your foul back-biting reviling censorious contentious tongues do not prove the contrary 13. who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you Let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisedome that is Let him that would be thought more knowing and religious than his neighbours be so much more blameless and meek to all men and excel them in good works v. 14. But if ye have a bitter zeal for so is the Greek word and strife in your hearts glory not in such a zeal or in your greater knowledge and lie not against the truth 15. This wisdome descendeth not from above as you imagine who father it on Gods word and spirit but is earthly sensual or natural and devillish O doleful mistake that the world the flesh and the Devil should prove the cause of that conceited spiritual knowledge and excellency which they thought had been the inspiration of the spirit v. 16. For where zeal and strife 〈◊〉 that is a striving contentious zeal against brethren there is confusion or tumult and unquietness and every evil work O lamentable reformers that set up every evil work while they seemed zealous against evil v. 17. But the wisdome that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality or wrangling and without Hypocrisie And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace when peace-breakers that sow in divisions and contention shall reap the fruit of unrighteousness though they call their way by the most religious names Thus I have briefly shewed you what Vâ—nity and Division are that wrong apprehensions draw you not to sin DIRECT VIII When any thing needeth amendment in the Church remember that the best Christian must be the forwardest to reformation and â—he backwardest to Division and must search and try all means of Reforming which make not against the concord of the Church I Do not here determine in what cases you may or may not separate from any company of faulty Christians I only say that you must never separate what God hath conjoyned the Holiness and the Vnity of believers If corruptions blemish and dishonour the Congregation Do not say Let sin alone I must not oppose it for fear of division But be the forwardest to reduce all to the will of God And yet if you cannot prevail as you desire be the backwardest to divide and separate and do it not without a certain warrant and extream necessity Resolve with Austin I will not be the chaff and yet I will not go out of the floor though the chaff be there Never give over your just desire and endeavour of Reformation And yet as long as possibly you can avoid it forsake not the Church which you desire to reform As Paul said to them that were ready to forsake a sea-wrackt vessel If these abide not in the ship ye cannot be saved Many a one by unlawful flying and shifting for his own greater peace and safety doth much more hazard his own and others DIRECT IX Forget not the great difference between casting out the wicked and impenitent from the Church by discipline and the godlies separating from the Church it self because the wicked are not cast out The first is a great duty The second is ordinarily a great sin THe question is not Whether the impenitent should be put away from Church-Communion That 's not denied But whether you should separate from the Church because they are permitted This is it which we call you to beware Not but that in some cases a Christian may lawfully remove from one Church to another that hath more light and purity for the edification of his soul. But before you separate from a faulty Church as such as may not lawfully be communicated with you must look well about you and be able to prove that thing which you affirm Many weak Christians marking those Texts which bid us avoid a man that is an Heretick and to have no company with disorderly walkers and not to eat with flagitious persons do not sufficiently mark their sense but take them as if they call'd us to separate from the Church with which these persons do communicate Whereas if you mark all the Texts in the Gospel you shall find that all the separation which is commanded in such cases besides our separation from the Infidels or Idolatrous world or Antichristian and Heretical confederacies and no-Churches is but one of these two sorts First either that the Church cast out the impenitent sinner by the power of the Keyes Secondly or that private men avoid all private familiarity with them And both these we would promote and no way hinder Thirdly but that the private members should separate from the Church because such persons are not cast out of it shew me one Text to prove it if you can Let us here peruse the Texts that speak of our withdrawing from the wicked 1 Cor. 5. Is expresly written to the whole Church as obliged to put away the incestuous person from among them and so not to eat with such offenders So is that in 2 Thes. 3. and that in Tit. 3. 10. A man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition avoid Unless it be a Heretick that hath already separated himself from our communion And then it can be put private familiarity which we are further to avoid In brief there is no other place of Scripture that I know of which commandeth any more I have before shewed that abundance of Church corruptions or of scandalous members were then among them and yet the Apostle never spake a syllable to any one Christian to separate from any one of all those Churches Which we cannot imagine that the Holy Ghost would have wholly omitted if indeed it had been the will of God Obj. But then why did Luther and the first Pretestants separate from the Church of Rome and how will you justifie them from Schisme Ans. Its pity that sloth and sortishness should keep any Protestant or Papist either in such ignorance as to need any help to answer so easie a question at this day Let not equivocal names deceive us and the case is easie By the word Church the Scripture still meaneth first either the Universal Church which is the body or Kingdome of Christ alone Secondly or particular Congregations associated for personal communion in Gods worship But the Pope hath feigned another kind of thing and called it The Church That is The Vniversality of Christians as headed by himself as the constitutive and governing head Whereas first God never instituted or allowed such a Church Secondly nor did ever the Universality of Christians acknowledge this usurping Head Shew me in Scripture or in Church-History that either there ever was de facto or ought to be de jure such a thing in the world as they call the Church and I profess I will immediately turn
