those Religious Acts neither is there any thing so indifferent but may by some Circumstances become unlawful either to greater numbers or to particular persons in regard of their different apprehensions of it The Superiour is as much obliged by the Law of charity as the Inferiour and cannot set a step in that way wherein he cannot walk charitably Besides Christians observation that there is no president either in the Old Testament or New of Superiours either in Church or State taking away that liberty of people which God had left them in matters relating to their homage to God is no small Topick to persuade them that as the Superiour hath no right to do it so if they should submit to it they should too easily part with that Liberty which God hath left them and with which Christ hath made them free This makes this thing necessary to a Churches unity peace and the not leaving things of this nature in that state wherein it hath seemed good to the wisdom of God to leave them in this seems a deviation from the Divine Rule Because it is a deviation from the practice of all the good Kings of Gods ancient people and the practice of Paul and the Apostles who instead of determining the liberty God gave the Jews for a time as to the practice or not practice of the ceremonial usages strongly asserted it and reflected upon those converted Jews that condemned some of their brethren or the Christians of the Gentiles for their using such a liberty This very thing hath been a bone of contention amongst us for more than an hundred years nor do I see any way to our unity but our return to the Divine Rule in this thing Superiours have a full work and more than we could ever see universally well done to inforce the commands of God upon people that will not take upon them those easy yokes and need not incumber themselves or their Subjects consciences where it hath pleased the all-wise God to leave them at liberty A man may keep a day holy to the Lord and give God thanks another may not keep it to the Lord and yet give God thanks The Apostle determines so when God hath left men two ways by either of which they may equally honour God why should men leave them but one Just Liberty and Vnity are inseparable things as well in matters of Religion as in civil matters Oh! that this thing so much concerning our peace might not upon this opportunity be hid from our Eyes 2. A Second thing whereby we have fomented divisions by a deviation from the Divine Rule is by judging and censuring anothers Servants Who art thou saith the Apostle Rom. 14. 4. that judgest another mans Servant Rom. 14. 4. To his own Master he standeth or falleth In civil and secular things men may be the Servants of men but in matters of Conscience men are only the Servants of God the fear of God must not be learned by the mere precepts of men what a common thing hath it been with us to judge and censure our brethren in these cases as Schismaticks ungovernable rebellious c Those that use these methods have not known the way of peace And till we return to the Apostles rule Rom. 14. 13. Let us not therefore judge one Rom. 14. 13. another any more but judge this rather that no man put a stumbling Block or an occasion to fall in his Brothers way I can look for no Vnity When we can leave judging and censuring reviling and speaking evil of our Brethren of the same Religion and Nation as going in the broad way to Hell because they go in a narrower way toward Heaven than we judge necessary or because they just tread not in the prints of our Feet observing still their faces Sion ward we may hope for something of Vnity But while such uncharitable thoughts and speeches continue amongst us as if we had a monopoly of the Holy Spirit of God I cannot but expect they should naturally produce all kind of uncharitable actions Oh! that we could remember what the Apostle hath taught us Jam 4. Jam. 4. 12. 12. that in matters of Conscience There is but one Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy and who art thou that judgest another If we would but see it we have most of us something of the worst of Popery within us viz. arrogating to our selves an infallibility with this difference to our disadvantage The Papists claim it only for the Pope We would every one have it for our selves or at least for all Superiours for if thou beest not infallible how comest thou to judge thy Brother who hath as much right to judge thee as thou hast to judge and censure him The Judgment of Prophaneness Debauchery Blasphemy Idolatry and Heresy too in matters necessary to be believed in order to Salvation is easie but the Judgment of Schism Hypocrisie overmuch preciseness is not so easie The guilt of those things depends much upon the Complexion of the particular Conscience and should be left unto him who searcheth the Heart and tryeth the Reins of Men. 3. A third thing whereby we have fomented Divisions by a Deviation from the Divine Rule Is a not walking together in things wherein we are agreed because of some things in which we are not agreed That we may walk together in nothing because we are not agreed in all things is one of the wildest and most dividing Notions a Christian can entertain directly contrary to the Apostolical Rule Phil. 3. 16. Nevertheless whereto we Phil. 3. 16. have already attained let us walk by the same Rule let us mind the same thing He walks with his Brother far enough who walks with him as far as the shooes of the Gospel will carry him and he is very uncharitable who because his Brother is willing to walk this one Mile with him will force him to walk two I mean as far as every 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ordinance of Man would carry him 4. A fourth thing is an over-eagerness to propagate our own particular Opinions There are very few Christians but have their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their particular Opinions and Judgments in some things not necessary to be believed or done in order to Salvation but every Christian is not bound to propagate such Notions especially if the Unity and Peace of a Church will be broken and endanger'd by it This is plainly the Apostles Rule Host thou Rom. 14. 22. Faith that is hast thou a Persuasion of the truth of a Notion wherein the generality of the Church wherewith thou walkest differeth from thee Have it to thy self before God Keep thy particular Notion to thy self and live up to it in the presence of God but do not for it disturb the Peace and Unity of others Every Proposition of Truth is not of that moment as to ballance the breach of a Churches Peace and Unity It is a strange
