peremptory execution of justice to all complainants In all these respects they should be as hard as the Adamant immovable through fear or favor inflexible by menaces or rewards Such did Jethro commend to choice Men of courage in the first place Exod. 18.21 Which was Hierogly phically resembled by Solomons Throne supported and born up by Lions Magistrates must be as Lions not to devour and seize upon the prey these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were justly plainted by the Heathen but as bold and stout as Lions striking terrour and amazement into guilty consciences for they bear not the sword in vain And procuring an awful reverence of their Dignity by observing meet distance and decorum even in all yet still must they be Lions couchant under the Throne for so were those of Solomon not daring to prove rampant by way of opposition or to give an affront or check-mate to supreme authority Rare was the example of a Lord Chief Iustice of our own so famous in our Chronicle◠who ventured far in com mitting the Prince to prison for smiting him on the face and yet King Henry the fourth his Father thanked God at the tidings of it That he had both a Son of that obedience and a Judge of such irrespective and undaunted courage The Iudges in my Text were clean of another stamp and came as far behind in their exemplary vertue as they went before in time Partiality was their reproach and stain and this with their Bribery the motive cause of Gods restoring and yet not of the Iudges only but of the Counsellors So it follows in the Text The Judges and the Counsellors God descends from the Iudges to the Counsellors and my speech must descend likewise with the order of the words Betwixt these two there is a neer conjunction and are here linked in the same censure after the manner of Malefactors and seldom do they transgress alone They may not unfitly be assimilated to the Liver and the Heart in the body natural the Liver first concocts the meat and converts the nourishment into blood so transmitting it to the Heart which animates it by the inward heat and changes it into vital spirits Thus the Counsellor as the Liver prepares the matter for the Judge who like the Heart by his proper power doth umpire and determine it And as the Liver sometimes corrupts the Heart by conveighing crude and indigested humours and the Heart impoysons the Liver with pestilential vapours and distempers So oft the Counsellor perverts the sentence of the Judge by mis-information and the Iudge crosses the suggestions of the Counsellor by a sinister construction What were the particular faults of Judahs Counsellors is not punctually set down in the Context nor will I be over curious in the inquiry but only probably conjecture in touching those that are nearest allied with their profession and most ordinary in practice Some there are that have vented both their spleen and solly in speaking contumeliously of their calling Pope Pius his comparison of the Field the Fowl and the Net is well known and who were the Fowlers but Advocates and Atturneys Let me not be thought bold though I tax his Holiness Not to mention the resolution of the question by the Duke of Milan touching the precedency of the Lawyer and Physician it being scurrious and invective That common Proverb is as uncharitable as witty The Physitian seldome lives well and the Lawyer dies well The former being oft intemperate in their Diet the latter injurious in their Courses For mine own part I cannot but think as reverently of the Counsellours profession as of the name so honourable in it self that it is attributed by way of excellency to our blessed Saviour And he shall call his Name Counsellour Isa 9.6 yet is this no priviledge of exemption or supersedeas to the professours why they may not prove guilty of miscarriage or lay open to reproof Why else should they stand in need of God's restoring As he spake in praise of Tully He that would commend Cicero must be another Cicero for the strength and sinnews of his Oratory So it were a task more meet for a Lawyer then a Divine to acquaint you with the tith of their abuses I should weary your patience and mine own infirmity as they many of their Clients to insist upon their lingring and tedious delays Involution of practice Labyrinths of suits and controversies cross motions as fitly so stiled as Grammarians derive montes à movendo motion without motion Contentions springing up like Hydra's Heads following fast and thick as one wave upon the neck of another and as one circle begets many So true is that of Solomon The beginning of strife is as the opening of the waters Our Edward the first complained of this evil in his Time so that it hath Antiquity to plead for it That his Lawyers were long advising but never advised And another passed his judgement of them long before Pay them and they will delay you Pay them not and they will deceive you To omit these and many more for I must not be infinite and the tast of the least drop of water in the Sea will make sufficient proof of the brackishness Give me leave to point out in a word or two Two foul enormities and excessive grievances 1. The perverting of the Laws A double Fault of Counsellors by a corrupt interpretation 2. The disturbing and troubling the State with needless and endless altercations Both which may in some measure be imputed to the Counsellours as the Authors 1. The Law is not as other Arts and Sciences that are grounded upon immutable Principles The pervorting of the Laws and confined within