aggravate the faults of all that are against their way As if every infirmity were a crime and had no excuse yea they are oft glad to hear of some miscarriage in them for which they may speak against them And very readily take up such reports and are the willing-tongues of slanderous fame And in all this their faction maketh them impenitent For they think it tendeth to the disgrace of the other Party and so of their Cause which they account an errour and consequently that God hath use for their malicious Calumnies to his glory What company can you come into of forward Christians but they are talking against those of other parties except a few true entire Christians who are throughly possessed with the loving compassionate spirit of their Lord and have received the true impression of the Gospel And if you mark the cause you will find it as a sectarian spirit that prevaileth against the Catholick spirit of Christianity And in no sect more than in those that pretend to be the only Catholicks and to do all this against the Sectaries as such What bitter lies do the Popish sects under the name of Catholicks daily vent not only against Luther Calvin and other Reformers but any that stand against the peculiar interest of their party And they that can get the upper hand-and by worldly advantages become the domineering sect do think that thereby they are exempted from the name and number of sectaries and that all are sectaries that question their authority and do not absolutely obey them In all their discourse the stigmatizing of dissenters is an ordinary part One side reproacheth the other as Hereticks and Schismaticks And the other reproacheth them as hypocrites formalists and pharisaical persecutors And every party think that all this is a part of Christian zeal and if they did it not they should be guilty of lukewarmness and neutrality and consenting to the sins of others And thus the Church of Christ is engaged in a war against it self And when all men should know them to be Christs disciples by loving one another most men may perceive that they have too much contrariety to the Christian nature by their endeavouring to make each other odious And all because instead of distinguishing the members of the same Body by their several offices and degrees we are grown to make several Bodies of them and to set one part against another How many a Kingdomes conversion from Infidelity hath been hindered and how many a faithful Minister silenced or reproached and how many excellent Christians slandered and vilified and how many blamless customs forms and practises accused and how many infirmities aggravated as mortal crimes by a siding factious disposition and to promote the cause and interest of a Sect. Therefore as you love your integrity and peace keep up an impartial universal love and honour to all Christians as such and take heed of a dividing spirit DIRECT XX. Be very suspicious of your Religious passions and carefully distinguish between a sound and a sinful zeal lest you should father your sin on the spirit of holiness and think that you are most pleasing God when you offend him WE are seldome more mistaken in justifying our selves than in our Passions And when our Passions are Religious the mistake is both most easie and most perillous Easie because we are apt to be most confident and not suspect them the matter seeming so great and good about which they are exercised And Perilous because the greatness and goodness of the matter doth make the errour the greater and the worse I have shewed before how easie it is to think that our Religious passions are all the works of the spirit of God For we are apt to estimate them by the depth and earnestness which we feel But excellent persons have been here mistaken as Iames and Iohn were And not only so but when the passion is up the judgement it self is seldome to be far trusted For it inclineth us to err in all things that concern the present business Therefore still remember the difference between true zeal and false And know that he that is upright in the main and whose zeal for Christianity is sound may yet have much zeal that is unsound with it First It is an ill sign when your zeal is raised about some singular opinion which you have owned and not for the common salvation and substance of the Christian faith or practise Or at least when your odd opinion hath a greater proportion of your zeal than many more plain and necessary truths Secondly when your zeal is moved by any personal interest of your own By honour or dishonour By any wrong that is done you or any reputation of wisdome or goodness which lieth on the cause Or at least when your own interest hath too large a proportion in your zeal Thirdly when your zeal is more for the interest of your party than for the Universal Church and the common cause of Godliness and Christianity and can be content that some detriment to the whole may further the interest of the party Fourthly when your zeal tendeth to hurt and crueley and would have God rather to glorifie his Iustice by some present notable judgement than his Mercy by patience and forgiving And when your secret desire of fire from heaven or some destruction of the adversaries is greater than your desire and prayer for their conversion The sure mark of true zeal is that it is zealous Love It maketh you love your neighbours and enemies more fervently than others do But false zeal maketh you more inclined to their suffering and to reproach and hurt them Fifthly It is an ill signe when your zeal is beyond the proportion of your understanding And your prudence and experience is as much less than other mens as your zeal is greater True zeal hath some equality of Light and Heat Sixthly It is an ill sign when it is a zeal which is easily kept alive and hardly restrained For that sheweth the slesh and the Devil are too much its friends The true zeal of the spirit doth need the fuel of all holy means and the bellows of meditation and prayer to kindle it and all is too little to keep it up in the constancy that we desire But carnal zeal will burn of it self without such endeavours Seventhly It is an ill signe when some sect or false-teacher was the kindler of it and not the sober preaching of the truth Eighthly And it is an ill sign when it burneth in the same soul where lust and wrath and pride and malice burn And when it prospereth at the same time when the love of God and a heavenly mind and life decay The zeal of a sensualist of a proud man of a covetous man of a self-conceited empty person can hardly be thought a spiritual zeal 9. And it is an ill sign wâ—en it carrieth you from the holy rule and pretendeth to come from a spirit which will
