and peace will hardly prosper much less if their spiritual Nurses become their chief afflicters Doct. 9. Vnity of the spirit is most necessary to the Church of Christ and to its several members though their measures of Grace be divers Doct. 10. The bond of Peace must preserve this Vnity Doct. 11. This Vnity consisteth in these seven things 1. One body 2. One spirit 3. One Hope 4. One Lord 5. One Faith 6. One Baptism 7. One God Doct. 12. This Vnity must be studied carefully and diligently endeavoured and preserved by all the faithful members of the Church These last Doctrines being the subject which I design to handle I shall speak of them together in the following Order I. I shall tell you What the Vnity of the spirit is which is so necessary II. I shall tell you What necessity there is of this Vnity and what are its happy fruits III. I shall open the seven particulars in which it doth consist and defend the sufficiency of them to the use here intended in the Text. IV. I shall open the nature and terms of counterfeit Unity V. I shall open the Nature and mischiefs of the contrary Division VI. I shall shew you what are the enemies and impediments of this Unity VII I shall shew you What are the study and endeavour and the bond of peace by which this Unity must be kept VIII I shall conclude with some directions for Application or Use of all CHAP. II. The Nature of Vnity and this Vnity of the spirit opened 1. WHat UNITY in General is and what This Vnity of the spirit in special I shall open in these following connexed propositions 1. I must neither here confound the ordinary Reader by the many Metaphysical difficulties about UNITY nor yet wholly pass them by lest I confound him for want of necessary distinction 2. UNITY is sometimes the attribute of an Vniversal which is but Ens rationis or a General Inadequate partial conception of an existent singular being and so All men are ONE as to the species of Humanity And all Living things are One in the Genus of Vitality And so of Bodies Substances Creatures c. It is much more than this that we have before us 2. Some think that the word ONE or UNITY signiâ—ieth only Negatively an Vndividedness in the thing it self But this conception is more than Negative and taketh in first in Compounds that peculiar Connexion of parts by one form and in simple spiritual beings that more excellent indivisible essentiality and existence whence the Being is intelligible as such a subsistence as is not only undivided in it self but divisible or differenceable from all other existent or possible beings so far as it is one 4. Passing by the distinction of Vnum per se per accidens and some such other I shall only further distinguish of Vnity according to the differences of the Entities that are called One Where indeed the difference of Things maketh the word ONE of very different significations 5. GOD is Supereminently and most perfectly ONE as he is ENS BEING No Creature hath Vnity in the same perfect sort and sense as GOD is One He is so ONE as that he is perfectly simple and indivisible and so as that he cannot be properly a Part in any composition 6. Therefore GOD and the World or any Creature are not compounding parts for a part is less than the whole And that which is less is not Infinite 7. Yet God is more Intimate to every creature than any of its own Parts are no form is more intimate to the matter no soul to the body no formal vertue to a spirit than God is to all and every being But his Perfection and the Creatures Imperfection is such as that creatures can be no addition to God nor compounding parts but like to Accidents 8. The same must be said therefore of Christs Divine and humane natures The Schoolmen therefore say that Christs soul and body are Parts of his humane nature but his Godhead and manhood are not to be called Parts of Christ Because the Godhead can be no Part of any thing 9. When Paul saith that God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All in All things he meaneth not that he is formally all things themselves But yet not that he is less or is more distant from them than the form but is eminently so much more as that the title is below him so he is said here Eph. 4. 6. To be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Father of all above all and through all and in us all And 1 Cor. 12. 16. it is said that the same God worketh all in all as to the diversity of operations He is the most intimate prime Agent in all that acteth though he hath enabled free Agents to determine their own acts morally to this or that hic nunc c. For in Him we live and move and have our Being for we are his offspring Act. 17. 10. Somewhat like this must be said of the special Union of Christ and all true believers As to his Divine Nature and so the Holy Ghost he is as the Father Intimately in all but more than the form of all or any But he is specially by Relation and Inoperation in his members as he is not in any others So Col. 3. 11. Christ is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All in All that is to the Church And so I conceive that it is in a Passive or Receptive sense that the Church is said to be the fulness of him that filleth all in all Eph. 1. 23. Whether it be spoken of Christs Godhead only or of his humane soul also as being to the Redeemed world what the Sun is to the Natural illuminated world I determine not But which ever it is Christ filling all in all the Church is called his fulness as being eminently â—possessed and filled by him as the Head is by the humane soul more than the hand or other lower parts 11. The Trinity of Persons is such as is no way contrary to the perfect Vnity of the Divine essence As the faculties of Motion Light and Heat in the Sun and of Vital Activity Intellection and Volition in man is not contrary to the Unity of the essence of the soul yet man is not so perfectly One as God is 12. The Vnity of a spirit in it self is a great Image or Likeness of the Divine Vnity As having no separable Parts as passive matter hath but being One without divisibility even one Essential Vertue or Vertuous substance 13. The most large extensive Vnity as far as spirits may be said to have extension or Degrees of Essence is likest to God And the Unity of a material atome is not more excellent than the Vnity of the material part of the world made up of such Atomes Whether there are such Atomes physically indivisible I here meddle not but the shaping of an Atome into cornered hollow and such other shapes is
