propoundeth Impossibilities to be agreed on is the enemy of agreement But it is impossible for us to come to you and so to Unite with you Thâ—s I now prove 1. â—t is Impossible to have any Vniversal Vnity but in an Vniversal Head and Center and that is only God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost As I told you the Army must Unite in the General the Kingdom in the Soveraign the Family in the Master the School in the School-master In order of Nature you must Unite with God in the Redeemer by the sanctifying Spirit before you can Unite with us But while you are unsanctified you are divided from God Do you not feel your minds strange to him your hearts draw back from him and find by his strangeness to you that there is a division It s impossible for us to be United to you till Christ be United to you For 1. It s against Nature seeing he is the Center and the Head and Fountain of Life And what good would it do you to be one with us and not with him 2. God is against any Unity without him If you will not begin with him he will take it but as a treasonable conspiracy and will break it We dare not go without him lest he be angry and destroy us Souldiers must not make either Peace or war not so much as treat without the General Do you not remember how Iehosaphat had like to have sped by a friendship and confederacy with Ahab 2. Moreover the Godly and ungodly are of contrary natures I told you God hath put an enmiâ—y between them You must chanâ—e your nature or we ouâ—s before we can Unite You may as well think else to Unite fire and water or to build in the air or to incorpoâ—â—â—â— fire and Gun-powder or to reconcile men and serpâ—nts and maâ—ry the dog and the bear together Sirs these â—hings are meer impossâ—bilities 2 Cor. 16.14 There is no agreement between Christ and Belial righteousness and unrighteousness light and darkness dâ—ath and life the members of Christ and the members of an harlot or a drunkard or such like We have contrary spirits how then can we be One One hath the Spirit of holiness and the other the Spirâ—â— of profaneness One is led by the Spirit of God and the oâ—her by the flesh We live not by one Law Gods will revealed in hâ—s Word is Our Law and the will of the flesh and the course of the world is your Law We live not on one sort of food how then can we accord together Christ and his heavenly truth and holy Spirit and Ordinances is the meat and drink of the Saints they cannot live without them And the world and fleshly delights are your food you cannot be without it Your food would be our poyson your worldly cares your drunkenness and profaneness would be a torment to an honest heart They cannot live without some Communion with God in Faith and Love by Prayer and â—editation and your heart is against it They have not the same â—nd as you have Their work is all for Heaven and yours is all principally for earth Their work and yours are contrary Thâ—y go one way and you another So that its Impossible to be United and agree till one side change And we cannot Possibly turn to you God holds us fast by his Love and Spirit and will not let us go nor suffer us ever to be willing to go Do you not read Christ â—elling you that its impossible to deceive the Elect that is so far as to turn them away from Christ. We are kept by the mighty power of God through faith to salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 And who can break away from the upholding arms of Almighty power Christ hath such hold of us that he is resolved none shall take us out of his hands Ioh. 10.28 So that we cannot come over again to you But you may come over to us if you will God calls you and Christ would welcome you and the Holy Ghost would hâ—â—p yâ—u the door is set open by the blâ—od of Christ the promise is â—o you and to your children that you may and shall have Christ and life if you will come in and accept the offer The Devil cannot hinder you against your wills he holds you but in the fetters of your own wilfulness by his meer deceits Seeing therefore that you may come over to the sanctified and they cannot possibly come to you let any reasonable man be judge on what terms we should unite and agree 2. Moreover if we Agree it must be on terms of wisdom and honesty A dishâ—nâ—st Agreement is not to be desired but abhorred For you to lâ—ave your ungodliness and turn to the Love and Fear of God is an honest coursâ— of Agreement for it is but to have dishonesty it selâ— and become honest I hope none of you dare charge the way of God and godliness with any dishonesty God calls you to nothing but what is holy and just and good and therefore Honesty requireth you to yield But for the sâ—nctified 〈◊〉 unsanctified for the 〈…〉 bâ—come ungodly to be one 〈◊〉 you this were the bâ—sâ—st dishâ—â—â—sty in the world We know your way to be of the Devil and 〈◊〉 flesh and is it honest then to joyn with you in it We have â—yed too long already in the dâ—â—es oâ— our ignorance and have found it dishonest and deceitful and would you have us go against our own experience We were once in the way that you are in and were forced to renounce it or else we had been undone body and soul for ever and should we â—â—ck up the vomit which we were forced to cast out we were once Agreed with you and God constrained us to break that Agreement and shall we renew it again Alas your way hath cost us dear Many a bitter repenting day and many a sad thought to the breaking of our hearts and the very sense of Gods displeasure a taste of Hell was cast into our consciences many a groan and â—ear and prayer it cost us before we could recover the hurt that we câ—tâ—ht in the way of ungodlinâ—ss and yet we have not fully recovered it to this day And would you have us stark mad to forget so soon our former sorrows and turn to a hâ—e that hath cost us so 〈◊〉 already No we have paid too dear for it and smarted too much for it to go that way any more It brought us to the very brink of Hell and if we had but dyed in that condition we had been damned at this hour And would you be so unreasonable as to wish us to go back again No by that time you know as much of an unsanctified state as we do you will run from it your selves as fast as you can run as â—he Israelites did from the cry of the company of Dathan and Abiram lest the earth should swallow them up also Numb 16.34 We are cerâ—â—in that the Lord
