and have Communion with them as Saints Not as conceiving them certainly to be such but probably and by that humane faith by which we are bound to believe their profession not as we believe God who is Infallible but as men that are fallible And this in several Degrees according to the several Degrees of their Credibility and the Probability of their Profession So that you must not after this mâ—stake me as if I tyed our external Church-Communion only to true Saints for then we must have Communion with none because being not able to search the hearts we know not what Professors are sincere But yet even this External Church-Communion belongs only to them that make Profession of Love and Holiness as well as of Belief and no lower Profession must serve the turn Prop. 2. There is a Common Vnity of humane Nature that we have with all men and a common Peace that as much as in us lyeth we must hold with all Rom. 12.18 But this is nothing to the Unity in questâ—on which belongeth to our happiness The Devils have a Unity of Nature and some order and accord in Evil for if Satan be divided how can his kingdom stand Mat. 12.26 Prop. 3. The Unity of the Saints in the Spirit of Holiness consisteth in this life with much imperfection and discord according to the imperfection of their Holiness But as Grace is the seed of Glory and the beginning of Eternal Life for all its weakness and the sins that accompany it Iohn 17.3 So the Unity of the Spirit of holiness is the seed and beginning of the perfect Unity in Heaven for all the differences and discord that here accompany it II. HAving shewed you the only bond of Unity I come now by fuller evidence to convince you of the truth of what is said and even to force it into your understandings if you will but use your Reason and believe the Word of God It is unholiness and ungodliness that causeth our Discord and it is the Spirit of Holiness that is the Vniting Principle and there 's no true Christian Vnity to be had with ungodly men Never think of Vnity by any other way then Sanctification You are as on the other side of the River and cannot be united to the servants of Christ till the Spirit Convert you and pass you over You are dead men and unfit to be United to the living and it s the Spirit that quickneth and this Life must be our Vnion You madly rail against Division and yet stand at a distance from Christ and his Church and maintain the greatest division in the world Believe it you do but doat and dream if you think to have true Christian Vnity on any other terms then by the Sanctifying Spirit of Christ. And this I shall now evince as followeth 1. You know sure that there can be no Christian Unity but in God as your Father and the Center of Vnity All the true members of the Catholick Church must say Our Father and be as his children United in him If you will have Unity without the favour of God it must be the Unity of Rebels and such a concord as is in Hell The family of God do all Unite in him As all the Kingdom is United in one King so is all the Church in God Can you think it possible to have Unity as long as you will not Unite in God Well then there 's nothing plainer in the Scripture then that all men by nature are departed from God and none are United to him but those that are regenerate and made new creatures not a man is his child by Grace and in his favour but only those that are sanctified by his Spirit Ioh. 3.3 5. Mat. 18.3 2 Cor. 5.17 Heb. 12.14 So that there 's no true Vnity without Sâ—nctification because there 's no reconciliation with God nor Unity with him without it 2. There can be no true Christian Vnity but in Christ the Redeemer and Head of the Church For how can the members be United but in the Head or the Schollars but in their Teacher or the Subjects but in their Soveraign You know there 's no Christian Vnity but in Christ. Well then What Unity can we have with those that are not in Christ The unsanctified have indeed the name of Christians but what is that to the nature Some branches not bearing fruit are said to be in him the Vine by outward profession but they are dead and withered and must be cut off and cast away for the fire and so are unfit for Communion with the Vine Iohn 15. He that is in Christ is a new creature old things are past away behold all things are become new 2 Cor. 5.17 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ which is this sanctifying Spirit the same is none of his I pray you mark the plainness of these passages All you that are unconverted and unsanfied are out of Christ and none of his though you may talk and boast of him as long as you will And therefore you cannot have Vnity with Christians till you will first have Unity with Christ himself Till you are engraffed into him you are not engraffed into the Catholick Church but only seem to be what you are not 3. The dead