Spirit in the Bond of peace See his Argument For there is one Body and one Spirit It was Christs Intercession to his Father Oh how Pathetick is that his Prayer in John 17 th That they may be one as we are one that they all may be one that they also may be one in us that they may be made perfect in one And this tendeth much to Gods glory the Supream ultimate end of his true Worshippers according to that in Rom. 15 th That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God And I cannot but mention another Scripture very pertinent to the purpose 1 Cor. 1. 10. wherein the blessed St. Paul does most earnestly beseech them by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that they all speak the same thing and that there be no Divisions among them but that they be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and the same Judgment And to the Philippians we shall find him pressing it as the only thing to be desired coming in with an Only let your Conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ that whether I come to see you or else be absent I may hear of your Affairs that ye stand fast in one Spirit with one Mind striving together for the Faith of the Gospel And truly Sir why should the Apostle so adjure us to Unity were it not of high Concernment to the Promotion of Christianity for if we inspect but his concluding Farewell to the Corinthians in the Second Epistle Chap. 13. Vers 11. Finally Brethren farewell be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind live in peace and the God of Love and Peace shall be with you We know not how great a Mischief a little fire of Contention may do it may verily encrease to more ungodliness Division is the Devils Musick but it will center in our sorrow But Unity it is Christs delight let us follow it because Gods Injunction Follow Peace with all men and because a branch of the Covenant of Promise I will give them one heart and because an Evidence of a Discipleship to Christ By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another For which also we have the Practice of the Primitive Christians for our Presidents The Multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul And in short There is but one God one Christ one Faith c. Therefore as the Wise man sayes let us hear totum hominis Fear God and keep his Commandments and let us not waste our inch of Time troubling our heads about all the Controversies in the world We must know this for certain that there 's but one way left us for Salvation Let us hearken to the summe He that believeth on the Son hath Life but he that believeth not on the Son shall not enter into Life but hath the wrath of God abiding on him Again He that would be my Disciple let him deny himself take up his Cross and follow me Here is no Glossography plain Terms the Simple may understand it with facility though the Wise cannot practise it without the Operations of Omnipotent Grace therefore our Duty is in leaving Disputing to fall upon Practice But how greatly is it to be bewailed and how dolorous a Complaint may we take up in that we are circumvented with multitude of erroneous Principles and hereby the breach of Division groweth wider and wider and I profess let what will be said That to teach us Wisdom and Unity God will send some severe Dispensation and it is well if Gods Judgments are not impending over our heads for this our sin shall we then go on to provoke the Lord Certainly he will vindicate his own Glory when we have tasted by fearful Experience the smart of Gods Judgments for our Divisions and he hath let in our Enemies on us and suffered our Fears to overtake us and let us suffer together then shall we certainly cry è bello Pax No more Warre we have experimented its evil but candid Peace shall return but till God by an eminent Act of his Righteousness putteth forth his hand and executeth Judgment there is little hope hereof we being so greatly degenerated and the malignant Diseases of our Minds grown inveterate But then Sir to conclude how daring are we when the Symptoms of our uineby the malicious intentions of our Enemies is presaged which through abundant mercy hath been detected and thereby hindred to which Plotts and Conspiracies against our King Government Persons and Religion have we given much advantage and encouragement by our Divisions yet hath God freely been Gracious still in detecting and defeating them hitherto and shall we be so foolish and unkind to God as to still persist in our Iniquity and as it were wilfully to draw down Judgements on our own heads and provoke God to withdraw his protecting Providence from us I would perswade all men to Obedience to the Higher Powers for they be of God and it is Gods will that we should obey Magistrates and not speak evil of Dignityes they are an Ordinance of God and we highly advance Gods honour in esteeming and submitting to his Ordinances but Conscience prohibiting what the Magistrate enjoyns whom should I obey God or Man judge ye Conscience in mans Soul is Gods Vicegerent and Conscience wronged will reproach whose reproaches are intollerable for my part I rather choose that the whole world should defame me