so in America Take but a Survey of the parts of the world most whereof is shared among Heathens Mahometans and Jews See how much of the rest Popery bewitches how many Abyssins Coptits Armenians Georgians Maronits Greeks and Russians stand still engaged to sad Ignorance and gross Superstition though nothing so bad as the Romanists in Africa Europe and Asia How few remain for the Protestant Name yet how many of those very few are sadly divided from God and from each other How numerous are Satans Ingeners and the Jesuited Crue with the various swarms of Friers Monks Priests and Hermits under new disguises in the midst of us as of other Protestants to divide and destroy Do not Germany Poland and Swedland Denmark Holland France and Switzerland testifie it by wofull Tokens Should not we sympathize and unite with them on all rational Grounds of Piety and true Policy Is not their Interest twisted with our own in Christs Interest Are not the Papists now combining in all parts to root out if they can both our Profession and its Professors Have they not kept their late fourty Hours fasting Devotion and their Jubilees and Convocations which are frequently renewed to that end Are we still asleep in the midst of storms Do not their horrid plots so oft revived in our own Bowels sound a loud alarum to every Conscience Shall we still contend till an Enemy come and seize upon all How can we act in Reformation-work unless we mind Peace-making in earnest Hearken to Christs voice calling upon all by the Apostles Pen If there be therefore any Consolation in Christ if any Comfort of Love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any Bowels and Mercies fulfill ye my Joy that ye be like-minded having the same Love being of one accord of one mind Let nothing be done through strife or vain Glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better then themselves Look not every man to his own things but every man also to the things of others Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Doth not he intreat us as he did the Corinthians by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing that there be no division among you but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same Judgement Doth he not press the most cogent Arguments upon us still as he did upon the Ephesians from the Nature and Honor of God from the state and condition of his people from the personal Relation and Benefit of every member thereof sufficient to prevail on the most savage among wild Indians and raging Cannibals did the Lord but afford so much favour to them Shall we still resist such Invitations Intreaties Offers Expostulations Waitings Forbearance Mercies Judgements Warnings Directions and Encouragements from the God of Peace If any do so let them thank themselves for those dreadfull evils that will speedily and surely follow Let all then be throughly perswaded to this grand Duty of true Peace-making in each branch thereof 1. Make your Peace with God instantly effectually Review our former Instructions about it sent unto you from thr Prince of Peace Delay not dissemble not dispute not with him Sinners of all sorts consider your case how sinfull wofull know your unworthyness and insufficiency feel it at you heart bewail it to him open your sores cry loud after him lie at his feet hearken to his Word attend his Spirit neglect none of his wayes embrace his Offers look up to Jesus Christ get acquaintance on conjugal terms make no reservation yield up all to him that your Peace with him may be made sure of In the use of all means trust on him alone 2. Labor also for Peace of Conscience in the right Method The former must precede and help you to this being well improved Ye that have owned Christ thus fiducially for Saviour and Lord by Contract of marriage look still to the cleansing of your own conscience that it may reflect comfortably on you from the Irradiation of his Holy Spirit Walk we in the light as he is in the Light that we may know the things given us of God keep we close to him in every Ordinance in every Providence shunning all sin in doing all good through his gracious Help 3. Attend also Peace Ecclesiastical as the Lord gives ability and opportunity Each of us in our place should do our utmost under Christ our Head for the good of the whole and every member Our duty is fully cleared out and strongly pressed to as by Christ himself so by all his Apostles we learn of them the particulars belonging to us in all homage due to our Soveraign our husband and Master our Lord and King That must direct us in our peaceable care of his whole Body to cherish and honor support and supply it with all Sympathy and due supplications answerable to that Relation we bear to each part and the Church it self Thus every one walking orderly in that Spiritual Calling is bid and bound to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace in the family and Kingdom of Christ 4. Political Peace is carefully likewise to be minded in the Civil State by a due observance of all Superiors and Inferiors therein Our Municipal Laws are the Bounds and Bonds that limit and order manage and maintain it in their due Execution The Laws of Brittain are justly commended among the Learned for their Excellency being the Cream of the best Laws that the best Wisdom of the old Brittains and Gauls extracted out of their own and Ancestors experience King Lucius the first Christian Prince refined them further by due comparing of them with the Scriptures the Roman Government added thereto the flower of their Imperial Laws which had epitomized the Wisdom of Greekish Customs as the Greeks had learned of the Phoenicians and Aegyptians and both from the Hebrews and their sacred Writings set forth with an Italian dress in their twelve Tables further sublimed by successive Governors The Saxons following them brought in the choise of their German Constitutions and the Normans after superadded what their Mothet Norwey and their Nurse France had afforded them All these incorporated into an English frame by their successive Wittagen-Motes and State Conventions made up by the common Laws whereunto have been joyned all the Statute Laws since the solemn Title of Parliament given to such Conventions of State till this day Besides these peculiar to England there are also some proper to Ireland suited to the complexion of this Country by the Wisdom of former and later Rulers which all do yield special Instructions for the due making of a Civil Peace When Magistrates supreme and subordinate give up themselves thus to regulate and execute all such good Orders in subordination to Divine Statutes this Work goes on a main Inferiors also have their share herein in a due observance
