and languages without separation or distinction being called are to hold communion Shee is frequently compared to a body as in this Epistle not as in reference to Christ their Head as in Ephes 5. but in reference one to another as members 1. All the members are firmly knit by sinews 2. What gifts that any have the rest partake of 3. There is need of the weakest And here I must insert a Storie much used There were oft grievous broiles betwixt the Commons and Nobles of Rome Livius Decad 1. l. 7. Mr. Par. in Rom. 12.4 once among the rest when the people had banded themselves and the Common-wealth in great danger the Senate sent unto the people one Menenius Agrippa a famous Orator to perswade them He tells them this Parable On a time saith he the members of the body objected against the stomack that it devoured all and idlely and sluggishly lay in the midst of the body while the rest of the members laboured full sore whereupon the foot refused to stir and carry the stomack the hand refused to put meat into the mouth the mouth to receive it the teeth to chew it c. what followed the stomack being empty the eie began to be dim the hand weak the feet feeble all the members began to faint and the whole body to wither so that at last they were compelled to be friends with the stomack and they learned that the stomack is the most profitable to all the members of the body and by this parable he quieted the people and brought them to concord with the Senate and so ought it to be in the Church Again let us look upon the Epithites given to her Friends not only to Christ but to one another Brethren begat of the same word bound together per eadem sacramenta unitatis and having subdued the Egyptian that would have enslaved you will you kill one another not only heirs but co-heirs of one Kingdome whereof we hear of no division Nay to make up all Shee is called one not onely one by way of distinction Vritas Distinguens Conjungens because the Concubines that pretend some right to Christ are many the Papist the Jacobite c. and those that quite abominate Christ are many the Jew Turk Persian c. and she is but one from and out of all these but one perfectly one in her self having one God c. All these laid together they conspire nothing but unity and are they that are of the Church nay the Church yet divided what the persecutors in the Primitive dayes made you seem to be by putting on you Bears skins c. you really act on one another to your power by putting on you their hearts and affections You are Heirs of heaven but do you expect to stand before Christ as Paul's or Apollo's his disciples Will you appear as of this or that sect or Church no no I am afraid ere then many of your works must be burnt and that by fire and it s well if some of you escape it for your works are very rotten and counterfeit Oh therefore you that professe the true Church agree of one way before you appear before the Head of this Church for I would say to such as the Apostle 2 Cor. 10.7 Do ye look on things after the outward appearance if any man trust to himself that he is Christs let him of himself think this again that as he is Christs even so we are Christs And sure if we belong to one Christ why should we be of two Churches hath he two Nay conclude this from the nature and constitution of the Church For the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 11.1 Be yee followers of me even as I also am of Christ 2. Let us look upon the Church in reference unto Christ Shee is a Queen having a garment of divers colours of needle-work yet all these colours these gifts so excellently are placed that they make up that one garment and her very beautifull in the Kings eyes Called a flock washed and even shorn not scattered but in one sheepfold and all these bringing forth twins The House of God Doth the God of peace dwell in the midst of you There is one head and one body one Spouse and one Husband one Shepherd and one Flock one Lord and one way Eph. 4.1 I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called Mark what he exhorts us unto viz. a walking answerable to our calling And what more answers Truth then Unity as the natural daughter of the mother and that is shewed ver 2 3 4 With all lowliness and meekness with long-suffering forbearing one another in love Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace There is one body c. and he shews the means of preserving this by using our gifts to this end ver 7. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ Though all one in substance yet different in gifts yet this difference not to make difference but to maintain joyntly the unity of the whole ver 12. And then he applyes this doctrine of Unity by way of dehortation ver 14. and exhortation and direction ver 15 16. Nay more cannot be said then by the Apostle Hebr. 2.11 He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren And sure that vertue whereby we are made one with Christ should make us all as one God the Father so preserved our Saviour that his coat was undivided and not a bone broken and such should be his mystical coat the Discipline of his Church and his mystical body his members in the truth of Jesus Those then that will keep close to Christ need to keep close to his Church He is the fountain stop the fountain where are the streams He is the root that gives sap onely to the branches uncut off Surely Beloved we stop the fountain head we cut our selves from Christ if wee leave the body of Christ we indeed lose our relation to Christ wholly And that you may see whether it be not so that you lose Christ in losing his spouse his body search and deal with your selves impartially and know of your selves since your divisions 1. Whether softnes of heart and tendernesse of conscience be not lessened 2. Whether duties of holy practise be not neglected 3. Whether when thou hast thoughts to rejoyne pride in much strength and power appears in thee 4. Whether the very reall warmth of true affection to godly Ministers brethren and naturall friends if not in thy division be not decayed 5. Whether much confusion be not in thy thoughts 6. Whether sound knowledge saving light that brings peace and joy on sure grounds be increased in thee 7. Whether yet thy mind flotes not whethou makest a period in thy present division and there
