an excommunicate man as we may walk with other Christians And in the first respect we cannot walk with them as we may walk with other heathens that it may be are guilty of as grosse sins upon the matter for the Word of the Lord putteth this differeece expresly between them and these who are simply heathens 1 Cor. 5. 3. Yet even then prayer may be made for them for excommunication is no evidence that a person hath sinned the sin against the holy Ghost or that their sin is a sin unto death and their necessities if they be in want may and should be supplied because they are men and it is naturall to supply such they may be helped also against unjust violence or from any personall hazard if they fall in it and as occasion offereth folks may give a weighty serious word of admonition unto them and such like because by such means the end of the Sentence and its weight are furthered and not weakened 4. These that are in naturall relations ought to walk in the duties of them as Husbands and Wives Parents and Children Masters and Servants Magistrates and Subjects c. for what nature bindeth the Church doth not loose 5. Men may follow civil businesse as paying or exacting payment of debts buying or selling and may walk in such things as are requisit for humane fellowship and society because though Church Censures be to humble and shame men by bearing in on them their sinfulnesse yet it is not to undo them and simply to take away a being from them 6. Yet all these things would be done with them in such a manner As 1. the persons may shew their indignation at their way even when they expresse tendernesse to their persons 2. It would be done in a different manner from what useth to be with others not under such a Sentence that so they may bear out their respect to the Sentence even when they shew respect to them Therefore there would not be such frequencie in medling with such persons nor would it be with familiarity or many words and long discourses to other purposes nor with laughing and with such chearfulnesse intimacie or complacencie as is used with others But in a word the businesse would be done and other things abstained from 3. When what is necessary is past except it be on necessity folks would not eat or drink with them at the time of doing their businesse or after the closing of the same because that doth not necessarily belong to them as men and by so doing the due distance would not be keeped and this is the great practick so to carry to them as the weight of the Sentence be not lessened nor they prejudged of what otherwayes is necessary to their being but that so every opportunity may be taken whereby their edification may be advanced If what is before said be considered We suppose there will be no great need to add arguments to provoke either Ministers or others to be zealous in prosecuting their respective duties Yet these few considerations may be taken notice of and pondered to this purpose 1. That scarcely hath delusion though never so grosse ever broken in into a Church and for a time been forborn but it hath carried away many therewith and hath proven exceedingly inductive to much sin offence reproach division bitternesse and ills of all sorts into the Church of Christ Very little acquaintance with the History of the Church will put this out of question 2. Consider that this spirit of delusion is in a special manner fore-prophesied of to have a great reviving and strength in the latter dayes it is said 1 Tim. 4. 1. That the Spirit speaketh expresly That in the last times some shall depart from the faith And why is that expresly added but to give warning the more clearly that men may be at their duty Again 2 Tim. 3. 1. This know that in the last dayes perillous times shall come It is the observation of a holy and learned man that in this place it is the last dayes in the former the last times as if this did relate to a time nearer the end of the world and so the first looketh to the Popish superstitions and abominations and indeed the nature of the Doctrines there reproved doth seem to favour this and this last place doth relate to the grosse delusions that under the pretext of the form of godlinesse were to succeed to these And therefore men according to their places ought in these times to be so much the more watchfull and zealous sâ—…ing the Trumpet hath given so distinct a sound 3. The dreadfull effects which such ills necessarily bring with them may be considered it is not ruine to bodies or estates but to souls it is not simply to sin and to permit that but its rebellion and which is more It is to teach rebellion and to carry on the same with a high hand against God and what will stir zeal for God or what will waken love to and sympathie with the souls of others if this do not 4. It would be considered how often zeal diligence and faithfulnesse of men in their several places as hath been laid down have proved exceeding helpfull for preventing and restraining the growth of such evils so that thereby such a â—…loud hath been dryed up as it is Rev. 12. which otherwayes might have drowned the Woman and her seed and Matth. 13. it is marked that such tares are sown and spring up not while men are watchfull and diligent but while they sleep and are defective in their duty ver 25. for diligence in the use of means hath the blessing promised which others cannot expect and if wrath be come to such an height as the Lord will not be intreated in that matter yet the person that is diligent may look for his own soul for a prey and to be kept on his feet in the midst of tentations 5. It may be a provocation to humility and watchfulnesse to consider how great men have been carried away with the most vile delusions the Church of Corinth did abound in most eminent gifts yet corrupt teachers wanted not influence upon them The Church of Galatia hath been most singularly zealous and tender yet what an height delusion came to amongst them is evident so that they were bewitched therewith Galat. 