of the said good Laws sutably to their several Capacities whether in the whole Common-wealth or in particular Corporations and Societies thereof 5. Peace Oeconomical is also to be made in every Family and looked after according to each particular Relation and station therein Conjugally between man and wife Parentally between Parents and Children Despotically between Masters and Servants This blessed work is to be attended that all Offices of Duty and Love may be seasonably and effectually performed therein sutably to the Lords Will made known to his Word Quest But what is to be done about these various Kinds of Peace Answ In each of them there are two main Essentials of singular Import to be accordingly minded still Unity and Order 1. Unity is the great Principle that must knit into one the different parts of every Society God alone is one pure entire Being one perfect Infinite unchangeable eternal Act. Creatures are finite compounded Beings whose parts require Union towards Communion Rational Beings as men and Angels must look first to their Relative Union unto God the Soveraign Being and Source of all Beings that they may not want Peace with him and in themselves Closing with him and keeping close to him are then mainly to be attended in and through Christ who must uphold the Elect Angels and recover his Elect among men Among all natural Things unity is still the great Peace-maker This makes the sweet Harmony in the Body when every part is joyned to each other by fit Ligaments that the whole may be kept in Peace under its Head Thus also in things artificial as in Musick Building and all Compositions Union effects that due agreement of many into one in a fit way of Correspondency whence a sutable Peace Thus with all Societies it is whether Spiritual Political or Oeconomical There must be Union for due Communion answerable to their several constitutions Their Being and strength support and life depend hereupon So far as any departs from Unity he departs from Peace Therefore did the Philosophers account the number of 2 accursed because it was the first dividing Number The Church of Christ is such a Body as needs this most peculiarly whether considered as invisible and more mystical or as visible and more Political 1. The Church invisible mystical consists of all the Elect of God effectually called being Coetus vocatorum part whereof is triumphant in Glory part militant in Grace The Lords Spirit cements them into one under Christ their Head thence are they said to be one Spirit being glued to the Lord as the Original elegantly phrases it As by faith regenerate persons are united to Christ so by Love are they knit to his Body Peace is thus made and kept when we cordially love every Christian bearing his Image upon his account with a singular constant efficacious Love without partiality self-respects or Hypocrisie When we no sooner perceive that aliquid Christi as Calvin was wont to phrase it that resemblance of Christ though it seems never so small and a minimum quod sic but our affections are endeared to such an Object by gracious Sympathy we appear united to Christ himself being thus knit to the members of his Body This unfained Love of the Brethren with a pure fervent heart so much commended and urged by Peter John and other Apostles as by Christ himself is the great Peace-maker Therefore are we bid to love the Brother-hood and love as Brethren not in word and Tongue but in deed and in truth to testifie our spiritual Resurrection from a sinfull death into the life of Grace by the Spirit of Christ incorporating of us unto himself Nothing should keep us from this blessed Union either in others or our selves If they be poor and weak under corruptions and various distempers yet we should own them by this endearing love because they are his and our fellow-members We despise not the members of our Bodies when infirm and diseased but pitty and tender them the more What though they be distant by place or Opinion Interest or Affection from us Yea though they seem to be opposite and set against us that should not estrange our heart from them Calvin would still express his endeared respects to Luther as to an eminent servant of Jesus Christ though he was too much and often abused by his violent Spirit and blind zeal We should not be overcome of evil but still labor to overcome evil with good Though others corruptions cannot suffer them to be so free and frequent with us or hearty to us yet the Grace of God in us should own whatever is of his Grace in them really and actively This Unity of the Spirit should thus be efficaciously kept in the Bond of Peace among all the members of Christs Body mystical 2. The Church of Christ is considerable as a Body Political and visible The many controversies about it we heartily wave wishing that all others might do the like still for the Peace thereof It admits also of a double respect whence its denomination of Catholick or Universal and Particular 1. Whether the Church Catholick be totum integrale or universale we dispute not what is granted of all sober Christians about the same we would and should still improve towards