving all things for Good I have been swift to hear and to beleeve Evill and have rejoyced in the Evill of others which I have heard When I should have born my own Burthen my self and have born my Brother's burthen too I have cast the whol weight of my own burthen upon others til they have been opprest with it but have refused to touch their burthens with my little Finger In the place of blessing those who cursed and praying for those that persecuted me and this way heaping Coals of the Fire of a Spiritual Love from Heaven upon their Heads Have I not cursed those who have blessed persecuted those who have prayed for me and as I have thought any man mine Enemy cal'd for a Fire of wrath and Vengeance from Hell to take hold of him This this Carnality in my Heart and Life is that Seed out of which Strife and War are grown up to this Heigth and Greatness The Living Viper carries a mortal poyson about with him but being dead as Physitians say makes an excellent Antidote and Cordial By being alive in the flesh and in Carnal Principles we are become a generation of Vipers O! that our Hearts broken and Spirits mortified through an Evangelical Repentance and a lively Faith in the Cross of Christ might now through the Grace and Spirit of Christ become saving Antidotes or reviving Cordials to the poor dying cause of God Interest of his People and the whol Three Nations Secondly Let us grieve for having ministred any Occasion to our Contentions The Fire is lodg'd in the Flint and comes forth from that but it is the striking of the Steel upon the Flint which makes it to fly out Perhaps the Fire of Strife hath come forth from other Spirits but if my want of care and caution my want of exactness and integrity my failing in prudence and tenderness have made me as the Steel which by striking upon another mans Spirit hath drawn forth sparks of Fire or if I by my Over-credulity or Incredulity by my slackness or hast have been as Tinder to receive and cherish those Sparks which otherwise might have dyed I am not to hold my self guiltless but to repent of this also as a Sore Evil among the Saints while they live under the Sun Moses fell in the Wilderness only for the unadvisedness of his words from impatience and hastiness of Spirit under the greatest provocations Thirdly We are to weep for our having been Actors in our Divisions Who can wash his hands in Innocency and say that he hath not been in som kind an Accessary in the Guilt of our confusions although he hath been no Principal Hast thou not contributed to them by advising abbetting encouraging countenancing of them at least by withdrawing that Barr which thou might'st have put in their way by thy Counsel Assistance and Interest Hast thou not been pleasing thy self to think of making out thine own Interest by the publick Discord by a violent and bloody Change when thou shouldst like Curtius have cast thy self with that which was dearest to thee into the Gulf to have stopt the flowing forth of these waters of strife or like Paul been ready to have offered thy self up upon this service of Love to have become a Sacrifice for the Peace of the Church and Nation Fourthly Let us weep and bleed for this if we have been the Authors of these Differences Solomon brings this in as the Highest and Last of those things which the Lord most eminently hates and which are the
of the Dove the Holy Spirit or the Seed of the Serpent rather Do we shew our selves Christians or Devils the Children of him who hath his name of Devil and Satan from accusing the Brethren from Slanders and Hatred who was a Murtherer from the Beginning Do not we make our selves Murtherers like him as of the same Seed while we hate one another while we carry Swords and Fire in our Tongues I would they were not in our Hands also to destroy one another How was Jesus Christ Glorified in his Saints of old in the Primitive times when the Heathen cryed out with admiration See these Christians how they love one another But how should our Hears now faint and break with in us to hear the reproaches of al round about us while they cry See the Saints how endlessly they fall out and fight one with another how eagerly they tear one another in pieces for the prey and the spoil Reason 3. We have been joyned together in one common Faith we have Prayed together we have taken sweet advice together in the House of God in the presence of the Lord concerning these things at the beginning of these times The Heathen ever esteemed these things to have eaten of one Bread to have sate at one Hearth and warmed our selves at one Fire to have been partakers of one Table as sacred pledges of an inviolable Friendship Shal then Christians have no respect to these things that they have by their common Faith eaten of one Bread and that Bread the Lord Jesus that they have by their joynt Prayers warmed themselves at the same fires of the Love and Riches of the Father and Christ that they have been partakers in their Counsel and Communion of the same Table yea the same Altar which is Christ risen from the Dead Shall these things be Pledges and Ties of friendship among Christians which have no force no value in them like the Cords with which the Mad men in the Gospell were bound which they broke as fast as they were bound with them returning to their wildness and to converse among the Tombs There is a Mysterious Fable among the Poets of the Teeth of a Serpent which being sown immediately sprung up into armed men that as immediately destroyed one another What fear what confusions what repentings ought to arise out of this Consideration that our Faith Prayers Spiritual Communion should prove such Teeth a Serpentine Seed out of which indeed we are grown up into the strength and Powers of this World like armed men which we presently make use of so soon as we are sprung up into them to our mutual Ruine Reason 4. The Lord Jesus suffers greatly by our Divisions A Wound is described to be a violent separation of the parts of the body one from another Solutio Continui Sickness is the Disagreement of the Humors in the body fighting one with another The neerer any of these Parts or Humors are in place or influence to the Heart the more grievous is the Wound or Sickness While the Members of Jesus Christ which are so neer to his Heart are by the violence of their Divisions separated and torn asunder What Wounds are made upon the Body and Spirit and Heart of the Lord Jesus O! all you that pass by that look on nay that are actors in these things is it nothing to you the grief and pain which Jesus Christ feels The Jews say that their Messias lies sick in Paradise of the wounds which the Children of Israel have given him by their sins Alas how true it is that our Messias our blessed Savior who is our only Paradise while he is indeed in Himself and to Himself an Eternal Paradise yet in the midst of us and by the vertue of his Relation to us lies bleeding sick and dying of the wounds which he receives by our Contentions and Enmity Thus we blast our own Paradise and turn it into a Wilderness If Jesus Christ suffer thus much in us and from us shal we have no bowels no fellow feeling to suffer together with him It was a Heavenly Resolution in that Father who said If my Wife and Children were hanging upon my Arms and Legs if my aged Parents laid their bodies weeping in my way to keep me from going to die for the Testimony of Jesus I would throw away my Wife and Children from me I would go over the aged bodies of my dearest Parents But behold a quite contrary Image of things Jesus Christ hangs upon your Arms and Legs and Hearts he laies his bleeding Body his glorified Person in our way yet we cast him off violently from us we go trampling over him to pierce the bodies spirits one of another Can we cast our eye upon these Bleedings and Breakin gs of the Heart of Christ caused by our Divisions not wish that our heads were Fountains of Water to weep day and night for the Breaches of his People Can we hear him crying out from Heaven as he did to Saul O! all ye Beleevers of England why pierce ye me behold and see if any sorrow any sufferings were ever like unto mine who suffer in you all and for you all Which of you suffers and I am not sick and burn Can we hear this and not let our Weapons fal out of our hands and fal down weeping in the embraces one of another at the Feet of our Lord Jesus If we see not these things which I have urged as Spiritual truths it is because there is very little of the Light of Christ in us If we be not tenderly affected with them it is because we have very little of the Life of Christ Reason 5. Our Divisions keep off Blessings and Establishment from us Yea they multiply our Confusions and consume us Jesus Christ is a precious and sure Corner-stone to whom coming we grow up altogether into one Building to a Temple to the Lord. The Corner Stone unites the parts of the Building and so becomes the strength of it Jesus Christ is first a principle of Unity then of Strength Establishment and Beauty When Unity is gone nothing can come but Deformity Dissolution and Desolation St. Paul warns the Galatians and all us in them that If we bite and devour one another we should take heed that we be not consumed one of another Galat. 5.15 Let us not deceive our selves by thinking that we are the stronger party and may safely bite or devour the weaker The Spirit of God cleerly signifies the danger of being al of us strong and weak mutually consumed by one another if we bite and devour one another Wo unto us that instead of being as a faggot whose band is entire the least stick whereof cannot be broken by reason of the united strength of the whole we have a fire kindled upon us which hath burnt our Band that we consume the faster while every one by his own Heat not only consumes himself but encreaseth the flame in all the rest