propoundeth Impossibilities to be agreed on is the enemy of agreement But it is impossible for us to come to you and so to Unite with you Thâ—s I now prove 1. â—t is Impossible to have any Vniversal Vnity but in an Vniversal Head and Center and that is only God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost As I told you the Army must Unite in the General the Kingdom in the Soveraign the Family in the Master the School in the School-master In order of Nature you must Unite with God in the Redeemer by the sanctifying Spirit before you can Unite with us But while you are unsanctified you are divided from God Do you not feel your minds strange to him your hearts draw back from him and find by his strangeness to you that there is a division It s impossible for us to be United to you till Christ be United to you For 1. It s against Nature seeing he is the Center and the Head and Fountain of Life And what good would it do you to be one with us and not with him 2. God is against any Unity without him If you will not begin with him he will take it but as a treasonable conspiracy and will break it We dare not go without him lest he be angry and destroy us Souldiers must not make either Peace or war not so much as treat without the General Do you not remember how Iehosaphat had like to have sped by a friendship and confederacy with Ahab 2. Moreover the Godly and ungodly are of contrary natures I told you God hath put an enmiâ—y between them You must chanâ—e your nature or we ouâ—s before we can Unite You may as well think else to Unite fire and water or to build in the air or to incorpoâ—â—â—â— fire and Gun-powder or to reconcile men and serpâ—nts and maâ—ry the dog and the bear together Sirs these â—hings are meer impossâ—bilities 2 Cor. 16.14 There is no agreement between Christ and Belial righteousness and unrighteousness light and darkness dâ—ath and life the members of Christ and the members of an harlot or a drunkard or such like We have contrary spirits how then can we be One One hath the Spirit of holiness and the other the Spirâ—â— of profaneness One is led by the Spirit of God and the oâ—her by the flesh We live not by one Law Gods will revealed in hâ—s Word is Our Law and the will of the flesh and the course of the world is your Law We live not on one sort of food how then can we accord together Christ and his heavenly truth and holy Spirit and Ordinances is the meat and drink of the Saints they cannot live without them And the world and fleshly delights are your food you cannot be without it Your food would be our poyson your worldly cares your drunkenness and profaneness would be a torment to an honest heart They cannot live without some Communion with God in Faith and Love by Prayer and â—editation and your heart is against it They have not the same â—nd as you have Their work is all for Heaven and yours is all principally for earth Their work and yours are contrary Thâ—y go one way and you another So that its Impossible to be United and agree till one side change And we cannot Possibly turn to you God holds us fast by his Love and Spirit and will not let us go nor suffer us ever to be willing to go Do you not read Christ â—elling you that its impossible to deceive the Elect that is so far as to turn them away from Christ. We are kept by the mighty power of God through faith to salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 And who can break away from the upholding arms of Almighty power Christ hath such hold of us that he is resolved none shall take us out of his hands Ioh. 10.28 So that we cannot come over again to you But you may come over to us if you will God calls you and Christ would welcome you and the Holy Ghost would hâ—â—p yâ—u the door is set open by the blâ—od of Christ the promise is â—o you and to your children that you may and shall have Christ and life if you will come in and accept the offer The Devil cannot hinder you against your wills he holds you but in the fetters of your own wilfulness by his meer deceits Seeing therefore that you may come over to the sanctified and they cannot possibly come to you let any reasonable man be judge on what terms we should unite and agree 2. Moreover if we Agree it must be on terms of wisdom and honesty A dishâ—nâ—st Agreement is not to be desired but abhorred For you to lâ—ave your ungodliness and turn to the Love and Fear of God is an honest coursâ— of Agreement for it is but to have dishonesty it selâ— and become honest I hope none of you dare charge the way of God and godliness with any dishonesty God calls you to nothing but what is holy and just and good and therefore Honesty requireth you to yield But for the sâ—nctified 〈◊〉 unsanctified for the 〈…〉 bâ—come ungodly to be one 〈◊〉 you this were the bâ—sâ—st dishâ—â—â—sty in the world We know your way to be of the Devil and 〈◊〉 flesh and is it honest then to joyn with you in it We have â—yed too long already in the dâ—â—es oâ— our ignorance and have found it dishonest and deceitful and would you have us go against our own experience We were once in the way that you are in and were forced to renounce it or else we had been undone body and soul for ever and should we â—â—ck up the vomit which we were forced to cast out we were once Agreed with you and God constrained us to break that Agreement and shall we renew it again Alas your way hath cost us dear