certain rules and precepts whose Truth is Eternal yet is it founded upon the evidence of Reason which though it be differently observed in several Nations and is appliable to the emergent necessities and occasions of the same Kingdom nevertheless it must not be made a nose of wax to turn and writhe every way a skippers Hofe to stretch out and girt up at pleasure a Lesbian Rule to serve the present Time or resemble the Polypus in the property that receives the shape and colour from the body it cleaves too and the next adjoining substance How could there be more piety discretion circumspection and moderation used in the framing and enacting of the Laws and the Lawyers themselves who are the Guardians of this Orphan ought to be as the Priests in Malac. cap. 2.7 The people should seek the Law at their mouth And yet for all this as the Heathen man observes of the Athenians That they found out the use both of Corn and Laws (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot but made use of Corn and not of the Laws So are wholsome Laws neglected by the Authors and Contrivers and laid aside by such as should quicken them in the execution And many there are that study the Law for no other end then to find
Psalmist Psal 83.5 And if holiness becomes the material Temple then much more the mystical And if the mystical Temple then chiefly the Priests and Ministers of the Temple Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord Isa 52.11 Yea above all other the High Priest under the Law had this Motto ingraven upon his Mitre Holmess unto the Lord. And certainly the Ministers of the Gospel are every way as much bound to make good this impress and inscription Not ike unto the high Priest and Bishop of Rome who hears no less than His. Holiness in the abstract he being in the mean time as S. Paul justly stiles him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that stigmatical Out-law and man of sin And if we must needs grant him the Livery of Holiness let him be accounted holy as (k) An ad priorem partem nominis Hildebrandini alluserit Petrus Damiani cum Hildebrandum Virgam Assur Sanctum suum satanam appellat equidem nescio quod ad posteriorem attinet ipsa res clamat fuisse illum furialem mundi incendiarium adeoque ipsum Acheronta movisse ut ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 demum perduceretur tyrannis Antichristi Vsserius de Christ Eccles succes cap. 5. pag. 112. Pope Hildebrand one of his own rank and order sed Sanctus Satanus It is the holy Epithet that is given him by Damianus And let them be for ever honoured and magnisied in their royal Title to all posterity (l) Sanctos Cinaedos sanctos adulteros sanccos proditores parricidas sanctes Apostatas sanctos Atheos sanctos Diabolos Defens Eccles Anglic. Cracanth cap. 2. As holy Sodomites and Adulterers at the best holy Traitors holy Apostates holy Atheists and holy Devils If the words sound something harsh I speak them not without authority they are not mine but one of the Worthies of our Church These are the men that are at league with Hell and exorcise the Devils by consent or else as by a Writ De ejectione Firmâ cast them out of their Churches at their pleasure but can in no case dislodge or conjure them out of their own consciences whose very Reliques their Ashes Salt Candles Oyl Wafers are all holy in the highest degree yea their Bells are baptized by them while they in the mean time remain impure wretches and their inward parts are very filthiness But far be it from us to resemble them in their wickedness or to he holy with their holiness Let it not be thought enough for the Ministers of the Gospel to be men in holy orders of impure and unholy lives to be clad in black a colour of gravity and to be light in their carriage and behaviour Nor let it seem sufficient to be meer outsides and formalists in religion like unto an empty superficies without bulk or body ringing out that solemn peal of the Jews The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord And yet these Templars This order of the Templars for the most part have but little regard to the Lord of the Temple and as small care to maintain the honour of the mystical Let us not confine all holiness to the publick place of Gods worship but reserve some part of it at least and assign it to the time And if we maintain out of judgment the calling of Bishops the duty of Tithes of Divine right let the Lords day obtain as much favour at our hands let Christ be thought the Author of it whose name it bears and not pass for an Ecclesiastical constitution Let not those spirits that are of God be holy in this manner but as he that hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation 1 Pet. 1.15 2. Secondly A touch of peaceableness in respect of the Church and State there must be a touch of peaceableness in respect of the Church and State The wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable Jam. 3.17 Even so the spirits that are from above are pure in the first place and peaceable in the second The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace verse 18. Peace is the seed of righteousness This is a duty that concerns Christians in the generality Seek peace and pursue it Psal 34.14 but especially the Ministers of the Gospel who are Embassadors of Christ the Prince of peace whose office it is to bring good tidings to publish peace to preach peace to pray for peace and to endeavour by all lawful means to procure a true and sound peace For although the civil and secular Jurisdiction