below him to be the Informing soul of the world yet is he more than such a soul to it of Him and through Him and to Him are all things who is All things in all things above all and through all and in us all as is aforesaid and being more intimate to all things as their proper form is the first Vniting principle of all being as he is the first Cause and the End of all And yet it is Above the Creatures to be accounted parts of God for they are not his Constitutive parts who is most simple but slow from him by his Causal efflux and so are by many not falsly called Vna emanatio Divina or a continued effect of one Divine creative or efficient Volition All One as In and Of and To One God and as compaginated among themselves and yet Many by wonderful incomprehensible diversities Ab uno Omnia 28. God is said to be More One with some Creatures than with others as he operateth more excellent effects in one than in others and as he is related to those effects but not as his essence is Nearer to One than to another 29. Accordingly his Vnion with the Intellectual Spirits and souls of men is said to be nearer than with Bodies and his Communion answerably But that is because they are the Nobler product of his Creating or efficient Power and Will 30. And so he is said to be more Vnited to holy souls than to the unholy to the Glorified than to the dammed Because he maketh them Better and communicateth to them more of his Glory and the effects of his Power Wisdom and Love As the Sun is more United to a burning-glass or to a place where it shineth brightly or to some excellent plant which it quickneth than to others 31. Accordingly we must conceive of that Vnion before mentioned Thes 10. of Christ with Believers here and with the glorified hereafter as to his Divine Nature which may well be called mystical and is of late become the subject of some mens contentious opposition and is matter of difficult enquiry to the wisest And yet it is hard to say that in all their hot opposition any sober men are in this disagreed For 1. it is by such commonly confessed that the Spirit of Christ doth operate more excellent effects on believers than on others and on the Blessed than on the damned even making them liker unto God 2. And that this Holy spirit is by Covenant related to them to operate for the future more constantly and eminently in them than in others 3. And that this Spirit proceedeth and is sent from the Father and the Son to do these works 4. And that Christ is Related to each Believing and each Glorifyed soul as one in Covenant self-obliged or a Promiser thus by his Spirit to operate on them 5. And that he is thus Related to the whole Church or society of such persons whereof each Individual is a part So that all this set together telleth us that every Believing and every Glorifyed soul is said to be United to Christ in all these several conjunct respects as to his Godhead 1. In that he eminently operateth Grace and Glory in them that is Holy Life Light and Love by the Holy Ghost And this he doth as God doth all things per essentiam and not as distant by an intermediate Vertue which is neither Creator nor Creature As the very Sun-beams touch the illuminated and heated object 2. By a moral-relative Union by Covenant to that individual person to do such things upon him As husband and wife are United by Covenant for certain uses 3. By a Political Relative Vnion as that person is a member of the Church or Political body to which Christ is United by Promise as aforesaid who denieth any of this and who affecteth more 32. And then our Vnion with Christs humane nature besides the General and special Logical Vnion as he is a Creature a Man of the same Nature with us can be of no Higher or Nearer a sort But differeth from the former so far as the Operations and Relation of a Created Medium differ from those of the Creator That is 1. The humane nature is honoured and used by the Divine as a second cause of the foresaid effects of Grace and Glory on us 2. The humane Nature being of the same species with ours is by a Law obligation and consent related to each Believer and to all the Church as the Root and chief Medium Administrator and Communicator of this Grace and Glory and so as our Relative Head in the foresaid Moral and Political sense communicating those Real Benefits 3. And Christ in his Humanity is the Authorised Lord and Governour of all inferiour means and causes by which and Grace and Glory is conveyed to us as of Angels Ministers Word Sacraments changing Providences c. 4. But whether his own Humane Soul per essentiam immediatam attingentiam do operate on all holy souls and so be Physically also Vnited to them as the Sun is to the quickened plants or animals I told you before I know not yet but hope ere long to know 33. Christs Divine Nature is United to his humane in a peculiar sort as it is not to any other creature But it is not by any change of the Divine but by that peculiar possessing operation and Relation which no other created being doth