as well as the hurt IF you look all at the evil in any man and overlook the good you cannot choose but hate hâ—m And if you think only of what you suffer by Magistrates you may easily know what the effect must be And the sin is so great that it should not be made light of by a tender conscience The good of the Office and of the person is of God and the evil is of Satan And should you so look at Satans part as to pass by all Gods part What ingratitude is it to take notice so deeply of your suffering and to take no notice of your mercies There are few Heathen Magistrates from whom those Christians who live under them receive not much more good than hurt Much more Christian Magistrates are a blessing to believers For if they persecute some yet they usually protect more from the fury of the vulgar rabble who would quickly devour them if Rulers did not restrain them And the countenancing of the Christian Religion in the essentials and defending Christian assemblies for Gods worship is an unvaluable mercy If Paul said to the Romans Rulers are not a terrour to good works but to evil Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same for he is the Minister of God to thee for good Rom. 13. 3 4. How much more may those say so who have Christian Magistrates Or if some particular persons do suffer more under some such than Paul or the Christians did under Heathens Acts 28. last yet every true Christian must more regard the publick interest than his own and must rejoyce that the Gospel hath any protection and furtherance and the souls of the people any benefit whatever his personal suffering be Read Phil. 1. 12 to the 20. DIRECT LIV. Learn to suffer by Ministers and Good people and not only by Magistrates nor only by the ungodly I Confess it is a thing most unnatural for one true Christian to afflict another and especially for a Minister who is the father of the flock to be a hurter of them and to do like an enemy and to fleece them and devour them But yet it is a thing which sometimes must be born I have observed that Religious people when a Magistrate though a usurper persecuteth them they can in some sort undergo it as no strange thing And they are not so forward to cast off the office and abhor the persons by whom they suffer But if they suffer never so little by a Minister they flye away from him and are uncapable of comfortable communion with him and the breach is hardly ever made up I confess there is some more colour for this impatiency to be mentioned in another place But yet Gods servants have been tryed by this kind of suffering also and therefore you must not be so tender of it nor be driven by it into sinful separations or into a contempt of the Ministers of the Gospel as too many sects in these times have been Read what at large is said of the afflicting Shepherds Ezek. 34. Zech. 10. 11. And you will see that it is not a thing to be wondered at to have Shepherds which fleece and destroy the flocks and tread down their pasture and muddy their waters and feed themselves and not the flocks and gather not that which goeth â—stray Nay their own Shepherds pitied them not Zech. 11. 5 I know that it is the Magistrates that are often meant by Shepherds in the Prophets but the Priests also are usually meant with them and sometime distinctly by the same word And their falshood and cruelty oft expressed as in Ier. 2. 8 26. 5. 31. and 26. 7 8 11. 32. 32. Ezek. 22. 26. Hos. 6. 9. Mich. 3. 11. Zeph. 3. 4. Mal. 1. 6 2. 1. c. And remember that all the wickedness of these Priests and their abuse of the people did not warrant the people to forsake the Jewish Church Though the Ark was taken by the Philistines for the wickedness and violence of Eli's sons and the people tempted to desire a King by the sins of the sons of Samuel yet none of their mis-doings did warrant a separation from that Church Yea Christ who was persecuted by the Priests did yet bid the cleansed Lepeâ— go shew himself to the Priest and offer according to the Law Therefore a true Christian must learn though not to favour any mans sin nor to be indifferent what Ministery he liveth under yet patiently to suffer much abuse and persecution sometimes from Ministers themselves and to see that it drive them not in peevish impatiency into any extream or to any unlawful sect or separation nor to a disdain of the sacred office which they abuse nor to lose the benefit of it or be unthankful for it And though it be sad that true Christians should abuse each other yet this also must be born Many can bearâ—th scorn and cruelties of the openly profane who can scarce bear to be neglected or set light by much less to be hardly censured by the Religious But observe first that your Pride may notably appear in this and it is no great sign of humility to suffer only from the worst For you look on them as persons of no honour and the â—fore not capable of dishonouring you For a dog to bark at you you take for no disgrace Nay you take it for your honour to suffer by such persons as supposing it a mark of Christs disciples But the Religious you more reverence and think their contempt is a great dishonour to you and fore your pride will not suffer you to bear it patiently Secondly And remember that different opinions and interests may possibly so far exasperate some that are otherwise religious as to make them afflicters or more plainly persecâ—tors of one another though Godliness it self be applauded by them all The experience of England Scotland and Ireland within these 25 years doth sadly tell us and the world how far men can go in persecuting each other for different interests and opinions who all profess a zeal for godliness And let it have your special remark that one reason why all men as Christians and Godly do more easily and commonly love one another is because aâ— Christians and Godly they do not hurt or wrong each other But as they are of various sects they hate and envy one another because as they are sectaries they hurt and injure one another For the spirit and zeal of a sect as such is censorious hurtful unpeaceable and dividing But the spirit and zeal of Godliness and Christianity is kind and gentle and inclineth to do good to all Remember that you have never learâ—n the Christian art of suffering aright till you can suffer not only by bad men but by men that otherwise are good nor only by enemies but by friends nor only by them that bear the sword but also by some who preach the word and will not by