is the final part of the Duty here required To keep the Vnity of the Spirit The Preserving cause is the Peaceable behaviour of the members and this is the mediate Duty here required In the bond of Peace Our own Endeavours are hereto required because as every natural body must by eating and drinking and fit exercise and usage be a cause of its own preservation and not forbear these under pretence of trusting the all-sufficiency of God and as every Political Body must by Government and Arms in case of need preserve themselves under God so must the Body of Christ the Church be diligent in using their best endeavours to preserve the Being and well-being of the whole So that you see here are two causes of the Churches Unity expressed 1. The principal Constitutive cause in which our Unity consisteth and that is The Spirit 2. The Preserving cause by which our Unity is cherished and that is Peace which therefore is called the bond of it The fifth and sixth verses do open this Vnity of Spirit in its parts effects and ends There is One Hope of our Calling that is One Heaven or Life Eternal which is the end of our Christianity and Church Constitution There is one Lord Jesus Christ One Head one Saviour one Soveraign Redeemer to whom by this Spirit the members are all United There is One Faith both one summe of holy Doctrine which all that will be saved must believe which was used to be professed by the adult at Baptism and One internal saving Faith which this Spirit causeth in our Spirits and useth it as a means of our union with Christ in whom we do believe There is One Baptism or solemn Covenanting with God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost and the same promise there to be made by all And there is One God the Father of all from whom we fell and to whom we must be recovered and who is the End of all and to whom Christ and all these means are the Way So that all these are implyed in and conjunct with the Vnity of the Spirit The sense of the Text then briefly is this As all the living true members of Christ and the Church have one Spirit and so one Faith by which they are all united to Christ the Head and so to the Father in and by him which Vnion in One Spirit is your very Life and it that constituteth you true members of Christ and his Church so it must be your care and great endeavour to preserve this Spirit in you and this vital Vnity which by this Spirit you have with Christ and one another and the way to preserve it is by the bond of Peace among your selves It is here evident then that all the members of Christ and his Body have One Spirit and in that is their Union All the question is What Spirit this is And that 's left past all doubt in the Chapter For though the common gifts of the Spirit are sometime called by that name yet these are no further meant in the Text then as appurtenances or additions to greater gifts As godliness hath the promise of the common mercies of this life as well as of the special mercies of the life to come but yet with great difference the later being absolutely promised and the former but limitedly so far as God sees best for us Even so the Spirit gave to the members of the Church both Sanctifying Grace and common Gifts but with great difference giving Sanctification to all and only the members of Christ but giving common gifts also to some others and to them but with limitation for sort and season and measure and continuance as God should see good It is then the same Holy-Ghost as our Sanctifier into whose name we are baptized as wel as into the name of the â—ather and the Son and in whom we all profess to believe that is here meant in my Text. And it is only the Sanctified that are the people United to Christ and to One another This is proved expresly by that which foâ—loweth vers 6 7. It is those that have the One Hope one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God the Father vers 12. It is the Saints and body of Christ that are to be perfected by the Ministry vers 13 15 16. It is those that must come in the Vnity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ and that grow up in all things in Christ the Head It is the Body that is Vnited to him and compacted in Love and edifieth itself in Love vers 20 21 22 23 24. It is those that hâ—vâ— so leâ—rned Christ as to put off tâ—e â—ld man thâ—t is câ—rrupt â—nd are râ—neweâ— in the Spirit of their â—inâ—s and put on the nâ—w man which â—fter God is reâ—tâ—â— in righteouâ—neâ—s and true holiness If thereâ—â—re any words be plain its plain tâ—at its true â—aints only that are here spoken of that have the Vnity of spirit which they must preserve in the bond of Peace And therefore I shall make this Observation the ground of my discourse Doct. The true Vnity of the Catholick Church of Christ consisteth in this that they have all one Sanctifying spirit within them By the Holy-Ghost within them they are all United to Christ and to