the Truths which they are acquainted with They hold it or imprison it in unrighteousness Rom. 1.18 and therefore is wrath revealed against them They like not to retain God in their knowledge and therefore God doth oft give them up to a reprobate mind Rom. 1.28 They receive not the truth in the love of it that they might be saved no wonder therefore if God give them up to strong delusions to believe a lye that all they might be damned that believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes. 2.10 11. When they know the Iudgement of God that they that do such things are worthy of death yet they do them and have pleasure in them that do them Rom. 1.32 We may well think that God will sooner reveal his Truth to them that will obey it then to them that will but bury it in the dunghil of a corrupted heart And that he will rather hold the candle to his servants that will work by it then to loyterers that will but play by it or thieves or fornicators that had rather it were put out or to enemies that would do mischief by it and will throw away the candlesticks the Ministers and put the candle into the thatch Is there not many an ungodly person that hears me this day that is convinced in his conscience that a holy life is best and yet will not follow it and obey his conscience Are there not convictions at the bottom that the diligent heavenly Christian whom thou reproachest is in a safer condition then thy self and yet thou wilt not imitate such Can you expect that God should acquaint such with his truth that are so false to it 22. If we were but all Agreed in true Holiness we should have the great advantage of a tender conscience together with an illuminated mind For spiritual wisdom with tenderness of conscience is a great part of sanctification And it is a great advantage in controversies and debates to be wise and tende-conscienced For wisdom makes men able to discern and a tender conscience will make them afraid of mistaking and contradicting the truth and will keep them from rashness and unadvisedness and levity so that such an one dare not venture so easily upon new conceits and will be more suspicious of himself and of any thing wherein himself is much concerned Especially if he see grâ—at probabilities against it or the judgment of the Universal Church or of many wise and godly men against it and see that its like to have ill effects in all such cases a godly man will be tender-conscienced and therefore cautelous But is it so with the ungodly no but clean contrary None so bold as the blind Solomons words describe them exactly Prov. 14.16 The fool rageth and is confident If he be in an error or entangled in any evil cause or way you know not what to say to him for his recovery The less he knows the more he despiseth knowledge and sets his face against his Teachers as if they were but fools to him and scorns to be Ruled by such as they whom God hath made his Rulers Will you go to dispute or debate the case with one of these why be sure of it they will put you down and have the day It would do a man good to dispute with a wise and learned or sober rational man and to be overcome by Reason and by Truth But no man will have so sure a conquest against you as he that hath the least of sense or reason He will go away and boast that you could not convince him As if a mad man should boast that the Physicians could not all of them cure him An obstreperous proud selfconceited fellow will never yield to the clearest reason nor never be put down We have a Proverb that Ther 's no gaping against an Oven especially if it be hot If he have passion as well as ignorance and a tongue he will have the best He that speaks nonsence sayth nothing while he seems to speak These men have the faculty of saying nothing an hour or two together in abundance of words And there 's no confuting a man that saith nothing Nonsence is unanswerable if there be but enough of it Who would dispute against a pair of bagpipes or against a company of boyes that whoote at him If you will make a match at barking or biteing a curre will be too hard for you And if you will try your skil or strength at kicking a horse will be too hard for you And if you will contend with multitude of words or by rage and confidence a fool will be too hard for you as you may see by Solomons descriptions and by daily experience But if you will dispute by equal sober Reasoning it is only a wiser man by evidence of Truth that can overcome you And to be thus overcome is better then to conquer For you have the better if Truth overcome you and you have the worse if you overcome the truth So that you may easily perceive what an exceeding hindrance to Unity and Peace it is to have to do with ungodly persons that are blind and proud and brazen-faced and of feared consciences that fear not God and therefore dare say anything as if they could out-face the truth and the God of Truth But the sanctified have Illuminated minds and therefore are the more capable of further information and they have tender consciences and therefore dare not be unadvised and contentious and strive against the light and therefore have great advantage