3. 1. In Church-history also it is evident that most eminent men have been carried away with the vainest delusions that great Light Tertullian became tainted exceedingly with the delusions of the Montanists and after-times have letten us see that the eminentest of men are capable of defection and even Stars are often made to fall from heaven by such storms 6. It is dreadfull also to consider how difficultly men are recovered from these delusions It 's a rare thing to find in Scripture or in History any observable recovery of a person that hath slipped in this kind Sometimes indeed persons that through fear have been
condescending to remove a wrong or to vindicate our selves if there be a supposed wrong doth grieve and offend so do evil-grounded reproofs or unadvertent admonitions that are not seasoned with love hard reports c. 11. We may consider offences with respect to the party offended and so first we offend friends in many respects whom it may be we would not desire to grieve yet unadvertingly we stumble them and hurt their spiritual condition by unfaithfulnesse to them carnalnesse in conversing with them siding with their infirmities and many such like wayes Or secondly they are enemies or such to whom we bear no such respect these also are scandalized when they are provoked through the carnalness of our way to judge hardly of us or of Religion for our sake or to follow some carnal course to oppose what we carnally do when we irritate them and provoke their passion c. and thus men in all debates are often guilty whether their contest be in things Civil Ecclesiastick or Scholastick when beside what may further their cause suppose it to be just they do not carry respectively to the adversary and tenderly and convincingly so as it may appear they seek the good of their soul and their edification even when they differ from them Thirdly we may look on offence as it offendeth wicked or profane men possibly Heathens Jews or Gentiles they are offended when hardened in their impiety by the grossnesse and uncharitablenesse of those who are professedly tender thus it is a fault 1 Cor. 10. 32. to give offence either to Jews or Gentiles as to the Church of God Fourthly Amongst those that are tender some are more weak some are more strong the first are often offended where there is no ground in the matter as Rom. 14. 1 Cor. 8. c. and it venteth readily by rash judging and censuring of others that are stronger than themselves for going beyond their light or because of their seeming to be despised by them c. which sheweth wherein the offence of the strong also lyeth therefore these two are put together Rom. 14. 3. Let not him that eateth that is him that is strong despise him that eateth not And let not him that eateth not that is the weak judge him that eateth 12. Offences may be considered as they directly incline or tempt to sin either in doctrine or practice or as they more indirectly scare and divert from or make more faint and weak in the pursuing of holinesse either in truth or practice Thus a blot in some professor maketh Religion to be some way abhorred this especially falleth out when Ministers and Professors that are eminent become offensive For that is as a dead fly in the box of the Apothecaries oyntment that maketh all to stink Thus Mal. 1. the Priests made the people stumble at the Law as also did the sons of Eli 1 Sam. 2. and this is charged on David that by his fall he made the Heathen blaspheme and thus contention and division amongst Ministers and Disciples is insinuated to stand in the way of the worlds believing in or acknowledging of Christ as it is Ioh. 17. 21. 13. Sometimes Scandal is in immediate duties of religious worship as praying preaching conferring speaking judging of such things c. that is either by miscarrying in the matter of what is spoken or by an unreverent light passionate manner c. or it is given by our ordinary and common carriage in our eating drinking apparelling manner of living buying and selling c. that is when something of our way in these things giveth evidence of pride vanity unconstancie covetousnesse addictedness to pleasure carnalnesse or some such thing wherby our neighbour is wronged Thus the husband may offend the wife and the wife the husband by their irreligious conversing together whereby one of them doth strengthen the other to think exactnesse in Religion not so necessary And so a servant who hath a profession may stumble a master if the servant be not faithfull and diligent in his service 14. Again some offences are offensive and are given from the first doing of the action thus where there is any appearance of evil the offence is given in this manner Again offence may be at first only taken and not given and yet afterward become given and make the person guilty although in the first act he had not been guilty This is first when suppose a man eating without respect to difference of meats as he might do indifferently if he were told by one that such meat were offered to an Idol and therefore in his judgment it were not lawfull to eat it although before that it were not offence given but taken he not knowing that any were present that would offend yet if he should continue after that to do the same thing it should be offence given upon his side Secondly If a man should know one to have taken offence at him or his carriage in a thing indifferent although he had given no just occasion thereof