Peace-making There are general Rules of Faith and Order wherein all Christian Societies do agree together though they dissent in the particular Applications or Explications thereof So far should all Christians labor to unite and to own each other for Peace and Communion Doth not our professed Belief of the Holy Catholick Church and Communion of Saints engage direct and excite us thereto Though we cannot bring all others to our particular Judgement and Practice supposed by us to be most Scriptural yet are we not bound to labor for the utmost degree of Christian Communion wiih all the Churches of Christ in the World as far as may be possibly attained Are not those things wherein we agree with all Societies sound in the main sufficient to unite us so far and to make us to own each other in the wayes of Christ Will not this be of singular help through the blessing of Heaven to further Ecclesiastical Peace by the healing of our unchristian Divisions Have we not wrangled too long already Is it not possible to find out some Expedients that may unite us in the wayes of Peace Are we not tired yet with our sinfully wofull Contentions Can judicious Christians willingly still keep their distances and differences Will not such Fractions Luxations and Convulsions prove bitterness in the latter end If we do not strive to yield one to the other we are like to break all We shall never meet without mutual condescensions The Ministers of Christ are especially concerned in this great work Be we heartily humbled for our former evils opposing this Thing so dear to Christ and of such import to his Interest Labor we more for such Christian Associations
Scripture yields the Major conscience suggests the Minor and from both premises deduces a comfortable conclusion There is a reflexive Act of Faith necessary hereto called the faith of evidence or assurance to perfect such a gracious Eccho resounding from Earth to Heaven Paul enjoyed such a Peace by a due Improvement of Grace Christians should labour orderly for it by their due progress in spirituall Growth working out their salvation with fear and trembling to make their Calling and Election as sure to themselves as they are sure in themselves Yet many gracious Hearts often want this sight through the many Blasts of external temptations and cloudy vapours of internal Corruptions 3. External Peace with men is answerable to our several Relations both religious and civil 1. There is a Religious Ecclesiastical Peace which is the tuning of Gods People into a due composure and Christian Correspondence in the affairs of his Church and Worship This Peace are we often minded of and pressed to that having Salt in our selves we may have Peace one with another The members of Christs body though different and distant are thus to be at Peace as in the Church mystical Invisible so in the Church Political visible They must study the things that are for Peace wherein they may edifie one another They that agree in the main of Christianity should labour to agree and help one another in the means thereof All the living stones of Christs spiritual house that are duly set on him the foundation should be regularly squared to comply with each other therein Schisms and Convulsions are alwaies bad but worst of all here Though we may not joyn with Gods people in that which appears evil to us yet that difference must not hinder us from closing with them in such things which they and we do account needful and good This Peace includes not Approbation of evil nor doth it exclude due Administration of regular Censures private or publick We are herein to imitate Christ our Head who approves of no evil and still administers all due censures yet is not in the least hindred thereby from bearing with his children and servants in forbearing them as he sees convenient He keeps peace with them whilest he chides and frowns threatens and corrects so should Christians do after his pattern for each others good 2. A civil Peace bears its proportion to our respective stations either political in the State or Oeconomical in the family To this Peace we are all called being bid and bound to seek and follow it hard not only with the gentle but also with the froward As we are men subject to humane frailties and willing to be born with so must we think the like of others No politick fabrick can stand without this The Laws of Nature and of Nations are subordinate to the Laws of Heaven for the cementing and maintaining hereof This Peace includes not any Commission of evil or omission of duty but only that which tends to an orderly accommodation of mutual Relations for good against evil This threefold Peace hitherto explained will appear to be a blessed thing if we do but consult with Scripture and Experience Blessedness is the confluence of all good in the removal of evil opposite to that good Such as the Peace is such is the Blessedness attending it whether spiritual or temporal publick or private Divine Records comprize still all good under this expression either as included in it or joyned to it or flowing from it It s the constant Dialect of Christ and his Apostles in their salutes and fare-wells as it was the Spirits language under the Old Testament whence the New Testament borrows most of its expressions Benedictions and Valedictions run sâ—â—ll on this wise Peace be to you Peace be with you in the Word of God Induction might easily be made by pregnant instances in each particular branch were it needful in so clear a point The experience of all Ages publick and personal verifies it more then sufficiently This Sun-light needs not the help of our Candle 3. The Demonstration and Ground of this truth may be contracted into a threefold Reason from the Author Nature and Adjuncts thereof Reason 1. Peace is a blessed thing because the blessed God is the peculiar Author and Cause thereof considered both essentially and personally 1. God essentially considered is