A PERSWASIVE TO Peace Unity AMONG CHRISTIANS Notwithstanding their different Apprehensions in lesser things 1 Cor. 1.10 Now I beseech you Brethren by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no Divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same Judgment Phil. 2.2 Fulfill ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same Love being of one accord of one mind Rom. 14.19 Let us therefore follow after the things which make for Peace and things wherewith one may edifie another LONDON Printed for B. Aylmer at the Three Pigeons in Cornhil near the Poultry 1672. A PERSWASIVE TO Peace and Unity AMONG CHRISTIANS THE deep sense of the very ill effects of our Church-Divisions hath put me as it should do every good Christian upon healing considerations An account of some of which I shall give in the following Discourse which I shall ground on the words of St. Paul Eph. 4.3 Endeavouring to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace Which contain that behaviour in part by which Christians may and ought to walk worthy of that Vocation to which they are called Unto which the Apostle doth with the greatest earnestness exhort and perswade them in this and the two former Verses And the words give us occasion to inquire into two things 1. What is meant by the Unity of the Spirit 2. How this Unity is preserved by Peace and how we are to endeavour so to preserve it 1. What is meant by the Unity of the Spirit The Unity of the Spirit is that One-ness among Christians which the Spirit of God worketh or effecteth by the Gospel which is the Ministration of the Spirit For by the Spirits operation through that Men become one in Faith or Perswasion one in Profession one in Affection and one in Communion And by their Union and agreement in these or the three former of these they become one Body or Spiritual Corporation under Christ the Head of it By one Spirit we are all Baptized into one Body and are made to drink into one Spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 For the work of the Ministry till we all come to the Unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God Ephes 4.12 13. 1. They are by the Spirit made one in faith or perswasion touching the great fundamental truths in the Christian Religion such as the Apostle doth instance in in the three following Verses Even as ye were called in one hope of your Calling One Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all First they are all called by the Gospel to embrace Christianity in One Hope of obtaining forgiveness of sins and eternal Life Secondly they all agree in professing Faith in One Lord Jesus Christ as the only Mediator in opposition to the Lords many the many Mediators the Heathen professed to have and to worship 1 Cor. 8.5 6. Thirdly they all agree in the Belief that the Doctrine of the Gospel by Christ and his Apostles contained in the Holy Scriptures is a revelation from God touching what Men ought to believe and how they ought to live called the One Faith and the Common Faith from the Christians unanimous agreement in it Tit. 1.4 Fourthly they all agree and are one in the belief of One God and Father of all in opposition to the many Idol-gods worshipped by others Fifthly there is also One Baptism by which all the Christians with one consent make profession solemnly of their belief in and Dedication to the Worship and Service of the Father Son and Holy Ghost into whose Name they were Baptized and by which as by a sacred Rite they are solemnly declared to be of the one Body the Church By one Spirit are all Baptized into one Body 2. They all agree and are one in the Profession of the Common Faith the fundamental Doctrines of the Gospel the belief of which is of necessity to Salvation Which Profession is called The acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness Tit. 1.1 2 Tim. 2.25 The acknowledgment of the Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ Col. 2.2 As with the heart they believe unto Righteousness so with the Mouth confession is made unto Salvation Rom. 10.10 3. So far as they are Christians indeed they are all one in affection or Brotherly Love They Love all Men even those that are not Christians with a love of compassion desiring and seeking their good but they love their fellow Christians wish a special kind of love for the appearance of good in them for their one-ness with them in the Faith called a loving or the Truths sake which is in them 2 John 1.2 And a loving them in the 〈◊〉 Tit. 3.15 By which they become One 〈◊〉 and 〈…〉 togethâ—◠〈◊〉 Love Act. 4.32 Col. 2.2 And hence it is that Faith in our Lord 〈◊〉 Christ and love to all the Saints are frequently joyned together in Scripture 4. All they that rightly be of the Unity of the Spirit are also one in Communion One in their Communion in Grace mutually loving one another and praying one for another One in Communion in Gifts edifying one another as they have opportunity And one in Communion in Ordinances communicating together in Ordinances of Divine Worship Spiritually with all and locally with those among whom they live 1 Cor. 10.17 For we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread These are the things in which the Unity of the Spirit doth especially consist Not that I limit it to these only for it is the work