of the Clergy be lately abrogated and annulled and Ministers remain no longer Justices of peace yet they are and must for ever continue Ministri pacis Ministers of peace And that which should encourage and provoke them thereunto is the present fense and woful experience of the calamities of a civil war The old Athenians never consulted about peace until they were clad in their mourning gowns How hath this whole Kingdom been clad in black the Livery of sorrow and lamentation as if we were now solemnizing the funeral Exequies of our Nation The disconsolate Widow bemoaning the loss of her dearest Husband Parents bewailing the fruit of their own Womb Rachel weeping for her children refused to be coniforted because they were not How hath the High and Honorable Person the Great and Grave Counsellor been snatcht away by an untimely death And is it not high time to advise of peace Heu quantum potuit terrae pelagique Lucan Bel. Pharsal parari Hoc quem civiles hauserunt sangume dextrae And had there been half so much English blood hazarded and adventured as hath been already shed in this civil war we might have made a vehement impression upon the common enemy redeemed and ransomed the Palatinate out of the hands of Popery and cruelty whereunto it hath been morgaged for many years We might have subdued and conquered the Irish Rebels long agoe those barbarous and blood thirsty Rebels not once to be mentioned or thought of without just horror and execration Who now roar in the midst of the Congregations and set up their Ensigns for signs They have said in their hearts let us destroy them together They have burnt up all the houses of God in the land Psal 74.4 8. Yea they have burnt up not the material houses of God alone but well near all the mystical Temples of God with the fiery flames of a civil war 3. A touch of obedience to Authority Thirdly there must be a touch (l) Mallem obedire quam mi acula facere ctiamsi possem It was Luthers answer to the Bishop of Brandenbourg diss ading him from the present publishing of his Propositions Tom. 1. Epist Luth. Epist 32. of obedience to Anthorities For though humane laws do not bind the conscience directly and by an immediate power and vertue of their own yet have they a binding power indirectly and at the second hand The Commands of God are
observed concerning the treating and dealing with Princes Things profitable must be represented to the heart of man rather with the face of delight then of necessity And yet nevertheless this perswasion is not only a moral but a physical cause of mans conversion not barely propounding the object as lovely and desirable but inclining and determining the Will and eliciting the Act of it (z) August adv Pelag. l. 1. c. 24. wherein God doth suadere persuadere working Et veras revelationes bonas voluntates true revelations in the Mind and good affections and desires in the Will And as the same St. Augustine sweetly Deus omnipotentissima facilitate convertit ex nolentibus volentes facit There is the facility of perswasion and an omnipotent kind of working an invincible and irresistible producing the effect that sweetly concurre and go together in mans conversion The third part of the Text is the means of our conversion Thou Saint Pauls preaching of the Word in the publick Ministry The third part The means of our conversion Thou The word preached hath a preheminence and priviledge above the word read and the lively voice a secret energy more then the dead Letter which is dull and flat in comparison of the other But herein especially appears the efficacy of the Ministery that God hath selected and made choice of it as his prime and principal ordinance that he hath destinated and appointed to effectuate mans conversion The walls of Jericho were overturned by a blast of Rams-horns and those blown by the Priests Josh 6.5 And the Midianites discomfited by the (y) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As is moralized by Theodoret in Librum Judicum sound of Trumpets and breaking of Pitchers of Gideons souldiers which more forcible means could not effect Judg. 7.22 Thus doth God cast down those strong holds in the soule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Saint Paul speaks of by the breath of man whose breath is in his nostrills This efficacy of the word of God shews it self in these three particulars The efficacy of the word in these particulars First in the discovery and manifestation of the conscience For the word of God is lively and mighty in operation and sharper then a two edged sword and entereth through First in the discovery of the conscience even to the dividing asunder of the soul and of the spirit and of the joints and of the marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and of the intents of the heart Neither is there any creature which is not manifest in his sight which some expound of the creature of the heart But all things are manifest and open in his eyes with whom we have to deal Heb. 4.12 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Metaphor borrowed from brute Beasts that are unridged and cut down by the back (a) An example whereof we have in a simple and illiterate Christian who at the Council of Nice convinced a great Philosopher with that plain but powerful speech In nomine Iesu Christi audi Philosophe quae vera sunt Ruffiâ—â— 1. c. 3. Thus doth the word make an Anatomy and Dissection of the Soul and the inmost motions and imaginations are made as evident and apparent as the entrails of a beast that is