partake of and which no mortal can comprehend of which I have said more elsewhere 34. All Creatures as such are United in God as the Root or first cause of Nature All Believers and Saints are United in Christ as the Head of the Church as aforesaid and in the Holy spirit as the principle of their sanctification 35. The Political Relative Union of such Saints among themselves is intelligible and sure as having One God one Head one Holy spirit But as I said before how and how far their very substance is One by an Unity analogous to Physical Continuity like the solar Light c. and how far and how they are substantially divers and how and how far the spirit of Holiness doth in a peculiar manner Unite the substances of Holy souls among themselves by Analogie to the Illuminated Air c. and how all souls and Angels are individuate and distinguished I say again is past our reach 36. Seeing Vnion is so naturally desired as Perfection by all creatures known to us it is great mordinateness and folly to fear lest death will by too near an Union end our individuation 37. And as things sensible are the first known by man in flesh and we see that among them Union destroyeth no part of their substance but a sand or Atom is the same thing in Union with others as it would be if separate or solitary and a drop of water hath as true and much existing substance in the Ocean as in its separate state and so of a particle of Air we have reason to
of the Countreys and the Judges of all Christians even in secular affairs And when one Sophronius or few others opened the case rightly to them they either understood it not or bawl'd it down and set up a cry Away with the Hereticks The Eutychians following Cyril spake uâ—ntly and said Christ had two natures before the union and but one after because united and union maketh one of two But it is apparent as Derodon hath proved that Cyril and so his ignorant followers did not think that Christs humane nature did exist before the union and so that ever they were divided but that in order of nature the existence is intelligible before the union and so that they were but one as being undivided not denying them to be still distinguishable and so to be what Nestorius and the Orthodox meant by two as being distinct but not divided § 25. And Derodon hath also proved that Cyril and so the Eutychians when they called them One did mean One person mistaking the sense of the word Nature and meaning by Nature the same that the Orthodox meant by Person And so the opening of two words would have ended all their Controversie and proved that they meant the same thing and knew it not that is 1. distinguishing between One undivided and One undistinguished 2. Opening what they meant by Nature and Person But alas this was no work for those famous General Councils but to cry out Anathema to Nestorius Anathema to Eutyches Anathema to Dioscorus Holy Leo Holy Cyril c. these were their arguments And Dioscorus as bad as his adversaries or worse excommunicated Leo the Bishop of Rome and went the Anathematizing way And so much of Religion was placed in cursing one another that there were scarce any Bisops in the world that were not cursed by one another § 26. VI. And the difference between the Greeks and Latines about the words hypostases Personae had almost come to the same extremity When Hierome himself that liked â—ot three hypostases was accused of heresie and was fain to fly to his baptismal Creed for refuge and to prove that he was a believer because he was baptized But one wiser than the rest had the unusual good success as to convince them that by the two words it was the same thing that they meant and did not know it § 27. VII The next calamitous Anathematizing fell out about the owning or disowning of the Council of Chalcedon because of the foresaid Nestorian and Eutychian quarrels And so doleful was the case that it became the test of the Orthodox in one Countrey to Curse or Anathematize that Council and in another to Curse all that did not receive it Especially when one Emperour was for one side and the next for another the Cursing varyed accordingly for the most part § 28. But that which added grievously to the Calamity was that the same Bishops that under one Emperour cursed the Council under the next cursed those that owned it not and thus most scandalously anathematized themselves even one party this year and another the next I say nothing but what Binius and Baronius and such others say § 29. VIII The next sad Anathematizing was about the Monothelites They that said that Christ had but One Will and One Operation were cursed as Monothelite hereticks and they that said He had two were cursed by the Monothelites And these were no narrow petty Sects but Emperours and great General Councils were for them Binius saith that the Council of Constantinople called Quin sextum that made the Trull Canons were Monothelites and yet that they were the same Bishops that had constituted the fifth Council so that those also were Monothelites And in the reign of Philippicus he saith a Council of the Monothelites was so great that there were besides the rest Innumerable Bishops out of the East And these and their adversaries kept on the cursing trade of Religion one side cursing under one Emperour and the contrary under the next § 30. And O doleful case even these also seem fully to me to contend about nothing but bare words and really agreed and did not know it partly following the stream for worldly interest and partly having not skill enough to explicate ambiguous words and state the Controversie Who knoweth not that ever read any Metaphysicks how many senses the word One or Vnity hath and how the same thing in several respects may be said to be One or Two And was this