one another By this One Spirit they are all made â—aints or an Holy people having One Heaven for the matter of their Hopes One Christ their Head One summe of Christian doctrine which they believe containing all the Essentials of Christian Faith and One living principle of Faith to believe it One solemn Covenant with Christ and One God the â—ather their End and All. It is only the Sanctified that have true Christian Vnity and it is unholiness or ungodliness that is the cause of the miserable Divisions of the world Now Sirs you see the Only way to Vnity Even to have One Sanctifying spirit within us and be all an Holy People and there is no way but this Now you see the principal cause of Division even unholiness and refusing the Spirit of Grace In handling this point 1. I shall give you some Propositions that are necessary for the fuller understanding of it 2. I shall demonstrate the Point to you by fuller Evidence of Reason 3. I shall make Application of it I. PRop 1. Though it be only the Sanctified that have the true Unâ—on of Members wâ—th Chrâ—st and the Body yet all that make Profession of Sanctification and Null not that Proâ—ession have an Extrâ—nsick Analogical Union in profession As the wooden or dead leg is united to the body and the dead branch to the Vine And so even Hypocrites must not only dwell among us but be of the same visible Church with us as the chaff and tares are in the same corn-field And as long as they seem Saints we must value them and use them as Saints and love them
avoid them and the causers and fomenters of them There was never Master so much for Unity as Christ and never was there a Law or a Religion that did so much condemne Divisions and command brotherly Love and Peace and concord and forbearing and forgiving one another as the Christian Law and Religion doth And will you yet say that our Divisions are long of our Religion or of Christ the author of it You may as wisely say that eating is the cause of weakness because that some are weak for all their meat But you will find that none can live without it Or you may say as wisely that Physicians are the causes of the diseases of the world because they do not cure them all I tell you there is none in all the world that have done so much for Unity and Peace as Christ hath done No all the world set together have not done half so much for it as he He hath preached Peace and Unity forgiving and forbearing and Loving one another yea Loving our enemies and he hath gone before us in the perfect practice of what he taught He hath offered himself a Sacrifice to the Justice of his Father that by his blood he might reconcile us unto God He is the great Peacemaker between God and man between Jews and Gentiles taking away the enmity and becoming himself the Head of our Unity and giving us One Spirit one faith one baptism that we might be One in him who is One with the Father So that to charge the Center of Unity with our Divisions and the Prince of Peace himself with our Discords or his holy Word or waies with our Disagreements is all one as to charge the Sun with Darkness and to say that our Law-givers and Laws are the causes of theft and murder and Adultery which condemne them to death that are proved guilty of them The cause of all our disagreements and divisions is because we are no more Holy then we are and because we are no more Religious So that I may leave it now as a Proved Truth that we must Unite in the Spirit and Agree in Holiness of Heart and life if ever we will have true Unity and Agreement AND now Sirs you have seen the only way of Unity opened to you It s plain and past all doubt before you If yet you will divide from God and his servants and if yet you will be numbered with the straglers or quarrellers do not say but Peace was opened and offered to you Do not say You could not have Peace but that you would not Do not say any more hereafter that there were so many Religions and so many waies that you could not tell which to joyn with Never more pretend the differences of the godly as a cloak for your ungodliness I have opened the nakedness of such pretences You shall not be able when your lives are scan'd to look God in the face with such an unreasonable impudent pretence Your consciences and the world shall then be witnesses of your shame that while you cryed out of Sects and heresies and were offended at the Divisions of the Church it was your selves that were the cause of it It was you and such as you that were the great Dividers and that obstinately proceeded in your Divisions when the way of Peace was opened to you and would not be United in the Spirit to Christ nor would not Agree in Holiness with his Church when you were acquainted that there was no other way to Peace Would you but have joyned in a firm and everlaling Covenant to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as your only Creator Redeemer and Sanctifyer as members of the Holy Catholick Church and have lived in the Communion of the Saints you should have received the Forgiveness of sins the Resurrection of the just and Everlasting Life But in refusing and obstinate refusing these you refused all your hopes of Blessedness and wilfully cast your selves on the wrath of God and therefore must endure it for ever THE last Advice that I have to give upon the ground of this Doctrine is To all that are United in the Spirit and Agreed upon an Holy life I mean to say but little to you now but briefly to tender you these two requests 1. I beseech you Christians but to live as Christians in that holy Unity as your principles and profession do engage you to Hath true Christianity and Holiness such abundance