and if after his knowledge thereof he should not endeavour to remove the same according to his place In that case the offence becometh given also because he removeth not that stumbling-block out of his brother's way 15. Some offences are offensive in themselves that is when the thing it self hath some appearance of evil or a tendencie to offend in it self Again some but by accident in respect of some concurring circumstance of time place c. Some offences also may be said to be given of infirmity that is when they proceed from a particular slip of the party offending when they are not continued in stuck to or defended or when they fall into them not knowing that they would be offensive and when that is known endeavouring to remove them Again other offences are more rooted and confirmed as when a person hath a tract in them is not much carefull to prevent them or remove them is not much weighted for them but sleighteth them or defendeth them c. This distinction of offences answereth to that distinction of sins in sins of infirmity and sins of malice which maliciousness is not to be referred to the intent of the person but to the nature of the act so is it to be understood here in respect of offences In the last place we may consider that distinction of Scandals in private and publick both which may be two wayes understood either 1. in respect of the witnesses or 2. in respect of the nature of them 1. It is a private scandal in the first respect which doth offend few because of its not being known to many and so a publick offence in this respect is a scandal known to many Thus the same offence may be a private offence to one at one time and in one place and a publick offence to another or the same person in respect of these circumstances In the last respect a privat offence
may be gathered from the trial of these in Ephesus yea Iohn writeth from the Lords own mouth to confute them and though there could be no exception against the application of his Doctrine yet it was adhered to for many years after that 8. Iohn or some other Apostle was the instrument to convert them from Paganism to Christianity yet now can he not recover them from a foul errour in Christianity when they are bewitched therewith and though no question his authority and arguments had lesse weight with them now than before they were Christians yet what can be thought of more force for their conviction and reclaiming than these considerations The like was often Paul's case who at first had an easie work with people when they were heathens in comparison of what he had with the same when they became Christians and tainted with false doctrine or listeners to corrupt teachers as in the Epistles to the Corinthians and Galatians is clear Which doth shew 1. The unreasonablnesse and power of a deluding Spirit that nothing can convince when once people come to like that way they go on deceiving and being deceived and as Peter saith 2 Pet. 3. 16. pervert the Scripture to their own destruction And as may be gathered they do so by corrupting first that which doth appear to be more obscure and then they mould other Scriptures so as may consist with their fancies that they have conceived to have ground in the former and so they first form notions out of obscure places and thereafter conform the more plain Scriptures to these whereas the just contrary is most safe and when the ignorant and unstable shall account themselves the only learned in the mysteries of God what wonder is it that they be thus given up and when they think the plain truths and duties wherein there is no shaddow of a ground of stumbling are below them and thus they may attain so much dexterity to wrest the Scriptures even the plainest as is implied there as may be judicially subservient to their own destruction and to prevent their being convinced which might put them to shame and occasion their abandoning of that 2. We may see that it is no easie thing to recover a misled people into errour that peradventure 2 Tim. 2. 25. is not accidently put in but to show that it is a hundred to one if such get repentance whereby the Lord would scare all from that evil and the more grosse their error is often men are the more unreasonable in the defence thereof and obstinate in adhering thereunto because there is most of a judiciall stroak seen there in giving up men to such foolries it is not credible that otherwise they could fall in them and so being smitten of God is it possible that any reason can prevail with them while that plague lieth on Was there any errour like to that of worshipping stocks and stones it being even against sense and reason that men should burn a part thereof and make some common work of another portion and of a third make a deity and fall down and worship it as the Prophet doth expostulate Isa. 44. 19. which upon consideration might be found to be absurd this is premitted as the reason of such blockishnesse ver 18. For he hath shut their eyes that they cannot see and their hearts that they cannot understand 3. The unreasonablnesse of this Spirit in men would not be thought strange in any of the former respects even although no person could stop their mouth but they should seem to themselves to triumph in the bringing-in of unheard of senses of Scripture the more they abound in that it is the more judicial to them even as the moe they carry after them and the more they be forborn by others it worketh the more to their destruction men would keep a distance from these infections none can tell what they may turn unto if once entred in a giddy unstable soul carried with the spait of a spirit of errour and being given-up of God thereto for itching after it and not receiving the love