Many a bitter repenting day and many a sad thought to the breaking of our hearts and the very sense of Gods displeasure a taste of Hell was cast into our consciences many a groan and â—ear and prayer it cost us before we could recover the hurt that we câ—tâ—ht in the way of ungodlinâ—ss and yet we have not fully recovered it to this day And would you have us stark mad to forget so soon our former sorrows and turn to a hâ—e that hath cost us so 〈◊〉 already No we have paid too dear for it and smarted too much for it to go that way any more It brought us to the very brink of Hell and if we had but dyed in that condition we had been damned at this hour And would you be so unreasonable as to wish us to go back again No by that time you know as much of an unsanctified state as we do you will run from it your selves as fast as you can run as â—he Israelites did from the cry of the company of Dathan and Abiram lest the earth should swallow them up also Numb 16.34 We are cerâ—â—in that the Lord
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
the world that our Religion is not changed at all Our worship is the same whether within Book or without Our Prayers are the same for matter with those in the Common Prayer Book And if I should one day use the Common Prayer Book and another day forbear it I should not change the worship of God To pray is part of his worship but whether it be on a Book or off it is no part at all but only a mode or circumstance which may be altered as occasion serveth I doubt not but a Book is fittest for some but not for all And do they think that we know not what adding and chopping and changing they have made with their Mass Book Who is it then that hath changed their worship Is it like the same Book that it was before the changes made by Gregory the great It was so ordinary a thing to change the manner and forms of worshp that private Bishops did it without any Synods whence else had the world the forms that are now in use Tell us how many of those in the Biblioth Patrum were made by Apostle or General Council if you can When Basil the great had set up a new way of singing to God and made some other changes in worship the Clergy of Neocesarea were offended with him for the novelty and told him that none of that was used in Gregory's dayes To whom he answers that neither was their own Letany known in Gregory's dayes who yet had lived not 140 years before and was the famous founder of their Church by miracles Basil Epist. 63. And Basil added to the Clergie of Neocesara But how can you tell that these things were not in use in Gregories daies when you have kept nothing unchanged which he was used to And that you may see his mind in this he adds But I pardon all these things though God will examine all Only let the principal things be kept safe If we had changed the Sacraments as the Papists have done viz. a Commemorative Sacrifice into a Real Sacrifice of Christ himself the Sacramental Body and blood of Christ into the Real Body and blood the administration of it in both kinds into one kind alone defrauding the people of the cup the Communion into a private Mass the people only looking on the Priest when he receiveth alone himself c. I say had we made such changes as these they might have called us changelings indeed and have told us of novelties in the worship of God 18. Moreover this laying so much upon lower or unnecessary things doth impoverish the soul and make it low and empty and formal according to the matter that it hath to work upon As the great unquestionable Truths of God are they that sanctifie and elevate the soul and leave their Image on it so will contending about private opinions or laying out our zeal in ceremonies and shaddows depress the soul and famish it and turn our Religion into a shaddow We find by sad experience that people are so prone to turn all Religion into meer words and shews and customary formalityes that when we have done our best we cannot cure them of this mortal sin God is a Spirit and will have such worshippers as worship him in spirit and in truth John 4.23 We have little need to cherish this disease of hypocrisie seeming histrionical outside Religiousness when we see so many perish by it after all that we can do for their deliverance 19. And this making a Religion of unnecessary things or laying the Churches Unity thereon is a dangerous snare to delude the Ignorant and ungodly and make them believe that they are godly people and in the way to Heaven as well as others I use not this or any Argument against the profitable use of any forms in order to the understanding of the matter nor against the due circumstantiating of the worship of God But if profitable forms and Gods own Ordinances are somwhat lyable to this abuse we cannot devise how to increase the danger and quite enthral these miserable souls more certainly then by multiplying unnecessary formalityes and placing Religion and Unity in them For they that are most ignorant and empty of the Love and fear of God and the bitterest enemies to a Heavenly life will presently set in with these formalities and make themselves a Religion of these and then they will take themselves as godly as the best You shall never make them believe that they are ungodly They think the difference lyeth but in the way and manner of serving God You serve him one way and they another but yet they