or practice And sure no such for Images is in the Creed or Decalogue § 26. The same I may say of many other Religious practices As St. Paul speaketh of meats and drinks and dayes Rom. 14. 15. so must we say of all things that are of no greater necessity If men in all these must be brought to uniformity and practising in the same mode it must be either by argument and perswasion or by force The first we are sure will never do it in all things though it may in many All the twenty reasons before mentioned prove it and many hundred years experience much more It is certain to all save blinded persons that all Christians will never be in all things of a mind about Lawful and Unlawful Duty and Sin And 〈◊〉 that force will never do it St. Paul saith of things indifferent that he that doubteth is damned if he eat because he eateth not of faith For whatsoever is not of faith is sin Ungodly persons that have no true Conscience may go against their false Consciences for worldly ends and wilfully sin for fear of men But so will no true Christian unless in the hour of such a temptation as Peters by a fall from which he will rise again to a stronger resolution than he had before No sound believer will sell his soul to save his flesh nor hazard heaven by wilful sin to save his interest on earth So that this way of forcing men to practise contrary to their Consciences in points in which good and tolerable Christians differ will but make up Churches of wicked men that have no conscience joyned with one party that is therein agreed And I shall shew you in due place that they will never devise what to do with the Conscionable dissenters that shall not be far worse than a charitable and peaceable forbearance § 27. III. It is certain that there will never be so great Concord as that all Disputings opposition and passionate and injurious words and writings will cease among all sorts of Christians No nor among all that are honest and upright in the main For as long as one taketh that for a dangerous errour or sin which another taketh for a necessary truth or duty men will even on Gods account think ill of one another and in some measure speak ill as they think They that know that they must not call evil good and good evil nor put darkness for light and light for darkness will abuse and injure one another in things where they confidently err A Lutheran though pious will speak and dispute against a Calvinâ—â— and a Calâ—inist against a Lutheran And so of many other Parties And though it is greatly to be wished that all Christians had humble thoughts of their own understandings and would stay till they know well what they say before they talk much against things or persons and though it be so with wise and eminently sober humble men yet with too many it is far otherwise and like so to continue Perverse disputings and shameful backbitings and speaking evil of things and persons not understood have such unhappy causes in the remnants of dark corrupted nature that they seem to be like to live till a golden age or heaven do cure them Talking and writing against one another even of the same Religion yea praying and preaching against one another must be expected in some degree I would I need not say silencing and persecuting one another yea excommunicating and anathematizing among the worser sort of men such usage as Nazianzen had from one of the famous General Councils and such usage as Chrysostom had from such Bishops as Theophilus Alexand. and Epiphanius and a Council of other Bishops and such as abundance of excellent men in most ages have met with in the like kind and way may be expected again till Bishops and all Christians become more wise and resined persons § 28. II. But affirmatively there is yet an excellent sort and degree of Unity and Concord to be sought with hope among Christians worthy of all our utmost labour Yea there is a true and excellent Unity and Concord which all true Christians do already enjoy consisting in the following things § 29. I. All Christians truly such believe in One God and believe the incomprehensible Trinity and believe Gods Essential Attributes and Grand Relations to man They believe that he is Infinite in Immensity and Eternity and Perfection even a most Perfect Spirit Life Vnderstanding and Will most Powerful Wise and Good the Creator and preserver the Governour and the End of all of whom and through whom and to whom are all things in whom we Live and Move and have our being Most Holy and True and Merciful and Just whom we are bound to believe and trust and love and serve and obey and praise with all our heart and mind and strength and perfectly and everlastingly to see Love and Praise him to Please Him and be Pleased in Him in Glory is the end and happiness of Saints § 30. II. All true Christians believe in One Mediator between God and man Jesus Christ the Eternal Word God and one in Essence with the Father Incarnate assuming the whole Nature of man conceived by the holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary and was holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners fulfilling all righteousness and overcame the Devil and the world and gave himself a Sacrifice for mans sin by suffering a cursed death on the Cross to ransome us and reconcile us unto God and was buried and went to the departed souls in hades and the third day rose again from the dead having conquered death And having declared the new Covenant or Law of Grace and commanded his Apostles to preach the Gospel to all the world and promised them to send the Holy Spirit he ascended into Heaven before their faces The said Covenant of Grace is summarily this that whereas all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God sin by one man entring into the world and death by sin and so death and condemnation passed upon all in that all have sinned God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever Believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life that is God freely giveth to lost undone sinners Himself to be their reconciled God and Father Jesus Christ to be their Saviour and the Holy Ghost to be their Sanctifier if they will Believe and Trust him and accept the gift and will in serious Covenant which Baptism celebrateth accordingly give up themselves to him Repenting of their sins and consenting to forsake the Devil the world and the Flesh as opposite to God and sincerely though not perfectly obey Christ and his Spirit to the end according to the Law of Nature and his Gospel institutions that so they may overcome and be Glorified for ever And they believe that Christ will come at last in Glory and judge all men according to his Laws