for Agreement 23. And if all these Advantages should not yet so far prevail as to bring us up to a full Agreement yet if we be but united in the Spirit and a Holy life we should be the more easily able to bear with one another under all our lesser differences until the time of full Agreement come We should hold our differences as Brethren their diversity of statures and complexions or at least as common human frailties with Love and compassion and not with hatred and divisions We should Lovingly consult together upon Rules or terms on which we might manage our unavoidable differences to the least disadvantage to the cause of Christ and to the common Truths that we all maintain and to the work of God for other mens conversion and to the least advantage to sin and Satan and the malice of ungodly men And I think this is a fair Agreement for Imperfect persons short of Heaven to have Unity in the Spirit and Agreement in things of greatest weight and to bear with one another in smaller matters and manage our differences with meekness and with Peace 24. Lastly If all this be not enough there is yet more for our encouragement 1. If we are but once United in the Spirit and Agree in an Holy heart and life we have the infallible promise of God that we shall shortly all arrive in Heaven at the place and state of full
malignity of ungodly hearts will be breaking out on all occasions And as now you hear men scorning at the practice of that Religion which themselves profess so if God prevent it not you may shortly see another War take off their restraint and let them loose and then they will seek the blood of those that now they seem to be agreed with At furthest we are sure that very shortly we shall be separated as far as Heaven and Hell if there be not now a nearer agreement then in words and outward Shews and Ceremonies It being then past doubt that there is no happy lasting Unity but in the Spirit and a holy life What hindereth us from so safe so sweet so sure a Peace Why might not all our Parishes agree on such necessary honourable and reasonable terms Why is there in most places but here and there a Person or a Family that will yield to the terms of an everlasting peace live as men that believe they have a God to serve and please and immortall souls to save or lose Is not God willing that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth 1 Tim. 2.4 and that all should agree in so safe a path Why then doth he invite all and tender them his saving mercy and send his messengers to command and importune them to this holy Concord He would take them all into the bond of his Covenant How oft would Christ have gathered all the Children of Ierusalem to him as the Hen gathereth her Chickens under her Wings but it was they that would not Mat. 23.37 He would have the Gospel preached to every creature Mar. 16.15 16. would have the Kingdoms of the world become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ. What then is the cause of this sad division in our Parishes Are Ministers unwilling that their people should all agree in holiness No it would be the greatest favor you could do them and the greatest joy that you could bring to their hearts They would be gladder to see such a blessed Unity then if you gave them all that you have in the world O how a poor Minister would boast and glory of such a Parish He would bless the day that ever he came among them and that ever he was called to the Ministry and that ever he was born into the world for their sakes How easie would all his studies and labours be if they were but sweetned with such success How easily could he bear his scorns and threatnings and abuses and persecutions from others if he saw but such a holy Unity among his people to encourage him So far are your Teachers from excluding you from this happiness that it is the end of their studies preaching prayers yea and of their lives to bring you to partake of it And glad would they be to preach to you and exhort you in hunger and thirst in cold and nakedness in all the contempt and derision of the world if thereby they could but bring their parishes to agree in a life of faith and holiness And sure our difference is not because the godly will not admit you to joyn with them in the waies of God For they cannot hinder you if they would and they would not if they could It is their joy to see the house of God filled with guests that have oâ— the wedding garment We must conclude thereforâ— that it is the ungodly that aâ— the wilfull and obstinate divâ—ders They might be unite to Christ and reconciled 〈◊〉 God and they will not The might be admitted into thâ— Communion of Saints anâ— into the houshold of Goâ— and partake of the Privâ—ledges of his children anâ— they will not They have leaâ— to Read and pray and meditate and walk with God in a heavenly conversation as well as any of their neighbours but they will not It is themselves that are the refusers and continue the division to the displeasing of God and the grief of their friends and the gratifying of Satan and the perdition of their own immortall Souls We might all be united and our divisions be healed and God much