the God of Peace that 's his Title of Honour frequently proclaimed by his Heraulds and Embassadors What 's Peace but the congruity of the workings in each creature to that end whereto the supreme Mover hath appointed their respective Beings All Good must needs be from the first and chief good being ruled by him and leading to him as it comes from him The more of true Peace there is found anywhere the more of God and Blessedness still Gods excellency is shadowed out to us by Divines in a triple Method of exemption eminency and causation Thus God is declared to be infinite unchangeable c. he is most just most wise c. and he is the Cause of Causes who supports governs and supplies all things by a constant Influx of Providence being alwaies the proxime immediate Cause to every action His divine causality runs as a string through all secundary Causes to knit them to their respective operations and effects which he suspends and orders at his will The Correspondency of creatures to his will keeps the Peace and Blessedness so far their breaking of rank and forsaking their appointed station and motion brings the Jar and Woe by breaking that Peace Sin and sorrow come in at such a gap whilest the rational creature loosens this Bond of Peace in any Relation God himself challenges a special interest in this great blessing as the Author and Ruler Supporter and Promoter Restorer and Preserver Proprietor and Disposer thereof 2. God personally considered is the God of Peace which makes it to be such a Blessing In the divine Trinity a perfect Peace shines most gloriously Unity and Order the great Essentials of Peace appear therein by the beams of that eternal Brightness Unity of Essence and Order of Persons hold forth that transcendent Peace in the divine Trin-Unity There are three that bear Record in heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit and these three are one Here is priority not superiority a co-ordination though no subordination These three divine Persons have a distinct as well as a conjunct influence into Peace there are three that bear Record on earth agreeing in one also towards Peace 1. God the Father is the Head-spring and Original Source of Peace to man It flows from him primarily to us thus the Apostle teaches us to expect Grace Mercy and Peace from God the Father 2. God the Son is the grand Treasurer of our Peace which he receives from the Father for us You have him therefore still joyned to the Father in the Magna Charta the great
the Text to his Peace-makers 3ly The Reason and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of this Point is clearely drawn from the Blessedness of the work it self which cannot but impart a sutable Blessing to the Lords Work-men The Blessedness of Peace hath been already demonstrated in an ample manner This work of Heaven is never destitute of Heavens Blessing What was said of virtue by the Philosopher that its both Work and Wages carrying meat in its mouth is verified of this blessed Peace It s Christs work they are his Work-men he hath a special Interest in them both and a special Blessing for them still in making them a Blessing to others Such Peace-makers enjoy a singular Blessing in themselves as Austin explains it They communicate also a choise Blessing even in Temporals to others as Chrysostom comments on this place Yea They are choise Instruments of Christ to convey saving Mercies by the Gospel of Peace as Basil Interprets the words Peace-making is Christs Work so peculiarly that he is called our Peace in the abstract who breaks down all partition Wals by the virtue of his cross whereon he slew the Enmity to reconcile his people to God and to each other through the application of his Merits to them This Blessed Work removes and prevents all Curses it brings and declares offers and imparts increases and cherishes restores and crowns all Blessings possible So far as he honors any servant of his in making use of them Instrumentally about this work of his so far happiness attends them therein Though he needs no help yet is he pleased to make use of Helpers against the mighty Enemies of Peace He takes kindly and graciously rewards the cordial contributions of his People thereto though never so smal All his Servants are called to Peace and implyed about it in their several Stations His Presence and Blessing cannot be wanting where he sets his friends on work on his account He loves to walk in his wonted Road and to act ordinarily by men and means having to deal with rational Creatures not with blocks and Bruits Wise and good men will not imploy servants but they will help and own them in their work The blessed God employes not his children and servants without his aiding and favouring Grace about this work of his To impose a hard Taske and to refuse straw is the property of an Egyptian Tyrant our gracious God is no such hard Master he reaps not where he hath not sown though idle servants may charge him with cruelty Christ is most benign in his Influence to every Soul that sincerily minds his service He that feeds Aliens and Enemies is not like to neglect or forsake his friends He that bountifully blesses with Temporals the very worst of men that oppose his Peace will not he surely bless with his right hand his peculiar People entrusted by him about peace-making wherein his Honor and his Interest are so signally concerned Vse 1. The Improvement and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of this Truth affords a Word of Instruction in two Corollaries 1. We may hence observe the unhappiness of our Age wherein such blessed Peace-makers are so scant Sad lamentations might be justly enlarged over so many unpeaceable Spirits No wonder if we have so little of Gods blessing considering how little we have of his Peace When a mans wayes please the Lord he makes even his enemies to be at Peace with him It is a shrewd sign that our wayes are much displeasing to him when our