quench it and hath these fifteen hundred years but especially these thirteen hundred been the wolvish Scatterer of the flocks of Christ And must that be now the way to build it which hath so long been the way to pull it down It is Love that must be our Union and Love that must cause it or we shall never have the Union of a Christian Church By this shall all men know that you are Christs Disciples if you have Love one to another If you believe not this pretend not to believe in Jesus Christ who doth affirm it I confess I am so far guilty of superstition my self that if I had been one of the Changers of our ancient Government I should have been somewhat the more backward for his Name sake to the beheading of Christopher Love lest it should be an ill Omen both to Church and State but especially to the Actors of it 8. Another of the Motives of this Discourse is because I know that times of most temptation are times of greatest danger and commonly of greatest sin And all faithful Pastors must know what are the special Temptations of the Time and Place which they live in When had we ever greater Temptations to Love-killing principles and practices than now except in the times of the miserable Wars I need not name them to you The harder it is for men to Love them that hate them that censure them unjustly that revile them and reproach them and make them odious or that hurt them the more cause have Ministers and all Christians to set a double watch upon their Love Lest before they are aware a flaming and consuming zeal do tell others that they know not what manner of Spirit they are of Luk. 9. 55. 9. Yea it is not only a time of great Temptation to this sin but of common guilt They are multitudes that are overtaken already with this sin Is not the Land in a continual heart war Are there not parties against parties and cause against cause and heart-risings and passions and censurings of Dissenters to say no worse And is it not time to bring water when we see the flames 10. And I perceive few know so heinous a sin to be any sin at all But all factions and parties are still justifying their Love-killing wayes and reproaching those whom they have wronged As if when they have sinfully withdrawn their Love from them it were no crime to take away next their good names and all that they have but power to take away And when they have cast their brethren out of their estimation and affection they think it a piece of commendable zeal or justice to cast them ouâ— of Christian communion and if they could out of the Land and of the world And shall Ministers stand by and see men take such sin for duty and serve God by abusing his Servants and look for a reward for dividing and pulling down his Church and never tell them what they are doing 11. And the old Non-conformists who wrote so much against separation were neither blind nor temporizers They saw the danger on that side Even Brightman on Rev. that writeth against the Prelacy and Ceremonies severely reprehendeth the separatists Read but the writings of Mr. Iohn Paget Mr. Iohn Ball Mr. Hildersham Mr. Bradshaw Mr. Baine Mr. Rathband and many such others against the separatists of those times and you may learn that our Light is not greater but less than theirs and that we see not further into that cause than they did and that change of times doth not change the truth nor will warrant us to change our Religion unless we will make our Religion subject to the wills and interests of men and change it as oft as the times shall change 12. Lastly if your friends tell you not of your faults and errours in Love those whom you account your enemies will do it in wrath And though all sober Christians should learn by the keenest rebukes of their Adversaries yet passion and prejudice maketh it so difficult that it usually hardeneth men more in their sin And this is another thing which causeth me the more to abhor division and to long for the reconciling of the minds of all dissenting Christians Because while they take each other for adversaries nothing that is written or said by any is like to do the Adversaries any good Nay I must confess when I see an adversary tell men of their sin especially with furious spleen and wrath mixing together words and swords I am greatly afraid lest by that temptation Satan will draw the reproved to impenitency and greatly harden them in their sin and make them glory in that as a virtue which such a person doth so reprove But if you will neither hear of your sin nor duty by adversaries nor friends by fair speeches nor by foul you fasten the guilt upon your selves Remember I pray you that I am not kindling fires nor drawing Swords against you nor stirring up any to do you hurt but only perswading all dissenters to love one another and to forbear but all that is contrary to love And if such an exhortation and advice seem injurious or intollerable to you the Lord have mercy on your Souls III. And now without a spirit of Prophecy I will foretel what entertainment this Paper must expect 1. Some on the one side will say It is sharper and rounder dealing than all this that must cure the Schismes in the Church And if you would heal our Divisions why do you not conform you self but stand out as one of the party that divideth 2. Some on the other side will say that it is an unseasonable time when so much anger is breaking forth against those that we account Dividers to mention their faults and so to stir up more I will give these men no other answer than to bid them read the last part of this Book or else do not talk till they know of what 3. And some will say that I am doing that which will prove a hurt to my self and others For if I should draw the People to Communion with the Conformists there would little compassion be shewed to the Ministers that cannot conform But selfish wisdome must be shut out of the Council when we are consulting about the healing of the Churches and the good of Souls And indeed there is little danger of this consequence as long as the people are far more averse to Communion or Concord with the Parish-Churches than the Non-conforming Ministers are But suppose it prove true should we not do good to Souls and save men from sin and heal divisions at the dearest rate What though it cost us more than is here mentioned The reviving of decayed Love and the closure of any of the Churches wounds is a recompence worth our liberties and lives 4. And those that are most guilty of the Love-killing principles here detected and are most eminent in self-conceited ignorance will do by me and by