cannot be United to the living who will be married to a dead corpse or would be tyed to it and carry it about It is life that must Unite us The unsanctified are dead in sin Eph. 2.5 and the Spirit is given to quicken the dead that they may be fit for converse What Union can there be between a block and a man or a beast that hath but a sensitive life and a man that hath a rational Soul So what Union between the sensual world and the sanctified Believer If you could have Vnity without the Sanctifying Spirit why are you then Baptized into the name of the Holy-Ghost as your Sanctifier To have a Vnity of Being is common to us with the Devils for they are Gods creatures and so are we To have a Vnion of Specifick Being is common to us with all the damned for they are men as well as we and common to the Devils among themselves But it must be a Unity in the Spirit of Holiness that must prove us happy and afford us comfort 4. There is no possibility of having Unity with those that have not the same ultimate principal end But the sanctified and the unsanctified have not the same end nay have contrary ends If one of you will go to York and the other to London how can you possibly go one way This is the great difference that sets the world and the sanctified by the ears You serve Mammon and they serve God You have one portion and they another Your portion is in this life Psalm 17.14 Here you have your good things Luke 16.25 and here you lay up your treasure Mat. 6.19 21. Your belly is your God and you mind earthly things Phil.
words of a man that you shall confess did speak impartially and not out of any intemperance or singularity who in a Prosperous University in Peaceable times being himself in favour and of that Judgement and of such Learning as was likely to continue him in favour did yet write thus concerning persecution I mean Doctor Iackson in his Book of saving Faith sect 2. chap. 4. pag. 185. The Ministers of Christ may deny Christ or manifest their ashamedness of his Gospel as directly by not laying his Law as closely to the great Herods of the world as John Baptist did suppose the case be as notorious and as well known to them as if they had been afraid to confess him for fear of being put out of the Synagogues or said with those other Iews We know that God spake with Moses and gave authority to Magistrates but this man we know not whence he is nor do we care for his Counsels Yet were John Baptists kind of preaching used in many Kingdoms though by such as profess the same Religion with the Potentates they should offend with their boldness I think it would prove matter of Martyrdom in the end That any age since Christian Religion was first propagated hath wanted store of Martyrs is more to be attributed to the Negligence Ignorance and Hypocrisie or want of courage in Christs Embassadors or appointed Pastors then unto the sincerity mildness or fidelity of the flock especially of the Bell-weathers or chief ring-leaders Or if Satan had not abated the edge of primitive zeal and resolution by that dishonourable peace concluded between Christianity and Gentilism after the settling of Goths and Vandals in these parts of Christendom had he not utterly benummed mankind by locking up their spiritual senses in midnight darkness and fettering their souls in superstition since the time he himself was let loose Rome Christian had seen more Martyrs even of such as did not much dissent from her in most opinions held within six hundred years of Christ in one year then Rome Heathen at any time had known in ten Even in Churches best Reformed it would be much easier I think to find store of just matter of Martyrdom then of men fit to make Martyrs And he that hath lived any long time in these quiet mansions and seats of Muses secure from Mars his broyls or external violence hath great cause either to magnifie the tender mercies of his gracious God or suspect himself for an Hypocrite if he have not suffered some degrees of Martyrdom But unto such as have been exercised therein it bringeth forth the quiet fruit of Righteousness Thus you see this Learned Doctor though in favour with the Rulers of the age he lived in did think that a man that would not be an Hypocrite but faithfully discharge his duty was likely to suffer Martyrdom from those of the same Profession with himself and that it must be by very great mercy from God or by hypocrisie and unfaithfulness in us if any Minister do scape the hands of the wicked that are of his own Profession So that you may see that meer Profession will make but a poor Agreement or Union among us Sin will be sin still and the flesh will rage still after its prey in unmortified Professors and the Word of God will still disgrace them and condemn them and consequently trouble them and exasperate them So that if you come no nearer to us then a Profession of