3.18 But it is the Lord that is the portion of the Saints Psal. 16.5 They lay up a treasure in heaven Mat. 6.20 and there they have their conversations Phil. 3.20 Being risen with Christ they seek the things that are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God for they are dead and their life is hid with Christ in God Col. 3.1 3 4. The business that the Saints and that the ungodly have in the world is clean contrary Their business is for Heaven and yours is for earth They are sowing to the spirit in hope of everlasting life and you are sowing to the flesh and shall reap corruption Gal. 6.6 7. They are making Provision for another life that never shall have end and you are making provision for the flesh to satisfie its desires Rom. 13.14 And how is it possible for these to be United What concord between light and darkness or Christ and Belial or righteousness with unrighteousness 2 Cor. 6.14 15. Can two walâ— together except they be agreed Amo. 3.3 We must better agree of our business in the world and of our journeys end before we can keep company with you While you are for earth and we for heaven it is not possible that we should go one way While one is for the world and another for God they must needs differ For God and the world are masters that are unreconcileable If you will cleave to one you must despise the other The work of the Butcher and the Souldier is to kill and the work of the Surgeon and Physitian is to cure And do you think these will ever take one course The Souldier studies how to wound and kill The Surgeon studies how to close these wounds and heal them And surely these must go contrary wayes Sirs as long as your business is principally for the flesh and the world and the business of the sanctified is against the flesh and world and for the Spirit and the world to come how is it possible that you should be agreed You must bring heaven and earth together first yea heaven and hell together first before you can have a Christian Unity and Agreement between the sanctified and the unsanctified 5. There is no Vnity to be had but in the Gospel The Apostle tels us there is One Faith Eph. 4.5 If an Angel from heaven would preach another Gospel he must be accursed Gal. 1.10 11. But the unsanctified do not truly and heartily entertain this Gospel You think and say you truly believe it when you do not If you truly believed it your lives would shew it He that indeed believes an everlasting Glory will sure look after it more then after the world or the flesh 6. There is no Christian Unity but in the Christian Nature Contrary natures cannot close Firâ— and Water the Woolf and the Lamb the Bear and the Dog wiâ— not well Unite The sanctified havâ— a new divine and heavenly nature Ioh. 3.6 2 Pet. 1.4 2 Cor. 5 1â— Their Disposition is another way then it was before But the unsanctified have the old corrupt fleshly nature still One is as the fire still bending upward the other as the earth or stone still bending downward to the earth And how can these agree together 7. There is no Christian Vnity to be had where the Affections run quite contrary wayes But so it is with the sanctified and the unsanctified One loves God above all and cannot live without holy Communion with him and retireth into him from the distractions of the world and maketh him his Rest Content and Solace The other mentions the goodness of God but findeth no such sweetness in him nor desires after him One treads the world underfoot as dirt or valueth and useth it but as a help to heaven And the other makes it his happiness and sets his heart on it One delighteth in Holiness and the other hateth it or regardeth it not One hateth sin as a Serpent or as death and the other makes it his meat and drink and business And how is it possible for men of such contrary affections to be agreed and natures at such enmity to Unite 8. The sanctified and unsanctified are moved by contrary Objects One lives by faith on things that are out of sight and strives for Heaven as if he saw it and strives against Hell as if he saw it for his faith is the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 7. We live by faith and not by sight 2 Cor. 5.7 2 Cor. 4.18 But the unsanctified live upon things that are seen and things believed little move them because they are not heartily believed 9. The Holy and the unholy do live by contrary Laws One liveth by the Law of God and there asketh counsel what he must think or say or do resolving to obey God before his flesh and all the world The other will say he will be ruled by Gods Law till his flesh and carnal interest contradict it and then he will take his lusts for his Law His Pride is a Law to him and the pleasures and profits of the world are a Law to him and the will of great ones and the customs of men are his Law And how is it possible for mâ—n to agree that walk by such contrary Rules as these 10. There is no true Vnity but in the Covenant with Christ. As Marriage Vniteth man and wife so every truly sanctified man hath delivered up himself to Christ in a peremptory absolute Covenant and hath quit all claim of interest in himself and is wholly Gods But the unsanctified will not be brought to this any further then the lips and therefore they cannot be well United 11. The true members of the Church are built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Eph. 2.20 21. But the unsanctified regard them not if they cross their minds 12. There is no true Christian Vnity but with the Holy Catholick Church The body is but one 1 Cor. 12.12 13. Eph. 4.4 But the unsanctified are not of the Holy Catholick Church but only in the visible external Communion of it 13. There can be no true Christian Vnity with the Saints without a special Love to the Saints For by this we know that we are passed from death to life because we love the Brethren he that lovetâ— not his brother abideth in death 1 John 3.14 By this must all men know that we are Christs Disciples John 13.35 Love is the bond and cement of the Church He that doth not heartily love a godly sanctified man because he is such hath no true Unity with the Church But the ungodly love them not as such They see no such beauty and loveliness in Holiness Though Scripture call it Gods Image they be not in Love with Gods Image but think it a conceit or hypocritical pretence or a wearysom thing Why poor carnal wretches do you hate the godly and yet would you have Unity with them Do you hate them and yet cry
that the Vnity of the Church should not be laid on indifferent small or dâ—ubtfull things but that true believers that differ in such things should yet have inward Charity and outward Communion with each other not censuring nor despising nor dividing upon this account p. 323 Convincing Reasons p. 326 Several Vses or Consectaries and an Exhortation applied to our difference about Christmas Day p. 358 ERRATA PAge 90. l. 9. r. enquire p. 91. l. 6. r. except p. 192. l. 7. for now r. in time p. 275. l. 16 for or r. as p. 366. l. 12. for it r. them p. 377. l. 12. dele in Catholick Vnity EPHES. 