discussed in any of these Councils Which where and when 1. Two things may concur to one effect where say the subtilest Philosophers materially they are two causes but formally and properly but one All set together make but one cause being ejusdem generis and are but many parts of that one cause though many things And so some called Christs Wills One as being but One cause in these School-mens sense of the same effect For the Deity operateth only per essentiam and hath no effect in God himself 2. And as Voluntas and operatio signifie the Internal principle of the effect no one can doubt but Christ had two for the Divine essential Will and the humane faculty or Act were not the same principle or thing But Objectively they are One that is The Divine Nature or principle and the humane do will the same thing and contradict not one another 3. And the Controversie is the same as the former with the Eutychians Christ hath but One Will as opposite to Divisions One as not divided but Two as intellectually distinguishable Two as denominated à principiis from two natures one as 1. from One person and 2. as undivided and 3. as terminated on One object I doubt not but had this been thus opened to them all the sober men would have said we are all agreed in it And yet this wordy difference maketh the name of an Anathematized heresie to this day § 31. IX The next cursing difference arose about â— question whether Christs body on earth was corruptible or no O the unhappy spirit of self conceited anathematizing Prelates The affirmers were called corrupticolae and reproached as blasphemers of the Christ and the worshippers of that which was corruptible The denyers were called Phantasiasticks and made hereticks the affirmers getting the last prevailing vote And alas the Emperour Justinian out of his great zeal for the honour of Christ proved one of the hereticks and is so branded to this day yea and persecuted the corrupticolas as hereticks Where will hereticating cursing and persecuting stop or end And yet one word of just distinction had ended all this had it been duly used and received Christs Body was potentially and as to the natural quality of flesh lyable to or capable of corruption But not actually corrupted and not corruptible in respect to Gods decree that it should not actually corrupt And yet even holy Hilary Pictav held not only this errour but somewhat more His words are so bad
the Father and the Holy Ghost nor Sanctification Consolation and Sealing to the Holy Ghost than to the Father and the Son and so that they are not hence relatively distinguishable to us and by us at all III. Of the Person of Jesus Christ 1. That Christ is but a Creature or not eternal or not of the same Divinâ— Essence as is the Father 2. That Christ hath no humane created soul but the Divine nature was to his body instead of a soul 3. Or that a superangelical created nature united to his Divine nature was instead of a humane soul to his body 4. That Christs body was not derived from the Virgin Mary but only passed through her as water through a Channel 5. That the Mother of Christ alone was as much the cause of his soul and body as our Fathers and Mothers both are of ours 6. That the Virgin Mary was not the Mother of him that was God and man 7. That she was the Mother and actual cause or procreator of the Godhead and of Christ as God 8. That Jesus Christ was two Persons a Divine and Humane 9. That he had not two distinguishable natures viz. the Divine and Humane 10. That he had not two distinguishable understandings wills and operations 11. That the Body of Jesus Christ was incorruptible in and by its own nature and constitution and not only by its union with the Deity and by Gods will decree and preservation 12. That he was begotten by Joseph or some other man 13. That Christs humane nature soul or body suffered no real pain nor was capable of suffering any 14. That he was not of the line of David after the flesh 15. That he had original sin guilt or vitiosity 16. That Christ is not now God and man in heaven 17. That the Glorified Body of Christ is now formally flesh and blood so called univocally as ours having the same formal constitutive essence 18. That every Priest maketh Bread and Wine by the Consecration in the Eucharist to become no longer Bread and Wine but the very Body Flesh and Blood of Christ or that God so maketh it or the Priests speaking those words And so that all the consecrated Bread and Wine since Christs days till now are made Christ's flesh and blood and yet his flesh and blood no whit increased 19. That all believers are by union part of the Natural Person of Christ 20. That the humane nature of Christ is now the Godhead or is become a proper part of the second Person in the Trinity as such And here presumptuous men must take great heed of medling too far some Scholastick Divines say It is errour to say that Christs humane nature is a Part of his person because his Person was perfect from eternity and the Divinity cannot be a Par. of any thing Others say that It is erroâ— to say that the Humane nature is no part of Christ 〈◊〉 seeing it is no part of the Divine Essence or nature therefore it is a part of his person Others say that it is only an Accident of Christ some think that if it were not for fear of the clamours of Ignorant Hereticaters that will call it Nestorianism it were soundest and safest to say that the word Person is equivocal And that as it is taken for the second eternal person in the Trinity the humane nature is no part of it But as it is taken Relatively for the Person of the Mediator the humane nature is a part And so that Christ hath two persons but not univocally but equivocally so called IV. Of the Holy Ghost and the Holy Scriptures 1. That