ungodly multitude have the leprosie and plague-sores from top to toe Profaneness is a hodge-podge and gally-mawfry of all the heresies of the world in one 3. Many other hereticks do err but in Speculation and only the brain is infected and they do not at the heart digest their own mistakes But the Heresies of the Profane ungodly people are Practical and have mastered the will the Poyson is working in the heart and vital parts so that it is far the more mortal for this 4. Many sects at least do not Practise their errours but the ungodly live upon them Yea their lives are worse then their opinions they say bad and do worse You may see more Heresie then you can hear from them 5. Some erring persons have the substance of Christian truth mixt with their errour by which the power of the venom is abated and they do good in the Church as well as hurt But the ungodly do not savingly heartily and practically hold fast any the most fundamental truth 6. Some sects are meek and temperate in their way But the ungodly are carried on with fury and malice against the whole body of the Holy Catholick Church 7. And some Hereticks are so thin and few that where we have one of them to do hurt we have an hundred or a thousâ—nd to contradict them But the unsanctified and ungodly are the greater number and think they should rule because they are the most and the flock of Christ is a little flock And so many thousands swarming all over the world and making up the far greatest part of the world is like to do more against truth and peace then here and there a poor Sectary in a corner 8. And lastly the errours of some others are easier cured but the whole nature of the ungodly is turned as it were into errour it is rooted so at the heart that no power on earth is able to cure it till God Almighty by insuperable light and life of grace will do the cure And now I beseech you judge impartially who they be that are the deadly and dangerous Hereticks and who are the hinderers of Unity in the Church And how unfit these miserable people are to call for Vnity and cry out against our many Religions who are heartily of no Religion themselves but against the life and practice of all To hear an ungodly man go crying out of Sects of Separatists of Anabaptists and this and that is as if we should hear a Blackamore scorn one for a spot on his face or a murderer rebuke a man for an angry word or a Souldier that kills as many as he can cry out of the Surgeons for curing no more or blame others for a foul word or a common whore reproach another for a wanton word or uncomely garments Or as if a mad man should revile men for every slip he findeth in their speeches and call them fools O that we knew how to cast out this master Devil of Vngodliness this Beelzebub the Prince of Devils and then I should not fear the rest no not all the sects and errours in the world that are found with true godliness Yet still remember these two cautions 1. I do not excuse the errours of the best and I lament that they have lamentably wronged the Church and in some respects they have the greatest aggravations 2. And I still confess that some of the unsanctified are so civil and Orthodox as to be very usefull in the Church and helpfull against sects and heresies because they are right in the brain as to speculation and right in the tongue and their errour is kept buryed deep in the heart and therefore they err more to themselves then to others I doubt not but many such are profitable Preachers and defenders of the truth and the Church must be thankfull to God for their gifts And yet all that I have affirmed standeth good that Ungodliness is the transcendent Heresie and Schism Use 2. BY what hath been said you may easily perceive how little cause the Papists or Ceremonious or any others have to glory in such members of their Churches as I have described Can they expect a Unity of the Spirit with these If they glory that they have men and multitudes on thâ—ir side so may the Turks that have more then they and so may the Heathens that have more then either And yet when a Papist hath deceived a poor licentious or ignorant man or a proud or vitious silly woman they glory in their Convert Never yet did I know any Protâ—stant turn Papist that was not an ungodly wretch before and without the power of the Religion which he professed Do not say I speak censoriously or uncharitably in this for I think upon consideration all Papists will confess it For they teach that all that be not of their Church are void of charity and cannot so be saved and that all must therefore come into their Church because there is no Charity or Salvation without it Though this be false yet you see by it that they confess that never any but graceless unsanctified Protestants did turn to them Nor can they invite any to them but ungodly people And who ever turneth Papist doth thereby confess that he was ungodly before and that he was not an honest godly man For in turning Papist he professeth to go into that Church out of which there is no salvation and consequently no Charity or saving grace And if indeed you desire none but the ungodly to turn to you take them if they will needs go and try whether you can