they gather it out of the World And all this is because they know no more than they see or at least are affected with no more but live as if England or Europe were all the world One years abode in Asia or Africa might cure this errour In 2 Cor. 6. 12 13 c. the Apostle forbiddeth the Christians to marry with Infidels because light hath no communion with darkness nor righteousness with unrighteousness nor Christ with Belial And therefore inferreth that he that believeth hath no part with an Infidel nor the Temple of God any any agreement with Idols And for this he citeth the words of the Prophet Come out from among them and be ye separate and touch not the unclean thing All these words which the Apostle so plainly speaketh only against marrying with Infidels and Idolaters and having communion with them either intimately or in their sin are by abundance of ignorant Professors abused as if they had commanded us to separate from the colder and common sort of Christians and to come out of the Church whereof they are members What profaning of Gods word is this and how gross and palpable a contradicting of its plain expressions It was a Church of such mixed Christians as our Churches do consist of to which the Apostle wrote those words And because he commandeth them to separate from intimacy with Heathens and Infidels yet so as when they are once married to them to continue in it therefore these men say that one part of the Church is called to come forth and separate from the rest And with the like abuse they apply the command Come out of Babylon to them that have no communion with Babylon And when ignorance uncharitableness and passion have taught them to call Christs Churches Babylon they add sin to sin the sin of separation to the sin of slander and reproach and abuse the Text according to their false exposition of it DIRECT V. Understand rightly the true difference between the Mystical and the Visible Church and the qualification of their Members and do not confound them as if it were the same persons only that must be Members of both THE Mystical Church indeed hath none but true Saints But the Visible Church containeth multitudes of Hypocrites who profess themselves to be what they are not They profess to believe in God while they neglect him and to be ruled by God while they disobey him and are ruled by their lusts They profess to Love God and forsake the world whilest they love the world and God is not in all their thoughts They profess to love the holy Scriptures whilest they neglect them and love not the holiness of their precepts They profess to believe in Jesus Christ whilest their hearts neglect his grace and government They profess to believe in the holy Spirit and to hold the Communion of Saints in the Catholick Church whilest they resist the Spirit and love not Saints All this sheweth that they are Hypocrites But abundance of Hypocrites are in the Visible Church Nay God would have no Hypocrites cast out but those who bewray their hypocrisie by impenitency in proved Heresie or gross sin We must not model the Church of Christ according to our private fancies We are not the Lords of it nor are we sit or worthy to dispose of it Look into the Scripture and take it for the Rule and see there of what manner of persons the Visible Church hath been constituted in all ages of the world till now In the first Church in Adams family a Cain was the first born member and so continued till he was excommunicated for the murder of his brother In a Church of eight persons who were saved out of all the world the Father and Pastor was overtaken with gross drunkenness and one of his sons was a cursed Cham. In a Church of six persons saved from the wickedness of Sodom two of them Lot's sons in law perished in the flames among the unbelievers a third was turned into a pillar of salt the Father and Pastor was drunk two nights together after the sight of such a terrible miracle and after so strange a deliverance to himself and committed incest twice in his drunkenness The two that remained his daughters caused his drunkenness purposely and committed incest with him In the Church in Abrahams family there was an Ishmael And in the Church in Isaacs family there was an Esau and even Rebeka and Iacob guilty of deceitful equivocation And Abraham and Isaac denied their wives to save themselves in their unbelief In Iacob's family was a Simeon and Levi who murdered multitudes under a pretense of Religion and under the cover of false deceit And almost all his sons moved with envy sold their brother Ioseph for a slave and some were hardly kept from murdering him And his daughter Dinah was defiled by desiring to see the company and fashions of the world In the Church of the Israelites in the Wilderness after all the miracles which they had seen and the mercies they had received so great were their sins of unbelief and murmuring and lust and whoredomes and idolatry and disobedience that but two of them that came out of Egypt were permitted to enter the promised land In the times of the Judges they so oft renewed their idolatry besides all their other sins that they spent a great part of all those ages in captivity for it And when the villanies of Gibeah had imitated the Sodomites and ravished a woman to death the Tribe of the Benjamites defended it by a war and that in three battels till fourty thousand of the innocent Israelites were slain and twenty five thousand of the Benjamites Look through all the Books of Samuel the Kings and Chronicles and the Prophets from the sad story of the sons of Eli and of Samuel to all the wicked Kings that followed who kept up odious Idolatry even Solomon himself and scarce two or three of the best did put down the high places And when Hezekiah was zealous to reform the hearts of the subjects were not prepared but derided or abused the Messengers whom he sent about to call the people home to God Manasseh's wickedness is scarcely to be parallel'd And when God sent his Prophets to call them to repentance they mocked his Messengers and despised and abused his Prophets till the wrath of the Lord arose and there was no remedy 2 Chron. 36. 15 16. Read over the Prophets and see there what a people this Church of God was The ten Tribes were drawn by Ierâ—boam to sin by setting up Calves at Dan and Beth-el and making Priests of the vilest of the people and forsaking the Temple and the true worship of God and the lawful Priests And these lawful Priests at Ierusalem were ravening Wolves and greedy Dogs and careless and cruel Shepherds The false Prophets who deceived the people were most accepted The people are accused of cruelty oppression whoredom drunkenness Idolatry and hatred