serve him as well as you Yea they will overdo in these Indifferent things that they may make up that which is wanting in true godliness and then they will think that they are better and righter then you Thus did the Heathens cry out against the ancient Christians with a Tollite impios away with the ungodly and killed them and cast them to wild beast to be torn by them because they would not worship their Idols And so many ungodly wretches now that will not be perswaded to a Holy life will yet cry dow others as impious because they observe not all the Ceremonies which they observe When we have used all the means we can to bring them to the study of the Scripture and to meditate in the Law of the Lord and to holy conference and servent prayer to hatred of sin the contempt of the world the mortifying of the flesh to the Love of God above all to a thankful admiration of the Love of Christ and the great mystery of Redemption to the believing delightful forethoughts of everlasting life and preparation for it c. I say when we have done all to bring them to this which is godlyness indeed we lose our labour and leave them as we find them They cannot away with so precise a life But yet a Religion they will have instead of it to deceive their souls and quiet them in the way to Hell For instance I must speak it with grief of heart that I meet with no small number among us that know not who Christ is some say he is God and not man some say he is man and not God some say he was made both God and man at once some say he is neither God nor man but a Spirit some say he is not God but the Son of God and hath the power of God given him Abundance say that he is God only and not man now he is in Heaven though he was both on earth and very many know not what Christianity is nor wherein the Christian Religion doth consist And yet all these persons that are Heathens rather then Christians are the most zealous Keepers of Christmass as it is called and the bitterest condemners of those that do not and so do make themselves believe that they are Christians as well as others The same persons that know not
with the Godly so far as you confess you ought to do and would but Unite with us in faithfulness to the truths which you cannot deny I think it will be best to call you to the tryal in some particulars 1. I hope we are all Agreed that there is one only God that maâ—e us and preserveth us and Redeemed us and therefore that we are wholly his and should resign our selves and all that we have absolutely to him for his service He is not worthy the name of a man that denyeth this And shall we aâ—l Agree now in the Practice of this much Shall we wholly resign our selves and all that we have to God and labour to know what God would have us be and do and that let us resolve upon whatever the flesh or the world say to the contrary Were but this much well resolved on we were in a fair way to a full agreement 2. We are all Agreed in Opinion or Profession that this God is our only Happiness and his favour is better then all the world and that he is infinitely Wise and Good and Powerful and therefore that he must be Loved above all things whatsoever and must be most feared and served and trusted and depended on And shall we but Agree all in the Practice of this much O that you would but heartily consent and do it Did we but joyn together in Loving God above all and fearing and trusting and serving him before all we should quickly be of one heart and soul and in a very fair way to a perfect agreâ—ment 3. We are all Agreed that profess Christianity that sin hath made us miserable and brought us under the wrath and curse of God and that the Lord Jesus Christ having Redeemed us by his blood is the only Physitian and Remedy for our souls and having manifested such infinite Love in our Redemption and also purchased Dominion over us we are strongly bound to Rejoyce in his salvation and fly to him for Safety and rest upon him and live in the thankful admirations of his Love and in careful Obedience to his gracious Laws And shall we all Agree in the Practice of this much Will you fly to Christ with broken bleeding hearts for safety from sin and wrath and Hell and set more by him then by all the world Will you study with all Saints to comprehend his Love Eph. 3.18 19 and admire him and his mercies and devote your selves to him and be ruled by him O that we were but all agreed in this much 4. We are all agreed in Opinion or Profession that the Holy Ghost is the Sanctifier of Gods elect or of all that shall be saved and that except a man be born again by the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven and that without holiness none shall see God and that no man is the Son of God that hath not in him the Spirit of his Son 1 Cor. 12.12 13. Eph. 4.5 Ioh. 3.5 6. Heb. 12.14 Rom. 8.9 Gal. 4.4 Were we but all such now as we are agreed we must be and would you but all Consent to this Sanctification and newness of life the great difference were healed and the work were done 5. Moreover we are all Agreed or seem to be so that the holy Scripture is the word of God and of infallible truth and therefore must be believed and made the Rule of our Judgements and our lives Shall we all agree now in the practice of this Will you appeal to the Scripture and shall it be our Rule If the flesh perswade you to another course and murmur at the