of the truth may come to the most horrible things and that without shame or remorse ere there be any end and on-lookers would acknowledge God's justice in such stroaks and learn to reverence and fear him the more The second cannot but be clear from this for if errour be such an evil that thwarteth 1. both with Gods holinesse and truth And 2. that hazardeth so many souls for never a plague hath so destroyed the face of the visible Church nor carried so many souls to hell as errour hath done Then the suffering of it cannot but be hatefull to Him who loveth His Church 3. There is no way by which the devil reproacheth Ordinances and the Word more than this by turning them to the quite contrary end as if he would out-shoot the Lord in His own bow which is abominable to mention and invert His own means and turn His own weapons on Him and suffering of this is a conniving at his design 4. There is no way by which the devil may so win in on Christ's Servants to seduce them as by this as in the Epistle to Thyatira is clear And can there danger come so night to Christ and He not be displeased with what strengtheneth their snares 5. This doth equal yea in some respect prefer the devil to Him so far as in us lieth and so cannot but provoke His jealousie for so the devil hath liberty to vent his lies with Truth equally and there being many lies though there be but one Truth he hath by this moe doors opened to him than the Gospel hath 6. This doth make even the Truth Ordinances and Religion it self to be thought light of when all these have toleration it is on the matter a proclaiming an indifferency to be in these things than which nothing can more reflect on the jealous God who in His Word putteth such a difference and showeth such detestation at indifferency 7. This bringeth hudge confusions on the Church For 1. If these errours and corrupt teachers prevail they carry souls after them and destroy them and ought that to be thought light of 2. If they prevail not yet they crosse afflict and offend them and so prove a snare and burden to them of whom the Lord is tender 8. Toleration doth either account little of errour as being no hurtfull thing and so there can be no esteem of truth or it doth account little of the destruction of souls both which must be abominable 9. Errour doth not only break God's Law but doth teach others to do so and suffering thereof must be a maintaining of Teachers to teach Transgression and Rebellion against the Lord. The third thing observable is That though zeal in a Minister especially against errour be exceedingly commendable yet oftimes is there fainting even among Ministers who are not of the worst and the Angel is here reproved for sparing
trumpets that bring spiritual plagues Rev. 8. These and such like characters may sufficiently convince that the Lord is angry To the second we may soon answer And 1. we say that such a plague is not the consequent of common out-breakings and sins of infirmity Nor 2. of ingratitude for and abuse of common mercies Nor 3. ordinarily is it the punishment of grosse sins of the flesh to speak so for this is rather a fruit of that but it doth follow upon 1. the abuse of sprituall mercies such as the light of the truth of the Gospel sleighted convictions smothered challenges broken promises made for further Reformation and such like as may be gathered from 2 Thess. 2. 9 10. 2. It followeth upon spirituall sins such as spirituall pride security hypocrisie and formality keeping up of the form without the power having truth but not the love thereof as in the place formerly cited and elsewhere 3. There are some sort of distempers which especially procure this beside others As 1. an itching humour that beginneth to loath the simplicity of truth 2. A hastie partial humour that cannot abide sound Doctrine if it be not someway curiously drest especially if it reprove their miscarriages both which are spoken of 2 Tim. 4. 3. 3. There is a proud self-conceitednesse whereof the Apostle speaketh 2 Tim. 3 4. when persons are selfie proud boasters c. such are a ready prey to such tentations 4. Little respect to faithfull Ministers that preach truth may procure this plague to get Pastors according to their own heart and judgements that are not good as the Lord threatneth Ezek. 20. and is threatned by the Lord Ioh. 5. ver 43. I have come in my Fathers Name and ye have not received me if another shall come in his own name him will ye receive 5. It may be procured by lightnesse and unstablnesse when folks goe vainly beyond their reach to seek or meet a tentation the Lord justly may smite them with their own sin and thus reading of corrupt books hearing of corrupt preachers conversing with corrupt men and such like which the Lord hath cōmanded to eschew doth not only prove in Gods righteous judgement a snare or mids of folks insnaring but also the procuring deserving cause of being given up to that delusion which they make themselves obnoxious to by going without His call although at first possibly there was no positive affection to that way but it may be the contrary even as suppose one hazarding contrary to the Command to go nigh the door of the adulterous womans house should for that cause be given up to fall in her snare and to enter although at first he did not intend it as these places do insinuate Prov. 5. 8. and 6. 26 27 28. where he saith to this purpose that a man cannot take fire in his bosome and not be burnt c. And it is said Prov. 22. 