honoured and Ministers and good Christians be exceedingly comforted and the Church and Commonwealth be delivered and highly honoured and themselves be saved from everlasting misery if we could but get the hearty consent of these foolish obstinate ungodly men What say you wretched Souls can you deny it How long have your Teachers been labouring in vain to bring you to the hearty Love oâ— God and heaven and serious holiness How long have they been perswading you to set up Reading and Catechizing and constant fervent prayer iâ— your families and yet it is undone How long have they in vain been perswading the worldling from his worldliness and the Proud person to humility and the sensual beast from his tipling and gluttony and other fleshly pleasures And besides this most of the disorders and divisions in the Churches are caused by ungodly men I will instance in a few particulars 1. When we ask any godly diligent Ministers either in London or the Country why they do not unanimously catechize instruct and confer with all the Inhabitants of their Parishes man by man to help them to try their spirituall state and to prepare in health for death and judgement they usually answer us that alas their people will not consent but many would revile them if they should attempt it 2. When we ask them why they do not set up the practice of Discipline which they so unanimously plead for and why they do not call their people to Confirmation or open profession of faith and holiness in order thereto they tell us that their people will not endure it but many will rather set themselves against the Ministry and strengthen the enemy that now endangereth the Churches safety or turn to any licentious Sect then they will thus submit to the undoubted Ordinance of Christ which the Churches are so commonly agreed in as a duty 3. We have an ancienâ— too-imperfect version of the Psalms which we sing in the Congregations in the judgment of all Divines that ever I spoke with about it of what side soever it is our duty to use a better Version and not to perform so excellent a part of the publick Worship so lamely and with so many blemishes And if you ask the Ministers why they do not unanimously agree on a Reformed corrected Version most of them will tell you that their people will not bear it but proudly and turbulently reproach them as if they were changing the Word of God 4. In many places the Sacrament of Baptism is ofter used in private houses then in the publick Assemblies and if we ask the reason of so great a disorder the Ministers will tell us that it is the unruliness and wilfulness of the people that proudly set themselves above their Guides and instead of obeying them must rule them and have their humors
life in their souls and some favour and experience of the matters of God But when we dispute with the ungodly we deal with the blind we talk to the dead we offer the bread of life to men that have no appetite or savour of it yea we speak for God to enemies of God and for truth to the natural enemies of such truths and the more obstinate enemies because they know it not Had we nothing but mistakes to argue against and had we but to do with men that have the free use of their reason we should do well enough with them But when we must perswade the deaf the distracted and the dead when we must dispute with Pride and Passion and Enmity and perswade a Lyon to become a Lamb and a Serpent to lay by his venom no wonder if we find a difficult task of it Had we none but the Godly to deal with we should have abundant advantage for success we should deal with men that Love the truth and are willing to use right means to discover it They would pray with us for truth as well as dispute they would with meekness search the Scripture and see whether these things be so or not They would yield to light when it appeareth to them and not in prison it in unrighteousness And it would move us to more tender dealing with them while we see and love Christ in them and when we remember that the men that we now dispute with we must live with in Heaven and join with in the everlasting Praises of the Lord. I profess Sirs I speak to you from sad experience I have been troubled with Antinomians and Anabaptists and other errours in well-meaning men as much as most And many a daies work they have made me in writing and disputing against them But alas this is nothing to the trouble that the profane ungodly do put me to I thank God I have dealt with all these errours with so good success that I live in peace by them and I know not of an Anabaptist or Socinian or Arminian or Quaker or Separatist or any such sect in the Town where I live except half a dozen Papists that never heard me But Infidels Atheists ungodly wretches I am pestered with still One heresie called Drunkenness that denyeth the use of reason it self doth still walk the streets in despight of all that I can say or all that the Magistrates will do and none of us all are able to confute them In one hours time they will fetch more arguments from the Alehouse then all the reason in the Town can effectually answer And as the ungodly are most desperately principled