strictness of Gods Word if custom be against it and the greater number be against it if your profits or pleasures or worldly honours be against it and your former opinions and practice have been against it will you yet believe the Scripture before all and be ruled by it above all the world You are agreed I hope that God is to be obeyed rather then men or then the flesh and the Devil Will you resolve that 〈◊〉 shall be so O if the Word of God might be the Rule how quickly should we be agreed For all the Popish cavils at its difficulty and mens divers expositions yet how soon should we be agreed 6. We are all agreed in Opinion or Profession that there is a heaven for the Sanctified even an endless unconceivable Glory with God in the seeing of his face and enjoying him in perfect Love and Joyes and that the seeking of this everlasting Glory should be the main and principal business of our lives which all things must give place to He that will deny this can have no pretence to call himself a Christian. O that we might but all agree in the practising of this and that the principal love and desire of our souls were set upon the Heavenly blessedness and the chiefest of our care and labour might be laid out for the obtaining of it Agree in this and all will be agreed at last 7. We are all Agreed in our profession that there is an Hell or state of endless torments where all the finally unsanctified and ungodly must be for ever But why do we not agree in the diligent avoiding of such a dreadful misery and using our best endeavours to escape it 8. We are all agreed in Profession that the flesh is our enemy and must be mortified But will you agree in the practice of this mortification We are agreed iâ— Profession that the world is our enemy and must be contemned and that it is a vain and worthless thing compared with the Glory that is to come But yet mâ—n 〈◊〉 not agree to renounce the world unfeignedly and to be stranger to it and part with all rather thâ—â— with God and a good Conscience but while men spâ—ak contemptuously of the world they seek 〈◊〉 far more eagerly then heaven We are agreed that the Devil is our enemy and yet men will not forsaâ—â— his service 9. We are all agreed in profession that sin is a most hateful thing hated of God condemned by his Word and the only cause of the damnation of souls And yet men love it and live in it with delight Shaâ—l we agree all to deal with sin as we speak of it Will Magistrates and Ministers and people joyn together to banish it out of Town and Countrey Particularly we are agreed I hope that whoredom and wantonness and gluttony and drunkenness and strife and envying and lying and deceit and cursing and swearing and railing and backbiting and speaking against an holy life are all groâ—s hateful damning sins which every Christian must abhor But why do you not agree in the hateing and forsaking and beating down of these sins But Town and Countrey swarmeth with them as a carkase doth with maggots or a stinking pond with frogs and toads So that Magistrates and Ministers punishments and perswasions the Laws of the Land and the Laws of God can do but little to
we ever agree with such men as these that think themselves wiser then God and Scripture and dare prefer the very folly of their own muddy brains before the word and wisdom of their Maker Give these men as plain Scripture and Reason as you will they have more wit as they think then to believe you and what they want in Reason they have in Pride and Self-conceit and therefore your wisdom is folly to them But now when the Spirit of Holiness comes it takes them down and abaseth and humbleth the proud and self-conceited and makes them ashamed of the folly and weakness of their own understandings so that a man may speak to them now as to men of reason and have a hearing and consideration of his words A humble godly man is low in his own eyes and therefore suspicious of his own understanding in doubtfull things and therefore is more flexible and yielding to the truth when others are so stiffened by Pride that they are readier to deride the wisest that shall contradict them If therefore we could but all Agree in Holy meekness and humility what readier way could there be in the world to draw to an end of our differences and divisions 10. Moreover if we could but Agree in Holiness it would free us from that uncharitableness that causeth our Disagreement in other things and it would possess us with a special endeared Love one to another And who knoweth not that Love is a uniting healing thing Sanctification principally consisteth in Love to God and man and this the unsanctifyed principally want It s want of Love that makes men surmise the worst of one another and make the worst of all that they say do and draw matter of contention from that which never gave them Cause Love would put a better sence upon mens words and deeds or at least would bear them far more easily But instead of Love there is a Natural Enmity in all that are unsanctified to all the servants and the ways of God And can we ever be agreed with our Natural enemies why Malice will so pervert their understandings that all that we say or do will be misconstrued and as a man that looks through a red glass thinks all things to be red that he looks upon so these men through the distemper of their malicious minds will finde matter of quarrelling with all