of the Spirit in the Gospel to be bringing the Believers to speak all the same thing and to be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment in the lesser things of Religion as well as the greater but their actual agreement lyeth mostly in the greater 2. How this Unity is preserved by Peace and how we are to endeavour so to preserve it Unity in the whole community of Christians is preserved by each Member's observing the Laws and Rules made for the Government and good Order of the whole in their carriage towards each other For while every Man Acts his own part only and keeps in his own Rank according to Rule there is no confusion no disturbance no division and peace and confusion or disorder are put in opposition to one another 1 Cor. 14.33 Christ the Head of the Church or Spiritual Corporation hath made several excellent Laws and Rules to govern the Members of his Body in their behaviour one towards another for the common good of the whole and for the Honour of their Religion and of him who is the great Founder of it As that all their things should be done in Charity That they be gentle and courteous humble and condescending in Honour
of which difference of knowledge and grace differences are apt more or less to arise among them The weak are apt to be more scrupulous than the strong as being more in the dark and so apter to stumble Whereupon the strong if they be not restrained by Humility and Charity are apt to despise them when they cannot make them understand what is plain and evident to them themselves And the weak again if they be not restrained by Humility and Charity are apt to judge and censure the strong as if they were not so conscientious because not so scrupulous as themselves And upon this despising and judging one another the bond of peace is broken and a way prepared for dividing For when the weak see themselves neglected slighted not regarded and set at nought by the strong it discourages them and takes off the pleasure of their Society and Communion and makes them weary of it and becomes a temptation to them to forsake it and to follow any opposite party that will head them And when the strong again find themselves judged and censured by the weak as if they were Men of little Conscience they are apt to look upon themselves as being by such prejudice taken up against them put out of a capacity of serving them which becomes a temptation to them to neglect them and somewhat to estrange themselves from them Or however though that temptation should not prevail so far upon them yet all endeavours of the strong to help and cure the weak are by the prejudice which the weak have against them when they once fall to judging them made very much ineffectual so mischievous and baneful to the Churches peace and Unity is proud despising and uncharitable censuring one another This was the case between the believing Jews and Gentiles upon which the first considerable breach we read of brake out in the Christian Church of which we have an account in Act. 15. and Rom. 14. and other places The believing Jews durst not use such liberty in meat as the believing Gentiles did nor did the believing Gentiles think themselves obliged to be circumcised and to observe Jewish Festivals as the believing Jews thought they were Hereupon the believing Gentiles which understood their Liberty despised the believing Jews when they could not make them understand it too And the believing Jews on the other hand fell to judging the believing Gentiles as looser than themselves and as Men of no Conscience because they did not make Conscience of Meats and days of Circumcision as well as themselves And upon this unchristian carriage of one towards another under their different apprehensions in these things great divisions sidings and disturbances among them did ensue Now that all such despising and judging one another and dividing from one another about their difference in lesser matters of doubtful disputation should be forborn by Christians so long as they agree in the essentials of Christianity St. Paul declares upon these two grounds among others 1. Because upon the Common Faith wherein they were both agreed they were at the first received by the Lord into his Church and so into a near Relation to himself And therefore their after-differences which did not destroy that Foundation upon which that Relation was first built were no sufficient ground of despising or judging one another or of dividing or withdrawing one from another This is plainly set down in these words Let him that eateth not despise him that eateth not and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth for God hath received him Rom. 14.3 And this reason is farther backed and urged again Chap. 15.7 Wherefore receivere one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God Those whom God hath received into his Church upon such and such grounds we may not we ought not to discourage or reject by despising or judging or withdrawing so long as that remains in them upon which God at first received them Which holds in all other cases of difference between Christians that agree in the main as these did as well as in this between the believing Jews and Gentiles It is upon the like reason and ground that our Apostle in the words upon which I found my