flayed and opened and thereby exposed to publick view Secondly the efficacy of the word appears in the consternation and humiliation of the soul Secondly in the consternation and shaking of the soul For as it manifests the secrets of mens hearts so it makes men fall upon their faces and worship God and say plainly That God is in his Ministers indeed 1 Cor. 14.25 It is mighty through God to cast down strong holds imaginations every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God and bringeth into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.4 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What can be more said to set forth the infinite and irresistible power of the word of God When Paul disputed * A man made up of lust and cruelty Per omnem saevitiam libidinem jus regium exercuit Tacit. Foelix trembled Acts 24.26 The most wicked men are shaken by the word of God yet like unto sturdy Oaks whose lofty tops vaile and as it were strike their sails before the force and fury of the wind but their roots are firmly fixed and immoveable in the same place Thirdly the efficacy of the word puts forth it self in the renewing and changing of the Heart Thirdly in the renewing and changing of the heart this is the proper effect of it The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul Psal 19.7 Give me a man saith Lactantias that is unbridled and intractable in his anger bring him to the word of God and it will forthwith make him as mild and gentle as a lamb Give me a man that is covetous close-fisted greedy and griping the word of God shall cause him presently to become liberal and open handed Give me a man that is as lascivious as a Goat a profest fornicator and adulterer Let but the word of God take him to task and you shall see him sober chast and continent (b) Pauea Dei praecepta sic totum hominem immutant et expolito vetere novum reddunt ut non cognoscos eundem esse Lactantius Instit Lib. 3. Cap. 26. sententia cerum ut plurimum efficiat non exscindit vitia sed abscondit Lactant. ibidem And herein the word of God is far more energetical and operative then the moral precepts and institutions of Philosophers Who when they have done their best do only Palliate and cloke mens vices they do not fell them by the Ground nor stub them up by the Roots 1. And yet this energy of the word proceeds not from any qualifications and endowments of the messengers For Who is Paul and who is Apollo but Ministers by whom ye believed 1 Cor. c. 3. v. 5. Ministers not Authours of of our Faith (c) Cui creditur ipse dat quod creditur non per quem creditur Optatus Lib. 5. He alone works faith in whom not by whom we do believe as Optatus excellently And as it is said in the cure of the Kings Evil Tangit te Rex sanat te Deus So it is the Minister that only toucheth the heart but the taking away the Evil the gift of healing comes from God as the Author 2. Nor doth the efficacy of the word depend upon any vital force or inherent vertue in the word it self For though the grace of God be not only a moral but a Physical cause of our conversion yet the word of God is no Physical instrument that works by its own power and strength And albeit it be sharper then a two edged sword yet it is not like to a material sword that cuts naturally of it self but as every instrument works by the motion and impression of the principal Agent
their Idolatry And this with the former shews the reason and the necessity of the Duty from which I now passe to the third branch of the Text The circumstance of the persons to whom the exercise of the Duty is delegated and referred And these are the Brethren Might the Brethren of the Separation unnatural brethren indeed and such as will not dwell together in unity The third part of the Text. The subject or the parties whom the duty concerns The Brethren might these expound and comment upon the Text they would from hence inferre as from a most evident and pregnant proof the undeniable power and authority of Lay Elders here charactered to the life under the name of Brethren to interpose and intermeddle in Church-censures though without all ground and warrant either of Text or Truth And why may they not as well challenge the priviledge to preach the Word and to administer the Sacraments as rudely hang the Churches Keys at their own Girdles and usurp spiritual Jurisdiction This is an opinion of Fansie rather which though it were sound and orthodox in it self yet malam caudam trahit It carries with it a bad tail and draws after it disorder and confusion And God is not the Author of confusion but of peace as in the Churches of the Saints 1 Cor. 14.33 yea proves extremely pernicious and dangerous not only to the unity and decency of the Church but to the state and being of it For as the blood in the natural body if it falls extra vasa doth soon corrupt and putrifie So doth Ecclesiastical power when it comes into Lay mens hands being then Extra vasa the proper vessels of the Clergy And let me speak to these Sectaries and their abettors as freely as plainly in the words of Moses to Corah and his confederates Ye take too much upon you ye sons of Levi or rather ye sons of Lay men God hath taken thee to him and all thy Brethren the sons of Levi with thee and seek ye the office of the Priesthood likewise Num. 16.7 10 A second sort there are professedly opposite unto the former trampling upon the necks of the common people with the supercilious Pharisee in the proud stile of Populus Terrae as men of no account and reckoning who because they