14. such as are abhorred of the Lord shall fall in that pit 6. There is a jangling questioning strain this often brings on this ill when all truths are not received but folks begin to cast at the lesser truths this procureth delusion in a greater height as is said because every truth is precious and when men become untender in the smallest truths if any may be called so it is just with God to deprive them of all even as smaller sins in practice being connived at do bring on more grosse outbreakings and thus the visible Church by her declining from the truth in the Primitive times and becoming more to be taken up with Ceremonies and other unnecessary debates did draw on upon themselves Antichrists delusion at length of this sort are ignorance in the fundamentall truths that doth proceed from negligence little love to and delight in the Word and Ordinances little bemoaning of the falls and miscarriages of others when we hear them to be overtaken with such snares and many such like things might be named but we will not insist further We come then to the second thing proposed and that is to consider how corrupt Teachers do carry on their design and what means the devil useth by them to prevail with poor souls for to cast at the truths of God and to drink up the most absurd delusions and although we cannot reach Satans depths he having much subtiltie and many wiles to carry on his designe as it is 2 Cor. 11. 3. and it is called Eph. 4. 14. a cunning craftinesse whereby they lye in wait to deceive Yet seing we ought not to be ignorant of his devices 2 Cor. 2. 11. We shall gather somethings from Scripture that may be usefull to arm us against the same and to take up his way the better we may consider 1. The instruments which he chooseth 2. The method that he keepeth in tempting by them 3. The means which he useth or common places from which he draweth his arguments 4. The manner how these are carryed on CHAP. VI. By what means and how Satan drives on this plague among people 1. SAtan doth not act in this design immediately nor doth he act indifferently by any instrument but he hath his special ministers as it were set apart for that end as the Apostle speaketh 2 Cor. 11. 15. He hath many subjects indeed but beside these he hath some special ministers for this designe as our blessed Lord Jesus hath Ministers specially set apart in His Kingdom Concerning which we may observe 1. That he employeth some more eminently to traffique as it were in this very imployment who by compassing sea and land and travelling to and fro may further his designe such were these who were called false Apostles 2 Cor. 11. 13. Revel 2 3. and in the history of the Acts we will find such coming from one place to another as from Ierusalem to Antioch Act 15. and elsewhere purposly to spread their errours as the Apostles did travel for preaching the truth 2. He hath particular instruments preaching in particular places that are as it were his ministers of such and such bounds as in the place cited 3. Beside these he hath stickling underhand-dealers who not appearing openly yet creep into houses and ordinarily he hath some women who are specially employed in this as he hath Iezebel the Prophetesse in the Church of Thyatira Rev. 2. and such he had in the primitive heresies particularly one of the Montanists because such are often vehement in what they are engaged in and have accesse to pervert and seduce which others cannot easily have his assisting of them withall to speak sometimes to the admiration of others seemeth more wonderful like 4. Whom ever he maketh use of they are someway fitted to say so for the designs they are employed in although their manner of carrying on these designes may be diverse as experience showeth 2. In the method which he followeth we will find this progresse 1. He setteth himself by all means to make the Ministers of the
errours in respect of their effects and other aggravating circumstances may become intolerable and to be proceeded against by this Sentence as was said of lesser Scandals in practice Yet we conceive that properly it is some grosser errour than what may be accounted to be of infirmity such as many godly sober unprejudged men may have that is to be the ground of such a Sentence Therefore we refer the decision of this to be gathered from the Distinctions formerly laid down 2. We find it qualified by this That this rejection is not to proceed hastily but to follow upon rejected and sleighted admonitions Therefore if an admonition be received before and the Church therein be heard there is no further proceeding to be in in reference to this Sentence Because 1. the limitation is expresse 2. The reason is clear for if the lesser do the turn and prevail to the recovery of the person and removing of the offence from the Church What needeth more CHAP. XII What is to be accounted a satisfying and successefull admonition IF it be asked What is to be accounted a satisfying and successefull admonition And how men are to judge of and walk in reference to the same Answ. We would distinguish satisfaction or successe as to an admonition which may be either full satisfaction or only partiall Full satisfaction is When the person is so fully convinced of his ill as not only to forbear the venting thereof and to give no offence for the time to come but also fully to abandon the same as being grieved therefore and willing to edifie others by a suitable acknowledgement Again we call that a partial satisfaction or successe when though there is not a fully satisfying length obtained yet can it not be said to be altogether fruitlesse As suppose 1. a person should not be brought wholly to disclaim his errours yet should professe a conviction of the ill of venting them and troubling the Church with them and afterward should engage to abstain from offending in that kind 2. Suppose one should be convinced of the more grosse errours and be content to disclaim these yet