of advantages against division and yet will you be guilty of it Against all these bonds and healing principles and helps will you be dividers Doth it not grieve you and even break your hearts to hear ungodly persons say that Professors are of so many minds and partyes that they know not which of them to follow and that we had never concord since you bore sway O do not seek by your contentious wayes to perswade people that Holiness is a dividing thing and that Religion doth but tend to set the world together by the eares Is it not a precious mercy to us of this place that we have among us but one Church and one Religion and and have not Church against Church and Christian against Christian I charge you from the Lord that you be thankful for this benefit and that you look upon divided places and compare their case with yours that if ever dividers come amongst you the sense of your felicity in this blessed Unity may cause you to reject them and that you do not suffer any Dalilah to rob you of your strength and glory Were you but once here in pieces among your selves what a scorn would you be to all the ungodly what sport would it be to them to hear you disputing against one another and reproaching and condemning one another as bitterly as the wicked do reproach you all Do you not pitty those places where divisions have made Religion to be a scorn and the tender Love and Unity of the Saints is turned into uncharitable censures and separations Take warning then that you come not to the like If you should you would be as unexcusable as any People in the world because you have tryed and tasted so much of the sweetness and benefits of Unity as you have done shew men by your lives that Holiness is the most certain way to Unity as ever you desire either to propagate Holiness or to have any evidence of it in your selves 2. Judge by this undoubted truth of any doctrine that shall be offered you and of the wayes of men and of your selves 1. Suspect that doctrine that tendeth to divisions in the Church If it be not for Unity it is not of God Rom 16.17 Christ came to heal and reconcile and is the Prince of Peace and therefore sendeth not his servants on a contrary errand He will justifie your dividing from the unbelieving world but he hateth dividing among his servants He that 's for Church-division is not in that for Christ or you 2.
Catholick Vnity OR The only way to bring us all to be of one Religion By Rich. Baxter To be read by such as are offended at the differences in Religion and are willing to do their part to heal them JAMES 3.17 But the Wisdom that is from above is first Pure then Peaceable Gentle easie to be intreated c. London Printed by R. W. for Thomas Underhill and Francis Tyton and are to be sold at the sign of the Anchor and Bible in Pauls Church-yard and at the three Daggers in Fleet-street 1660. To all those in the severall Parishes of these Nations that complain of the disagreements in matters of Religion Men and Brethren AS in the midst of all the impiety and dishonesty of the world it is some comfort to us that yet the Names of Piety and Honesty are still in credit and ungodliness and dishonesty are terms of disgrace so that those that will be ungodly and dishonest are fain to use the Mask and Vail of better names to hide their wickedness so also it is some comfort to us in the midst of the uncharitableness and discords of this age that yet the Names of Love and Concord â—ound so well and are honoured by those that are furthest from the Things For thus we seem agreed in the main cause and have this advantage in our debates that whatever shall be proved to be against Love and Unitâ— and Peace we are all oâ— us obliged by our professions to dâ—sown I may suppose that all that read these words will speak against the uncharitableness and contentâ—ons and divisions of the present times as well as I. Doth it grieve my soul to hear professed Christians so censoriously condemning and passionately reviling one another while they are proudly justifying themselves I suppose you 'l say It grieves you also Do I mourn in secret to see so many divisions and subdivisions and Church set up against Church and Pastors against Pastors in the same Parishes and each party labouring to disgrace the other and their way that they may promote their own I suppose you will say You do so tâ—o Do I lament it as the Nations shame that in Religion men are of so many minds and manage their differences so unpeaceably that it is become the stumbling block to the ungodly the grief of our friends and the derâ—sion of our enemies I know you will say that this also is your lamentation And is it not a wonder indeed that such a misery should be continued which all men are against and which cannot be continued but by our wilfull choice Is it not strange that we are so long without so great a blessing as Unity and Peace while all men say they love it â—nd desire it and while we may have it if we will But the cause is evident while men love Unity they hate the Holiness in which we must Unite While they love Peace they hate the necessary means by which it must be obtained and maintained The way of Peace they have not known or knowing it they do abhor it As well as they love Unity and Peace they love the Causes of discord and division much better The drunkard and whore-monger and worldling say they love the salvation of their souls But yet while they love and keep their sins they will miss of the salvation which they say they love And so while men love their ungodliness and dividing wayes we are little the better for their love of peace If men love Health and yet love Poyson and hate