home to thy self is not thy heart broken couldst thou not pour forth thy heart upon the Church from the head to the skirts of Christ to the poorest member of his nay when thou sadly resentest the differences of his people couldst thou not be content to give them thy blood to joyn and fasten them together if it could prevaile Were not then the Saints of God one that had the least of the image of God one in whom you could discern any thing of a gracious Spirit dear and precious in thy eyes and did not grace make a great difference in thy affection even towards thy own kindred Art not thou thus still in the right actings of thy mind and affections How is it now that thou dividest from them and enviest and strivest with them What! from the same spiritual temper or are those Christians to whom we were joyned in the same fellowship apostatized from the faith No sure they are the same but you are not the Flesh hath encreased on you and the Spirit but weak in you Sometimes if thou observest thy own heart thou wilt be ready to wrangle with the Lord as Jonah and Elias and therefore he carries this character on him That he was a man subject to the like passions as we are And thou art more ready to vilifie thy brother in thy passions to whet thy tongue I wish they were but suddain passions in his necessities thou putst thy hand into thy bosome or reproachest him in his distresse and his slips are matter of joy and boastings to thee but compare thy self with thy former frame of Spirit deceive not thy self look candidly into thy actions thou shalt find no Gospel character on them thy heart and affections much altered and thou wilt freely confesse this comes from thy over-grown carnal heart from new risings of old mortified corruptions and a loosing of those Gospel reins once laid upon thy Soul 4 Arg. It appears that these only have the rise from the praedominant flesh in us From those many and grosse corruptions that disclose themselves in the handling and managing of Church-contentions 1 Envy That is a grievous sin but cleerly acting herein which is an emulating anothers happinesse Invidus alterius rebus macresâ—it opimis glory prosperity c. and so much the worse to make at the blessings and honour of God conferred on his Church It s the sad prolocutor to many horrid Tragedies and none so desperate and dangerous as the envie of friends for in its execution it loseth all relations even of nature it self 2 Ignorance Not knowning their own weaknesse not the due honour they owe to the members of Christ Jesus in their places nor solidly apprehending the truths of God c. else true and sanctified knowledge would put an end to many differences 3 Pride They suppose themselves slighted and deserving far more then they have seeing that in such a Church way there will be many that will go before them out-shine him look upon their own gifts in a Multiplying glass upon the gifts of others at the wrong end of the Prospective glasse keeping no due proportion and spiritual sobriety in their thoughts of themselves and in their wayes and callings over themselves in reference to others 4 The continuance in these breeds a perverse and stubborn spirit will not return hating to be thought ignorant to be adjudged of errour or guilty of unlawful strivings and divisions that which thrusts them upon keeps them in the way and practicte of Divisions and seldome do we finde such constant to any thing but factions and fractions and are for any wherein they may be eminent Oh it would make a heart to tremble to see what an horrid change is wrought in them what a spirit of deep slumbring is fallen on them they lying under the want even of natural light and reason 5 Coveteousness They cast about for wayes that are profitable and gainful And when the wayes of Truth become thorny and dirty culpable obnoxious to losse of place estate c. then they must divide as Demas leaves Paul and lay out for some other course though opposite to truth it self 6 Corruption An ill judgement and a worse affection Some men love not to live within compasse and by a sober strict and impartial rule like a diseased man that is either ashamed of himself or else fearful his companions will be ashamed of him keeps therefore by himself or associates with his like an evil and unclean heart will warpe from a pure and watchful Congregation These and many others being thorowly and impartially weighed may see these iniquities easily breaking forth and fostered in divisions and must needs say Surely these things cannot be from God but from the flesh Arg. 5. Envyings strifes and divisions tend to the maintenance and satisfying of the flesh and as the end is to which any thing directly tends of the same nature are the means and whatsoever tends not to the glory of God advancement of the truth promoting of the Power of Godliness c. cannot proceed from the Spirit but the Flesh and these lead directly and principally to the pleasing of the flesh and nourishment thereof By flesh I here mean not in a strict sense the touch and sence of flesh and those sins that are acted by and terminated in the flesh which are properly carnal pleasures c. in which sence Saint John takes it 1 Joh 2. and the * Peccata recipiunt speciem ex objectis c. illa peccata quae perficiuntur delectatione spirituali vocantur pec cata spiritualia illa verò quae perficiuntur in delectatione carnali vocantur peccata carnalia Aqu. 12. q. 72. a. 2. c. Schoolmen but that which is commonly called the carnall part the corrupt unregenerate and unmortified part of man in the whole And this 1. Tends to the satisfying and delight of the ungodly and such as are not only grossely carnall but professed enemies to the truth and herein we act no more for them then they would do themselves But of this more hereafter only its a sign that that beareth much evill in it that pleaseth men that are wholly evill and relish nothing else and this not only for them to see it in us but to joyn with parties against us 2. It tends to a general licentiousness men withdrawing their necks from the yoak of Christ run into any way that seems good to them and makes way to an everlasting evagation for he that will take liberty to divide from a people walking by Divine Rule in the main must lay down in themselves a Principle of unsetlednes and to have a grant of Liberty to depart at pleasure from any else that appears not to be more divinely grounded and so like the Traveller passes from one place to another from one Church to another for novelty curiositie and speculation sake only is not so sure to return to his true home as the Traveller and this is