unity undisturbed peace and unfeigned Love but the very infidels and ungodly round about them did reverence both them and their religion for it And where did you ever see Christians divided unpeaceable and bitter against each other but it made them and their profession a scorn to the unbelieving and ungodly world and whilst they despise and vilifie one another they teach the wicked to despise and vilifie them all Seventhly I may therefore add that the Unity of Believers is one of Gods appointed means for the conversion and salvation of unbelievers And their Divisions and discord are an ordinary means of hardening men in infidelity and wickedness and hindering their love and obedience to the truth As a well ordered Army or a City of uniform comely building is a pleasing and inviting sight to the beholders when a confused rout or a râ—inous heap doth breed abhorrence even so the very sight of the concordant societies of Christians is amiable and alluring to those without when their disagreements and separations make them seem odious and vile As a musical instrument in tune or a set of musick delight the hearer by the pleasing harmony when one or more instruments out of tune or used by a rude unskilful hand will weary out the patience of the hearer so is it in this case and the difference is much greater between concordant and disconcordant Christians Who loveth to thrust himself into a fray And what wise man had not rather partake of the friendly converse than joyn with drunken men that are fighting in the streets Peace and Concord are amiable even to nature And you can scarce take a more effectual means to win the world to the Love of Holiness than by shewing them that Holiness doth make you unfeigned and fervent in the Love of one another 1 Pet. 1. 22. Nor can you devise how to drive men more effectually from Christ and to damn their souls than to represent Christians to them like a company of mad men that are tearing out the throats of one another How can you think that the unbelievers and ungodly should think well of them that all speak so ill of one another When the Lutheran flyeth from the Calvinist and the Episcopal from the Puritan and the Protestant from the Anabaptist and the Presbyterian from the Independent and all the other side implacably fly from them Can you wonder if the Infidel and the Idolater fly further from you all Mark well the words of Christ in his prayer Ioh. 17. 20 21 22 23. For them which shall believe on me by their word that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me All these observations are obvious in these words 1. That the unity of Christians must be universal even of all that believe the Gospel of Christ. 2. That this Union should have some low resemblance to the Union of the Father and the Son 3. That it is Christs great desire and intercession for his Followers that they may be one 4. That their glory is for their Unity 5. That their Unity is their perfection 6. That the Father and Son are the Head or Center of the Unity 7. That this Unity is the great means of converting the world to the Christian faith and convincing Infidels of the truth of Christ as sent by God Open but your eyes and you may see all these great doctrines in this Prayer of Christs for his people Unity O that all the Christian Churches would try this means for the worlds Conversion Not on the impossible terms of Popery but on the necessary terms proposed by Christ. 8. External Unity and peaceable Church-communion doth greatly cherish our Internal unity of Love And Church-divisions do cherish wrath and malice and all the works of the flesh described by Paul Gal. 5. 21 22 23. I pray you consider how he describeth the fleshly and the spiritual man v. 14 15. For all the Law is fulfilled in one word even in this Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self But if ye bite and devour one another take heed that ye be not consumed one of another I say then walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh For the flesh lusteth against the spirit c. Now the works of the flesh are manifest adultery enmities or hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions or as it may be read Divisions or factions heresies envyings murders c. But the fruit of the spirit is Love joy peace lâ—ng-suffering gentlenss goodness faith meekness temperance Against such there is no law And they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts If we live in the spirit let us also walk in the spirit Let us not be desirous of vain-glory provoking one another envying one another Obj. O but those that I separate from are guilty of this and that and the other fault Answ. Chap 6. 1. Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted Instead of censorious disdain and separation bear ye one anothers burthen and so fulfil the Law of Christ which you think you fulfil by your unwarrantable separations while you are but fulfilling your fleshly passions When once parties are engaged by their opinions in Anti-churches and fierce disputings the flesh and satan will be working in them against all that is holy sweet and safe When united Christians are provoking one another to Love and to good works and minding each other of their heavenly cohabitation and harmonious praise and are delighting God and man by the melody of their concord The contentious zealots in their separate Anti-churches are preaching down Love and preaching up hatred and making those that differ from them seem an odious people not to be communicated with by aggravating their different opinions or modes of worship till they seem to be no less than Heresie or Idolatry If many thousands yet living in England or Ireland had not heard this with their ears yet Iames may be believed Chap. 3. 1 c. My Brethren be not many Teaching-Masters for that is the word knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation For in many things we offend all which he addeth because the arrogancy of Sectaries was caused by the aggravating of other mens offences If any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man that is If you will shew that you are perfecter better your selves than those whom you account so bad see that