both medicine and wholsom food they may miss of health notwithstanding they love it Where know you a Parish in England that hath no disagreements in matters of Religion In this Parish where I live we have not several Congregations nor are we divided into such parties as in many other places But we have here the great division some are for Heaven and some for Earth some love a holy diligent life and others hate it some pray in their Families and teath them the word and fear of God and others do not some spend the Lords Day in holy exercises and others spend much of it in idleness and vanity some take the service of God for their delight and others are weary of it and live in ignorance because they will not be at the pains to learn Some make it the principal care and business of their lives to prepare for death and make sure of everlasting life and others will venture their souls on the wrath of God and cheat themselves by their own presumption rather then be at this sweet and necessary labour to be saved Some hate sin and make it their dayly work to root out the relicts of it from their hearts and lives and others love it and will not leave it but hate those that reprove them and endeavour their salvation And as long as this great division is unhealed what other means can bring us to any happy Unity It would make a mans heart bleed to consider of the folly of the ungodly rout that think it would be a happy Union if we could all agree to read one form of prayer while some love and others hate the holiness which they pray for and if we could all agree to use the sign of the Cross in Baptism while one half either understand not the Baptismall Covenant or wilfully violate it and neglect or hate and scorn that mortified holy life which by that solemn Vow and Covenant they are engaged to They are solicitous to bring us all to unity in the gesture of receiving the Sacrament of the Lords Supper while some take Christ and life and others take their own damnation When they should first agree in being all the faithfull servants of one Master they make a great matter of it that the servants of Christ and of the Devil may use the same bodily posture in that worship where their hearts are as different as spirit and flesh Poor people think that it is the want of Uniformity in certain Ceremonies of mans invention that is the cause of our great divisions and distractions When alas it is the want of unity in matters of greater consequence even of Faith and Love and Holiness as I have here shewed If once we were all children of one Father and living members of one Christ and all renewed by one sanctifying Spirit and aimed at one end and walked by one Rule the word of God and had that special Love to one another which Christ hath made the mark of his Disciples this were an Agreement to be rejoyced in indeed which would hold us together in the most comfortable relations and assure us that we shall live together with Christ in everlasting blessedness But alas if our Agreement be no better then to sit together in the same seats and say the same words and use the same gestures and Ceremonies our hearts will be still distant from each other our natures will be contrary and the
with the Godly so far as you confess you ought to do and would but Unite with us in faithfulness to the truths which you cannot deny I think it will be best to call you to the tryal in some particulars 1. I hope we are all Agreed that there is one only God that maâ—e us and preserveth us and Redeemed us and therefore that we are wholly his and should resign our selves and all that we have absolutely to him for his service He is not worthy the name of a man that denyeth this And shall we aâ—l Agree now in the Practice of this much Shall we wholly resign our selves and all that we have to God and labour to know what God would have us be and do and that let us resolve upon whatever the flesh or the world say to the contrary Were but this much well resolved on we were in a fair way to a full agreement 2. We are all Agreed in Opinion or Profession that this God is our only Happiness and his favour is better then all the world and that he is infinitely Wise and Good and Powerful and therefore that he must be Loved above all things whatsoever and must be most feared and served and trusted and depended on And shall we but Agree all in the Practice of this much O that you would but heartily consent and do it Did we but joyn together in Loving God above all and fearing and trusting and serving him before all we should quickly be of one heart and soul and in a very fair way to a perfect agreâ—ment 3. We are all Agreed that profess Christianity that sin hath made us miserable and brought us under the wrath and curse of God and that the Lord Jesus Christ having Redeemed us by his blood is the only Physitian and Remedy for our souls and having manifested such infinite Love in our Redemption and also purchased Dominion over us we are strongly bound to Rejoyce in his salvation and fly to him for Safety and rest upon him and live in the thankful admirations of his Love and in careful Obedience to his gracious Laws And shall we all Agree in the Practice of this much Will you fly to Christ with broken bleeding hearts for safety from sin and wrath and Hell and set more by him then by all the world Will you study with all Saints to comprehend his Love Eph. 3.18 19 and admire him and his mercies and devote your selves to him and be ruled by him O that we were but all agreed in this much 4. We are all agreed in Opinion or Profession that the Holy Ghost is the Sanctifier of Gods elect or of all that shall be saved and that