must not presumptuously shuffle themselves into the office of the Clergy condemn it as a piece of spiritual Sacriledge in Lay Christians to meddle at all in matters of Religion Yea to make Piety the subject of their discourse in ordinary conference and to reprove a notorious sinner to his face in private is most unjustly conceived by some an infallible mark of a precise and pragmatical follow and a high strain of singularity Both these are dangerous extremities There are two kinds of Admonition 1. Juridical 2. Fraternal 1. Of Ecclesiastical Authority Two kinds of Admonition 2. Of private Love and Duty There is a Corripe inter te illum and a Dic Ecclesiae The one appropriate and intayled unto Church-men The other in general appertaining to Christians in common And these alone are the Brethren here specified in my Text. Give me leave nevertheless though not to stretch and strain it yet at least to amplifie and enlarge it in the Application to four sorts of men 1. The People Four sorts of Monitors 2. The Pastor 3. The Ecclesiastical Judge 4. The Town Officer All which must admonish those that are unruly First the people must mutually admonish one another Numquid ego sum custos fratris mei First the people was the word of Cain a speech as wicked as the person The faithful are stamped and sealed with another mark in their forehead Then spake they that feared the Lord every one to his neighbour Mal. 3.16 And when God denounceth the fierceness of his wrath against the horrible provocations of his people he adds this punishment among the rest Yet let none rebuke nor reprove another Hos 4.4 And certainly 't is the defect and default of the people in the negligent omission of this duty that makes the Ministers task so hard and difficult They laying this heavy burden of Admonition upon the Ministers shoulders and in the mean time refuse as the Pharisees of old to touch it so much as with one of their fingers It is not for them to become Priests or Clerks so they think and speak no nor religious men in the largest sense And they say in effect of the sins of others as the High Priest spake of that of Iudas What is that to us look thou to that Bewraying an immoderate and selfe-respecting love not only in the things of this life but in point of Religion in the great and weighty businesse of mens Salvation I beseech you then brethren of the common people Admonish them that are unruly Secondly the Pastor must admonish the people It is not sufficient for him to live well himself Secondly the Pastor if he corrects him not by reproof that lives amiss so shall he be punished for another sin were he innocent in his own person Son of man I have made thee a watchman to the house of Israel saith God to the Prophet Ezekiel Ezek. 3.17 And what is the office of a watchman Therefore hear the word of my mouth and give them warning from me And if thou givest him not warning nor speakest to the wicked to admonish him of his wicked way that he may live The same wicked man shall die in his iniquity But his blood will I require at thy hands Who (q) Quis roge tam saxei pectoris quis tam ferreus erit quem sententia ista non terreat Prosper in locum is there of such a flinty heart and iron sinews whom this speech of God to the Prophet doth not affright and terrifie saith Prosper upon the place All other men must answer personally for themselves but the Minister stands charged with the souls of his people as Judah was pledge for Benjamin which made Saint Chrysostome wish and that in a strange manner that there was no day of Judgement Great cause we have frequently and seriously to ponder Saint Pauls charge to Timothy and that with fear and trembling I charge thee before God and before the Lord Iesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearanee and in his Kingdom 2 Tim. 1 2. How could he adjure him in a more solemn and dreadful manner and to what end Preach the word of God bare reading will not serve the turn monthly or quarterly preaching is not sufficient Be instant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 insist and dwell upon it In season and out of season This is never out of season as other creatures are unless it be in respect of the indisposition of the Hearers Improve rebuke exhort with all long suffering and doctrine And to Saint Pauls charge to Timothy let me add the observation of my Text I beseech you brethren of
the rear and charge through and through far more furiously and desperately then the former Their Religion is errour themselves Hereticks their end destruction one Heaven cannot hold them and us hereafter nor one Church now That if we be not damned they will be damned for us This is the charity of the Papists And it would be no breach of charity to apply Jacobs imprecation against Simeon and Levi Brethren in evil Gen. 49.7 Cursed be them anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruel And I will pray yet against their wickedness A second sort that offend against the rule of Charity are professing Protestants Professing protestants and those of both sides and parties the Lutheran and the Calvinist but especially the Lutheran And albeit they are distinguished into Rigidi molles Lutherani Rigid and gentle Lutherans yet for the generality and greater part they are Esaus and Edoms red and hairy all over like a garment and are as rough and rugged in their dispositions as he was hairy in his body Such is the bitterness of spirit and acrimony and sharpness of stile that possesses and transports some of them that Isaiahs