4.3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace IT seems that Vnity and Felicity are near kin in that the world is so like affected to them both As our Felicity is in God and we lost it by falling from God so our Vnity is in God and we lost it by departing from this Center of Unity And as all men have still a natural desire after Felicity in general but God who is their Felicity they neither know nor desire so have we still a natural desire after Vnity in it self considered but God who is our Unity is little known or desired by the most And as nature can perceive the evil of Misery which is contrary to Felicity and cry out against it and yet doth cherish the certain causes of it and will not be perswaded to let them go So Nature can perceive the evil of Division which is contrary to Vnity and cry out against it and yet will not forbear the causes of Division And therefore as we say of Felicity Nature by Philosophy seeks it Divinity findeth it and Religion possesseth it So may we say of true Vnity Philosophy or Nature seeks it Divinity findeth it and Religion or Holiness possesseth it And as most of the world do miss of Felicity for all their high esteem of it and fall into misery for all their hatred of it because they love not the object and way of Felicity and hate not the Matter and Way of Misery Even so most of the world do miss of Vnity for all their high esteem of Unity and fall into miserable distractions and Divisions for all their hatred of Division because they love not the center and way of Vnity and hate not the occasion and causes of Division And as the very reason why the most are shut out of Happiness is their own wilful refusing of the true matter and means of Happiness and no one could undo them but themselves for all that they are loth to be undone Even so the very Reason why the world attaineth not to Unity is their own wilful refusing of the true Center and Means of Unity and it is themselves that are the wilful causes of their own Divisions even when they cry out against Divisions And as there 's no way to Happiness but by Turning to God from whom we fell that in him we may be happy and no way to God but by Iesus Christ as the Saviour and the Hâ—ly-Ghost as the Sanctifier so there is no way to true Vnity but by Turning to God that we may be one in him and no way to him but being united to Christ and being quickned by that One most holy Spirit that animateth his members And yet as poor souls do weary themselves in vain in seeking Felicity in their own wayes and devices so do they deceive themselves in seeking Vnity in wayes that are quite destructive to Unity One thinks we must be united in the Pope and another in a General Council another saith we shall never have Unity till the Magistrate force us all one way and yet they would not be forced from their own way Another turns Atheist or Infidel or Impious by observing the Divisions that be among Christians and saith It is this Scripture and Religion and Christ that hath set the world together by the ears and we shall never have Unity till we all live according to Nature and cast off their needless cares and fears of another life And thus the miserable deluded world are groping in the dark after Vnity and Felicity while both are at hand and they wickedly reject them and many of them become so mad as to run away from God from Christ from the Spirit as if he were the cause of Misery and Division who is the only Center of Felicity and Vnity And thus as it is but Few that arrive at Happiness for all their desire of it so it is but Few that attain to Vnity to such a Unity as is worth the attaining to I dare presume to take it for granted that all you that hear me this day would fain have Divisions taken away and have Unity and Concord and Peace through the world What say you would you not have us all of one â—iâ—d and of one Religion and would you not fain have an Agreement if it might be through all the world I am confident you would But you little think that its you and such as you that are the hinderers of it All the question is What Mind that is that all should be One in and what Religion that is that all men sâ—ould agree in Every man would have all men of one mind and one Religion but then it must be of his mind and of his Religion and so we are never the nearer an agreement Well! what would you give now to be certainly told the only way to Unity and Agreement There is but One way when you have sought about as long as you will you must come to that One way or you will be never the nearer it What would you give to know undoubtedly which is that One way O that the world were but willing to know it and to follow it when they know it Well! I dare promise you from the information of the Holy-Ghost here given us in this Text that now I have read to to you to tell you the Only way to true Unity and blessed is he that learneth it and walketh in it This Text is a Precept containing the work required of us with its double Object the one the means to the other The next verse is an exposition of this As the Natural man hath One Body and One Soul which constitute it a man so the Church which is the mystical Body of Christ is one Body consisting of many members united by One Spirit Every Common-wealth or Political Body hath 1. It s Constitutive causes that give it its Being and its Unity and 2. It s Administration and preserving causes as Laws Execution Obedience c. that exercise and preserve and perfect its Being The Constitutive cause is the Soveraign and the Subject conjoyned in their Relation So is it with the Church which is a Political Body but of a transcendent kind of Policy The Constitutive Cause of the Church are Christ and the members united in One Spirit And this
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
and have Communion with them as Saints Not as conceiving them certainly to be such but probably and by that humane faith by which we are bound to believe their profession not as we believe God who is Infallible but as men that are fallible And this in several Degrees according to the several Degrees of their Credibility and the Probability of their Profession So that you must not after this mâ—stake me as if I tyed our external Church-Communion only to true Saints for then we must have Communion with none because being not able to search the hearts we know not what Professors are sincere But yet even this External Church-Communion belongs only to them that make Profession of Love and Holiness as well as of Belief and no lower Profession must serve the turn Prop. 2. There is a Common Vnity of humane Nature that we have with all men and a common Peace that as much as in us lyeth we must hold with all Rom. 12.18 But this is nothing to the Unity in questâ—on which belongeth to our happiness The Devils have a Unity of Nature and some order and accord in Evil for if Satan be divided how can his kingdom stand Mat. 12.26 Prop. 3. The Unity of the Saints in the Spirit of Holiness consisteth in this life with much imperfection and discord according to the imperfection of their Holiness But as Grace is the seed of Glory and the beginning of Eternal Life for all its weakness and the sins that accompany it Iohn 17.3 So the Unity of the Spirit of holiness is the seed and beginning of the perfect Unity in Heaven for all the differences and discord that here accompany it II. HAving shewed you the only bond of Unity I come now by fuller evidence to convince you of the truth of what is said and even to force it into your understandings if you will but use your Reason and believe the Word of God It is unholiness and ungodliness that causeth our Discord and it is the Spirit of Holiness that is the Vniting Principle and there 's no true Christian Vnity to be had with ungodly men Never think of Vnity by any other way then Sanctification You are as on the other side of the River and cannot be united to the servants of Christ till the Spirit Convert you and pass you over You are dead men and unfit to be United to the living and it s the Spirit that quickneth and this Life must be our Vnion You madly rail against Division and yet stand at a distance from Christ and his Church and maintain the greatest division in the world Believe it you do but doat and dream if you think to have true Christian Vnity on any other terms then by the Sanctifying Spirit of Christ. And this I shall now evince as followeth 1. You know sure that there can be no Christian Unity but in God as your Father and the Center of Vnity All the true members of the Catholick Church must say Our Father and be as his children United in him If you will have Unity without the favour of God it must be the Unity of Rebels and such a concord as is in Hell The family of God do all Unite in him As all the Kingdom is United in one King so is all the Church in God Can you think it possible to have Unity as long as you will not Unite in God Well then there 's nothing plainer in the Scripture then that all men by nature are departed from God and none are United to him but those that are regenerate and made new creatures not a man is his child by Grace and in his favour but