discourse and those following Ephes 4. presseth upon Christians the great duty of endeavouring to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace viz. because they were at first incorporated into one Body by a profession and acknowledgment of one God and Father of all of one Lord Jesus Christ of one Holy Spirit of the Father and the Son of one Doctrine of Faith of one Hope of one Baptism Which fundamental points believed and lived to are sufficient to Salvation And if so they are sufficient bonds of Union and boundaries of Communion whatever difference in lesser things may otherwise occur For more in profession cannot be absolutely necessary to Church-Communion then what in reality is absolutely necessary to Salvation For as the one doth constitute the Church as invisible so doth the other the Church as visible And the same thing which constitutes the Church as visible must needs invest the Members thereof in a right to its external priviledges And if the Church had kept this her ground upon which she was first built and not made more conditions of Communion she had never been cut mangled and torn into I know not how many pieces as she hath been and at this day is And I see not any probability of her recovery to her primitive Union and Communion till she return to this her first Foundation of Union and boundary of Communion But a return to this would quickly do it if all Christians would acquiesce therein And why they should not as well as the primitive Christians the best Christians that ever the World saw did I understand not nor ever could hear any good reason to make me understand it 2. St. Pauls other reason why Christians that agree in the main as aforesaid should not despise or judge or withdraw from one another for their differing in lesser things is this because both parties differing but only so are to be presumed in the judgment of Charity to aim at the pleasing of God in what they differently hold and do For Charity according to which we are to guide our selves in all such cases of difference thinketh no evil but believeth and hopeth all things concerning others in the best sence and construction their Actions are capable of This was the case of the believing Jews and Gentiles they both aimed at the pleasing of God even in those things wherein they differed He that regardeeh the day regardeth it to the Lord and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he doth not regard it He that eateth eateth to the Lord saith he for he giveth God thanks and he that eateth not to the Lord he eateth not and giveth God thanks Rom. 14.6 Both aimed at the approving themselves to God in
28.18 And the reason is plain because they can never be disproved to be Disciples of Christ in one sence or other that are visibly of the Church For the Church is Christ's School and all that are of the Church are Christ's Scholars If they say Infants are no Disciples because they are not in a capacity to learn I answer Although they are not in the properest and nearest capacity to learn yet it doth not therefore follow that they are in no such capacity of it as that they may be called and reputed to be Disciples or Learners The Scripture useth to reckon or impute the doing of things to Children when yet they have been but in as remote a capacity of doing those things themselves as they are of Learning Thus little Children were said to enter into Covenant Deut. 29.11 12. to keep Covenant and to break Covenant Gen. 17 10.14 And the Children of the Kohothites of a moneth old were said to keep the charge of the Sanctuary Numb 3.28 And Levi to pay Tithes in Abraham while he was yet in his Loins Heb. 7.9 10. Doubtless they were said to do these things either because they did them virtually in their Parents as being morally one with them untill they could chuse for themselves Or else because they were under visible Circumstances of being certainly taught by their Parents to do them themselves when they should be in the nearest and properest capacity so to do and to own what their Parents had done on their behalf in the mean time as much as if they had done it in their own Persons But for whether of these reasons or for both or for any other they were said to do such things while but Children for the same reasons may little Children while but such be as truly said to be Disciples or Learners And upon one account or other Children as well as Parents are called Disciples in Act. 15.10 Where somes urging the necessity of the Gentiles being Circumcised after the manner of Moses that is to be proselyted by Circumcision is called a laying a yoak upon the neck of the Disciples Seeing then the manner of Moses was to Circumcise Proselytes both Fathers and Male Children and the pressing the continuance of this among all Gentiles Proselyted to Christianity is called a putting a yoak upon the neck of the Disciples it is impossible to prove but that the Children as well as the Fathers are meant by the Disciples upon whose neck the yoak would have been laid because it is manifest they as well as their Fathers were the Persons whose Circumcision was urged as necessary For these reasons I conclude they will never be able to prove little Children to be no Disciples and if not they can never be able to prove them excluded out of Christ's Commission