should stick at some others professing scruple in them We would also distinguish these that give partiall satisfaction 1. Either they are such as appear to be sincere in the length they come and in the professions they make as also to be docile and ready to be informed or they are such who discover the want of ingenuity in their proceeding and themselves but to be lying at the wait to return to their vomit Now to apply this We say 1. When this satisfaction is full there is no question for thereby not only all further processe is to be sisted but the person is to be admitted to have communion in Church-priviledges 2. Where this partiall successe is of the first sort We conceive it may be sufficient to sist processe for a time and to continue the persons under means within the Church so long as they contradict not their profession yet it is not sufficient to give them free accesse to all Church-priviledges as if the scandal were fully removed 3. Where that satisfaction is but of the last kind that is mocking and dissembled We say that though it may put a Church-judicatory to try the evidences of this dissimulation and during that time possibly to stop a little their proceeding yet ought it not to mar the drawing forth of the Sentence lest there be an accession to the hurt which is intended to the Church by that dissembler And here we are to apply both the reasons against and characters of dissimulation which were spoken to on practicall offences 4. If there be no seeming satisfaction at all then after admonitions given the person despising the same is to be rejected as one that is infectious and unfit to have communion in the Church or the benefit of any Church-priviledge and Ordinance And in a word to be for his scandal and obstinacy against Christs Ordinances declared to be Excommunicate and casten out of His visible Kingdom as an out-law to the same Which is to be done with such gravity weightinesse sympathy and authority as it may look like the Ordinance of Christ and have an impression of His dread and Majesty upon all that are witnesses thereof If it be asked Whether any further duty be required from a Minister towards such a person after the Sentence is past Answ. He is not then properly under pastorall charge since he is no member of Christs visible Church at least in that respect as members fall under common and ordinary actuall inspection Yet we conceive 1. That the Minister is to continue to deal with God for him at least in private if so be he may be recovered out of this snare because he is under the last cure which will either prove life or death Gods blessing therefore to it is to be sought and it becometh well the naturall care of a kindly Minister that is thirsting for the blessing to deal with God for it 2. Although there be not actuall accesse to any thing yet ought there to be a lying at the wait to observe any opportunity which may be for his good and when it offereth it would be carefully improven And therefore 3. for that end whatever indignation beshown against a mans wayes or errours to make these loathsome to others yet still there would be evidence of tender respect to the persons and if need be means used to supply them especially if they come to any strait although in all this they would keep such a distance as may keep up the weight of the Sentence both to them and others But by this way their suspicious mistakes of Ministers carnalnesse against their persons are best removed and accesse is thereby made to be edifying unto them Some examples whereof are recorded in the life of Musculus as to his tendernesse to most desperately deluded persons when they were in affliction and discountenanced exceedingly by Magistrates which God blessed in the end for their recovery this is suitable severity in Magistrates and tendernesse in Ministers And amongst other ills and snares that that cruell indulgencie which is indeed cruell to the poor souls to whom it becometh a snare hath following it this is one That the Magistrate is accounted mercifull and the zealous Minister cruell whereby they are put in an incapacity to be edified by the one and in a capacity as it were to miscarry as they will by the indulgence of the other CHAP. XIII What is required of Magistrates for restraining of seducing spirits THe second thing that we proposed to speak to in this remedy was as it relateth to Magistrates to wit Whether any thing be or what it is that is called-for by the Word of God from them to be performed in their stations for the drying up of such a floud and removing of such a plague It is not our mind to insist so much in this
such even to death Neither ought this to be thought strange for the best but know in part and are subject to mistakes and their zeal and singlenesse is squared according to their knowledge It was such zeal that is not according to knowledge though in the most fundamentall things that made Paul and others with a kind of singlenesse persecute the Church therefore proportionally there may be a zeal and singlenesse in lesser things when there is ignorance of them 5. After engagement the tentation is strengthened by this lest by after ceding their former practice in being so eager be condemned and they lose the weight of their Ministery in other things and their respective followers which possibly may be more tenacious and zâ—…alous than themselves should be irritated and provoked which things look to them as greater prâ—…judices even to the work of the Gospel than â—…eir continuing divided It is written of Luther in his life That being in conference with Melancthon and others in his last voyage he did acknowledge to thâ—…m that he had been too vehement and perempâ—…ory in the