only those that are sanctified by his Spirit Ioh. 3.3 5. Mat. 18.3 2 Cor. 5.17 Heb. 12.14 So that there 's no true Vnity without Sâ—nctification because there 's no reconciliation with God nor Unity with him without it 2. There can be no true Christian Vnity but in Christ the Redeemer and Head of the Church For how can the members be United but in the Head or the Schollars but in their Teacher or the Subjects but in their Soveraign You know there 's no Christian Vnity but in Christ. Well then What Unity can we have with those that are not in Christ The unsanctified have indeed the name of Christians but what is that to the nature Some branches not bearing fruit are said to be in him the Vine by outward profession but they are dead and withered and must be cut off and cast away for the fire and so are unfit for Communion with the Vine Iohn 15. He that is in Christ is a new creature old things are past away behold all things are become new 2 Cor. 5.17 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ which is this sanctifying Spirit the same is none of his I pray you mark the plainness of these passages All you that are unconverted and unsanfied are out of Christ and none of his though you may talk and boast of him as long as you will And therefore you cannot have Vnity with Christians till you will first have Unity with Christ himself Till you are engraffed into him you are not engraffed into the Catholick Church but only seem to be what you are not 3. The dead cannot be United to the living who will be married to a dead corpse or would be tyed to it and carry it about It is life that must Unite us The unsanctified are dead in sin Eph. 2.5 and the Spirit is given to quicken the dead that they may be fit for converse What Union can there be between a block and a man or a beast that hath but a sensitive life and a man that hath a rational Soul So what Union between the sensual world and the sanctified Believer If you could have Vnity without the Sanctifying Spirit why are you then Baptized into the name of the Holy-Ghost as your Sanctifier To have a Vnity of Being is common to us with the Devils for they are Gods creatures and so are we To have a Vnion of Specifick Being is common to us with all the damned for they are men as well as we and common to the Devils among themselves But it must be a Unity in the Spirit of Holiness that must prove us happy and afford us comfort 4. There is no possibility of having Unity with those that have not the same ultimate principal end But the sanctified and the unsanctified have not the same end nay have contrary ends If one of you will go to York and the other to London how can you possibly go one way This is the great difference that sets the world and the sanctified by the ears You serve Mammon and they serve God You have one portion and they another Your portion is in this life Psalm 17.14 Here you have your good things Luke 16.25 and here you lay up your treasure Mat. 6.19 21. Your belly is your God and you mind earthly things Phil.
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
them You will wish and wish a thousand times that you had done as they did and lived as holily as the best on earth You will then wish O that it were to do again and that my life were again to be lived and God would but try me on earth once more Those tongues that railed against Religion will a thousand times more reproach your selves for those reproaches and the neglect of this Religion You will then cry out Where was my wit and reason when I made so mad a change as of God for the creature Christ for sin and Heaven for Hell Do you think Sirs that it were any wisdom for us to Agree with you now in that for which you will fall out with your selves for ever and to go with you in that loose ungodly way which you will wish your selves that you had never known Besides we know that it is only the Saints that we must live with for ever and therefore you must become Saints if you would be Unitâ—d to us here What! Should we be so careful to Agree with you a while and be separated from you eternally or do worse by suffering with you But if you will Unite with us in Christ and Holiness this will be a lasting Unity which you will never have occasion to repent of The Union between the Lord Jesus and his members shall never be dissolved Heartily joyn with his servants now in the wayes of Holiness and you shall certainly joyn with them in the state of Happiness and in the joyful fruition and praises of the Lord. Well Sirs in this much of our treaty I have layed the case plain and open before you and shewed you that we cannot come over to you It is not Possible nor Honest nor Safe we cannot forsake an holy life without forsaking God and our Redeemer and our salvation which no man that is a man indeed should desire us to do nor can we do it till we first forsake our understandings But oâ— your side the case is oâ—herwiâ—e You may turn to God and an holy life without any hurt or wrong to you at all nay it is the only way to your felicity and if you do it not you are undone for ever So that the case is past all controversie before you that there is no way in the world to Unity but by Consent in Piety If half the Common-wealth turn Rebels and so shall make a Division in the body the way to Unite them is by the returning of the Rebels to their Allegiance and not for the true and lawful subjects to turn all Rebels and joyn with them For without the Head there cannot be a Union So that if the world be still divided and disagreed it is not long of the godly but of the ungodly And if you would have an Agreement it s you that must yield who cause the disagreement You may do it and must do it or do worse but the godly may not yield to you What say you now would you have Unity or Division Would you have Peace or no Peace You complain that the world is of so many minds Would you have them all reconciled and of one mind If you would let us see it The work sticks with you on your hands it lyeth and it is you that must do it if ever it be done If you would have all ungodly you deserve not to live on the earth Shall we then without any more ado agree all upon a life of Holiness O that our Towns and Parishes would all joyn together in this Agreement and it must be this or none But perhaps some of you will say What need you make so many words about a matter that no boâ—y doth deny We all knâ—w we should â—e Holy and Godly and nâ—ne should be ungâ—â—ly who doubts of this But the Question is What Holinâ—ss and Godliness is Tell us thâ—refore whâ—t you meâ—n by it â—nâ— who those be that you takâ— to be the Godly sanctified people Answ. If we are all agreed of the Necessity of Holiness then those that are not yet agreed to be Holy themselves do sin against their own consciences and condemn themselves in the things which they allow and wilfully divide themselves from Christ and from his Church And if any of you have been so long Baptized into the Name of the Holy-Ghost as your Sanctifier and yet know not what Sanctification is and who are to be accounted sanctified and godly you shew that you have perfidiously cast away and broak your Covenant with God and made but an â—ll use of your Baptism or any Means and Ordinances since But if you know not who are godly or ungodly I shall quickly tell you A godly man is one that being formerly in a state of sin and misery both strange and backward to God and heaven and an holy life and prone to earthly flesâ—ly pleasures is now by the powerful wâ—rk of the Word and Spirit of God converted to unfeigned faith and repentance broaken-hearted for his former sin and misery flying to Christ as the only Hope anâ— Physitian of his soul and so is made a new creature having his heart set upon God and everlasting life and contemning all the pleasures of the flesh and the things of this world in comparison of his hopes of Glory hating all known sin and not wilfully living in any and loving the highest degree of Holiness and willing to use the means that God hath appointed to destroy the remnants of sin and bring him nearer to perfection This is a