for Baptizing Disciples 3. They cannot prove that the ends of Baptism are not attained when Administred to Infants of Believing Parents First one great end of Baptism is to signifie to all Men by visible sign and representation the same thing which Gods Covenant in the Gospel doth by Word Baptism conveys to the mind by the sense of seeing the same thing as the word of the Gospel doth by the sense of hearing which is the Covenant of Salvation or the terms on which God hath promised to save Men. Christ's Death Burial and Resurrection as the means by which pardon and Salvation are conditionally obtained for and promised to all Men are signified in Baptism And our dying unto sin and rising to a new Life as the condition upon which that pardon and Salvation are promised are likewise signified in Baptism Hence we are said to be buryed with Christ in Baptism into Death and to be raised with him Rom. 6.3 4 5 6. Col. 2.12 And to be saved as by a figure by Baptism as it signifies the Resurrection of Christ and the answer of a good Conscience 1 Pet. 3.21 And because the substance of the new Covenant is represented in Baptism thence it is that Baptism is called the sign of the Covenant And because it is an institution of God to assure Men that upon the terms signified by it they shall be pardoned and saved thence it is called the Seal of the Covenant as Circumcision for the like reason was For Circumcision was a sign to signifie upon what condition God promised Men to be their God and a Seal to assure them that upon their performing that Condition he would be their God And the Condition signified was Circumcision in the Spirit as St. Paul expounds it Rom. 2.28 29. that is mortification or the change of the heart the same for substance with the new Birth represented in Baptism But then Baptism no more than Circumcision doth signifie that all that have received it have performed the Condition of the promise of Salvation therein signified but to assure them and all others that upon the performance of it the benefits promised shall be conferred For the sign of the Covenant doth not signifie more to Men than the Covenant it self and the Covenant it self doth not signifie to Men that they have performed the Condition of it As to this end then as Circumcision was of a publick and common use to the Females as well as the Males though they were not circumcised themselves so is Baptism much more both to the Persons themselves who are Baptized and to all others as well when it is administred to Children as when to Men of riper years 2. Another end of Baptism is to oblige the Persons Baptized to perform the Condition of the Covenant in being born again of making them new hearts and becoming new Creatures as ever they hope to receive the benefits of pardon and Salvation promised in the Covenant upon that Condition It is from this Obligation that a holy Life is frequently pressed upon Christians from their having been Baptized and that it is called the Baptism unto Repentance Rom. 6. Col. 2 and 3 Chap. Mark 1. And Baptism can be no less an Obligation to Repentance and a Holy Life when administred to Infants than Circumcision was in like case and yet St. Paul said that whosoever was Circumcised was bound to keep the Law Gal. 5. And those Baptized in their Infancy if when they come to years of discretion do prove such as make Conscience of their own personal Obligation they usually take themselves to be as much obliged by their Infant-Baptism as they do who are Baptized at years of discretion and discharge it as well All which considered Infant-Baptism cannot be proved a Nullity as to this end neither 3. Another end of Baptism if it be not the same with that before mentioned is a solemn dedication of the person Baptized to the Worship and Service of the Father Son and Holy Spirit called a being Baptized in the Name or into the Name of Father Son and Holy Ghost Mat. 28. And is not such an Act done by Parents as obliging to their Children
into and more uncharitable in censuring others as carnal as time-servers as Men of the World only because of the National way and not of theirs though otherwise never so worthy Many of these are growing indeed but it is farther and farther into separation till at last they commence Quakers 4. If you prize your comfort prize harmony and good agreement not among this or that sort or party only but among all that do agree in things of absolute necessity to Salvation to all For those that are living and not dead or benumb'd Members of Christ's Body cannot but be pained with the rending of one Member of that Body from another If one Member suffer all the Members suffer with it 1 Cor. 12.26 Was it not a sad sight to see the Man in Mar. 5.5 cutting himself with stones And an Argument that he was possessed with an evil Spirit And I pray you how much less doleful is it to see the People of God Members of the same Body cutting and wounding themselves For so they do when they cut and wound one another For they are Members one of another Rom. 12.5 Alas how unnatural is this For no Man yet ever hated his own flesh Certainly where thus it is they are under a Spiritual phrenzy and madness and are objects of very great commisseration as well as occasions of great trouble and disturbance in the Church of God But O