than my own Conscience accuse me for Conscience is a bosom Friend and consequently if a Friend a most sweet and intimate if enraged it is an enemy from which there is no flying it will pursue a man in every place company action c. if therefore one Christian that expecteth salvation by Faith in Jesus can act that which another professing the same Faith cannot let them not censure bite and devour each other this is the temper rather of ravenous Woolfs than of Christs Lambs And Sir my Respects and Service to you craving your Acceptance of this poor but I can say well-meaning Epistle wherein as I have said so do I reiterate that Unity is the way for our Church and State to flourish it promotes the twisted Interest of Gods glory and our good it plucks down Satans Interest and Popish Plotts and Projects it discourageth greatly And if still we will have no regard to the Commands of the Gospel to the Love of Christ to the Fellowship of the Spirit which is Love which worketh Love wherever it dwelleth If we will have no respect to the Glory of God in the Propagation of the Gospel if we refuse to love our Nation our Families our selves our own Souls and Bodies let us go on in Divisions Strifes and Contentions but be content to suffer what miseries follow which most certainly will come upon us and if God in infinite free Grace and Mercy prevent not be our total Destruction and Overthrow Eor preventing whereof let us unanimously with one Consent with one Shoulder bear one anothers Infirmities and endeavour to serve one another in Love That this Heavenly Benediction may fall upon us our Church and Nation viz. That the God of Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepheard of the Sheep through the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant make us perfect in every good Work to do his Will working in us that which is well-pleasing in his sight thorough Jesus Christ to whom be Glory for Ever and Ever Amen So heartily Sir desires and prayes Your sincere and Willing Servant A. E. FINIS
a thing is it Sir for us to encourage these wicked Enemies of God these ill-wishers to his Church and dividers thereof this fire from Hell to consume us if God prevent not therefore it is time these Coals of Contention be extinguished lest they catch hold and consume us But if so be our Disunion is so pernicious so greatly complying with and gratifying the evil intents of our enemies then certainly the most effectual way to be our own Friends likewise to frustrate and disappoint the Projects and Expectations of our deadly Enemies is to unite in Love and notwithstanding there may be some dissension in Judgment not to let it grow so wide as to cause an absolute difference in affection Indeed I would desire and much would it conduce to our good if these Jarrings were forborn considering we are Brethren and why should we fall out by the way and seeing on both sides amongst the Orthodox there is no difference in fundamental Points But he that gives the first stroke does worst Nocens tacet Truth must be defended therefore a sober impartial Vindication can't be blamed but there is a time for this nevertheless in my thoughts the present time calls for our Divines to be endeavouring to cut the Sinews of Popery to batter down the Walls of Babylon Let us beware of temporizing let not Promotion blind or Uncharitablenesss byass let no man confide in his Parts Learning Wealth or Dignities but consider Promotion cometh neither from the East nor from the West but from the Lord only and if so let us endeavour to find it be in mercy for Wealth and Promotion may as well be a Curse as a Blessing a Knife that is sharp may be serviceable but to cut our Throats withall is greatly hurtful a Sword by how much the keener by so much the more excellent but in the hand of a Mad-man by so much the more deadly And therefore let Brotherly Love remain following the Advice of the Blessed Apostle If a Brother offend not to despise him but in the Spirit of Meekness to restore such an one considering with thy self that thou mayest also be tempted But alas poor frail Creatures that we are how apt to despise an Erring Brother and how little sensible of our own weakness and how apt our frail Natures are to decline or turn aside to our Enmity and Contentions which are very dangerous and Divisions which are Church-ruining How lovely and pleasant a thing is it then for Brethren to live together in unity It is the new Commandment yea and a Command in special and verily a necessary essential part of true Christianity and doth not disobedience to one Divine Command render us conscious of breaking the whole And if Hatred to our Brethren be an Evidence of one cordially embracing Christianity what then will become of our Bibles but if they which are Verbum Dei be true it is an Evidence of an unholy unchristian temper But alas how miserable are we become through our various divisions how desolate do we sit a thing greatly to be lamented I find mostly that our Differences are in Affection In Judgment we have many and really exceeding Erroneous viz. the Romists to whom we neither seek or or hope for Reconciliation believing them to