the Holy Ghost is but a creature or not God of the same essence with the Father and the Son 2. That the Holy Ghost is but the Angelical nature or species and as the diabolical nature and many Devils are called singularly the Devil so the many Angels are called the Holy Spirit 3. That the Immortal part of man called his Spirit is the essence of the Holy Ghost 4. That the Holy Ghost as operative on man is not a valid witness of the truth of Christ and Christianity in the world 5. That the Holy Ghost did not impregnate the Virgin Mary or that Christ was not conceived by him 6. That Adam had not the Holy Ghost or true Holiness 7. That the Prophets spake not by the Holy Ghost Or that their prophecies are of Private interpretation that is objectively to be interpreted of such private persons and things as they immediately spake of and which were but types of Christ or grace 8. That the Holy Ghost in the Prophets was not the Spirit of the Redeemer and sent by him 9. That the miracles of Christ and his Apostles were not wrought by the Holy Ghost 10. That the Holy Ghost may set the seal of true uncontrolled miracles to a lie 11. That the Canonical Scriptures were not indited by the Holy Ghost as infallible records of the Divine will 12. That they are but for a time till a perfecter Law is made called The Law of the Spirit 13. That they are imperfect without the supplement of Roman Tradition as part of the Rule of faith and life 14. That they were but occasional writings never intended for the universal law or rule of faith and holy living 15. That there are in the true original as they came from the Apostles some errours 16. That in the present received Originals there is any errour inconsistent with true saving faith and practice 17. That we are not bound to believe the Holy Scriptures to be Gods word but by the authoritative proposal of the Church of Rome that is A general Council subject to the Pope or called or approved by him as authorized thereto by Christ or that we must believe that the Pope or Council are authorized by Christ before we are bound to believe in Christ himself 18. That the Scriptures are not intelligible in necessary things till the Church Council Pope or Fathers expound them to us 19. That the Scriptures have no such imâ—â—ss or excellency by which they manifest themselves to be of God supposing necessary conveyance and ministerial explication 20. That we must not understand any text of Scripture but as the consent of ancient Fathers expoundeth it 21. That the Spirit now given to Poâ—â— Councils or to individual Christians is as much the Rule of faith and life as 〈◊〉 holy Scriptures or that the Spirit is not given now to us 〈◊〉 to teach us to understand believe love and practise Gods word indited by the more emmenâ— inspiration of the Apostles and Prophets â—ut also to inspire us as infallibly to know more than is revealed in the Scripture and that as needful to Salvation Or that it is not so much the Spirit extraordinarily inspiring the Apostles as the Spirit as inspiring ourselves which is every mans rule of faith and life 22. That the Light which is in Heathens Infidels and all men is this
peace they did not serve the Lord Jesus whose great and last command was Love which he made the Nature and character and badge of his true disciples but by those good words and fair speeches deceived the hearts of the simple and deceivable Here there are four words especially to be noted 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate good words is commonly translated flattery but as Beza well noteth it signifieth a speaking of things that are plausible in themselves for some good that is in them and that are pretended to be all spoken for the hearers good as Satan pretended when he tempted Eve yea perhaps to be necessary to their salvation or to make them the most knowing and excellent sort of Christians 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth both to Bless them as ministers do that desire their happiness and to praise them and speak well or highly of them And so almost all sects and divided bodies are gathered by flattering the hearers into a conceit that thus they shall become the surest and most excellent Christians and all others are far inferiour to them 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the Hearts of such hearers that are deceived and not their heads or reason only or chiefly For the good words first take with them by moving their Passions or affections And then the Praise fair promises and speeches kindle a kind of secret spiritual pride and ambition in the heart as Satans words did in Eve to be as Gods in Knowledge And the Heart thus infected and puft up promoteth the deceit of the understanding 4. And this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hominum minime malorum as Beza translates It is not simple fools but such simple persons as we call harmless or innocents as the Vulgar Latine translates it well meaning men or not ill men People that fear God and have good desires and meanings are for want of Judgement and watchfulness overcome by dividers And on the contrary the amiable examples of Vnity and Concord and their happy effects are recorded in Scripture to make us in Love with them but none so eminent as that of the first Christians It is very remarkable that when Christ would shew the world the work of his Mediation in its notable effects and when he would shew them the excellency of his disciples about the common world and of his Church under the Gospel above that under Moses Law he doth it by shewing them in the power and exercise of Vniting Love Love was it which he came to exercise and demonstrate his Fathers and his own Love was that which he came to kindle in their souls and bring them to possess and practise Perfect Love is the perfect felicity which he hath promised them Love and Unity are the matter of his last and great Command These are the Characters of his genuine disciples and of the renewed Divine Nature in them It was Love and Vnity which must in them be the witness of Christs spirit and power to convince the unbelieving world And therefore it is Love and Vnity which is the matter of his last excellent prayer for them John 17. 