truly godly man And he that is not such is ungodly He that yet remaineth in his Natural depraved state and is unacquainted with this great and holy change that hath any sin that he had rather keep then leave and any that he wilfully liveth in and wilfully neglecteth known duties as one that had rather be free from them then perform them and had rather live a fleshly life then a spâ—ritual and an holy life and is more in love with the creature then with God with his life on earth in flesh and sin then a life in heaven wiâ—h God and his â—aints in perfect holiness this man is undoubtedly a wicked and ungodly man how evilly or religiously soever he may seem to live in the world And so I have in a few words told you who they be that are godly and who are the ungodly The Question now that we are treating about is whether we shall all agree together to be godly Do you not believe it to be best and necessary If not you are blind If you do let us agree on it without delay You tell us with many great complaints of the many differences and divisions that are among us but shall we Agree so far as we are agreed that is shall we agree in heart and practice so far as we are agreed in opinion and profession O that you would make a solemn Covenant that you will but Consent and go along
we ever agree with such men as these that think themselves wiser then God and Scripture and dare prefer the very folly of their own muddy brains before the word and wisdom of their Maker Give these men as plain Scripture and Reason as you will they have more wit as they think then to believe you and what they want in Reason they have in Pride and Self-conceit and therefore your wisdom is folly to them But now when the Spirit of Holiness comes it takes them down and abaseth and humbleth the proud and self-conceited and makes them ashamed of the folly and weakness of their own understandings so that a man may speak to them now as to men of reason and have a hearing and consideration of his words A humble godly man is low in his own eyes and therefore suspicious of his own understanding in doubtfull things and therefore is more flexible and yielding to the truth when others are so stiffened by Pride that they are readier to deride the wisest that shall contradict them If therefore we could but all Agree in Holy meekness and humility what readier way could there be in the world to draw to an end of our differences and divisions 10. Moreover if we could but Agree in Holiness it would free us from that uncharitableness that causeth our Disagreement in other things and it would possess us with a special endeared Love one to another And who knoweth not that Love is a uniting healing thing Sanctification principally consisteth in Love to God and man and this the unsanctifyed principally want It s want of Love that makes men surmise the worst of one another and make the worst of all that they say do and draw matter of contention from that which never gave them Cause Love would put a better sence upon mens words and deeds or at least would bear them far more easily But instead of Love there is a Natural Enmity in all that are unsanctified to all the servants and the ways of God And can we ever be agreed with our Natural enemies why Malice will so pervert their understandings that all that we say or do will be misconstrued and as a man that looks through a red glass thinks all things to be red that he looks upon so these men through the distemper of their malicious minds will finde matter of quarrelling with all that we can say or do Ill will never saith well Our very obedience to the Law of God and seeking to save our own souls will be matter of quarrel and taken to be our crime If we will not run into Hell fire with them and think there is no danger when we know the contrary it will be a fault sufficient for their malice to reproach us with so that if we should Agree with ungodly men in all our Opinions of Religion yet if we will not damn our souls and make no bones of displeasing the great and dreadfull God there is no Peace to be had with them They have no Peace with God and they have no solid Peace with themselves for God hath professed that there is no peace to the wicked Isa. 48.22 And how then can we expect that they should have peace with us But Sanctification doth beget that effâ—ctual Love that is as healing to a divided Church or to disagreeing persons as the most precious Balsom or Wound-selve is to bodily wounds Love will not let you rest in wrath but will keep you under smart and disquietness till you are either at Peace or have done your part to have procured it Husband and Wife Parents and Children Brethren and Sisters do seldomer fall into greater dissentions then strangers do And when they do fall out they are easilier reconciled The Spirit of Grace doth possess unfained Christians with as dear a love to one another as is between the nearest Relations For by our New birth the Saints are Brethren in Christ. If you saw an Army fighting or a company of people quarrelling and scolding at one another do you think there could be a readier way to make them all friends and end their quarrels then to possess them all with a dear and tender love to one another If it were in my power to cause all contenders to Love those that they contend with as themselves do you think I should not soon agree them Why you know if you know any thing in Christianity that Sanctification causeth men to Love their Neighbors as themselves and to Love one another with a pure heart fervently 1 Pet. 1.22 For by this we know that we are passed from death to life because we love the Brethren He that loveth not his Brother abideth in death Joh. 3 14. And therefore it is a case exceeding plain that the readiest way in the world to reconcile our lesser differences is to be united in the Spirit and to Agree upon a Holy Life 11. Moreover were we all united in the Spirit We should have all one God one Master of our Faith and one Law-giver and Iudge of all our Controversies And this would be an exceeding help to unity The Principal cause of Divisions in the world are the multitude of Rulers and Masters and Judges For with unsanctified men their own Conceits and Carnal Interest is their Counsellor and Judge The Rulers of the world that have the power of the sword and can do them good or hurt in their estates are the Masters of their Religion more then God They will follow this Man or that Man that best pleaseth their fancies and fleshly desires and so will never be of one minde But Sanctification takes down all other Masters of our Faith save Christ and those that declare his will Let flesh and blood say what it will let all the world say what they will if God say the contrary his word shall stand and be a Law to them And can there be a readier way to Unity then to bring us all into one School and subject us all to one Lord and Master and to bring us all to refer our differences to one most wise infallible Judge Though we do not yet understand his will in all things yet when we understand it in the main and are resolved to search after the knowledge of the rest it is a great preparative to our Agreement when we all look but to one for the deciding of our controversies Whereas the unsanctified have as many Judges and Guides as persons For every man is a Guid and Judge to himself 12. Moreover were we but once Agreed in Holiness We should all have one Light for the ending of our differences and that Light would be the true Infallible Light For we should all have the same Holy word of God as the extrinsick Light which is most True as coming from the Lord of Truth And we should all have the Spirit of Truth within to teach us the meaning of that word without and to help our understandings and assist us in