of any Hereticks in the world both for the quality and the radication of their errours so there are far greater numbers of them then of all other Heresies set together It may be we have one or two Anabaptists in a Parish and in some Parishes none in some few it may be twenty But O that I could say I had not twenty and twenty and twenty and twice twenty more unsanctified ungodly persons in my Parish though I hope there is as many better as in any Parish I know Alas Sirs into how many Parishes may you go and find gross ignorance profaneness worldliness contempt of God and heavenly things to be their common air which they breath in and the natural complexion of the inhabitants as blackness is to Ethiopians It is a blessed Parish that of three thousand inhabitants hath not above two thousand natural hereticks even ungodly persons that are strangers to sanctification And who then do you think is likest to be the cause of our distractions and divisions Moreover let me tell you Profaneness and Ungodliness is not a single errour or heresie but it is the summe of all the heresies in the world You will think this strange when you see so many that joyn with us in a sound profession and some of them zealous defenders of the truth and many of them cry out against errours But alas they believe not that which they think they do believe They hold not that which they say they hold There 's much in their Creed that was never in their Belief Doubtless ungodliness is the nest of all the Heresies in the world Will you give me leave to instance in some particulars The greatest errour in the world is Atheism when men deny the Godhead it self And do not the most of the ungodly deny him in their hearts If he be not Just he is not God and they deny and hate his Justice If he be not Holy he is not God and they deny in their hearts and hate his Holiness If he be not True he is not God And they commonly believe that he is not true shew them where he hath said that none but the converted the sanctified the regenerate the heavenly the self-denying shall be saved and they will not believe that this will be made good but hope its false If he be not wise and be not the Governour of the world he is not God And these wretches quaâ—rel with his holy Laws as if they could tell how to mend them themselves and were wiser to make a Law then God is and by flat Rebellion deny his Government So that we may truly say with David Psal. 14. that these fools say in their hearts that there is no God or else they durst not say and do in his presence as they do Moreover Idolatry which is the setting up of false Gods is a most abominable damning sin And every ungodly man is guilty of it Covetousness is idolatry Eph. 5.5 and the sensual make their belly their God Phil. 3.18 And Pride and Selfishness which are the heart of the old man are nothing else but making our selves our Idols Every unsanctified man is his own Idol giving to himself the honour and pleasure and love that 's due to God alone and setting up his own will instead of Gods Polutheism which is the feigning of many Gods is a most damnable errour And how many Gods have all that are ungodly No man departeth from the one true God but he makes to himself many false Gods in his stead His wealth and his credit and his throat and his recreation 〈◊〉 Rulers that are capable of hâ—rting him are all as his Gods and to them he gives that which is due to God only Infidelity is one of the most damning errours in the world when men believe not in Christ that bought them But this is the case of all the unsanctified An Opinion they have that the Gospel is true and Christ is the only Lord and Saviour but Infidelity is predominant in them and therefore should denominate them or else they should be saved if they were true Believers Never did they give an hours true entertainment to Christ in their hearts To set up a false Christ is one of the most damning sins in the world And what else do all the ungodly that place
Law as not being capable of the use and ends of a Law And so if our salvation or damnation lye on our obedience to Gods Word and Law it s an intolerable reproach to God and it to say it is such as we cannot understand 3. Must we not be judged by this Law Undoubtedly we must And then should we not measure our Causes by it now 4. May not Arbitrators make use of a Law to decide a controversie before it come to the Judâ—e Doubtless they may 5. What Judge would you have There are but two in the world that pretend to be the Universal Infallible Judge of controversies and that is the Pope and a General Council For a General Council there is none now in the world nor like to be to the end of the world God forbid we should defer our Peace till then And its Decrees are as dark and much more uncertain then the Word of God And for the Pope he is Head of a sect or party and therefore not fit to be judge you may well know he will judge on his own side He must be judged by this Word of God himself He is too far off of all conscience for us to go or send to Where Rome is the most of you know not A shorter journey may better dispatch our work The Papists themselves tell