do any more good on them then we have done I think we have little cause but for their own sakes to lament our loss of such as these and that you have little cause to glory in your Proselites And I have yet seen none that shew us any more Holiness since their change then they had before A fair Church you have that is the common stie for all that will come to you and that is glad of any to make up the number that you may have that in quantity that is wanting in quality Use 3. FRom hence also let Quakers and Papists and all reproachers of our Churches take notice how groundlesly they hit us in the teeth with the ungodly that live among us These are your Protestants say they These are your Churches These are the fruit of your Ministry say the Quakers No these are the enemies of our Ministry and Doctrine These are they that joyn with you and such as you to reproach us and revile us These are the obstinate despisers of our Ministry that instead of learning of us do revile us and instead of obeying our doctrine do make a mock at it If they are any of them brought to a sound confession and restrained from any vice they may thank the doctrine which we preach for that unless they do it only for fear of the Laws But their profaneness is it that we
pray themselves into Agreement 15. Moreover were we once United in the Spirit We should be under the Promise of Divine assistance which the unsanctified have no part in When we Pray for Light and Peace and Concord we have a promise to be heard and helpt at least in the time and measure as shall be fittest we have a promise of the Spirit to be our Teacher and to lead us into Truth We have promises for the maintaining and repairing of our healing Graces and our Communion-Graces our Love to Christ and one another our Patience and Meekness and the rest Aud this must needs be a great advantage to Unity and Agreement For God is partly engaged for it 16. And if we were United in the Spirit and Agreed in the main The Great Truths which we are agreed in would very much direct us to find out the rest which yet we differ in For these have an influence into all the rest and the rest are all connext to these and also linkt and knit together that we may finde out many by the help of one All holy Truths do befriend each other but especially the Great and Master points which the rest depend upon and flow from There is no way to a right Agreement in other points but by agreeing first in these Fundamental Rudiments 17. Also if we were once Agreed in Holiness we should have that continually within us and before us that would much take us off from vain contendings and from an over-zealous minding of smâ—ller things We should have so much to do with God in holy Duties and so much to do with our own hearts in searching them watching them and exciting them and mending them reproving and correcting them supporting and comforting them by the application of the Promises that we should have less time for quarrelling and less minde of it then the unsanctifyed have We should have so many great and practical Truths to digest and live upon that lesser and unnecessary matters which are the common causes of Contention would find less room Or at least we should allow each Truth its due proportion of our study and talk and zeal and so that lesser would have comparatively so small a share and be so exceeding seldom and remissly medled with that their would be the less danger of Contentions 18. Yea if once we were united in the Spirit the very forethought of an Everlasting Vnion in Heaven would have a continual influence upon our hearts for the healing of our breaches We should be thinking with our selves Shall we not shortly be all of one mind and heart and all be perfected with the blessed vision and Reconciling Light of the face of God! There will then be no dissention or division or unbrotherly censures or separations And should we now live so unlike our future life Shall we now be so unlike to what we must be for ever Shall we now cherish those heart-burnings and dissentions that must not enter with us into Heaven but be cast off among the rest of our miseries and shut out with the rest of our enemies and hated for ever by God and us Must we there be closed in perfect Love and be all imployed in the same holy Praise of God and our Redeemer and does it beseem us now to be censuring contending and separating from each other Thus the belief of the Life to come will be a more effectual means with the godly for Agreement then any that unsanctified men can use 19. Moreover they that have the Spirit of Holiness have a dear and special Love to Truth as well as unto Peace And therefore they have a great advantage for the receiving of it in all debates and consequently they are fairer for a just Agreement They are friends with the most searching spiritual truths But the ungodly have at enmity to all that Truth that would shew them their sin and misery and duty and make them holy and lead them up from the creature unto God And as the Proverb is He that would not know cannot understand When you deal with a wicked graceless heart you do not set Reason against Reason for it that were all we should soon have done