the Christian Protestant Religion you will still be souldiers in the Army of the Devil and be still flying in the faces of true Believers whenever they do but cross you in your sins 3. Consider also What a poor benefit comparatively it is to your selves to be joyned with the Saints by a bare Profession and no more Will it make you happy to see their faces or live among them So do the bruit beasts and so do their Persecutors Will it make you happy to be called by the name of Christians No more then it maketh a Picture Rational to be called by the name of a man And what if by your parts and moral vertues you are some way helpful to the Church So is the wooden leg to the body which yet is not a member but a crutch 4. Yea me thinks it should rather double your sorrows that you are so miserable among the happy You live with them that have part in Christ when you have none in him You joyn with those that have the Spirit of God and an holy disposition and conversation when you have none You kneel by them whose Spirits are importunate with God in prayer when your hearts are dead You sit by them that are quickned and sanctified by the Word which to you is but a dead and empty sound You are famished among them that are feasting upon Christ and upon the precious promises of eternal life You are but as carkases among the living Their company maketh not you alive but your noysom conversation is grievous unto them unless it be some of you that are embalmed and beflowered with some common graces for the sakes of those that else would be more troubled with you And is this so great a comfort to you to be dead among the living and to be heirs of hell in the midst of them that are heirs of heaven Methinks till you are sanctified it should be a daily horrour to you to look them in the faces and think that they have Christ and grace and you have none and to hear in the holy Assemblies the mention of their happiness and the name of that God that Christ that Heaven where they must live for ever and in which their blessedness consisteth when you must be turned out into everlasting misery That you may not think I am singular in all this I will add here some humane testimony for confirmation of it Zenoras Comment in Epist. Canon Can. 45. ex Basil. M. Epist. 2. ad Amphiloch giveâ— us this as one of the Canons of the Greek Church received from Basiâ— If any one receiving the Name oâ— Christianity shall be a reproach iâ— Christ that is saith Zonaras by â— wiâ—ked life his Name or Appellation is no profit at all to him Anâ— even in the Roman Caâ—on Law this is one Canon taken out of Augustine Parvulus qui bâ—ptiz tur si ad annos rationales veniens nâ—crediderit nec ab illiritis abstinuerit nihil ei prodest quod parvulus accepit Decret part 3. dist 3. p. 1241. that is A Baptized Infant if when he comes to years of discretion doth not believe nor abstain from things unlawful it profiteth him nothing which he received in his infancy If it were needful after the Canons both of the Greek and Latine Church to give you the like words from particular Fathers I could soon perform it 5. You are so far from being Happy by your visible Church-state and outward Profession and Communion with the Church that you have the greater
3.18 But it is the Lord that is the portion of the Saints Psal. 16.5 They lay up a treasure in heaven Mat. 6.20 and there they have their conversations Phil. 3.20 Being risen with Christ they seek the things that are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God for they are dead and their life is hid with Christ in God Col. 3.1 3 4. The business that the Saints and that the ungodly have in the world is clean contrary Their business is for Heaven and yours is for earth They are sowing to the spirit in hope of everlasting life and you are sowing to the flesh and shall reap corruption Gal. 6.6 7. They are making Provision for another life that never shall have end and you are making provision for the flesh to satisfie its desires Rom. 13.14 And how is it possible for these to be United What concord between light and darkness or Christ and Belial or righteousness with unrighteousness 2 Cor. 6.14 15. Can two walâ— together except they be agreed Amo. 3.3 We must better agree of our business in the world and of our journeys end before we can keep company with you While you are for earth and we for heaven it is not possible that we should go one way While one is for the world and another for God they must needs differ For God and the world are masters that are unreconcileable If you will cleave to one you must despise the other The work of the Butcher and the Souldier is to kill and the work of the Surgeon and Physitian is to cure And do you think these will ever take one course The Souldier studies how to wound and kill The Surgeon studies how to close these wounds and heal them