22 23 24 25. 15. 12 17. 13. 34. 1 John 3. 14 23. 4. 21. And all these his preparations precepts examples and prayers were accordingly exemplified in the wonderful Love and Concord of his followers When the day of Pentecost was come in which the Holy Ghost must be most eminently communicated to them they were all with One accord in one place Acts 2. 1. The Apostles had an Vnanimity and Concord before proportionable to the measure of their grace which was preparatory to their reception of the eminent gift of the Spirit which increased their unanimity And v. 41 42 43 44 45 46. the three thousand that were suddenly added to the Church continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers And all that believed were together and had all things common and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need And they continuing daily with one accord in the Temple and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart praising God and having favour with all the people What greater demonstration could be given that Christ is the great Reconciler the messenger gift and teacher of Love the Prince of Peace and the great Vniter of the divided world both with his Father and Himself and with one another In this text Acts 2. and marvellous example you see the design and work of the great Reconciler When men fall out with God they fall out with one another when they depart from the only Center of Vnity they can have no true Unity among themselves when they lose the Love of God they lose the Love of Man as for Gods sake and interest And he that cannot see and Love God in man can see nothing in man that is worthy of much love As he that loveth not a man for his soul and its operations more than for his body loveth him not as a man And few have any great Love to a dead Corpse Cicero could say It is your soul that we speak to and converse with were that departed we should speak to you no more God is more to every man than his soul If God were not their life and amiableness all men would be unlovely loathsome carkasses Therefore wicked men that cannot Love God and Goodness can Love none thoroughly but themselves and for themselves or as Bruâ—es by a low or sensitive kind of love For it is self that they are fallen to from God and Man And yet while self is carnally and inordinately loved instead of God and Man it is but destroyed and undone by that inordinate idolatrous love And he that loveth Himself to his own destruction with a Love more pernicious than anothers hatred doth love his friends but with such a kind of killing love as I have seen some Brutes kill their young ones with the violence of their love that would not suffer them to let them alone Thus all love to man saving a pernicious love doth dye where the love of God and goodness dieth And Cain giveth the world the first specimen or instance of depraved nature in envy and wrath and finally in the murder of his Brother and undoing Himself by setting up and adhering inordinately to himself But when Christ reconcileth God and Man he reconcileth Men to one another For he teacheth men to love God in Man and Man for God with a Holy noble reasonable kind of Love And so to love all men as far as God hath an Interest in all And to Love all Christians with an eminent Love as God is eminently interessed in them And this is Christs work on the souls of men and much of his business which he came for into the world And therefore he would have his
be conscionable men of upright lives will become of the same minds and look on the persecutors as the enemies of good men and of publick peace that do all this by pride and domination The ungodly rabble of drunkards prophane swearers adulterers and such like for the most part hating Godliness and strict living will cry up the Prelates and triumph over the sufferers And thus the Land will be divided the Prelates and other prosecutors with the dirty malignant rabble of the licentious will make one party and these will call themselves Orthodox and the Church The sufferers and all that pity them and like them better than the Persecutors will be the other party The conjunction of the debauched and malignant rabble with the Prelates and their party will increase sober mens disaffection to them and make men take them for the patrons of impiety And how sad a condition must such Churches be in To say nothing of the state concussions and diseases that usually follow Whatever ignorant men may dream these prognosticks are most certain as any man that can discern effects in moral causes may see and as history and sad experience prove to all men of reading observation and understanding § 13. And in Pastors of the Church this will be a double crime and shame because 1. It is their office to gather and edifie Christs flock and not to scatter and afflict them 2. Because they should most imitate Christ in tender bowels gentleness and long-suffering bearing the Lambs in their armes and not breaking the bruised reed nor quenching the smoaking flax Nurses or Mothers use not to kill their Children for crying nor to turn them out of doors because they are unclean nor to cut their throats to make them swallow bigger morsels instead of cutting their meat Much less to cast them off for obeying their father 3. Because it is supposed that they best know the will of Christ and should be best acquainted with the wayes of peace And therefore should understand Rom. 14. 