us that many Popes have been Murderers Adulterers Simonists perjured persons and some Hereticks and Infidels And must such as these be our only Judges They have erred oft already and therefore they may deceive us And if you send for the Popes Sentence you must take the Messengers word that he was there and that its true But yet if all this will not serve turn I will make a motion that none can gainsay that hath the face of a Christian. Let us first agree in all those points that Papists and Protestants Calvinists and Lutherans Arminians and Anabaptists and Seperatists and all parties that deserve to be called Christians are agreed in What say you is not this a reasonable motion O happy you and happy the places where you live if you would but stand to it And let us consider of this motion first in the General state of our difference and then in the particular parts of it Truly Sirs the main difference in this world is between the Godly and the Vngodly and all other differences that are not parts of this are nothing to this being of lesser danger and easier toleration or cure The whole world is divided into two Armies Christ is the Captain General of one and the Saints only his true Souldiers and the seeming Saints his seeming Souldiers The Devil is the General of the other and all the unregenerate or ungodly are his Souldiers An enmity is put since the beginning between the seed of the woman and of the Serpent Gen. 3.15 and there is no middle state nor one man on earth that is not in one of these Armies I come not to reconcile the Commanders Christ and Satan for they are unreconcileable but to reconcile you to Christ and draw you from a deceiver I tell you â—irs this great difference between the holy and the unholy is the first that must be healed We can go no further with you if you will not begin here at the heart of the difference When this is doâ—e you shall see before I have done with you that I will quickly tell you how we may do well for all our other differences You know if one of us believe that there is a God and another that there is none iâ— were foolery for us to dispute how God must be worshipped before we are agreed that there is a God So here when it is the nature of ungodliness to make men false to the very truths that they do profess and heartily to be of no Religion at all it is in vain to dispute about circumstances and mode with such kind of men Who would dispute whether Infants should be baptized with a man thaâ— knows not whâ—â— Baptism is Evâ—n an accepting of God for ouâ— God and Christ for our Lord and Saviour and the Holy Ghost for our Sâ—nctifier and an absolute delivering up our selves to the blessed Trinity in these relations by a solemn Covenant professed â—nd sealed by water renouncing the flesh the world and the Devil O were but this much practically known we should be all United in this one Baptism Still I say Unholiness is thâ— great point of difference and the dungâ—on of Confusion and puddle where all the heresies of the world are blendâ—d and made into a body that is something worse then heresie When you cry up Unity and cry down Holiness you are distracted and know not what you say You talk of joyning us together and you cast away â—he glue and soder You talk of building the Church in unity and you cast away the lime and morter the pins and nails and all that should fasten them You complain that the garment of Christ is rent and you throw away the needle and thred that should sow it up You see our wounds and blood and take on you to have pitty on the Church and call for healing but you hate and cast away the only salve Do you not yet know that the Churches Unity is a Unity of the Spirit and of Holiness and that there is no way in the world for us and you to be United unless you will be Sanctified and live in the Spirit as you have done in the flesh Sirs let us come nearer the matter â— know our Towns and Countries have two sorts of persons in them some are Converted and some Unconverted some holy and some unholy some live for heaven and some are all for earth some are ruled by the Word of God and some by their own flesh or wills If ever these agree and be United one party must come over to the other Either the Godly must become ungodly or the ungodly must become Saints and godly Which must it be which do you think in your Consciences is the way Must we yield to you or should you 〈◊〉 away to us Pardon that I 〈◊〉 my self with the sanctified 〈◊〉 dare not deny the mercies of God and the priviledges of his house Let us come fairly to debate the Case and lay our Reasons together and I will here protest to you if you can give us better reasons why we should forsake a godly life I 'le turn to you and if we can give you better reasons why you should embrace an holy life will you here promise to turn to us and let them carry it that have the better cause and let us be resolved to go away United and fall all together into that one way that shall be proved to be the best Well let us come to a debate and see whether we must come to you or you to us 1. If we ever agree and unite you know it must be on terms that are possible He that