pray themselves into Agreement 15. Moreover were we once United in the Spirit We should be under the Promise of Divine assistance which the unsanctified have no part in When we Pray for Light and Peace and Concord we have a promise to be heard and helpt at least in the time and measure as shall be fittest we have a promise of the Spirit to be our Teacher and to lead us into Truth We have promises for the maintaining and repairing of our healing Graces and our Communion-Graces our Love to Christ and one another our Patience and Meekness and the rest Aud this must needs be a great advantage to Unity and Agreement For God is partly engaged for it 16. And if we were United in the Spirit and Agreed in the main The Great Truths which we are agreed in would very much direct us to find out the rest which yet we differ in For these have an influence into all the rest and the rest are all connext to these and also linkt and knit together that we may finde out many by the help of one All holy Truths do befriend each other but especially the Great and Master points which the rest depend upon and flow from There is no way to a right Agreement in other points but by agreeing first in these Fundamental Rudiments 17. Also if we were once Agreed in Holiness we should have that continually within us and before us that would much take us off from vain contendings and from an over-zealous minding of smâ—ller things We should have so much to do with God in holy Duties and so much to do with our own hearts in searching them watching them and exciting them and mending them reproving and correcting them supporting and comforting them by the application of the Promises that we should have less time for quarrelling and less minde of it then the unsanctifyed have We should have so many great and practical Truths to digest and live upon that lesser and unnecessary matters which are the common causes of Contention would find less room Or at least we should allow each Truth its due proportion of our study and talk and zeal and so that lesser would have comparatively so small a share and be so exceeding seldom and remissly medled with that their would be the less danger of Contentions 18. Yea if once we were united in the Spirit the very forethought of an Everlasting Vnion in Heaven would have a continual influence upon our hearts for the healing of our breaches We should be thinking with our selves Shall we not shortly be all of one mind and heart and all be perfected with the blessed vision and Reconciling Light of the face of God! There will then be no dissention or division or unbrotherly censures or separations And should we now live so unlike our future life Shall we now be so unlike to what we must be for ever Shall we now cherish those heart-burnings and dissentions that must not enter with us into Heaven but be cast off among the rest of our miseries and shut out with the rest of our enemies and hated for ever by God and us Must we there be closed in perfect Love and be all imployed in the same holy Praise of God and our Redeemer and does it beseem us now to be censuring contending and separating from each other Thus the belief of the Life to come will be a more effectual means with the godly for Agreement then any that unsanctified men can use 19. Moreover they that have the Spirit of Holiness have a dear and special Love to Truth as well as unto Peace And therefore they have a great advantage for the receiving of it in all debates and consequently they are fairer for a just Agreement They are friends with the most searching spiritual truths But the ungodly have at enmity to all that Truth that would shew them their sin and misery and duty and make them holy and lead them up from the creature unto God And as the Proverb is He that would not know cannot understand When you deal with a wicked graceless heart you do not set Reason against Reason for it that were all we should soon have done but you set Reason against Will and Passion and Appetite and fleshly Interest and when you have convinced them you are little the neerer prevailing with them You may as well think to satisfie a hungry belly with Reasons or to tame a wild beast with Reasons or to humble the Proud and bring the sensual person to self-denial by all your Reasons For they Love not the Truth because they Love not the Duty that it would perswade them to and because they Love the sin that it would take from them There are two sorts of Satan in a wicked man that none but God can batter so as to win them that is A Proud and Ignorant mind and a Hard and sensual Heart Many a year have I been battering them by the Word of God from this place and yet with many can do no good But the sanctified heart that Loveth the Truth will meet it and welcome it and thankfully entertain it Love maketh a diligent hearer and a good schollar and giveth us hope that informations and debates may be succesful A godly man is so far from hating truth and flying from it that he would give all the riches of the world to purchase it He prayes and reads and studyeth for it and therefore hath great advantage to attain it 20. Moreover if we were all Agreed in Holiness and united in the Spirit of Christ we should Love the Truth in a Practical manner and we should know that every Truth of God hath its proper work to do upon the soul and therefore we should Love the end of each Truth better then the Truth it self And therefore we could not pretend the Truth against the Ends of Truth And therefore we should see to the security of those ends in all our debates and controversies We should not make havock of the Church of Christ nor easily be guilty of divisions nor quench our Love of God and of our Brethren under pretence of standing for the Truth which unsanctified men will easily do Truth is for Holiness and Love as its proper end Ungodly men will tread down Love and Holiness or at least disadvantage it and hinder it in the world for the exalting of their own conceits under the name of truth They will cure the Church by cutting it in pieces or by cutting the throat of it and are presently dismembering for every sore But with the godly it is not so 21. Moreover the sanctified have a great advantage for Agreement in that they have hearts that are subject to the Truth and will be True to it when they understand it Did they but know the right way they would presently walk in it Nothing is so dear to them that should not be forsaken for it or sacrificed to it But the wicked are false to
perfection where all our differences will be ended and we shall be perfectly Agreed in mind and will being One in him that is the only Center of Universal Peace and Concord And it s a great comfort to us in our darkness and differences that we are in the sure and ready way to perfect light and Harmony of mind 2. Yea and till we do come thither we are still on the mending hand and if we do but thrive in Holiness we shall certainly thrive in Concord and in Peace And it s a comfort to a sick man not only to be certain of a full recovery but to feel himself daily on the mending hand 3. And in the mean time God himself will bear with all our differences though not so far as to approve or cherish them yet so far as to own us for his children though we are too often falling out with one another and so far as to pitty our frailty and infirmity and to pardon us and deal as a Father with us And if our quarrels cause him to use the rod it is but to keep us in quietness afterwards that as we had the taste of the four fruits of our contentions so we may after have the quiet fruits of righteousness And thus I have given you in four and twenty particular discoveries a sufficient Proof that A Vnity in the Spirit and an Agreement in Holiness hath abundant advantages for our further Agreement in lowers things and such as all other men are destitute of and therefore that there is no way possible for a just a safe a durable Agreement but that we all Agree in a Holy life and be United in the sanctifying Spirit of Christ. BUt perhaps you will Object If all this be so whence comes it to pass that there are so many differences still among those that you call the sanctified Do we not see that they are more contentious and divided into partyes and make more stir about Religion then any others Answ. 1. The differences among the godly are nothing for number or greatness or weight in comparison of yours I have shewed you in my Discourse of the