very friends are not at Peace with us David much complained of his ill Neighbours the ten Nations surrounding Israel whose inveterate enemies they still appeared in allusion whereto the ten Horns of the Antichristian Beast are described in the Revelation whose Character it was to be Haters of Peace and lovers of War It s common and sad to see so much of that Antichristian Spirit breathing among us The most are wilfully and the best unhappily engaged too much in unchristian inhumane janglings Too many we have of a Saâ—â—mâ—ndrian Spirit whose Element is fire it self they so love to live among contentions Too much of Hell-fire wofully appears in most of our unhappy contentions Friends too often strike each other in the dark upon mistakes Hereby sport is made for Satan and sorrow for Gods people the Lords Name suffers and his enemies laugh the good are scandalized and the bad hardened Whilst â—any contend unhandsomly for Truth they miss of Peace and the Blessing yea of Truth also To live still in a burning Climate under a torrid Zone of hot dissentions is more sutable to Negroes and Mores then for Christians who are best fitted in a temperate Clime of due moderation How much do Christians wrong themselves and others in every respect spiritual and civil by needless quarrels Are not many of our differences as little weighty as that woful brawl about the time of keeping Easter which continued for so many years between the Eastern and Western Churches in the second and third Century proceeding often to solemn Excommunications The Jars between Epiphanius and Chrysostom Jerom and Ruffin were very doleful and from small beginings rising further to sad Catastrophes It were to be wished that divers eminent Lights of this Age were not so unworthily engaged as those famous ones were about the fifth and sixth Centuries Austins complaint might justly be ours concerning such cases The contentions at Corinthus among those Christians so excelling in Gifts bewrayed a great deal of fleshly Corruption reigning in many remaining in the best do they not so with us Our Sea of glass our reformation-state hath too much of this fire mingled therewith which cannot but prove wofully sinfull Strange fire cost Nadab and Abihu dear though such eminent Persons in such an eminent Work This wild fire so commonly scattered is ominous and pernitious still in Civils and Ecclesiasticals It s a perverse Spirit that doth so judicially divide between Abimeleck and the Sichemites those old confederates though over-ruled by the Lords own hand When utter ruin was threatned to Egypt such a perverse Spirit was to be mingled in the midst of them as the wofull Executioner of Divine Vengeance When the Pride of Babel and its Builders was mounting to the Heavens it was fearfully checked by the confounding of their Tongues Is it not very irrational to think of building Zion in that very way whereby the Lord confounded Babylon This is a sore Lamentation and shall be for a Lamentation 2. Hence also have we a vindication of peaceable Christians They that know the God of Peace and the Peace of God best are most forward to advance Peace-making It is not from a low luke-warm Spirit as many mistake it but from the most rational grounds There is nothing so rational as Grace which makes the best use of Divine Reason which appears herein very eminently They are most zealous after Peace who are most rationally sensible of
Gods Honor and mans good The Apostles would have Christians still to study how to be quiet and to do their own Business with as much calmness as they can Is it not much better to live in a serene then in a tempestuous Air Peace is the Health and due complexion of of Souls and Societies Is it not much to be preferred before a crazy state and jarring distempers The Thebans were a warlike Nation witness their success under Epaminondas and Pelopidas yet was Concord so much esteemed with them that they deified it and consecrated a Temple thereto as the Romans afterwards Those poor Heathens by their dim natural Light saw often farther then many now in the Sun-shine it self It was Satans Policy to carry them to extreams in disguising the Truth with many fables and Idolizing Creatures yet was there much of Truth and Good covered with their many Poetical Vails and Philosophical Mythologies Is it not a great shame that Christians should come short of Pagans in that which they have so frequently still with so much advantage pressed upon them Object But do not those who pretend to be so moderate run often also to the other extream of sinfull Compliance and cowardly betraying the Truth witness the various Cassandrian Syncretisms attempted in Germany France Brittain Poland and other parts again and again Answ 1. It s bad indeed to skip from the Pan into the fire and run upon Scylla in labouring to shun the Rock of Charybdis Extreams are ever nought that forsake the golden Medium of Virtue There was but little reason and religion in that Law of Solon which banished moderation from the Athenian state by ordering that in every Tumult and faction all persons unengaged and neutrally impartial should be banished His pretended ground was but a shadow of policy if not a politick Heresie The middle wherein virtue centers as in its Throne and proper Element between vicious Extreams is a middle of Negation not of participation excluding both the contrary evils and sharing in neither There is a difference between staring and stark mad A sinful neutrality that neglects duty and inclines to evil is very bad But a virtuous neutrality that observes duty in avoiding evil must needs be very good 2. Those Cassandrian Mixtures of truth and falshood Protestants and Papists into a mongrel Hotch-potch are still as they were justly suspected and disowned by judicious Christians What Communion can Light have with darkness What concord hath Christ with Belial what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols What felloship can the people of God have with the man of sin what hath Zion to do with Babylon If any question whether the Roman Papacy be Antichrist let them seriously weigh the Lord Bacons Answer to King James about this question If hue and cry were sent out said he against Antichrist I would surely apprehend Papacy till she had cleared her marks being so many and so notorious The Apostles who were most for loving forbearance and Christian compliance towards the weak that are sound in the main abhorred and still disowned all sinfull closings with persons and Doctrines opposite to the great foundations of our faith Yet among the Papists there is a great difference The Jansenians and Dominicans with many Sorbonists being far more Orthodox about Gods Decrees and Providence Justification and free-Will with divers other points then the rest some of the Jesuits themselves appear more moderate then others 3. Though we cannot comply with such wayes that are fundamentally destructive of our Religion without sin yet may we not neglect any means of convincing them by spiritual and moral Reasonings with all prudent zeal The softest words will best set out the strongest Arguments We are bid to Instruct in all meekness such as oppose themselves If God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the Truth that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil that are taken captive by him at his will Therefore should not the Lords servant meddle with foolish and unlearned Questions that engender strife neither should he strive but be gentle to all men apt to teach and patient This Apologie for moderate and impartial Christians can be no Plea for any base deserting of Truth or unworthy lukewarmness in religious or civil affairs The same God that here pronounces Blessedness to the Peace-makers denounces also a most bitter curse upon Meroz and all such Loodicean Spirits who come not freely to the Lords help and do his work deceitfully or negligently in the quarrel of his Covenant for the building of Zion and pulling down of Babylon Vse 2. This point directs a just Reprehension to all that slight oppose and neglect this blessed Peace-making being either strangers enemies or friends 1. Such as are yet strangers to this blessed work should be admonished convincingly both of their folly and misery How many would be found upon Inquiry as much estranged from Peace-making as from Peace it self and from the God of Peace Is not this the fruit and the sad Symptome of a blinded mind and a hardened heart What gross Ignorance and supine carelesness reign among multitudes that neither know nor desire to walk in the wayes of Peace All men naturally before the new Birth are strangers to Christ and to his Righteousness and therefore alienated from his Peace They that have most of notional Knowledge and a gilded Profession yet are found grosly unacquainted with the practical Mysteries and experimental Power of Godliness They speak of such things as blind men of colours and as Geographers of terra incognita and del fuego at random and ghess The Power as well as the Wisdom of a crucified Peace-maker is folly to the Greek and scandal to the Jew There are not many wise not many noble not many rich ones called to this Peace to seek and to embrace it The greatest number of our glorious Professors have but sipped of his Heavenly Gifts and tasted but externally of the good Word of Peace Their partaking of the common Gifts of the Holy Spirit puts for a time a lustre of excellency on them which makes them flourish like the stony and thorny ground among foolish Virgins The unclean Spirit doth upon design seemingly leave their house that they may be trimmed and swept with external formality and morality by the removing of common prophaness Divers may seem to out-strip therein the most precious Christians yet are they but for a time Their painting soon washes away their Gifts decay the unclean Spirit returns with seven worse and such washed swines return again to the puddle of sin in opinion affection or converse or in all together This seems to be an Epidemical disease of this season The Lord awaken every secure self-conceited Hypocrite Such may have a flash and shew of Peace as of Godliness but they are strangers to the substance and solidity of both Presumption
good his Christian Profession How many Unities doth the Apostle press upon the Ephesians that he might powerfully quicken them to use all diligence towards this peaceable way Should not each of them have a strong Impulse upon our Spirits in these unpeaceable Times 2. Order is the next Essential requisite unto Peace-making What Unity doth constitute and strengthen Order manages governs and preserves Such as the Peace is such is the Unity and such the Order that lead thereto and act about it Peace with God requires an orderly way of agreement with him through Jesus Christ The Lords Spirit works methodically about that great matter as also about Peace of conscience He convinces the world of sin of Righteousness and of Judgement in order to comfort when he comes to be their Paraclete The God of order will be observed orderly by every Christain in his and their wayes Thus towards a civil and Oeconomical Peace doth he proceed orderly and requires his people to do the like His Providence sets every man in his proper station and his word gives exact directions how they should act therein His Spirit qualifies all his people for every motion sutable to their Sphere by continual supplies out of Christs fulness That Almighty God who tels the number of the stars calling them by their names calls all Persons and sublunary Things to their proper work Whist they keep his Orders they further that Peace whereon depends the Blessedness of the Universe and of it several parts Superiors have most influence herein moving in their places as Superior Planets in their higher Orbs. As their motion proves regular or