And surely these must go contrary wayes Sirs as long as your business is principally for the flesh and the world and the business of the sanctified is against the flesh and world and for the Spirit and the world to come how is it possible that you should be agreed You must bring heaven and earth together first yea heaven and hell together first before you can have a Christian Unity and Agreement between the sanctified and the unsanctified 5. There is no Vnity to be had but in the Gospel The Apostle tels us there is One Faith Eph. 4.5 If an Angel from heaven would preach another Gospel he must be accursed Gal. 1.10 11. But the unsanctified do not truly and heartily entertain this Gospel You think and say you truly believe it when you do not If you truly believed it your lives would shew it He that indeed believes an everlasting Glory will sure look after it more then after the world or the flesh 6. There is no Christian Unity but in the Christian Nature Contrary natures cannot close Firâ— and Water the Woolf and the Lamb the Bear and the Dog wiâ— not well Unite The sanctified havâ— a new divine and heavenly nature Ioh. 3.6 2 Pet. 1.4 2 Cor. 5 1â— Their Disposition is another way then it was before But the unsanctified have the old corrupt fleshly nature still One is as the fire still bending upward the other as the earth or stone still bending downward to the earth And how can these agree together 7. There is no Christian Vnity to be had where the Affections run quite contrary wayes But so it is with the sanctified and the unsanctified One loves God above all and cannot live without holy Communion with him and retireth into him from the distractions of the world and maketh him his Rest Content and Solace The other mentions the goodness of God but findeth no such sweetness in him nor desires after him One treads the world underfoot as dirt or valueth and useth it but as a help to heaven And the other makes it his happiness and sets his heart on it One delighteth in Holiness and the other hateth it or regardeth it not One hateth sin as a Serpent or as death and the other makes it his meat and drink and business And how is it possible for men of such contrary affections to be agreed and natures at such enmity to Unite 8. The sanctified and unsanctified are moved by contrary Objects One lives by faith on things that are out of sight and strives for Heaven as if he saw it and strives against Hell as if he saw it for his faith is the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 7. We live by faith and not by sight 2 Cor. 5.7 2 Cor. 4.18 But the unsanctified live upon things that are seen and things believed little move them because they are not heartily believed 9. The Holy and the unholy do live by contrary Laws One liveth by the Law of God and there asketh counsel what he must think or say or do resolving to obey God before his flesh and all the world The other will say he will be ruled by Gods Law till his flesh and carnal interest contradict it and then he will take his lusts for his Law His Pride is a Law to him and the pleasures and profits of the world are a Law to him and the will of great ones and the customs of men are his Law And how is it possible for mâ—n to agree that walk by such contrary Rules as these 10. There is no true Vnity but in the Covenant with Christ. As Marriage Vniteth man and wife so every truly sanctified man hath delivered up himself to Christ in a peremptory absolute Covenant and hath quit all claim of interest in himself and is wholly Gods But the unsanctified will not be brought to this any further then the lips and therefore they cannot be well United 11. The true members of the Church are built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Eph. 2.20 21. But the unsanctified regard them not if they cross their minds 12. There is no true Christian Vnity but with the Holy Catholick Church The body is but one 1 Cor. 12.12 13. Eph. 4.4 But the unsanctified are not of the Holy Catholick Church but only in the visible external Communion of it 13. There can be no true Christian Vnity with the Saints without a special Love to the Saints For by this we know that we are passed from death to life because we love the Brethren he that lovetâ— not his brother abideth in death 1 John 3.14 By this must all men know that we are Christs Disciples John 13.35 Love is the bond and cement of the Church He that doth not heartily love a godly sanctified man because he is such hath no true Unity with the Church But the ungodly love them not as such They see no such beauty and loveliness in Holiness Though Scripture call it Gods Image they be not in Love with Gods Image but think it a conceit or hypocritical pretence or a wearysom thing Why poor carnal wretches do you hate the godly and yet would you have Unity with them Do you hate them and yet cry