Catholick Church twenty great and weighty points in which they all agree together and in which the ungodly agree not with them What if they agree not whether Church-Government should be exercised by the Elders only the flock consenting or by all the flock the Pastours Guiding Or whether One among the Pastours should be of a superior Degree or of a superior Order or whether they should only be of the same Degree and Order though chosen to preside and moderate for the time What if one think that its Necessary to read the publick Prayers out of a Book and another think its necessary to pray without book and a third more truly thinks it is in it self indifferent whether it be within book or without with other suchlike differences as these which will keep no man out of Heaven Are these like our differences with ungodly men Our differences with you are Whether Heaven or Eath is chiefly to be loved and sought after Whether Grace and Holiness or sin and carelesness be the better whether it be the more sweet and desirable life to be heavenly minded and live in the Love and Service of God and to be much in holy communion with him and meditating upon his Law and upon the Life to come or on the contrary to live to the world and to the flesh whether it be better to obey the Word of God and his Ministers that speak it in his name or obey our fleshly desires and the proud conceits of ignorant minds In a word our difference with the ungodly though they will not confess it and speak out is plainly this whether Heaven or Earth be better and whether God be God and shall be our God and whether Christ be Christ and shall be our Christ and whether the Holy Ghost shall be our sanctifier or whether we shall live after the flesh and Rule our selves against the Will and Word of God and so in effect whether God be God and man be man and whether we should live as men or as beasts and so whether we should choose Salvation or Damnation If you could but understand your selves and the depth of your deceitful hearts you would see that here lyeth the difference For though some of the unsanctified have a fair and plausible deportment and will speak handsomly of the Christian Religion because they have had ingenuous Christian education yet all this is indeed but little more then formal complement so far are they from a Heavenly mind and a heart that 's truly set on God as their careless lives and carnal unsavory conference sheweth if not their scorns at a state of Holiness So that our differences are nothing in comparison of the difference with you 2. Moreover the servants of God do mind the matters of Religion more seriously then others do and therefore their differences are brought to light and made more observable to the world Their very heart is set upon these heavenly things and therefore they cannot make light of the smallest truth of God and this may be some occasion of their difference Whereas the ungodly differ not about Religion because they have heartily no Religion to to differ about They trouble not themselves about these matters because they do not much regard them And is this a Unity and peace to be desired I had rather have the discord of the Saints then such a concord of the wicked They are so careful about their duty that they are afraid of missing it in the least particular and this with their Imperfect light is the reason of their disputings about these matters But you that are careless of your duty can easily agree upon a way of sin or take any thing that comes next to hand They honour the Worship of God so much that they would not have any thing out of order but you set so little by it that you will be of the Religion that the King is of let it be what it will be And its easy to agree in such an ungodly careless course Astronomers have many controversies about the positions and motions of the heavens and all Philosophers have many controversies about the matter of their Sciences when ignorant men have none of their controversies because they understand not and therefore regard not the things that the learned differ about And will you think ever the better of Ignorance or ever the worse of Learning for this The controversies of Lawyers of Historians Chronologers Geographerr Physicians and such like do no never trouble the brains of the ignorant But for all that I had rather be in Controversie with the Learned then without such controversie with you If you scatter a handful of Gold or Diamonds in the street perhaps men will scramble for them and fall out about them when swine will trample on them and quietly despise them because
that it is impossible that Unity should consist in these 3. Furthermore if our Unity were laid on these Religion would be for none but the learned and as the Ancients ordinarily argue against the Heathens that cavilled at the plainness of the Scripture God should be then Partial and should make a way to Heaven that poor men cannot go For the poor cannot possibly attain to so much Learning and spend so much of their lives in study as may bring them to the knowledge of all these lower difficult points 4. Yea if our Unity or Salvation lay on these it is certain it would shut us out all both from Unity and Salvation so that there would no two be at Unity in all the world and no One be saved For all men on earth are Ignorant in many lesser truths even such as are revealed to us in the Scripture and we should endeavour to understand What man dare affirm that he understandeth every word of the Holy Scripture Did the Pope himself think that he had attained to this Infallibility he would ere this have written us an infallible Commentary If the best must say with Paul himself we know but in part then sure those smaller doubtful things which all the truly sanctified know not are not the matter of the Unity of the Church 5. I have shewed in my Discourse of the Catholick Church that to shut out all from the Church and our Communion that differ from us in such lower things is utterly against the design of Christ and the tenour of the Gospel and very dishonourable to him and to his Church God hath more mercy then to shut out the weak and will you dishonour him so far as to perswade the world that he hath no such mercy The design of the Gospel is Grace and Love How tender was Christ even of his little ones that believe in him How compassionate is he to them in their infirmities And would you go about to perswade the world that he hath so little of this compassion as that he will admit none to Heaven or to the Communion of his Church but those that attain to Knowledge and Agreement in all these lesser doubtful Controversies and indifferent things The Church is small enough already but if you would cut off all that do not Agree in every circumstance you would make it small indeed This is no better then under pretence of Faith and Unity to un-Church the Church and damn your selves and all the world 6. The Arguments in the Text are very forcible verse 3. For God hath received him As if he should say Dare you despise or cast out him that God receiveth ver 4. Who art thou that judgest another mans servant ver 10. Why dost thou judge thy brother or why dost thou set at naught thy brother we shall all stand before the judgement seat of Christ The Church doth not censure men for small or doubtful things nor must we condemn those that God doth not condemn 7. The laying such stress on smaller things doth multiply controversies and fill the minds of men with scruples and ensnare their consciences and engage men in parties against each other to the certain breach of Charity and ruine of the Peace of the Church and of their souls The fire of Contention will never go out for want of fewel if unnecessary things be made necessary and small things pretended to be great uncertain things pretended to be certain Abundance of vice will be daily set and kept at work upon this borrowed stock 8. And what a world of precious Time will be wasted by this means while men are Studying and Reading to maintain their own opinions and when they must waste their hours when they are together in Conferences