but you set Reason against Will and Passion and Appetite and fleshly Interest and when you have convinced them you are little the neerer prevailing with them You may as well think to satisfie a hungry belly with Reasons or to tame a wild beast with Reasons or to humble the Proud and bring the sensual person to self-denial by all your Reasons For they Love not the Truth because they Love not the Duty that it would perswade them to and because they Love the sin that it would take from them There are two sorts of Satan in a wicked man that none but God can batter so as to win them that is A Proud and Ignorant mind and a Hard and sensual Heart Many a year have I been battering them by the Word of God from this place and yet with many can do no good But the sanctified heart that Loveth the Truth will meet it and welcome it and thankfully entertain it Love maketh a diligent hearer and a good schollar and giveth us hope that informations and debates may be succesful A godly man is so far from hating truth and flying from it that he would give all the riches of the world to purchase it He prayes and reads and studyeth for it and therefore hath great advantage to attain it 20. Moreover if we were all Agreed in Holiness and united in the Spirit of Christ we should Love the Truth in a Practical manner and we should know that every Truth of God hath its proper work to do upon the soul and therefore we should Love the end of each Truth better then the Truth it self And therefore we could not pretend the Truth against the Ends of Truth And therefore we should see to the security of those ends in all our debates and controversies We should not make havock of the Church of Christ nor easily be guilty of divisions nor quench our Love of God and of our Brethren under pretence of standing for the Truth which unsanctified men will easily do Truth is for Holiness and Love as its proper end Ungodly men will tread down Love and Holiness or at least disadvantage it and hinder it in the world for the exalting of their own conceits under the name of truth They will cure the Church by cutting it in pieces or by cutting the throat of it and are presently dismembering for every sore But with the godly it is not so 21. Moreover the sanctified have a great advantage for Agreement in that they have hearts that are subject to the Truth and will be True to it when they understand it Did they but know the right way they would presently walk in it Nothing is so dear to them that should not be forsaken for it or sacrificed to it But the wicked are false to
leave the infallible judgement to God It is only â—eal Saints that have the internal special Unity of the Spirit and saving Communion but its Professors of Faith and Holiness thaâ— must have external Communion wiâ—h us in Ordinances as they have a visible Union of Profession with the Church But if they profess not Holiness they ought not to have any Christian Communion at all O Christians keep close to Christ the Centeâ— of your Unity and the Scripture which is the Rule of it and cherish the â—pirit which is the vital cause walk evenly and uprightly in a dark generation and give no offence to those without nor to the Church of God Know them that are over you in the Lord and be at Peace among your selves and the God of Peace shall be with you 1 Thes. 5.12 Phil 4.8.9 Object BVt may not a Profession of the same Faith procure a sufficient Vnity among us though all be not Saints and savingly regenerate Let us first be of one Religion and then we may come to be sincere in the Practice of that Religion by Degrees Answ. 1. For the Churches sake we are thankful to God when we see a common concord in Profession though most are false in and to the Religion which they profess Many wayes God doth good to his Church by unfound Professors 1. Their Professing the same Faith doth somewhat tye their hands from persecuting it And of the two we can better bear Hypocrites then Persecutors 2. And it somewhat tyeth their tongues from reproaching the Faith and arguing against it and seducing others from it And of the two it would be more hurtful to the Church to have these men open enemies to the truth and bend their wits and tongues against it and to have the multitude assaulting their neighbours with invectives and cavils against Religion then to have them falsly pretend to be Religious 3. And it is a great mercy to the Church hereby to have the benefit of these mens common parts and interests When they profess the same Religion with us though unsoundly yet it engageth them to stand for the Religion which they profess and their illumination and conviction may lead them to do much service for the truth By this means many hands are at work to build up the Church of Christ. And by this means the lives of many faithful Christians are preserved and their estates much spared Many have skill in building that are not true heirs of the house which they build Many have excellent gifts for preaching and expounding Scripture by which the Church may be edified and the Truth defended against the adversaries when yet the same men may themselves be destitute of the Power of this truth The Church hath great cause to be thankful