in all oh therefore tolerate thy self not in the least evill 6. A last occasion and ground of division is a superlative liberty due unto Prerogative saints under which all heteroclitall judgements lies couched this hath been so much searchad into by others that I need to say nothing in reproof onely propose to every true conscientious professor these considerations 1. That none can divide from any Congregation upon hopes of obtaining more purity light and Christian liberty c. unlesse he be infallibly assured that he falls into a way more Scripturall and agreeing to the plain speaking Texts of Scripture he must else most precipitantly and ignorantly run from them if the way be not groundedly cleared to him before or make his liberty of Conscience a meer pretence for his division which is either to vex the Church or please his lusts 2. That our Christian liberty lies not loose neither under the definitive determination of any man but our Christian liberty either lies explained in Christs laws in things necessary or may paralel to some of his Laws in things indifferent and these Laws are to be easily known of all whereby the happy peace and unity of the Church is much setled Our liberty is a necessitous not an arbitrary liberty fixed not unbounded ordered not confused reall not imaginary explained not mysterious holy not licencious but wholly serving the Lord. 3. That there is no Christian liberty that destroys naturall affection civill bonds and interests that gives way to any ungratefull and unfaithfull treachery in civill matters but rather confirmes and rightly orders the contrary much lesse is destructive to the order decency peace and unity of a Church 4. That the use of all Christian liberty in things indifferent is allowed for the preservation of our Christian brother with whom we are commanded to bear as a weaker brother not to offend a little one to lay no stumbling blocks before him which weaker brother you judge to be the Church that you doe forsake and from whom you divide that Church dwelling as it were in a lower region and sitting in a more unknowing Classis then you do and therefore by the Gospel rule you ought to have a care that you offend them not and of them there be many thousands in the use of your Christian liberty 5. That all liberty ought to serve unto the Kingdome of Christ else the priviledges of his Kingdome would destroy the being of it and so by necessary consequence all liberty must serve to unity Unity being absolutely necessary to the well-being of his Church And that thou maist walk like a Christian in the use of thy liberty take these Directions Have not an overweening conceit of thy own judgement worth and excellency this will cause thee else to despise others to put thy self before others and in all actions and disputes to shew more ingenuity then conscience Such a minde is an enemy to the Spirit stands open to temptation especially to seductions and hath man more then God before his eyes Be sober minded and of a sober carriage for he that hath an intoxicated fancy and an inebriated brain knows not himself nor where he is he is sick of wholsome truths and reels too and fro in his minde from this opinion to that but adheres to none Bee you then babes not in knowledge but in actions bee yee little ones as in the eyes of the world so in your own such will be spirituall children children associating and uniting together such seldom fall from the truth and divide from the Church In a word let him that names the Lord Jesus Christ depart from iniquity separate betwixt himself and sin for its unmortified lusts in us that causeth us to divide let us be contentious against sin within us sin without us striving against the corruptions of nature temptations of Satan the oppositions and allurements of the world On these if a man spend his zeal the strength of strife the activity of division he shall find much brotherly concord and unity in the wayes of Christs Kingdom nor leisure to dispute unnecessaries nor will to divide for them I am now tedious to my self much more to you let me but set on these instructions and directions by a motive or two and so conclude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à In conjugatione Piel significat dividere Therefore the Greeks called them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Leigh and Weems If I could perswade you that you were guilty of envy strife and division I should perswade you to leave it especially those actions wherein they appear I know you see it in your selves oh leave this Pharasaical this meerly Pharasaical way the Church of the Jews in their decaying age fell into several Sects the Sadduce the Pharisee the watching and the strict-living Pharisee the Essaeni and so the Church of Rome in their backsliding age fell into their Fryers and them of severall sorts c. Oh let this scandall passe from us and let us not be in a dying age when we should be reviving let us all study now how to make peace make it your business every one of you in your places and callings Masters Magistrates Ministers c. to put on this smooth skin this meek heart and to procure peace and unity in the Church of Christ and for this end consider How the Church of God stands towards Her self Christ her Head Her Enemies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated by the 70 evermore congregare or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 congregatio and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First concerning the Church as she is in her self not only many precious promises of peace and unity are made unto her but the Gospel the complement of promises holds out the same by way of direction love as a stream runs thorow the whole channel of Scriptures it s the great cry of all the Prophets and Apostles if it had been an Observation scattered in one or two places that had been sufficient but it s that silver string that is drawn thorow all the Epistles and tyed on a most compleat knot in St. Johns Epistles And as these commands are sent to the Church and all that is of her so mark under what Parables she is shadowed forth in Scripture to name but a few Shee is frequently compared to a vineyard and that must not lie common but be let forth to husbandmen to be fenced the trees pruned and watched the stones cast out the bryars plucked up and burnt the Foxes taken I cannot stand to comment upon all these passages Shee is again set forth to St. Peter under a sheet this sheet hath four corners which are the four parts of the world out of which the Church was to be called in these are all creatures and all these are common and mixed together in one sheet but as corn of several grains thrown into a sheet will soon be mingled so all people nations