and wrangling-Disputations to the discomposing of their own and others minds and certain troubling the Church of God! Oh what use have we for those precious hours for surer greater and more needful things 9. The things that our salvation and the Churches Peace are indeed laid upon are so great so necessary so pleasant and so profitable that it leaveth us the more without excuse to waste our time in things unnecessary We have our great Creator to know and honour we have the mysterie of Redemption to search into and admire we have the Nature and Life and Death and Resurrection and Ascension and Glorification and Intercession of Christ to study and believe and all the Love and Wisdom of God the Mercy and the Holiness and Justice that was revealed in him we have Judgment to prepare for all the Graces of the Spirit of Christ to be received or cherished increased and exercised in our Souls We have a Hell to scape and a Heaven to obtain and the foreseen glory of it to feed upon for the strengthning and delighting of our Souls we have many particular duties of Holiness and Righteousness to attend And in the midst of all this great employment should we make more work and trouble to our selves and that about unnecessary things 10. These unnecessary or lower things when once they are advanced above their ranck do undermine and wrong the greater matters which they pretended to befriend They divert the thoughts and speeches from them and take up the affections and will not be contented with their due proportion but are as the Proverb is like a Begger on horse-back that will never light If men be but set upon Ceremonies or private opinions of their own they are upon it in all companies and you shall sometimes have almost nothing else from them And that 's not all but the Interest of their unnecessary or lower points is ordinarily set up against the Interest of that Body of Christian Verities which we are all agreed in so that they can be contented that Christianity lose much advantage in the greater points that their cause may be advantaged If this were not so we should not have had ceremonies formalities have cast out such abundance of excellent Preachers heretofore Nor private Opinions have set so many against the labours of faithful Ministers as to our grief and shame we have lately seen And the mischief is that unnecessary things made necessary do so involve the Imposers interest with their own that they think they are Necessitated to drive them on and see their Impositions obeyed or else their wisdom or authority is 〈◊〉 â—1 And thus they directly lead men to persecution and occasion those that must needs have their wills to Lord it over Gods heritage 1 Pet. 5.3 when the desire of being the Churches God hath prevailed so far with any of its members as to set them upon a course of Law-giving and domineering and bringing others into a conformity to their wills they look upon all men as sinners that disobey them and think that their power will warrant them to force â—â—edience to their commands or 〈◊〉 to deprive the Church of her Pastors Many a Congregation have I known change
Countries of Professed Christians hath caused many to fall off and caused the enemie to insult We will not for all this break our Rule nor presume to search the hearts of men any further then they appear in outward Evidence We will still take all Professors of Christianity as Christians that Null not their own Profession Basil was advised by Athanasius himself to receive the Arrians themselves into Communion if they did but disown their former errors and subscribe to the Nicene Creed and seek the Communion of the Churches And he practised this though many were offended at it But yet we must needs say that it is better for the Church to have a few that are Holy and answer the nature of their holy Calling then to have multitudes that will but prove our shame and make the Infidel world believe that Christianity is not what it is Yea and these are they most commonly too though they may proceed to a higher profession that are carried about with every wind of doctrine and that turn to Heresies and cause and continue the Divisions of the Church For they that are such serve not the Lord Iesus when they profess to serve him Rom. 16.17 When Heresies do arise it is such chaff as this that is carried away that the Approved Christians indeed may be made manifest 1 Cor. 11.19 Abundance of proud unsanctified persons do us as much good in the Church as fire in our thatch or as mutinous souldiers that are but the enemies agents in the Army to set all the souldiers together by the ears or discover their Councils or blow up their magazins And would you have us contented with such a kind of Agreement and Communion with you as this which you and we are like to be so little the better for if not the worse 9. Furthermore it is not this meer Ageerment in Profession that will satisfie Christ himself and therefore it must not satisfie us It is not in this that he attaineth the principal ends of his Redemption nor seeth the travaile of his Soul Alas the blood of Christ is lost to you and all the Ordinances and means are lost and all the labour of Ministers is but lost to you as to any pardon of sin or life or Heaven that ever you shall have by them if you goe no further And would you have us be contented with such an Agreement as this 10. Lastly Consider that if we Agree no further then in an outward Profession of the Christian faith alas it will be but a short Agreement We may be together here a while in the Church as fishes good and bad in one net but when it is drawn to the shore a separation will be made Here you may sit and kneel among us a while and go away with the Name of Christians But alas it is but a little while till this Agreement will be broken and a dreadful everlasting separation must be made Dreadful to the unsanctified but joyful to the Saints And what great good will it do to you or us to be tyed together a little while by words and shews and then to be everlastingly separated as far as Light from darkness Heaven from Hell and the Greatest Joys from the Greatest sorrows O blame us not if we motion to you and beg of you a far neerer Union and Agreement then this I think I have now sufficiently proved that If we will be indeed of One Religion and ever come to a right Agreement it is The Vnity of the sanctifying Spirit that must do it It must be a Union and Agreement in true Conversion and Holiness of life and nothing lower will serve the turn If God do us any good by the Profession Gifts or Interest of Hypocrites and unsanctified professors we 'l thank him for it and take it as a mercy But it is a higher Design that must be in our Hearts and woe be to them that come no nearer the Holy Catholik Church and the Unity of the Spirit and the Communion of Saints then by an Outward profession and participation of Sacraments and such like outward Ordinances of Communion Quest. BVT suppose we should be Vnited in the Spirit and Agree in Holiness do you think this would heal the Divisions of the Church Doe you not see that the most godly are all in pieces as well as others Is it not such that have been the principal causers of our late Divisions You promised to shew us How we might do well for all our other differences if we were buâ— Agreed in Holiness will you now shew us what Advantage that would be Answ. To be Agreed in Holiness and to be Heartily one in the Essentials of Christianity is an exceeding advantage to us in all our disagreements about lesser things As 1. Were we but once Vnited in the main and Sanctified by the Vniting Spirit of Christ our Principal differences were healed already We should no longer be of different minds whether sin or holiness be best or whether earth or heaven should be chosen for our portion nor whether God or the flesh or world should be obeyed You little think what abundance of differences are at once reconciled in the very hour of a sinners conversion Before that hour we differed in Judgement from all wise men from all the Saints of God from all the holy Prophets Apostles and