the Comfort of Love as the Apostle phraseth it Phil. 2.1 and the pleasantness of Peace and the delight of harmony which is like a well-tuned Instrument where there is no jarring Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is for Brethren to dwell together in Unity Psal 133.1 A great part of the comfort of a Christian in this World lyes in his Communion with Saints David said the Saints and excellent were all his delight Psal 16.3 And therefore a breach in this must needs make a breach in a Christians comfort 5. The Christian cause and interest in in the World calls loudly upon all such as would approve themselves to have any Love for it or to be any Friends to it and not betrayers of it to Unite and to close up the Divisions that are among us and not to persist in separating practises or to do any thing that contributes thereto but the contrary One great means of facilitating the belief of the Gospel and of propagating the Christian Religion and of bringing it into reputation in the World is the Union and good agreement of all Christ's followers And therefore he prayed so earnestly as we heard before that they all might be one as he and the Father are one that they also might be perfect in one and all for this end that the World might believe that the Father had sent him Joh. 17.20 21. That Men might believe that he came from God indeed and that he was no Impostor but that his Gospel is the infallible Truth and that Religion which is taught thereby is the only true Religion For Christ's followers are those by whom the Gospel is upheld in the World and held forth and witnessed to the World They hold forth the Word of Life Phil. 2.16 they are the Pillar and ground of the Truth 1 Tim. 3.15 And the more unanimous these are in judgment affection and testimony the stronger and more authentick will their testimony be the more Men will be drawn to consider it and to lay to heart the import of it But the more they are divided about it the more this Gospel this Religion comes under suspition in the minds of many and from their differing about lesser things the ignorant the weak and unbelieving will draw arguments of suspition and hesitation about the greater and be ready to conclude the uncertainty of the whole by their differing about a part especially when their difference rises so high and becomes so notorious and publick as it does when they separate about it This is lamentably experienced not only in the continued infidelity of Jews and Turks but also in that Atheism and Sceptiscism which hath so exceedingly increased upon us since these sad times of Division and Separation among us Our Divisions unsettle the minds unhinge and distract the Souls of many that they know not whom to follow or where to fix and by this means they are exposed to be practised upon by seducers and carried away Your Divisions encourageth seducers and the Adversaries of our Reformed Religion in their designs against you and invites them to attempt upon you So that as long as you keep up your Divisions they will make an advantage of it grow upon you and get ground and by little and little draw away your strength and in conclusion over-master you if by Uniting you prevent them not Your Adversaries know the meaning of divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel if you do not and of those words A Kingdome divided against it self cannot stand It hath been no doubt their practice by all the artifice they could to raise and foment your Divisions as it is still to continue and increase them as designing ruine to the Protestant interest thereby And will you gratifie them herein And become their Instruments to accomplish your own destruction and the destruction of that cause and interest which should be more dear to you then your Lives God forbid And therefore let no lesser interests of worldly advantage be it profit be it honour among Men or reputation among a party tempt you to betray this greater interest of your Lord and Master of Religion and of your Souls Be not herein penny wise and pound foolish Revive not that complaint Phil. 2.21 All seek their own not the things of Jesus Christ Expose not Religion to loss and dammage in the main and in the substance of it by being too tenacious of mutable Circumstances Be not so concerned for your Cabbin as to expose the Ship to sinking through your neglect I have now done Only remember I pray you that the things wherein the divided parties professedly agree are such as carry in them the main of Christianity and will make good Christians indeed if lived up to Whereas the things upon which we divide are but disputable opinions the best of which on the one side or the other will never make a good Christian without the other And you know what account God made of Men's zeal though it were for his own institutions as among the Jews of old when they were greatly guilty of sins against Charity Though Men be never so Orthodox in and zealous for their opinions yet if they have not Charity they are but as sounding brass or a tinkling Cymbal A wise Man will not therefore value himself by that which is proper to such or such a party but by that Charity Humility and Sobriety of mind with other graces which are common to those that are good indeed in each party and by these he will value any man of