except a man be born again by the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven and that without holiness none shall see God and that no man is the Son of God that hath not in him the Spirit of his Son 1 Cor. 12.12 13. Eph. 4.5 Ioh. 3.5 6. Heb. 12.14 Rom. 8.9 Gal. 4.4 Were we but all such now as we are agreed we must be and would you but all Consent to this Sanctification and newness of life the great difference were healed and the work were done 5. Moreover we are all Agreed or seem to be so that the holy Scripture is the word of God and of infallible truth and therefore must be believed and made the Rule of our Judgements and our lives Shall we all agree now in the practice of this Will you appeal to the Scripture and shall it be our Rule If the flesh perswade you to another course and murmur at the strictness of Gods Word if custom be against it and the greater number be against it if your profits or pleasures or worldly honours be against it and your former opinions and practice have been against it will you yet believe the Scripture before all and be ruled by it above all the world You are agreed I hope that God is to be obeyed rather then men or then the flesh and the Devil Will you resolve that 〈◊〉 shall be so O if the Word of God might be the Rule how quickly should we be agreed For all the Popish cavils at its difficulty and mens divers expositions yet how soon should we be agreed 6. We are all agreed in Opinion or Profession that there is a heaven for the Sanctified even an endless unconceivable Glory with God in the seeing of his face and enjoying him in perfect Love and Joyes and that the seeking of this everlasting Glory should be the main and principal business of our lives which all things must give place to He that will deny this can have no pretence to call himself a Christian. O that we might but all agree in the practising of this and that the principal love and desire of our souls were set upon the Heavenly blessedness and the chiefest of our care and labour might be laid out for the obtaining of it Agree in this and all will be agreed at last 7. We are all Agreed in our profession that there is an Hell or state of endless torments where all the finally unsanctified and ungodly must be for ever But why do we not agree in the diligent avoiding of such a dreadful misery and using our best endeavours to escape it 8. We are all agreed in Profession that the flesh is our enemy and must be mortified But will you agree in the practice of this mortification We are agreed iâ— Profession that the world is our enemy and must be contemned and that it is a vain and worthless thing compared with the Glory that is to come But yet mâ—n 〈◊〉 not agree to renounce the world unfeignedly and to be stranger to it and part with all rather thâ—â— with God and a good Conscience but while men spâ—ak contemptuously of the world they seek 〈◊〉 far more eagerly then heaven We are agreed that the Devil is our enemy and yet men will not forsaâ—â— his service 9. We are all agreed in profession that sin is a most hateful thing hated of God condemned by his Word and the only cause of the damnation of souls And yet men love it and live in it with delight Shaâ—l we agree all to deal with sin as we speak of it Will Magistrates and Ministers and people joyn together to banish it out of Town and Countrey Particularly we are agreed I hope that whoredom and wantonness and gluttony and drunkenness and strife and envying and lying and deceit and cursing and swearing and railing and backbiting and speaking against an holy life are all groâ—s hateful damning sins which every Christian must abhor But why do you not agree in the hateing and forsaking and beating down of these sins But Town and Countrey swarmeth with them as a carkase doth with maggots or a stinking pond with frogs and toads So that Magistrates and Ministers punishments and perswasions the Laws of the Land and the Laws of God can do but little to
leave the infallible judgement to God It is only â—eal Saints that have the internal special Unity of the Spirit and saving Communion but its Professors of Faith and Holiness thaâ— must have external Communion wiâ—h us in Ordinances as they have a visible Union of Profession with the Church But if they profess not Holiness they ought not to have any Christian Communion at all O Christians keep close to Christ the Centeâ— of your Unity and the Scripture which is the Rule of it and cherish the â—pirit which is the vital cause walk evenly and uprightly in a dark generation and give no offence to those without nor to the Church of God Know them that are over you in the Lord and be at Peace among your selves and the God of Peace shall be with you 1 Thes. 5.12 Phil 4.8.9 Object BVt may not a Profession of the same Faith procure a sufficient Vnity among us though all be not Saints and savingly regenerate Let us first be of one Religion and then we may come to be sincere in the Practice of that Religion by Degrees Answ. 1. For the Churches sake we are thankful to God when we see a common concord in Profession though most are false in and to the Religion which they profess Many wayes God doth good to his Church by unfound Professors 1. Their Professing the same Faith doth somewhat tye their hands from persecuting it And of the two we can better bear Hypocrites then Persecutors 2. And it somewhat tyeth their tongues from reproaching the Faith and arguing against it and seducing others from it And of the two it would be more hurtful to the Church to have these men open enemies to the truth and bend their wits and tongues against it and to have the multitude assaulting