Prophesie seems to be verified and fulfilled in a spiritual sense Isa 9.20 21 22. No man shall spare his brother they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm Manasseh Ephraim and Ephraim Manasseh The Lutheran against the Calvinist and the Calvinist against the Lutheran and that with such animosities and heats of Passion that they (l) A Calviniana fraeternitate libera nos Demine Lutheranus quidam apud Prolaeum Fasc cap. 1. q. 7. pray against the brotherhood of the Calvinists And if Adam Contzen the Jesuite may be believed and an enemy deposes as a legal witness (m) Si quisquam Lutheranorum libros erislicos contra Calvinianos vel illerum centra Lutheranos legere velit non hominum in hâ—mines invectivas esse sed Daemonum contra Daemonas furores rugitus sibi persuad ebit Adam Contr. Polit. lib. 2. cap. 19. sect 6. Whosoever will spare so much time as to peruse and turn over the Polemical Writings of Lutherans against Calvinists or Calvinists against Lutherans he will not conceive them as the invectives of men but the rage and roarings of Devils This is the charity of professing Protestants Nor can we of this Church and Nation be acquitted and discharged from being guilty of breach of charity And there are so many faulty in this kind that I may say of them as Leah at the birth of Gad A Troop or company cometh Lo a multitude of all sorts and kinds I shall instance onely in these two Two sorts of professing protestants 1. The hot-headed Pastor 2. The giddy-headed People The first sort who are guilty of the breach of charity is the hot-headed Pastor The hot-headed Pastor who neglecting the well tempered gravity and (n) Mediis consiliis vel Author vel Approbator semper Bucerus Calvin Epist Buâ—ero pag. 81. meek spirited moderation that so well becomes the Ministers of Christ in the dispensation of the Gospel are every way more indulgent to their natural passion of sudden anger the boyling of hot blood about the heart then affected with true zeal they rather scald then warm mens consciences and in stead of a cutting reproof of mens corruptions they fall foul upon ther persons These men instruct the people as Gideon taught the men of Succoth with thorns and briars Judg. 8.16 by pricking and scratching by rending and tearing and by drawing blood of the Hearers The Pulpit while they are in it is nothing but thunder and lightning all in a burning flame like mount Sinai when the Law was given upon it Or rather like mount Aetna that breaths forth Fire and Brimstone to the aâ—tonishment and annoyance of such as are afar off and the utter endangering and swallowing up of those that draw neer All their Sermons are sharp Satyrs fierce Philippicks violent Declamations and are seemingly used to evacuate and empty spleen to vent and void choler in that they abound and run over with Gall and bitterness reproachful and reviling speechs The old Donatists are long since dead yet do they seem to live in this generation And what Optatus in his time affirmed of the one may fitly be applied to the other (o) Nullus vestrum est qui non convitia nostra suis tractatibus misceat Lectiones Dominicas incipitis Tractatus vestros ad nostras injurias explicatis profertis Evangegelium facitis absenti Fratri convitium Auditorum animos infigitis odia inimicitias fuadendo docendo suadetis Opt. cont Parm. l. 4. There is none of you but inserts and interlaces the personal disgrace of others with your own works and writings you begin the reading of the word of God and expound it in our wrongs and injuries you take a Text out of the Gospel and comment upon it with rayling you in til hatred into the minds of your Hearers you perswade Hatred yea you perswade by your teaching Such were the uncharitable usages of the old Donatists and one egge is not more like another then our actions resembles theirs 2. The second sort that are guilty of the breach of charity The giddy-headed people are the giddy-headed people unstable as water as Jacob said of his first born Reuben Gen. 49.4 And they have this property of water that they are very hardly contained within their own terms but most easily within the bounds of another substance who schismatically divide cut off themselves from the unity of the Church and gather separate Churches apart by themselves and so set up Church against Church and Altar against Altar with the old Donatists An evil as antient as the Apostolick times and timously forewarned and forbidden by St. Paul Heb. 10.24 25. Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together and then may men be said to forsake the assembling themselves together when they withdraw and separate from Christian communion and fellowship in doctrine breaking of bread and prayers Act. 2.42 which are so many essential parts of it and wherein as to the publick exercise it consists and stands as the manner of some is and unmannerly manner and that taken up in St. Pauls daies And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works as it is in the foregoing verse whereupon this is inferred so that to be friends and favorers of a separation is by the Apostles argument to be enemies to love and to good works and then are our works good when they are well done and they cannot be well done in schisms and faction to gratifie and please a party to support and uphold a private interest And would we have our works well pleasing and acceptable unto God (p) August in Psal 83. Ponenda sunt ova in nido Ecclesiae (q) Vade prius reconciliare fratri tuo tunc veniens offer donum tuum