15. Him that is weak in the faith Receive but not to doubtful disputations The Kingdom of God is not meats and drinks but righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost And he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men that is of wise and good men but not of proud persecutors Rom. 14. 17 18. Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ also received to the Glory of God Rom. 15. 7. If the people were Schismatical and inclined to fall in pieces the Guides and builders should soder and cement them and as pillars and bases in the Church which is the house of the living God as Timothy is called should bear them up that they fall not by division § 14. In a word whoever will impartially read Church History especially of the Councils and Popes shall find that the self-conceited Usurpation of proud Prelates imposing unnecessary devices of their own professions or practices on the Churches and this with proud and fierce impatience toward dissenters and usurping a Legislation which Christ never gave them hath been the great cause of much of the hatred schisms persecutions wars rebellions against Emperours and Kings false excommunications interdicts and the disgrace of Christistianity weakning of the Church and hindering the Conversion of Jews and Infidels and been a chief Granado Thunderbolt or Wild-fire by which Satan much prospered in storming of the Church CHAP. XIII To cry out of the intolerable mischiefs of Toleration and call for sharper execution while dividing snares are made the terms of Vnion is the work of ignorant proud and malignant Church-destroyers § 1. TO tolerate all evil that pretendeth Religion is to be no friend to Religion Government or peace To tolerate no error in Religion is for no Prince to tolerate himself his wife his child or any one subject And to pretend to this is to crave self-destruction neque enim lex justior ulla est c. and to proclaim himself ignorant yea grosly ignorant what is a Church a Pastor a Government a Christian or a Man § 2. Multitudes of Books are written for and against Toleration They that are lowest usually write for it Even Jer. Taylor 's Liberty of Prophecying before he was a Bishop was thought a commendable or tolerable Book But most are against it that are in power and think they can force others to their wills But it is wise and just and impartial men that are here the discerners of the truth whose judgements are not biassed by interest or passion nor blinded by unacquaintedness with their adversaries or their cause or perverted by using only one ear and one eye He knoweth not mankind who knoweth not how greatly not only the common gang but even learned men yea and zealous religious men are to be suspected in their evil characters and reports of those that they are speaking against as adversaries It grieveth me to know and think how little most adversaries in this case are to be believed § 3. To describe the due bounds of Toleration is far from being impossible or very difficult to an understanding and impartial man But to stop the mouth or rage of Contradicters and to reconcile the multitude of ignorant proud tyrannical uncharitable interessed factious partial men to such certain measures is next impossible and never yet even among the Clergy was attained since the Spirit of infallibility simplicity and Love departed and the Spirit of darkness pride and malignity in most places got the upper hand § 4. Many and many Books of this nature I have lately read that cry down liberty and Toleration and call for greater severities and describe those whose ruine or sufferings they plead for as ignorantly and falsly as if they talkt of men at the Antipodes whom they had never seen and as if they had never heard their Cause and as cruelly as if they had been preaching to Souldiers and confuting John Baptist or preaching a Visitation Sermon to Bonner or Gardiner And yet the falshoods or injuries set off with so great confidence and well composed words and zeal against schism and error and especially for the Church and Government that it grieveth my soul to think how difficult such men do make it to strangers that must know all on trust from others and men of other business that cannot have while to search into the truth to escape deceit and the consequent mischiefs Zeal for piety is not more abused by Sectaries than zeal for themselves and their power and wealth called zeal for the Church and truth and order is abused by bad domineering men Or else the world had not been embroiled by the Clergy these twelve hundred years at least nor Rome arrived at its pernicious Greatness and power to destroy § 5. And let mens different Religions or Opinions be never so many and notable yet every where the same plea against Toleration is used and the same Arguments seem good for every