that we can say or do Ill will never saith well Our very obedience to the Law of God and seeking to save our own souls will be matter of quarrel and taken to be our crime If we will not run into Hell fire with them and think there is no danger when we know the contrary it will be a fault sufficient for their malice to reproach us with so that if we should Agree with ungodly men in all our Opinions of Religion yet if we will not damn our souls and make no bones of displeasing the great and dreadfull God there is no Peace to be had with them They have no Peace with God and they have no solid Peace with themselves for God hath professed that there is no peace to the wicked Isa. 48.22 And how then can we expect that they should have peace with us But Sanctification doth beget that effâ—ctual Love that is as healing to a divided Church or to disagreeing persons as the most precious Balsom or Wound-selve is to bodily wounds Love will not let you rest in wrath but will keep you under smart and disquietness till you are either at Peace or have done your part to have procured it Husband and Wife Parents and Children Brethren and Sisters do seldomer fall into greater dissentions then strangers do And when they do fall out they are easilier reconciled The Spirit of Grace doth possess unfained Christians with as dear a love to one another as is between the nearest Relations For by our New birth the Saints are Brethren in Christ. If you saw an Army fighting or a company of people quarrelling and scolding at one another do you think there could be a readier way to make them all friends and end their quarrels then to possess them all with a dear and tender love to one another If it were in my power to cause all contenders to Love those that they contend with as themselves do you think I should not soon agree them Why you know if you know any thing in Christianity that Sanctification causeth men to Love their Neighbors as themselves and to Love one another with a pure heart fervently 1 Pet. 1.22 For by this we know that we are passed from death to life because we love the Brethren He that loveth not his Brother abideth in death Joh. 3 14. And therefore it is a case exceeding plain that the readiest way in the world to reconcile our lesser differences is to be united in the Spirit and to Agree upon a Holy Life 11. Moreover were we all united in the Spirit We should have all one God one Master of our Faith and one Law-giver and Iudge of all our Controversies And this would be an exceeding help to unity The Principal cause of Divisions in the world are the multitude of Rulers and Masters and Judges For with unsanctified men their own Conceits and Carnal Interest is their Counsellor and Judge The Rulers of the world that have the power of the sword and can do them good or hurt in their estates are the Masters of their Religion more then God They will follow this Man or that Man that best pleaseth their fancies and fleshly desires and so will never be of one minde But Sanctification takes down all other Masters of our Faith save Christ and those that declare his will Let flesh and blood say what it will let all the world say what they will if God say the contrary his word shall stand and be a Law to them And can there be a readier way to Unity then to bring us all into one School and subject us all to one Lord and Master and to bring us all to refer our differences to one most wise infallible Judge Though we do not yet understand his will in all things yet when we understand it in the main and are resolved to search after the knowledge of the rest it is a great preparative to our Agreement when we all look but to one for the deciding of our controversies Whereas the unsanctified have as many Judges and Guides as persons For every man is a Guid and Judge to himself 12. Moreover were we but once Agreed in Holiness We should all have one Light for the ending of our differences and that Light would be the true Infallible Light For we should all have the same Holy word of God as the extrinsick Light which is most True as coming from the Lord of Truth And we should all have the Spirit of Truth within to teach us the meaning of that word without and to help our understandings and assist us in
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
the application and destroy the corruptions that blind us and hinder us from perceiving the Truth Whereas the unsanctified are all in the Dark and what wonder if there they disagree and are of many minds They be not guided by the word and Spirit and they are strangers to the Light that must Reconcile us if ever we be reconciled It s true too true that the godly are illuminated but in part and therefore as yet they differ in part But yet this imperfect illumination doth more to a true and safe Agreement then all the world can do besides If you would stop your ears against the flesh yield all to the teachings of the word and Spirit we should be sooner agreed 13. And if we were once United in the Spirit and Holiness We should all have the use and benefit of all the Reconciling Healing means and Ordinances of God which would be an exceeding great advantage to us The unsanctified have but the outside the sound and shell of Ordinances but it is the Sanctified that have the light and life and fruit of them Every Chapter that you read and every Sermon that you hear will do