That in all Civil things a man in Obedience to the higher Powers may and ought to act contrary to his own Opinion and Judgment The Reasons for this are obvious 1. He transgresseth no Law of God in doing it 2. Nay he obeyeth the Law of God in it Tho' the Law of God in Religious Matters obligeth every Man to follow the dictate of his own Conscience judging a thing lawful or unlawful and in things indifferent judging a thing more or less expedient because in all such things next after God a Man's practical Conscience is the Supream Judge as to his actions Yet in Civil Matters the Higher Powers of States and Kingdoms are plainly Judges betwixt God and our practical Judgments God hath clothed them with Power to make Laws and determine of things necessary or not necessary expedient or not expedient for the better managery of their particular Governments That text Deut. 17. is to be restrained to such things it is restrained v. 8. to matters betwixt blood and blood plea and plea stroke and stroke matters of Judgment c. and most impertinently urged further Now suppose a Thousand Men half of which judge such a Law for a Tax or a Custom necessary or expedient the other half judge it unnecessary and inexpedient they are none of them Judges of the publick Good of a Nation or City but the chief Magistrate is by God left Judge in the case What should hinder but that all these Men should Unite in their Designs Councels and Practice for the Publick Good. And this is the unquestionable Duty of them all 2. A second Union referring to the Will I call'd the Vnion of Love and Charity That is when all persons in any community are agreed in what they may to do all Offices of Love each to other I see nothing can hinder this but Mens passions and lusts Pride Envy Malice Hatred of one another c. I hear some pleading for another Vnion which they call an Vnity of Communion and expound by a resorting to the same Church to offer up united Prayers and Praises and together to receive the Sacrament and telling us That an Vnion in Love Charity and mutual forbearance is very difficult when Men divide Communion and why I pray because Mens not joining in Communion one with other is in effect a declaring them with whom we do not join Heathens and Publicans Now I must confess this is a Doctrine I cannot understand 1. Is there then any Church to be found so large as to hold all Christians who are obliged to live together in Unity But it will be said tho' they meet in several places yet they are one in their worship 2. Very well but what is meant by Worship only the specifical tho' not their individual acts of Worship Or one in all the Rites and Modes of their Worship If the first only be intended all good Christians are in Unity I know of none but worship God by Prayer Praises receiving the Sacraments c. Must it needs be an Union in all the Rites and Modes of Worship 3. In the first place There was never such an Vnity either in the Primitive Churches or betwixt the Reformed Churches Could they not therefore love another 2. If there must be such an Vnity for which I see no reason What Church shall be the Standard to which all others shall Unite Why should the Church of God in Scotland more Unite to that in England than that in England to that in Scotland Shall the Word of God over-rule Then all are bound to Unite to that Church which performs all its Acts of Worship most conformably to the Divine Rule To this I know no Dissenter but will willingly say Amen 4. But it is yet much more un-intelligible how Christians not joyning with others in the same Modes and Rites of Worship should be in effect a declaring them to be as Heathens and Publicans and Persons out of a state of Salvation This 1. In the first place proclaims to the World that those that are of this Mind not joyning with Nonconformists in publick Prayers and Praises and in the Sacraments is in effect a declaring them Heathens and Publicans and not in a state of Salvation 2. I cannot understand the Divinity of this Assertion May not Christians chuse to joyn in Communion with one Congregation and adhere to that alone and yet think others Christians and in a state of Salvation this is certainly both a new and false Notion It is not enough for to justifie me to joyn with other Christians that Salvation may be had amongst them I am further obliged to joyn my self with such where the Ordinances are so administred as my Conscience tells me will be most to my comfort and Edification and as I judge is nearest to the Divine Rule I know that in all cases a Christian is not always obliged to do what is best but that in the Worship of God he is not so obliged is more than I or I suppose any thinking Divine will assert But I have dwelt upon this too long He who doth not think himself and his Church Infallible may easily allow others to be Christians and in a state of Salvation that do not in some Rites and Modes of which the Word of God saith nothing follow him and those with whom he chuseth to walk If any do think themselves infallible and fit to make a Standard to the World they certainly think of themselves above what they ought to think or can think with any degree of Humility I conclude That it is the Duty of all Christians agreed in things necessary to Salvation to be at Vnity one with another so far as mutually to Unite all their Councels and Studies and Practices in things which concern the Glory of God and the common good of the place wherein they dwell together tho' they may differ in some private Opinions and such differences may oblige them not to walk together in those things wherein they are not agreed and to be ready to do all good offices one to another both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 maintaining what they apprehend tho' differently to be Truth in Love and serving one another in love Nor is there a greater difficulty in this than what attends all Self Denial without which we cannot be the Disciples of Christ who so can deny himself in malice and hatred against such as he judgeth stricter than himself and in Pride thinking that it is possible he may be mistaken may easily overcome this difficulty which is no more than every one must meet with that will come in Heaven Though Calvin would not joyn in Communion with Luther yet he not only loved him but own'd him as an eminent Servant of God and profess'd he would so acknowledge him though he should call him a Devil such was the Sweetness and Evangelicalness of that excellent Man's temper This I say is our Duty to be as the Apostle phraseth it Rom.