to God for the gifts of many an unsanctified man Had the Church been denyed the Minâ—stry and Gifts of all mâ—n except Saints it would have been confined to a narrower room and many a soul might have beâ—n unconvâ—rted that have been called by the Ministry of unsanctified men By some such did God work Miracles themselves for the confirmation of the Christian Faith And in times of war if the Church had none but Saints to fight for them it could not stand without a continued Miracle And if we had not the daily help of others in civil and secular affairs we should find by the miss of it what a mercy we undervalued Were every unregenerate man an open enemy to the Church we should live as Patridges and such other birds that must hide themselves from every Passenger 4. Moreover this Profession of Hypocrites doth much restrain them from many a sin by which God would be much dishonoured and the Church more wronged and the godly more grieved and the open enemies more encouraged 5. And also it is some honour to the Gospel in the eyes of men to have a multitude of Professors Should Christs visible Church be as narrow as the mystical and should none be Professors of the Faith but those few that are sanctified Believers the paucity of Christians and narrowness of the Church would be a dishonour to Christ in the eyes of the world and would hinder the Conversion of many a soul. All this I have said that you may see that we do not despise a Unity in Profession and that we are not of those that would have all hypocrites and common professors shut out Yea that we take our selves bound to be very thankful to God for the mercy which he vouchsafeth us by the gifts and favour and help and interest of many such Professors And such a Unity of Profession we shall endeavour to our power heartily to promote as knowing that the Church as visible consisteth of such professours 2. But yet for all this I must come closer to your objection and tell you that this Vnity of meer Profession is comparatively so poor a kind of Unity that this will not this must not satisfie us and serve the turn which I desire you to observe in these discoveries 1. This Unity in meer Profession is properly no Christian Vnity because you are not properly Christians If this be all it is but in the bark and shell that we are agreed It is but a seeming agreement from the teeth outward but not an hearty agreement to be Christians What! shall we all agree to say we are Christians when with most it is not so For all this Agreement you will still have one Father and we another You will not be United with us in Christ the Head you will not have the same Holy Spirit who is the Life of the New creature You will be contrary to us in Nature or Disposition You will not have the same Intention and Ultimate End with us but you will aâ—m at one thing and we at another You will not go the same way nor walk by the same Rule and Law as we It will be but a tying â—ogâ—ther the Living and the Dead Bellâ—râ—ine himself confesseth that the ungodly are but dead members It is not life that Uniteth a dead member to the living You will bâ— stilâ— either openly or secretly betraying the Body to which you profess your selves United and taking part with its deadly enemies the flesh the world and the Devil Your very Hearts and ours will still be contrary You will love the sin that we hate and set our selves against and you will dis-relish that Holy Heavenly life which must be our business and delight Your Affections will go one way and ours another You will Live by sense when we must live by faith and you will be laying up a treasure on earth when we are laying up a treasure in heaven You will be asking counsel of flesh and blood when we must advise with God and his holy Word You will look first to your bodies when we must look first and principally to our souls It will be your business to feed those sins which it is our daily work
they do not know their worth will you therefore think that swine are happier then men The Living are vext with strifes and controversies about almost all the matters in the world when the dead carkasses in the grave lie still in peace and are not troubled with any of these differences And will you say therefore that the dead corps is happyer then the living Sirs the case is very plain if you will see that thus it is as to the matter in hand It is a Death in sin and complyance with the times and carnal Interest and a disesteem of spiritual holy things that is the cause of the Agreement of the wicked But the godly know the worth of the things that you set light by and therefore make a greater matter of them then you and therefore no wonder if they have more debates and controversies about them 3. And this also is another Reason of the difference It is the Interest of Satan to Divide the servants of Christ but to Keep his own in Unity and Peace and therefore he will do what he can to accomplish it He knows that a Kingdom divided cannot stand And therefore he will do his worst to Divide Christs Kingdom and to keep his own from being divided By a deceitful Peace it is that he keeps his servants to him And by casting among them the matter of contentions and divisions