somewhat towards the healing of our breaches It will further our Knowledge and our Love The Communion of the Saints in all holy Duties especially at the Lords Supper when they partake of one Christ will enflame their Love and humble them for their divisions and soder and glue their hearts together as being all one bread and one body And so they will be all as of one heart and soul Acts 4.32 1 Cor. 10.16 17. Acts 2.42 43 44 46. When we hear of the tender Love of Christ to his weakest members how can we choose but love them if we be his Disciples When we hear how much and how freely he hath forgiven us how can we choose but forgive them Mat. 18.35 When we have Communion with them in holy worship as servants of the same Lord as Members of the same body how can we choose but have the affections of fellow-Members 1 Cor. 12.26 When we joyn with them in Prayer or holy Conference and perceive the fragrant odour of their Graces and the holy breathings of their souls after God we cannot choose but Love Christ in them As the new Commandment so frequently pressed in the Gospel is the Law of Love Ioh. 15.12 17. and the New Nature of the Saints is a Disposition of Love for this they are taught of God effectually 1 Thes. 4.9 So the Ordinances do all of them exercise that Love and engage us to it We must leave our gift at the Altar and go first and be reconciled to our Brother if we remember he hath any thing against us Matth. 5.23 24. We must pray for forgiveness but on condition that we do forgive Differences and Divisions that make a breach in Christian Charity are so insufferable among the Saints that they long for healing and smart as the wounded body doth till the time of healing and are pained as a bone out of joynt till it be set again And as they cannot bear it themselves when they are themselves so the Church cannot bear it but is engaged to watch over them and to set them in joynt again so that God hath hedged in his Servants into one holy Society that they should not straggle from him or from each other and hath set Pastors over them for this very end to guide them and keep them in holy Unity Ephes. 4.11 12 13 14. Now all these Uniting Healing Ordinances are effectual upon the Sanctified for their hearts are open to them and their New nature is suited to the new Commandment and work But to others they are in a manner as Food or Physick to the dead They hate the power of them they break the holy Enclosure of Discipline and proudly Rebel against their Guides and say Let us break their bands and cast away their cores from us Psal. 2.3 what must we be Ruled by such and such It is but the outside of Sacraments Praises and Prayers that they are acquainted with and these have no such healing force So that in this you see the great advantage that we should have for full agreement if we were but once agreed in the main and United by the Sanctifying Spirit 14. Moreover if once we were United in the Spirit and in Holyness We should manage all our differences in a holy manner and be awakened and disposed to seek after healing in a healing way It would put us upon enquiring after Peace and studying the meetest terms of Peace till we had found out the way in which we should accord The Spirit of Love and Holiness would provoke us to begin and seek for Peace with those that will not seek to us and that seem averse to it and to follow after peace when it flyeth from us Heb. 12 14. and even to lie down at the feet of men and deny our honour and worldly Interest if it might procure Brotherly love and peace Whereas a proud unsanctifyed heart will scorn to stoop especially to those that are below them or have wronged them and will scorn to ask forgiveness of those that they have wronged When you have shewed them the plainest word of God for it and perswaded them to it with undeniable reasons you lose your labour and may almost as well perswade the fire to be cold If you will stoop and humble your self to him and ask him forgiveness and give him the honour or change your minde and be of his opinion and say as he saith and do as he would have you perhaps you may have some Peace with the most ungodly man But the servants of Christ have a spirit of Meekness and Humility and Self-denyal and therefore if there be fallings out among them they can humble themselves and seek for reconciliation If there be difference in Judgement about any weighty matters they will go or send to one another as Brethren and confer about it in Love and meekness and search the Scripture and seek after Truth and compare their evidences and Pray together for that Light and Love that must Reconcile them If they fall out they can say to one another We are Brethren and must not Live at a distance nor suffer any wounds in our Affections or any breach of Charity to remain The Sun must not go down upon our wrath Come lâ—t us go together in private and beg of God that he would repair our Love and reconcile us and prevent such breaches for the time to come And thus they can pray themselves friends again I am perswaded that one quarter of an hours fervent Prayer would do more to quiet our distempered minds and reconcile us if thus we would get together in private then many hours debates without it Now the Spirit of holiness is a Spirit of Prayer and therefore disposeth the servants of Christ as meekly and lovingly to search for Truth so earnestly to