be in their vile Principles irreconcileable to the very Law of God endeavouring as it were practically to rend the Decalogue out of the Bible by their wicked Principles of Impiety with respect to the first Table and of Immorality in reference to the second The Antisabbatarians pluck out to their power the fourth notwithstanding a Memento prefixed before it as also fixed in the heart of the Decalogue The Antinomians they are for taking away the whole Law at once denying it and rendring it wholly useless to Christians whether as a Rule or in it's coactive or punitive power The Socinians also a most dangerous and wicked Enemy a dreadful disturber of the Church and Violator of the Gospel endeavouring with Arrian to quench the Deity of the Son of God denying also our Redemption by the Blood and Satisfaction of Christ to the high dishonour of the riches of Gods Grace and hurt of Souls endeavouring to deprive us of the benefit of the New Testament The Antiscripturists who are the Enemies to the Scriptures cashiering both Old and New Testament And the Antitrinitarians who are blasphemers of the whole Trinity And the Familists who leaving the sure Rule of the Word trust to Satanical Delusions Not to leave the Separatists who absent all publick Communion pretending that for which they have no ground viz. to live above Ordinances Poor Creatures because they know not the marrow of them they live above that which they know not But these I wave which or most of which are far distant from the Communion of the Church of England whether as to the Conforming Orthodox party who embrace the Pure Doctrine of the Book of Homilies or as to their dissenting Brethren of the Non-Conformists And therefore these moderate differences ought not to make immoderate distances But I must needs grant that difference in Judgment frequently causeth alienation in Heart and swelling of mind and hereby do we see that those Friends who have been near allied and held an intimacy of acquaintance when they have come to clash one against another in Opinions have also forsaken their former intimacy and frequently grown Enemies in opposing and censuring each other and by reason of this disunion come so many Invectives in Pulpit and Press For to tell the truth in some Churches there is so much inveighing against their contrary Party as that it hath amazed me to consider whether these men thought they had their Commission from God to preach the Gospel or to declaim against a particular party of Protestants But if so be that we are unanimously Protestants in the main dissenting only in some particular Opinions in the holding and maintaining of which dependeth not Salvation or Damnation is it not very unreasonable that the poor Souls attending their Ministry should be denyed the wholsom Bread of Life and held to that Hay and Stubble which neither is Food suited to their Nature or Nourishment What good doth it any man on a Sabbath day to enter into the Church and instead of a good practical Sermon which tendeth through Gods grace to warm the Affections and influence the Practice to hear a speech of Reviling or contemning the Dissenters if this person be one desirous to hear Gods Word and regards the way ad vitam aeternam I durst be confident he approveth not hereof this being the way rather to starve than feed his Soul Let there not therefore be such Invectives in Pulpit and Press which tend not to the profit of the good but to incensing the Malice of the bad for hereby many are influenced to Raillery and contemning others but for what they understand not only receiving and entertaining Prejudices which tend much to Gods dishonour
towards higher Promotions But Sir let them contemplate that thundering Menax in the Gospel He that denyeth me before men him will I deny before my Father and before the Angels of God But oh how natural is it for man to set up his Riches for his God and to fall down and worship them Others by putting confidence in their Parts Learning Wisdom and Strength of Reason are hurried and driven to Errors in Religion for notwithstanding Religion is not contrary to Reason yet it is above it fo far forth as it is carnal or humane immensly overreaching surpassing and surmounting our poor shallow Capacities hence the holy Apostle in 11th of the Romans having seriously considered and contemplated the Decrees Wisdom and Counsell of God how does he seem to abandon all his Reason though certainly very perspicuous and fall into a Passionate admiration of the infinite Wisdom of God saying O the depth of the riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his Judgments and his wayes past finding out But when by shallow Reason as all humane is in it self considered men would dive into Gods depths of Wisdom and Counsel oh how greatly are they deceived what false Ideas of Religion do they conceive into what multitudes of Errors do they plunge themselves to their own harm to the Churches detriment and molestation in their not resting on Divine Revelation any further than it would suit with carnal Reason I am perswaded this hath much more damnified the Church than the Persecutions of it's most malignant Opposers