he hopeth to get Christs followers from him So that the Devil himself is the promoter of your Unity and Concord but the destroyer of ours and therefore no wonder if you have fewer differences 4. Besides the way that ungodly men go in is so suited to the common corruption of nature that it is no wonder if they be all agreed All the world can agree to eat and drink and sleep And therefore all the sensual sinners in the world may easily agree upon an overloving of meat and drink and sleep and so of riches and honours and pleasures And as its easy so it is not much desirable no more then if you should all agree to cast your selves headlong into the Sea when every house is infected with the Plague there is an Agreement among them But had you not rather be one of those that disagree from them But to Agree in a holy heavenly life is contrary to corrupted nature and therfore no marvail if it be more difficult When a Physician hath an hundred Patients in hand he may easily get them all to Agree to eat and drink that which they desire But if he require them to forbear the things that they most Love because they will hurt them the understanding sort will agree to him but so will not the rest In a rotten house the fall of one bearer may occasion the fall of all the house because their weight inclines them downward But if you take up one stone and cast it upward all the rest of the stones in the heap will not flie upward with it It s easier to draw others with us down hill then up the hill 5. And it is considerable that the differences among the servants of Christ are not alwayes from themselves but from the ungodly enemies that contrive their dissentions and set them together by the ears that they may fish in troubled waters and the better attain their wicked ends It is the envious man that soweth these tares while we are asleep and casteth in this wildfire among us 6. Moreover one of the greatest causes of the troublesome breaches and divisions in the Church is because there are so many unsanctified persons among us that seem to be of us and to be truly godly when it is not so You think it is the godly that have these divisions when the most and worst of all our Divisions proceed from the ungodly that have an unsound and unrenewed heart under the cloak of piety and zeal For if they were truly gracious persons they durst not do as many of them do 1. They durst not so rashly and easily venture on novelties as they do without deliberation and reading and hearing what can be said on the other side 2. They durst not so easily make a division in the Church of Christ. 3. Nor so easily cast a stumbling-block before the weak and matter of reproach to our Christian profession before the wicked 4. Nor durst they so easily reproach and condemn and cast off the unanimous faithful Ministers of Christ. 5. Nor durst they so easily censure the universal Church in former ages as many of them do 6. Nor durst they sacrifice the success and honour of the Gospel and the common acknowledged Truths and the saving of mens souls thereby to their private opinions and ends 7. Nor durst they make so great a breach in Charity nor so arrogantly condemne or slight their brethren whose piety and soberness they cannot deny These with many other evidences do let us know that ungodly men crept in among us are the causes of most of our most dangerous divisions And will you lay the blame of this upon Religion which the Devil and the secret enemies of Religion do perform It s your dâ—shonour and not ours For these men are of your party though they seem to be of us Satan knows well enough that if he have not some of his followers to be spies in Christs Army and to raise mutinies there and betray the rest he is like to be the more unsuccesful in his attempts Was Iudas more a dishonour to Christ or to the Devil He was among the followers of Christ indeed but he told them beforehand of him that he was a Devil and he never betrayed Christ till Satan had entered into him 7. Lastly the Saints themselves are sanctified but in part and many in a low degree and being Imperfect in Holiness must needs be as Imperfect in holy Unity and Peace It is not their Holiness that causeth their contentions but the remnants of their sin And therefore it s but small credit to the way of sinners Were we but perfectly rid of the vices which you cherish and perfectly separated from the waies that you so much delight in and had we no remnants of your disease and sinful nature in us we should then have perfect Unity and Peace Do you think that its long of our Religion that we disagree No if we were but perfectly Religious we should be perfectly agreed It is because we are Holy in no greater a measure and not because we are Holy at all It is not because of the way of Godliness that we have chosen but because we walk no faster and no more carefully in that way It is our too oft stepping out of it and not our walking in it that breaketh our Peace with God and man and our own consciences Search all the Scripture and see where you can find that ever God encouraged his servants to divisions No but on the contrary he oft and earnestly cries them down and warneth all his followers to