it presently puts the People in uproar and no man is secure because Great is Diana of the Ephesians On the other side where Men live together in Unity every one trades freely according to his Talent and is not afraid of a Gaol whiles he lives justly and honestly every Man wisheth well to his Neighbour helps adviseth assisteth him reposeth mutual Confidence in him c. There is a Precept of the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. 24. than which there is none more useful to Mankind Let every man not seek his own but anothers wealth that is not his own only and where it is not put in practice a short time makes a City a Corporation of Beggars for there must be more than one to make one thrive where there is Discord Hatred Envy Malice seeking advantages against biting devouring of one another few or none grow rich but such as live by ill Arts upon the Spoils of others and those are such ill Plants in a Community as the justice of God seldom will allow to grow to any heighth where Men dwell together in this Vnity every Man is as a Journyman to his Neighbour and lending him his hands to be rich You see it in a small Society of Friends there always attendeth it a being kindly affectionated one to another a forbearing one another in love a serving one another So many true Friends as a Man hath so many Servants he hath Concordia parvae res crescunt little Estates grow great by it Discords nourish none but Birds of Prey that can digest the Blood and Flesh of others 2. A second Blessing consequent to this Brethrens dwelling together in Unity is comfortable Society and fellowship This is the life of Mens lives for Man is a sociable Creature and as it is not good for him to be alone so naturally he loves it not How miserable doth that Man judge himself who is shut up in a Prison where none must come at him Experience tells us how miserable the life of Persons in a Family is for want of Conjugal Parental and Filial love and if you go out of those Doors you will find it the same for want of Neighbourly love Two may walk together tho' they be not agreed but it will be no pleasant walk There is no Pleasure in a litigious snarling Society but how sweet is the Society of Persons kindly affectionated one toward another and ready upon all occasions to serve one another 3. A third more external Blessing is mutual and cordial assistance God hath created us in a Connexion with and a dependancy upon one another In my course of life in the World I have made this observation I never yet knew a Prince so great but at one time or other he hath found that he hath had need of his Peoples Hands and Purses nor private Person so sufficient to himself but he hath had need of his poorest Neighbours This requireth Vnity amongst Brethren Solomon tells us Eccles 4. 10. Two are better than one for if one falleth the other will lift him up but wo to him that is alone for if he falleth he hath none to lift him up If two lye together they shall have heat but how can one be warm that is alone and if one prevail against him two shall withstand him and a threefold Cord is not quickly broken The many Companies and Partnerships with which the World abounds in carrying on Business of Trades are a sufficient proof of this 4. A fourth more outward Blessing is Stability and Consistency The abiding of all compounded Bodies doth very much depend upon the union of their several parts one with another Thus it is in the Body Natural thus it is in Buildings thus it must be in all Compositions Thus it is in Bodies Politick Math. 12. 25. The house divided against it self cannot stand Let the condition of a State a Kingdom any Society be never so flourishing it cannot abide longer than the Union of the principal Parts of it do abide Vis unita fortior A firm Union of several things of the same kind makes all their Strength and Virtues one and many Eyes see more than one and many Hands can do more than one hence is the stability of the Prosperity of all such Societies which is a great Blessing I will add but one more 5. That shall be Success in Business Discord clogs the wheels of all publick Councels and Actions Let it be Business of War or Peace of what nature soever it be for a publick good it must move slowly and with small success whiles those concerned in it have divided Ends and Counsels and draw diverse ways I observe that when God promised Prosperity and Success to his ancient People in order to it he promised that the stick for the house of Judah and the stick for the house of Joseph should be made one stick Ezek. 37. 16 17 18. This is enough to shew you what external Blessings God commands where Brethren dwell together in the Unity I have described But yet the flood of Spiritual Blessings commanded and brought by this dwelling together in Vnity is much greater and much more valuable Let me open this in a few particulars 1. It is the only Christian life A life of Unity is not only the life of a Man who is endued with a reasonable Soul and should walk under the conduct and government of it but it is the life of a Christian who by his Name is obliged to fulfil the Law of Christ and not to walk after the flesh but after the spirit No Man or Woman can live up to the Law of Christ but he or she that dwells with their Brethren in Unity The Apostle speaking of himself and others whiles they were in a state of unregeneracy describeth their life thus Tit. 3. 3. We our selves were sometimes foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hateful and hating one another The Law of God is a Law of Love and Unity and further extensive than to those that follow us Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self said the old Law Levit. 19. and the Law of Christ is the Royal Law of Love. This is my Commandment saith our Saviour Joh. 15. that you love one another The Apostle Gal. 5. reckoneth up the fruits of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit he tells you the works of the flesh are v. 20. Hatred Variance Wrath Strife v. 22. the fruit of the Spirit is Love Peace If it be the Happiness of any People to have recovered the Image of God and to be arrived at the life of Christians this Happiness they are arrived at that dwell together in Vnity 2. It is a life in which a world of Sins and those the blackest of Sins are avoided No People live with less guilt of Sin upon their Souls than those that are so far reconciled to the whole Creation as to be kindly affectionated one to another in