their neighbours with invectives and cavils against Religion then to have them falsly pretend to be Religious 3. And it is a great mercy to the Church hereby to have the benefit of these mens common parts and interests When they profess the same Religion with us though unsoundly yet it engageth them to stand for the Religion which they profess and their illumination and conviction may lead them to do much service for the truth By this means many hands are at work to build up the Church of Christ. And by this means the lives of many faithful Christians are preserved and their estates much spared Many have skill in building that are not true heirs of the house which they build Many have excellent gifts for preaching and expounding Scripture by which the Church may be edified and the Truth defended against the adversaries when yet the same men may themselves be destitute of the Power of this truth The Church hath great cause to be thankful to God for the gifts of many an unsanctified man Had the Church been denyed the Minâ—stry and Gifts of all mâ—n except Saints it would have been confined to a narrower room and many a soul might have beâ—n unconvâ—rted that have been called by the Ministry of unsanctified men By some such did God work Miracles themselves for the confirmation of the Christian Faith And in times of war if the Church had none but Saints to fight for them it could not stand without a continued Miracle And if we had not the daily help of others in civil and secular affairs we should find by the miss of it what a mercy we undervalued Were every unregenerate man an open enemy to the Church we should live as Patridges and such other birds that must hide themselves from every Passenger 4. Moreover this Profession of Hypocrites doth much restrain them from many a sin by which God would be much dishonoured and the Church more wronged and the godly more grieved and the open enemies more encouraged 5. And also it is some honour to the Gospel in the eyes of men to have a multitude of Professors Should Christs visible Church be as narrow as the mystical and should none be Professors of the Faith but those few that are sanctified Believers the paucity of Christians and narrowness of the Church would be a dishonour to Christ in the eyes of the world and would hinder the Conversion of many a soul. All this I have said that you may see that we do not despise a Unity in Profession and that we are not of those that would have all hypocrites and common professors shut out Yea that we take our selves bound to be very thankful to God for the mercy which he vouchsafeth us by the gifts and favour and help and interest of many such Professors And such a Unity of Profession we shall endeavour to our power heartily to promote as knowing that the Church as visible consisteth of such professours 2. But yet for all this I must come closer to your objection and tell you that this Vnity of meer Profession is comparatively so poor a kind of Unity that this will not this must not satisfie us and serve the turn which I desire you to observe in these discoveries 1. This Unity in meer Profession is properly no Christian Vnity because you are not properly Christians If this be all it is but in the bark and shell that we are agreed It is but a seeming agreement from the teeth outward but not an hearty agreement to be Christians What! shall we all agree to say we are Christians when with most it is not so For all this Agreement you will still have one Father and we another You will not be United with us in Christ the Head you will not have the same Holy Spirit who is the Life of the New creature You will be contrary to us in Nature or Disposition You will not have the same Intention and Ultimate End with us but you will aâ—m at one thing and we at another You will not go the same way nor walk by the same Rule and Law as we It will be but a tying â—ogâ—ther the Living and the Dead Bellâ—râ—ine himself confesseth that the ungodly are but dead members It is not life that Uniteth a dead member to the living You will bâ— stilâ— either openly or secretly betraying the Body to which you profess your selves United and taking part with its deadly enemies the flesh the world and the Devil Your very Hearts and ours will still be contrary You will love the sin that we hate and set our selves against and you will dis-relish that Holy Heavenly life which must be our business and delight Your Affections will go one way and ours another You will Live by sense when we must live by faith and you will be laying up a treasure on earth when we are laying up a treasure in heaven You will be asking counsel of flesh and blood when we must advise with God and his holy Word You will look first to your bodies when we must look first and principally to our souls It will be your business to feed those sins which it is our daily work