irregular so is their Aspect benign or malign Christ the King of all the Sun of Righteousness moves still orderly and regularly Wh lst by him Kings reign and Princes execute Judgement spiritually as well as providentially those mountains of his Kingdom then bring forth Peace and the little Hils by Righteousness Inferiors also are taught their Duty in orderly working towards Peace-making There is none so poor and despicable but hath somewhat to do towards it Their Faith and Prayer their Gifts and Graces are alwayes of use in each Relation civil and Spiritual Often they that think meanest of themselves have most influx into this great work It s sometimes the poor unregarded Person that saves the City from eminent dangers The feet are helpfull to the whole Body and the smallest Toe doth not want its work nor could it be spared Propriety and Subordination are the Appointments of the God of Heaven That whimsey of men that would level all to bring confusion appears to come from confused Spirits not from the God of Order Though men often mistake and miscarry both in higher and in lower places yet doth the Lord still over-rule all their disorders to his orderly ends What we cannot redress in mens ill Motions he would have us bewail and look to him for help with all orderly motions in our own places towards Peace-making As for Civil Peace so likewise for Ecclesiastical Accord due Order is specially observable He is in this case very peculiarly the God of Order not of Confusion All things would he have to be done decently in Order and to Edification in every Church of his He hath therefore left upon Record all Instructions necessary thereto to be applyed as there shall be cause He leaves more to humane Prudence in civil Affairs then in Ecclesiastical matters There he leaves men to more general Rules about the kinds and means of Government but here he gives more pnnctual directions in those the external man is chiefly concerned but here the internal The matter and manner of Civil Government he doth often providentially alter but the dispensations of Ecclesiastical Rule are fixed by him Though he formerly spoke sundry times and manners to the Fathers yet having once spoken to us by his Son he alters no more this Evangelical Administration but curses any that pretends to bring an other Gospel The Matter and Substance abides still the same though some Circumstantials may admit of change pro hic nunc according to Rule still and in Order to Peace New Officers and a new Power may be by men constituted in the State not so in the Church In that Christ rules chiefly as King of Nations but here as King of Saints In both he would have all ordered to his Glory according to his Word which appoints every one the proper limits of their general and particular Calling As in the Body natural whilst all the parts move orderly in their proper place there is harmonious Peace in a healthfull Temper so is it in the Body Politick and Ecclesiastical As the strings of a Lute being orderly set wound up and touched make a sweet Musick of different Accords so doth it appear in the right tuning of the several strings in each Instrument Civil and Spiritual A confused heap of stones and rubbish is unseemly useless and weak It s the orderly fitting of materials both to each other and to the foundation that makes a building strong and durable pleasant and usefull It must needs appear so in Ecclesiastical as in Civil Fabricks It should then be the care of all Church-Officers and of Church-members to study and observe the Orders of Christ appointed for his family and Kingdom in their respective capacities that Peace may be had and the blessings thereof Warning the unruly supporting the weak watching over each other mutual sympathy comforts and supplies are frequently inculcated on us and therefore to be as carefully performed Rulers and ruled must walk exactly with accurateness as upon Tip-toes both in Doctrine Worship and Discipline All differences of lesser moment are to be soberly humbly prudently prevented and cured as far as may be What good may be done or evil redressed by any gentler means must not be handled in a rougher way It were absurd to struggle and sweat about a feather or any light matter All means must still be proportioned to our designed end according to the various cases in hand Thus wise men act in all their affairs of temporal Import much more should they in heavenly things All have special need to beware of their Lusts which are still unteachable and disorderly The seed of the Serpent reigning in the most remaining in the best will still bear a mortal fewd against the seed of the woman both personal and spiritual That Antipathy is a dreadfull enmity natural and constant universal and perpetual whence the breach of Peace both in Church and State 'T is therefore most needfull that all sorts should study and attend that excellent Order which our Soveraign doth proportion out to every Person in each relation Lustre and vigor will still attend it and render thereby the fellow-members of each Society singularly helpfull to each other singly and jointly Whilst all the wheels and weights of this Clock or Watch keep their due