we relieve not Beggars otherwise But if the Parishes through Poverty or Uncharitableness neglect them the Law of Nature bindeth us to relieve them rather than see them perish All Laws for the meer Ordering of any Duty suppose that the Duty must be done and that as tendeth to its proper end and not that on pretence of Order it be undone If the Coronation of a King be not performed regularly he is King nevertheless by Inheritance or Election and he is King before his Coronation Marriage is valid before God by mutual consent before the Matrimonial Solemnization and where this cannot be had it is no Duty If a Priest would not marry Persons unless they will make some unlawful Promise or do some unlawful thing it is lawful and may be a Duty to marry themselves declaring it publickly to avoid Scandal unless the severity of the Law of the Land do accidentally make it unlawful And in some Countries the sinful course of Priests may make this an ordinary Case And no reason can be given but that here it may be so Sect. XI Many Cases may fall out in which no Ordination by Imposition of Hands or present Solemnity may be necessary to this Office 1. In Case a Company of Christians be Cast upon a remote Island where no Ordainer can be had and yet some of them are qualified Persons It is sinful for them to forbear Gods Publick Worship therefore they must choose the fittest person to perform it viz. Preaching Prayer Praise Baptizing and the Lords Supper And that Election sufficiently designeth the person that from Christs Charter shall receive the Ministerial Power and be obliged to the Duty if he consent 2. In Case the Person be remote and the Ordainers and he cannot meet or Persecutors or Tyrants or other Accidents hinder their Meeting he may be Authorized by Letters without any other Ordination It is well known that this hath of old been practised and Bishops have sent such Letters of Ordination to those absent Persons that have fled from Ordination and so made them Bishops And it being but the designation of the recipient Person on whom Christs Law shall confer the Office that they have to do there is no reason to be given why they may not do it effectually by writing 3. In Case that Death or Persecution hath left none to Ordain that are within reach of the Person to be Ordained If Ordination by Diocesanes were ordinarily necessary yet in those Kingdoms or Countries where there is none it cannot be had as in New-England and lately in Britain in Belgia Helvetia and other Countries Some may say You ought to go for it though as far as from America hither and to seek it Beyond the Seas and in other Lands or stay till it may be had But I answer 1. In some Countries the Governors will not suffer Diocesane Ordination 2. Words are soon spoken but to sail from America hither and that for every Man that is to be Ordained is not soon done some have not health to bear it at Sea some have not money to pay for the Voyage charge 3. It is a sinful loss of a Years time in which they might do God much service 4. A Years Voyage by Sea to and fro may hazard their Lives and so frustrate all their end 5. Some Princes and States forbid their Subjects to be Ordained in Foreign Lands as we forbid Romish Ordination lest it draw a Foreign Power on them 6. It is not lawful to deny God his Publick Worship and our selves the benefit by so long delay 7. It is contrary to the temper of the Gospel which ever subjecteth Ceremony Rites and External Orders to Morals and to Mans good and the great Ends. 8. And it is a wrong to the honour of the Divine Nature for Men to feign that the Great Wise and Merciful God layeth so great a stress upon a Ceremony or Rite or outward Order as to damn Souls and deny his own Worship where it cannot be had 4. And this Ordination is not necessary in Case the Ordainers be grown so wicked or heretical as that they will ordain no good and orthodox Men but only such as are of their own sinful way 5. And in Case the Ordainers require as necessary any one unlawful thing Subscriptions Profession Vow or Practice If any say That God will never permit us to fall under such Necessities they must prove it and Experience disproveth it Sect. XII And if in all such Cases no Ordination be necessary much less is Diocesane Ordination necessary in all Cases and Places As 1. In Countries where no Diocesanes are or are near 2. In Countries where they or their Ordination is not endured by the Governors 3. In Countries where the People being in judgment against it will have no Pastor so Ordained It is not better to have none at all 4. In Countries where Wars do hinder it 5. When the Diocesanes themselves will not venture to Ordain for fear of suffering for it 6. In Countries where the Bishops are so corrupted that they refuse all that are truly fit 7. Or where they refuse all whom the People either choose or will consent to and the Bishops and People cannot agree on the same Man 8. Or wherever the Diocesanes impose unlawful Covenants Promises Professions Subscriptions Vows Oaths or Practices without which they will not Ordain On some or other of these accounts a Romanist would not be Ordained by a Greek or Protestant or Armenian c. and a Greek or Protestant would not be Ordained by a Papist supposing something to be unlawful 9. But when a Parochial Bishop may be the Ordainer in such Cases the Validity will not be denied by most Episcopal Divines 10. And it is truly as valid in such Cases when 1. Senior Presbyters 2. that are authorized by the Magistrate 3. especially that are chief Pastors in Cities and have Curates under them do Ordain though some deny to call them Bishops 11. As the Erastians think that the Christian Magistrate may design the person by the Peoples consent without any other Ordination so Musculus and some other Protestants think that a fit person designed by the Magistrate and accepted by the People need not question his Call to the Office And it 's hard to disprove them 12. If the Opinion of many Papists and Protestants hold true That a Bishop differeth not from a Presbyter in Order or Office but in Degree as the Foreman of a Jury or the President of a Synod 〈◊〉 Colledge or Council of State c. then I see no reason but the Magistrate may make a Bishop of a Presbyter as he may make a President of a Colledge or a Mayor of a Corporation For then the difference being but in the Accidents of the Office and the King being Governor of the Church as far as the Sword is to govern and specially the determiner of meer Accidents and Circumstances circa sacra why may he not