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
then it is a reason to prove that the Lord hath not received them St. Peter thought it a good reason why the Christians should make no difference between believing Jews and believing Gentiles though they were of different perswasions about the necessity and non-necessity of Circumcision wherein the one erred because the Lord made no difference but gave to one the Holy Ghost as well as to the other and purified the hearts of the one by Faith as well as the other Acts 15.8 9. His reason is not setcht from the Nature of the things wherein they differed but from God's giving them an equal interest in his grace notwithstanding their difference When God had vouchsafed the gift of his grace and Spirit to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews St. Peter thought that if after this he should have kept the same distance from them as before he thought he was bound to do he should have withstood God in so doing Act. 11.17 For as much then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ what was I that I could withstand God To keep at a distance from those to whom God draws nigh in the Communication of his grace and Spirit is it seems to steer a course against God or to withstand him 3. The Anabaptists and Pedobaptists if Godly do by Faith hold Communion one with another in eating the same Spiritual meat and drinking the same Spiritual drink the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ which is the thing signified in the Lord's Supper Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood ye have no Life in you Joh. 6.53 And therefore they cannot duly deny Communion with them in the Lord's Supper it self which is the sign 1. Because if they do they thereby cross one great end and design of God in that Ordinance which is to increase and strengthen Love and Unity among Christians in communicating together in the sign upon account of their joynt-interest in and Relation to Christ the Substance Christians by their Communion in that Ordinance are made to drink into one Spirit or into one-ness of Spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 But by their thus refusing to Communicate one with another they do not only sin in not using the Lord's appointed means to increase and strengthen Love and Unity upon account of common interest in the same Saviour but also in that by such their refusal they destroy Unity and weaken diminish Love they pull down instead of building up steer a contrary course to Christ in appointing that Ordinance 2. Men's right to the sign proceeds upon the best account from their right to the thing signified though not from that only As those who have right to such or such an Estate in Land have thereby a right to the deeds and evidences by which such a right is to be declared So those that have a right to the Body and Blood of Christ through Faith have thereby a right to the Lord's Supper as an evidence appointed by God by which such their right is to be declared and acknowledged And therefore as a detaining of such evidence from him who by having right to the Land hath right to the evidence would be an injury even so for any as much as in them lies to detain the Lord's Supper from them who by having right to the Body and Blood of Christ have right to the Lord's Supper as an evidence and sign thereof would be an injury likewise and that so much greater too as Spiritual things are of more value then temporal 3. It is absurd and against common reason for them to grant that the Godly Pedobaptists have Communion with them in the greater and better part and yet for a supposed errour consistent with saving Faith Love to deny it them in the less whenas the greater alwayes includes the less But for the Godly Pedobaptists to be partakers of like precious Faith with them and thereby to eat of that Flesh which is meat indeed and to drink of that Blood which is drink indeed together with themselves a thing which the Anabaptists will not deny is certainly to have hold and enjoy Communion with them in the greater better more Spiritual and more substantial part of Communion and therefore to deny it them in the out-side and letter of it which is far less considerable is very incongruous and contradictious What was objected by distinguishing between an immediate and remote right if it should be here brought in again hath been answered before and the answer need not be repeated but only applyed here And let it be remembred alwayes that there is a vast difference between those who deny and those that hold the necessity and usefulness of water Baptism in these latter Ages of the Church The Pedobaptists are as much for water-Baptism as the Anabaptists are and hold themselves as firmly engaged by their Infant-Baptism as they do by their after-Baptism If this were not so their case would not be so pleadable as now it is And for any to separate from them upon account of their being Baptized in their Infancy as it is without ground from Scripture I conceive so it is without all president in the Church of Christ for the first fifteen hundred years and more Though some in the ancient Church were Baptized in Infancy and some at Age yet there was never any breaking of Communion among them upon that score so far as ever I could learn untill a Reformation of a Reformation was set on foot the one to puzle and confound the other I mean the attempt of the Anabaptists in Germany to Reform the Reformation by Luther and others Which may be a motive to reflect upon what they have done and to review their grounds Can they think to out-do the Church in her purest times in point of Communion Me-thinks they should greatly suspect themselves in their undertaking wherein they go so manifestly contrary to the Universal Church in all places and Ages till so lately as afore-said II. Dividing Principle to be avoided That it is unlawful to hold Communion with parochial Congregations notwithstanding they have been Baptized into the Profession of the true Faith and continue in that profession This is another grand dividing Principle indeed They who hold this and practice accordingly must prove such Communion unlawful or else lye under the guilt of a sinful Schism or causless separation and of all the evil and mischievous effects and consequences of it And to prove it unlawful they must prove it is so either by proving 1. That all the Members of each Parochial Assembly from which they separate are destitute of saving grace or 2. By proving that the mixture of bad with good makes Communion unlawful or 3. By proving the constitution of such Congregations bad upon account of that distribution by which the whole Nation is divided into its parts and precincts or 4. By proving the worship