Breaches increasing from small beginnings and embittering Brethren against each other about things very disputable and dubious How much is Gods work retarded and his glorious Name abused by his childrens discords and disorders How contrary are such ungodly jars to the Being and Will Attributes and concernments of that great God whose Children we still profess to be If Peace-makers shall be called Gods Children What Opprobrious Title shall they not deserve and bear who are still known to act as notorious Peace-breakers Corollar Secondly It yields a Confutation of divers Erroneous mistakes about Profession and Peace Too many account it their Duty to maintain and promote every thing they conceive to be Truth though at the costs of Peace in a disorderly and dividing way But how far is this from the Duty and Dignity of a child of God no Truth indeed is to be renounced or opposed but there are varieties of Truths and of Seasons to prosess the same There is much Prudence and Care required still about it We often mistake Truth for Error and Error for Truth We often wrong Truth by our â—ll handling thereof The Spirits of the Prophets said the Apostle are subject to the Prophets They who are taught and led by the Spirit of Truth are so far judicious and orderly in the peaceable expressions thereof The Wine of Truth being given too hot in a wrangling manner or unseasonable time doth much hurt instead of good It endangers the burning and casting of men into feavorish heat and contentious distempers In indifferent matters in Circumstantials we should speak nothing but the Truth but we are not bound to speak all the Truth at once There were many things which Christ and his Apostles forbore to tell others because they were not able to bear them Many are like infirm Patients whose head and stomack will bear but little and must be wisely dealt with Christians soon exceed in quantity quality in order and season about such matters A man must in many cases have his Faith to himself so as not to disturb others by his making a stir about it The Spirit indeed leads his People into all Truths substantially needfull for their Knowledge and Practice but he doth it gradually orderly peaceably and sutably according to their various conditions In cases of moment Profession is needfull so far as it may promote Gods Honor and mans good but when it crosses and endangers both then is a child of God called to a Peaceable silence Truth is too precious to be cast away upon such as cannot and will not entertain it well Holy things should not be abused in a swinish or dogged manner either in the giving or receiving thereof Frowardness and janglings among our Children we cannot abide God takes little pleasure to see his Children to wrangle and divide under pretence of doing their Duty Vse 2. This Point serves also for Admonition The Children of Men are by the Lords own Dichotomy divided into two Ranks some he cals the Children of this world others the Children of God 1. The Children of this World should be hence effectually dealt with for their contrariety to this dignifying property of Gods Children Such as are strangers and enemies unto Peace-making shew little Interest in God and little acquaintance with him Where worldly lusts do reign and domineer they prove still sad Lords of mis-rule very many wayes This is the case of all unregenerate Ones most are still sound to slight and disown to reject and oppose that God in effect whom they seem to own for their God in Profession Their corrupt Nature is further still corrupted by sinfull Custom habituating them to a further degree of Putrefaction both in their Intellectuals and Morals There is a great Latitude in this sinfull State though all agree in opposition to God and his Peace Some do it more grosly and prophanâ—ly others more closly and cunningly Who ever thou art who livest under the Love and Power of any sin thou shewst thy self to be no child of God Why dost thou pretend to the Dignity whilst thou dost not manifest the property of his Child Thy worldly lusts whether Pride or Passion Envy or Avarice Ignorance or Unbelief Self-love or Formality Laziness or Wantonness or any such other bearing sway over thee so cherished of thee against thy Allegiance to thy Soveraign wofully bewrayes thy estrangedness from him Whilst thou dost disown his Nature his Charge and Interest dost thou not disown to be his Child Whilst thou ownest a contrary Nature Charge and Interest in a worldly way dost thou not proclaim thy self an Enemy Is not this a piece of egregious folly to deceive thy self in mocking that God who searches thy heart and will not be mocked Is it not attended with woful misery bringing upon thee the dreadful wrath of an abused God Thy Peace with sin with self and Satan maintains still hostile War against God Thy nursing up of his enemies in thy own bosome speaks out sadly thy ungodliness What will it avail to be called Christian whilst thou renouncest that gracious nature and that holy Charge which should still act thee to the utmost to the advance of his Interest Doth he not disclaim such degenerate Children who love and serve any Creature or sin to his disgrace and before his face Are not such in effect as the Children of the Aethiopians to him Whilst thou embracest any thing in Equality with him or Superiority above him or Contrariety to him How canst thou own thy self to be his Child If all Creatures be not accounted loss and dung in comparison of him he is not thy God If thy love to Creatures and thy use thereof be not subordinate moderate and seasonable according to the Rules of his Grace and Peace its rebellion and Adultery of the very worst kind That very thing which thou art wedded to and keepest Peace with against thy duty challenged from thee by thy Soveraign that is thy Idol which God will famish That Dagon shall be sure to fall before his Ark brought in by an insulting Triumph to be its Prisoner If thou art for God and for his Peace so far only as may serve thy Turn and promote thy End God will serve his turn and promote his End on thee with a vengeance If his Name be used as a cloak to thy Lusts as a stalking horse to thy base designs that jealous God will smoak against thee and vendicate his name with a witness What hast thou to do thus to prophane his Name by thy sinfull mouth whilst thou hatest to be reformed Why mockest thou him as the wretched Jews with a Hail King whilst thy heart and hands are betraying and abusing of him Will thy Peace with sin and thy War with God dignifie thee with the Property of a child of God Shouldst thou not be what thou doest profess or profess what thou art 2. The children of God should be hence also