Martyrs as well as from all the Godly about us and from all men of right Reason and faith and experience Yea we differed from the Holy Ghost from Christ from God himself yea from none so much as him Wicked wretches you differ from the Godly because they Agree with God but you differ more from God then from them When you despise a Holy life are his thoughts like your thoughts when you revile his servants and scorn his yoak and burden as too heavy are you then of the mind of Christ O no Your darkness and his Light are far more distant then you are able to conceive Were you but once Reconciled to God by converting sanctifying light you would at once be Reconciled to his servants for in the matters of chief concernment to the soul they are all of his mind for he is their Instructer And then what a day of healing would that be Oh what abundance of differences are ended upon the day of true Conversion And withal what abundance of differences would be new made For now you Agree with the Devil and with your fleshly desires and with distracted wicked men and all this Agreement would then be broke For this friendship with the world is enmity to God Iam. 4.4 and such Divisions as these Christ tells us that he came to send Luke 12.51 But you would presently be Agreed with God with the Holy Scriptures with all the Apostles and Servants of the Lord and with all men of Spiritual wisdom and experience in the world in the great and principal matters of your lives And it is a multitude of particulars that
is contained in this Agreement that 's made when a sinner is truly sanctified 2. If once you were united in the Spirit and Agreed in a Holy life you would differ in nothing that could keep you out of Heaven And if we have some small differences on Earth as long as they are such as cannot hinder our salvation they may be the more easily born Paul and Barnabas had a little falling out but O how sweetly are they now reconciled Hierom and Chrysostom Epiphanius and Iohn of Hierusalem Theophilus and Chrysostom were at odds Luther and Zuinglius had their disagreements But Oh how happily are they now agreed Our imperfection of Knowledge causeth us here to erre and differ in part But if we are all united in Christ and agreed in the main how quickly shall we see that blessed Light that will reconcile all our controversies Marvail not to find some contests among the most learned and most godly unless you 'l marvail that Earth is not Heaven or that in that body we see not the face of God which is the all-disclosing reconciling light If we were all here together in the dark and were of many opinions about the things before us if one did but come in among us with a candle it might end all our differences in a moment When we are newly out of this obscuring flesh and this dark deceitful earthly world O what an unconceiveable reconciliation will be made by that blessed Light There 's no contending or quarrelling For there are none of those errors or passions that should occasion it As Imperfect Holiness produceth an answerable Imperfect Unity so perfect Holiness will prfectly Unite And is not this then the only way to Unity which will help us here to what is here attainable and secure us of eternal perfect concord in the world that we are passing to O see that you be once Agreed in the things that are necessary to salvation and then the hour is neer at hand that will end all your differences and agree you in the rest 3. If once you be but Agreed in Holiness you will have no difference left that shall destroy any Grace in you that 's necessary to salvation The power of Divine faith and Love and Hope and Fear and Zeal will still be safe Your diseasâ—s will not destroy your vital faculties And if the Head the Heart and principal parts be sound you may the better bear a small distemper The disagreements of the ungodly from God from Scripture and the Saints are mortal to them and prove them under the power of darkness and of Satan that leads them captive at his will 2 Tim. 2.26 Eph. 2.23 Acts 26.18 But the differences of the sanctified are but as the different complexions or statures of children or at worst but as their falling out which will not cause the Father to turn them out of his family so that as long as Faith and Love and Hope and other Graces are kept sound we shall certainly do well for all our differences And this is the benefit of Agreeing in Holiness 4. Moreover if once we were all Agreed in the Spirit and in Holiness of Heart and Life we should escape all Heresies or Errors that effectually subvert the Essentials of the Christian faith Mistaken we might be but Heretikes we could not be I stick not upon the bare word whether smaller errors may be called Heresie but taking Heresie as commonly it s taken a sanctified person cannot at least Habitually be a Heretick For should a man so hold a point inconsistent with any one Essential point of the Christian faith at least Habitually and Practically hold it it s as impossible that this man should be then a Christian as that contradictories should be true And therefore certainly whosoever is a true Christian is frâ—e from such Heresies And therefore as if you are sure a man so holds a Heresie you have no reason to believe his shews of Holiness so where you see a great appearance of real Holiness you must long deliberate and have good evidence before you judgâ— that man a Heretick For this is the certain Priviledge of the Sanctified that they cannot be Hereticks though they may have many errors as in sensu composito all confess 5. Morover if we were but all Agreed in true Holiness we should be freed from most of those scandalous sins which are the common occasion of our reproaches and divisions It is sin that is the greaâ— trouble of the Church and of the world Iohn 7.25 This breeds our quarrels This setteth all into a flame When a Drunkard or an unclean person or a slanderer or a raiseâ— or any scandalous person is râ—proved or openly admonished or for impenitency rejected then the Devil and sin bestir themselves and rage against the Church and Officers and Ordinances of God It is sin within that animateth the malignant to bâ— contentious And it is to defend and take part with sin that they fall out with God and his Word and Servants Now Holiness is contrary to this sin that troubleth us Mortification of sin is part of Sanctification If therefore we were Agreed in Holiness it were as ready a way to procure our Peace as quenching the fire in your thatch is the ready way to save your house I know there are too many scandals given by the best But it is commonly but by the weaker worser sort of the best And it is not a common thing with them neither And none of them make a trade of sinning nor have any unmortified reigning sin If a Noach a Lot a David be once scandalous in all his life this is not the case of all the godly and it is not like the case of the ungodly that are either often or impenitent in it And therefore though it may disturbe the Church yet not so much as the frequent and impenitent scandals of the ungodly O could we but all Agree against this make-bate this great disturber and troubler of the world what Peace might we enjoy 6. And also if once we could Agree in Holiness the matter and occasion of offences separations and contentions would cease What caused the Donatists separation of old but the scandals in the Church and the receiving of such upon repentance into Communion or ministry And so the Novatian schism also was occasioned And though the Donatists and Novatians were too blame to be against the Ordination or reception of such Penitents yet the prevention of the sin would have been the prevention of the breach What hath caused so many to turn separatists in England but seeing so many ungodly persons in our Churches and Communion You that are most offended at Schisms and Private Churches are the common occasions of it your selves If such ungodly persons were not in our Assemblies few godly persons would separate from them Though I do not justifie them yet I must needs condemn you as the cause Were it not for you we should be