the world that our Religion is not changed at all Our worship is the same whether within Book or without Our Prayers are the same for matter with those in the Common Prayer Book And if I should one day use the Common Prayer Book and another day forbear it I should not change the worship of God To pray is part of his worship but whether it be on a Book or off it is no part at all but only a mode or circumstance which may be altered as occasion serveth I doubt not but a Book is fittest for some but not for all And do they think that we know not what adding and chopping and changing they have made with their Mass Book Who is it then that hath changed their worship Is it like the same Book that it was before the changes made by Gregory the great It was so ordinary a thing to change the manner and forms of worshp that private Bishops did it without any Synods whence else had the world the forms that are now in use Tell us how many of those in the Biblioth Patrum were made by Apostle or General Council if you can When Basil the great had set up a new way of singing to God and made some other changes in worship the Clergy of Neocesarea were offended with him for the novelty and told him that none of that was used in Gregory's dayes To whom he answers that neither was their own Letany known in Gregory's dayes who yet had lived not 140 years before and was the famous founder of their Church by miracles Basil Epist. 63. And Basil added to the Clergie of Neocesara But how can you tell that these things were not in use in Gregories daies when you have kept nothing unchanged which he was used to And that you may see his mind in this he adds But I pardon all these things though God will examine all Only let the principal things be kept safe If we had changed the Sacraments as the Papists have done viz. a Commemorative Sacrifice into a Real Sacrifice of Christ himself the Sacramental Body and blood of Christ into the Real Body and blood the administration of it in both kinds into one kind alone defrauding the people of the cup the Communion into a private Mass the people only looking on the Priest when he receiveth alone himself c. I say had we made such changes as these they might have called us changelings indeed and have told us of novelties in the worship of God 18. Moreover this laying so much upon lower or unnecessary things doth impoverish the soul and make it low and empty and formal according to the matter that it hath to work upon As the great unquestionable Truths of God are they that sanctifie and elevate the soul and leave their Image on it so will contending about private opinions or laying out our zeal in ceremonies and shaddows depress the soul and famish it and turn our Religion into a shaddow We find by sad experience that people are so prone to turn all Religion into meer words and shews and customary formalityes that when we have done our best we cannot cure them of this mortal sin God is a Spirit and will have such worshippers as worship him in spirit and in truth John 4.23 We have little need to cherish this disease of hypocrisie seeming histrionical outside Religiousness when we see so many perish by it after all that we can do for their deliverance 19. And this making a Religion of unnecessary things or laying the Churches Unity thereon is a dangerous snare to delude the Ignorant and ungodly and make them believe that they are godly people and in the way to Heaven as well as others I use not this or any Argument against the profitable use of any forms in order to the understanding of the matter nor against the due circumstantiating of the worship of God But if profitable forms and Gods own Ordinances are somwhat lyable to this abuse we cannot devise how to increase the danger and quite enthral these miserable souls more certainly then by multiplying unnecessary formalityes and placing Religion and Unity in them For they that are most ignorant and empty of the Love and fear of God and the bitterest enemies to a Heavenly life will presently set in with these formalities and make themselves a Religion of these and then they will take themselves as godly as the best You shall never make them believe that they are ungodly They think the difference lyeth but in the way and manner of serving God You serve him one way and they another but yet they serve him as well as you Yea they will overdo in these Indifferent things that they may make up that which is wanting in true godliness and then they will think that they are better and righter then you Thus did the Heathens cry out against the ancient Christians with a Tollite impios away with the ungodly and killed them and cast them to wild beast to be torn by them because they would not worship their Idols And so many ungodly wretches now that will not be perswaded to a Holy life will yet cry dow others as impious because they observe not all the Ceremonies which they observe When we have used all the means we can to bring them to the study of the Scripture and to meditate in the Law of the Lord and to holy conference and servent prayer to hatred of sin the contempt of the world the mortifying of the flesh to the Love of God above all to a thankful admiration of the Love of Christ and the great mystery of Redemption to the believing delightful forethoughts of everlasting life and preparation for it c. I say when we have done all to bring them to this which is godlyness indeed we lose our labour and leave them as we find them They cannot away with so precise a life But yet a Religion they will have instead of it to deceive their souls and quiet them in the way to Hell For instance I must speak it with grief of heart that I meet with no small number among us that know not who Christ is some say he is God and not man some say he is man and not God some say he was made both God and man at once some say he is neither God nor man but a Spirit some say he is not God but the Son of God and hath the power of God given him Abundance say that he is God only and not man now he is in Heaven though he was both on earth and very many know not what Christianity is nor wherein the Christian Religion doth consist And yet all these persons that are Heathens rather then Christians are the most zealous Keepers of Christmass as it is called and the bitterest condemners of those that do not and so do make themselves believe that they are Christians as well as others The same persons that know not