Doctrine of the Sacrament and when they urged him then to publish something concerning hâ—… same he replied That he feared by that to diminish the authority and weight of what he had else appeared into for God 〈◊〉 therefore did â—…orbear it witâ—…all allowing Melancthâ—…n after his death to do in that as he thought fit 6. Sometimes also the tentation is strengthned by apprehended consequents of hurt and prejudice to these that side with them in such a thing from others in case there should be ceding in such and such particulars for union or that by so doing they might make themselves and their cause odious to others who possibly may be thought to have more respective thoughts of them because of their differing in such things from others It is written of Luther that he gave this as a main reason why he keeped up the Sacramentary difference and would not unit with Calvin and others in that Head because said he that opinion which the Sacramentaries as they were called hold is generally more hatefull than that of Consubstantiation and will make the Princes and others more obnoxious to malice and hatred 7. It strengtheneth the tentation also when men do not look upon the difference simply in it self but comparatively with respect to the principles and carriages of others their opponents and by considering things that are displeasing in them and their way they are made the more tenacious and brought to justifie themselves the more Hence it is in such divisions that the great stresse of debates lyeth in reflections criminations and recriminations as if this were the only vindicating argument They that are opposit to us in many things of their carriage are wrong Therefore our way is right or we have reason to divide from them And hence it is that almost necessarily such reflections are used in such debates where the matter is not of such moment and evidence as the most convincing defensive arguments upon either side as in these debates between Ierome and Ruffinus cited where there is no dispute on either side but criminations on both Also in the Donatists their reflections this may be observed 8. In such differences also men are ready to think that the other should and will cede to them and will not hazard division upon so little a thing Hence many have been drawn on to division from small beginnings which they would not have yeelded to had they known the consequents thereof or had they not expected that the other should have yeelded wherein being disappointed the engagement thereto becometh more strong and the division more irreconciliable This is marked of Victor of whom it is said that he had not been so peremptory had he not supposed that in such a thing the other should have yeelded CHAP. VI. What be the sad effects of division and the necessity of endeavouring unity HAving now some way discovered the nature and causes of the evil of division it may be easily conjectured what will be the effects thereof which ever have been most deplorable as to the torturing of these that are engaged to the scandalizing of the weak to the hardening and breaking of the neck of many profane light persons to the spoiling of the Church in its purity Government order and beauty of her Ordinances and which is more to the wearing out of the life and power of Religion yea which is above all there is nothing that doth more tend to the reproach of the blessed Name of our Lord Jesus that maketh Christianity more hatefull that rendereth the Gospel more unfruitfull and more marreth the progresse and interest of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus and in a word doth more shut out all good and let in by an open door every thing that is evil into the Church than this wofull evil of division doth according to the word Iam. 3. 16. Where envy and strife is there is confusion and every evil work And we are perswaded that who hath read the Scriptures and the many and great motives whereby union is pressed and have considered the Fathers what great weight they lay upon unity and with what horrour they mention division even as maximum malum or the greatest evil that can befall the Church Or have observed in Church-history the many sad consequents and effects that have followed upon this and the lamentable face of the Church under the same when friends thought shame and were made faint enemies were encouraged and delighted and on-lookers were either provoked to mock at or pity the same Or who have had some taste in experience of the bitter fruits thereof will and if they be not altogether stupid cannot but be convinced of the many horrible evils that are in this one evil of division Sure there is no evil doth more suddenly and inevitably overturn the Church than this which maketh her fight against her self and eat her own flesh and tear her own bowels for that a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand is the infallible maxime of Him that was greater and wiser than Solomon And when things are compared it will be found there is no more compendious way to blast the fruit of Ordinances when they cannot be removed or corrupted and by so doing to destroy and carry souls headlong than this That a Church in her Ministers and Members should be engaged thus to bite and devour one another and to counteract to the actings one of another This we suppose will not be denied It will also readily be granted That it is the duty of all Christians especially of Ministers of the Gospel to endeavour the preserving of unity and the preventing of division and the recovering of unity and removing of division by healing of the breach when it is made Never did men run to quench fire in a City lest all should be destroyed with more diligence than men