such is not yours No mans sin shall damn you but your own no nor bring any proper penalty on you Our suffering by other mens sin is the common way to Heaven by which Christ and his Apostles went But our own sin is that which must have the blood and spirit of a Saviour for its cure or it will undo us He came to destroy the works of the Devil and to save his people from their sins Math. 1. 21. 1 Ioh. 3. 8. But not to keep us from being persecuted by sinners Math. 5. 10 11. without escaping persecution we may be saved for every one that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution 2 Tim. 3. 12. But except we Repent of our own sin we shall perish Luk. 13. 3 5. we must mourn for the sins of others Ezek. 9. 4. but we properly Repent of none but our own Should we not most fear that which we are most in danger of And most lament that which we are most guilty of And most talk against that which most concerneth us And all this is not other mens faults no not Magistrates or Ministers though much to be bewailed but our own Every one will confess that the true spirit of Christianity is agreeable to what I say And yet how contrary is the practise of no small number of the Religious In all companies how forward are they to talk of the sins of Princes and Parliaments of Courtiers and Nobility and Gentry especially of Ministers And not only of the scandalous that are guilty indeed but of the innocent that are not of their way whose faults they rather make than find But how seldome do you hear them tell any how bad they are themselves unless it be in formality to seem humble persons yea how impatient are they with any other that find fault with them It would be much more acceptable to God and wise men to hear you talk of your own infirmities than of the Rulers or Ministers or Neighbours The one is a work of Repentance and the other of detraction and backbiting The one is a work which you are commanded by God to judge your selves and confess your faults one to another But the other is a work which you have seldomer a call from God to do One rendeth to your pardon the other to your guilt Therefore if you fall into the company of backbiters that are dishonouring their Rulers or their Pastors or telling how bad their neighbours are labour to purifie these stinking waters or turn the stream say to them O friends how bad are we our selves what pride is in our hearts what ignorance in our minds so wanting are we even in the lowest grace Humility that we have scarce enough to make us take patiently such censures as now we are giving out upon others so selfish as dishonoureth our profession with the brand of contractedness and partiality so weak that all our duties are liable to greater censures than we can bear And our inward graces weaker than our outward duties Of such ungoverned thoughts that confusion and tumult instead of order and fruitful improvement are the dayly temper and employment of our imaginations so passionate impatient and corrupt that we are a trouble to our selves and others and a dishonour to the Gospel and a hinderance to the conversion of those whom our holy exemplary lives should win to God so strange to Heaven as if we had never well believed it And to say all in one so empty of Love to our dear Redeemer and the God of Love that our Hearts lie vacant to entertain the love of worldly vanities and draw back from the serious thoughts of God which should be our daily work and pleasure and flie from the face of Death as if we should be worst when we are nearest to our God And when we are our selves no better should we not rather complain of the sore that is so near us and marvel that our neighbours vilifie not us and that the Church doth not judge us unworthy of its Communion Nature teacheth or constraineth all men to be more sensible of their own diseases than of their neighbours and to complain of them most as loving themselves best Is it then because you love your neighbours better than your selves that you speak more of their faults and infirmities than of your own If not take heed lest it prove not to be the voice of love and then I need not tell you how bad it signifieth God is Love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him The Devil is the Love-killer And what way can you imagine so powerful to kill love to any others as to make men think them to be very bad Doth any man love evil that knoweth it to be evil certainly therefore these speakings evil of others are love-killing words though to his face to make him know himself they might be medicinal and therefore they are the service of the love-killing spirit DIRECT XLIX Take notice of all the good in others which appeareth and rather talk of that behind their backs than of their faults IF there were no Good in others they were not to be loved For it is contrary to mans nature to will or love any thing but sub ratione boni as supposed to be good The good of nature is lovely in all men as men even in the wicked and our enemies And therefore let them that think they can never speak bad enough of nature take heed lest they run into excess And the capacity of the good of holiness and happiness is part of the good of nature The good of gifts and of a common Profession with the possibility or probability of sincerity is lovely in all the visible members of the Church And truly the excellent gifts of Learning judgment utterance and memory with the virtues of meekness humility patience contentedness and a loving disposition inclined to do good to all are so amiable in some who yet are too strange to a heavenly life that he must be worse than a man who will not love them To vilifie all these gifts in others savoureth of a malignant contempt of the gifts of the Spirit of God And so it doth to talk all of their faults and say little or nothing of their gifts and virtues yea some have so unloving and unlovely a kind of Religiousness that they backbite that man as a defender of the prophane and a commender of the ungodly who doth but contradict or reprehend their backbitings And are ever gain-saying all the commendations which they hear of any whom they think ill of But if you would when you talk of others especially them who differ from you in opinions be more in commendation of all the good which indeed is in them 1. You would shew your selves much liker to God who is Love and unliker to Satan the accuser 2. You would shew an honest impartial ingenuity which honoureth virtue where ever it is