it being a God-dishonouring crediting him so as no further to rest in his Word than carnal Reason can fathom it 's Truth to believe no further than we can by our Reason and Wisdom trace Hence issued the most notorious Heresies that ever infected the Professing World It is therefore a needful Maxim to make Gods Word our Rule better is the most illiterate person making this Word his Conduct than the Learnedest Hero resting in the validity of his Reason And hence no wonder the Apostle makes this Challenge Where is the wise where is the Scribe where is the disputer of this World God hath chosen the poor things of this World c. and the things which are not to bring to nought the things which are God will have the Revenues of his Glory and he will have no flesh to glory in it self he will bring down the Pride of all flesh one way or other But let Reason have the place of Ancilla Pietatis to be Godlinesses Handmaid and let Religion be the Mistress and have the preheminence then Reason in it's due place is a noble and excellent gift and endowment subservient to Religion and in that place it is a good Servant but otherwise a wicked Master By these or the like means through the horrid depravedness of Nature and the desperate corruption of Heart men are seduced blinded and byassed to prevent which a heart circumcised to love God is necessary whence most sweetly flowes mutuall Love to one another for no man that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also he that hateth his Brother and yet saith he loveth God we have a Divine warrant from the Word to call that man a Liar Mystical Union to Christ and real Implantation into him is inseperably accompanyed with fraternal Union What love the Head and not the Members it is verily impossible Can a man be in Christ and yet out with his dear Members No certainly Christs true Friend will never be his Members Enemy The Holy Spirit inhabiting a mans Heart even that Spirit of Love and Meekness which are the Fruits of that Holy Spirit which certainly it will bring forth in that Garden where this blessed Wind bloweth Now whether or no Strifes Dissensions Heats c. be fruits of this Spirit I leave all to judge who shall peruse this Paper And Sir it is an essential part of the Church of Christ to be conformable to its Head and certainly in some measure conformable to his Will are the true Members thereof however the carriage of some selfish Pretenders to Church-membership may be whose intent may be rather to devour than feed the Flock but in this Censure mentioning it onely by the way without regard to any particular mans Person But Sir I fear our late Literal Skirmish between the Doctor his Vindicators and Respondents has done us no great good it hath not tended to beat down prevailing Popery it hath not been of use to furnish the minds of the People with Arguments against Popish Errours in well grounding them in the Fundamentals of true Christianity a work exceedingly requiring and calling for all the Diligence Parts Learning and Industry of our Divines to be busied about seeming now to be as it were the Vnum necessarium of indispensible necessity the Practical preaching up of Christ in his Offices Priestly Prophetical and Kingly the undermining of all which are to the utmost endeavoured by the Papists yea and ruine too if possible But it is certain the Lord will maintain his Honour in spight of all opposition And Sir how needful is it for our Divines to preach Jesus Christ and him Crucified A suitable Doctrine for this Juncture of time wherein the dismal Cloud of Popish Errors and Superstitions threatens to fall on us But supposing the Doctor is in very truth speaking what the Non-conformists justly deserve as one of his Admirers said in my hearing yet it was unseasonable and this pernicious gloomy season required silence here and an open Mouth against Popery But I will wave that Magna est Veritas praevalebit I designed not when I began to write to meddle with the present Controversie otherwise than to hint of what I could not escape But this I am in fine perswaded of let us warre and fight and jarre and bite one another we are hereby our own destroyers and at last may be our own Butchers and this time calls for a work of far greater necessity and weighty importance yea and the Concern thereof so exceeding ponderous that if we thus continue it may have a sad end and that so grievous that our selves and Posterities may have imposed on us the Yoke of Popery which neither our selves or Fathers have been able to bear Which Yoke to prevent let us unanimously adhere to the Truth of the Gospel and with one shoulder bear the burthen of Reformation in order to which end let us be exhorted to Unity and dehorted from Division for us to expect a flourishing Nation and Religion and to trample on our Enemies whilest we continue in Strifes and Contests among our selves is a thing impossible but Union makes this feasable yea and a thing with facility to be performed And therefore let us seeing Christs Body is a Body of Unity that Spirit of Jesus a Spirit of Love according to the earnest Exhortation of the Apostle Endeavour to keep the Vnity of the