sin which caused it and remember that you have aggravated your own transgression If you are children in parts and goodness your selves you are unfit either to upbraid the people with their childish weaknesses or to cure them DIRECT III. In all your publick Doctrine and private Conference inculcate still the necessary conjunction of Holiness and Peace and of the Love of God and Man And make them understand that Love is their very Holiness and the sum of their Religion the end of Faith the heart of Sanctification and the fulfilling of the Law And that as Love to God uniteth us to Him so Love to man must unite us to one another And that all Doctrine or practice is against God and against Christ and against the great work of the Spirit and is enmity to the Church and to mankind which is against Love aâ—d Unity Press these things on them all the year that your hearers may be bred up and nourished with these principles from their youth IF ever the Church be recovered of its wounds it must be by the peaceable Disposiâ—ions of the Pastors and people And if ever men come to a peaceable Disposition it must be by peaceable Doctrine and principles And if ever men come to peaceable Principles it must be by the full and frequent explication of the nature pre-eminence necessity and power of Love That they may heat of it so much and so long till Love be made their Religion and become as the very Natural Heat and Constitution of their souls And if ever men be generally brought to this it must be by daily sucking it from those breasts which nourish them in the infancy and youth of their Religion and by learning it betimes as the sum of Godliness and Christianity And if ever they come to this the Aged experienced ripe and mellow sort of Ministers and private Christians must instil it into Schollars and into the younger sort of Ministers that they may have nothing so common in their ears and in their studies as Uniting-Love That they may be taught to know that God is Love and thaâ— he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him 1 Ioh. 4. 16. And that the Love of God doth ever work towards his image in man 1 Ioh. 4. 7 11 12 20. And that all men as men have some of his Image in their Nature as they are Intellectual Free Agents exalted above the bruits Gen. 9 6. And therefore we must Love men as men and Love Saints as Saints That it is Love to God and man which is the true state of Holiness and the New creature and which Christ came to recover lapsed man to and which the Holy Ghost is sent to work and all the means of grace are intended and fitted for and must be used for or they are misused In a word that FAITH WORKING BY LOVE or LOVE and THE WORKS OF LOVE KINDLED BY THE SPIRIT BY FAITH IN CHRIST is the sum of all the Christian Religion Gal. 5. 6 13 22. 1 Tim. 1. 5. He that crieth up Holiness and Zeal without a â—ue commemoration of Love and Peace doth first deceive the hearers about that very Holiness and Zeal which he commendeth whilest he lamely and so falsly representeth and describeth it and doth not make them know how much of Holiness consisteth in Love nor that true zeal is Love it self in its fervâ—ur and intense degree And so people are enticed to think that Holiness is nothing but the passions of fear and grief and earnest expressions in preaching and praying or scrupulousness and singularity about some controverted things or some other thing than indeed it is And they are tempted to think that Christian zeal is rather the violence of partial passions and the fervor of wrath and the making things sinful which God forbiddeth not than the fervors of Love to God and man And when the mind is thus mocked with a false Image of Holiness and Zeal it is cast into a sinful mold and engaged in the pursuit of an erroneous dangerous course of life And at last it cometh to an enmity and contempt of that which is Holiness and Zeal indeed For it accounteth Love but a Moral-vertue which they ignorantly take for a diminutive title of the great and primitive duties required by the light and law of nature it self And zealous Love is accounted by them but a carnal and selfish compliance and temporizing and a pleasing of men instead of God And â— zealous promoting of Unity and Peace is taken but for a cowardly neutrality and betraying of some truth which should be earnestly contended for And on the other side they that preach up Love to man and Peace and Concora without putting first the Love of God and a Holy and Heavenly mind and life they will cheat the poor ignorant carnal people by making them believe that God and Heaven may be forgotten and good neighbourhood to each other is all that is needful to make them happy And they will tempt the more religious sort to sin more against Love and Peace than before Because they will think that it is but a confederacy for Satan against Christ and a submission to the wills of proud usurpers to strengthen their worldly interest against godliness which these preachers mean when they plead for peace And thus as I have known ungodly Preachers by crying down Schism bring Schism into request while it was no such thing as real schism which they meant in theâ—r exclamations till at last the true eruption of schism with its monstrous effects made good people see that such an odious sin there is Even so I have known that a carnal Preacher contemning Holiness and crying up Love and Peace hath tempted the people to have too light thoughts of Love and Peace because it was but a confederacy in sin with a neglect of godliness which the preacher seemed to cry up Till riper knowledge better taught good people to perceive that Love and Peace are more Divine and excellent things than carnal preachers or hearers can imagine The wisedome from above is first pure then peaceable Let it therefore be a true conjunction of Holiness and Peace which you commend DIRECT IV. If others shew their weakness by any unwarrantable singularities or divisions shew not your greater weakness by passions impatiency or uncharitable censures or usage of them especially when any self-interest doth provoke you NOne usually are so spleenishly impatient at the weakness of Dissenters or Separatists as the Pastors are And what is the cause Is it because they abound most in Love to the souls of those who offend or them who are endangered by them If so I have no more to say to such But when we see that the Honour and Interest of the Pastors is most deeply concerned in the business and that they are carried by their impatiency into more want of Charity than the other express by their separations and when we see that they