and to their works § 31. III. And they all believe that the Holy Spirit being God and one in Essence with the Father and the Son proceeding from the Father and or by the Son is the Great Witness Agent and Advocate of Christ before at and after his coming into the world incarnate by his gifts of Prophecy Miracles and Sanctification convincing sinners and drawing them to Repent and Believe and dwelling in Believers as an operating cause of Divine Life and Light and Love thus Uniting them to God in Christ their Head and to each other in Faith and Love by which they are gathered to him as his Church or body having the forgiveness of their sins and the adoption of Sons and right to the heavenly inheritance And living in holy communion on earth their souls at death are received to happiness with Christ and their Bodies shall be raised and soul and body Glorified at the last with Jesus Christ and all the blessed in the perfect Vision Love and joyful Praise of the most Glorious Jehovah § 32. And as I. All Christians agree in this Belief so also II. They all solemnly in and by the Baptismal Covenant and their holy Eucharistical Communion and other duties Profess the Consent of their wills to these Relations to God their Creatour Redeemer and Sanctifier and to his Church or body and their thankful Acceptance of the foresaid Gifts And they profess and express their seeking-desires hereof according to the Contents of the Lords Prayer § 33. III. And as to Practice they all agree in professing and promising obedience to Christ according to the Law of Nature the Decalogue and all his Written Laws so far as they understand them and their desire to Learn them to that end § 34. All sincere Christians agree in the true and Hearty Consent to all this And these are the true saved Church of Christ called Invisible because their Hearts-consent is Invisible All other Baptized and Professing Christians with them agree in the Profession of all this And are called The Church-visible their Profession being visible And all this being truly included in Baptism which is our entrance into the Catholick or Universal Church in this before described consisteth our Catholick Communion in Christs body as spiritual or invisible and as visible § 35. II. But besides this Universal Church-Union and Communion for ORDER and Advantage to our great end God hath instituted the ORDER of Christian Assemblies or Particular Churches which are to the Vniversal Church as Cities and Corporations to a Kingdom Which are the noblest and most priviledged parts of the Kingdom but yet not essential parts but eminently Integral For it may be a Kingdom without them and would be if they were all disfranchised and laid common And if Apostles and Evangelists as Itinerant Preachers convert and baptize men they are part of the Church Universal before they are gathered into distinct societies under proper Pastors of their own The Eunuch Act. 8. was baptized into no particular Church but into the universal only and so were many others And meer Baptism as such without any additional contract doth no more If thousands were Converted in America or cast there without Pastors they were parts of the Universal Church if baptized Professing Christians And before the Apostles ordained any fixed Bishops or Pastors of particular Churches the Church Universal was in being though small § 36. But these particular Churches being a great part of Christs Institutions and necessary not only by Precept but as a means to the Well-being of the Universal and the Edification of it and the particular members It must be endeavoured and that with good hope of success that there may so much Particular Church-Vnion be obtained and maintained as shall much conduce to its great and excellent ends That is 1. So much as that in them God the Father Son and Holy Ghost may be Publickly solemnly and constantly confessed by sound doctrine holy worship and holy discipline and conversation 2. So much as that hearty Christian Love may be exercised and maintained and Christians edified in Communion of Saints 3. So much as that God shall accept them delight in them and bless them their converting edifying and comforting souls hearing their prayers and praises and owning them by his Ministry Covenants and grace and differencing them from the people that do not thus confess and worship him and promoting hereby their salvation And if this much be attained it is not to be vilified for want of more nor blotted with reproachful names but acknowledged with thankfulness and praise § 37. III. And yet there is a further degree of concord to be hoped for and endeavoured and that is the concord of these particular Churches with one another That they may all Profess 1. The same faith and necessary doctrine 2. and the same Love to God and one another 3. and the same Hope of life eternal 4. and may offer to God the same necessary and acceptable sort of worship viz. by preaching and applying his holy word recorded in the holy Scriptures preserving and reading them calling upon his holy name by Confession prayer thanksgiving and praises and holding respective communion in the use also of the Sacraments of his Covenant and exercising in some measure such holy Government and Discipline by Pastors overseeing their several flocks as he himself by his institution hath made universally necessary And all this though not in perfection nor every where with the same degree of purity and care yet so far 1. as that Gods word and ordinances be kept up in soundness in all parts and respects necessary to salvation 2. and as may tend to the edifying of the Churches by Love and concord in necessary things and their mutual help by counsel and strength by that concord 3. and the avoiding of pernicious feuds and divisions § 38. The means by which this is to be done 1. by communicatory Letters 2. by Synods 3. and by Civil Governours is after in due place to be explained Thus much of Christian Vnity and Concord may be well hoped for upon just endeavours here on earth But neither Perfection in these nor those unnecessary terms of Concord which some have long taken to be necessary § 39. And indeed so much as may be hoped for is so very hardly to be obtained that if we trusted not to Gods extraordinary Grace more than to any natural probability that appeareth to us in man we should be ready to despair that ever Christians should live long in so much peace and concord And though the great difficulty must not kill our hopes it must much quicken us to strenuous endeavours Of which more anon Satan is so great an enemy to it and every sin in man is so much against it as every disease in the body is against its ease and peace and the multitude and malignity of sins and sinners is so great and the very healers so few and faulty and unskilful
Governours under the Emperours Civil Government and not over the world nor was there ever such a thing as a General Council of all the Christian world but only General as to one Empire Nor did any of these Councils take on them to make Constitutive terms of the Universal Church or its Union but only to preserve declare and expound them and to make subordinate governing Canons And if they had undertaken more no wise man can imagine that all Christians will therefore confess the right of such a claim and so submit to it The proof of their authority will be so obscure that as such as I cannot see it so there will be so many no wiser than I am as that the exclusion of all Christians that are but of our size will never stand with Catholick Unity And if it were possible to satisfie all the present age 1. that some have such authority from God 2. and who they are 3. and how far it extendeth yet still such will succeed them in whom the uncertainty and dissent will be revived What needeth there more proof than mans incapacity and the experience of so many Generations All Christians agree in Christianity All Christians never agreed on any human◠terms of Unity Pope Council or Monarch One Empire hath pretended to agree in Councils but have been so far from it as that they have been the occasion of their greatest disagreements witness even the Great ones Const 1. Ephes 1. 2. Calcedon which some blessed and some cursed for many generations after and that at Constantinople that made the decree de tribus capitulis divided even the Roman Church so far as that for one hundred years a great part of it renounced the Roman Bishop and set up another Patriarch against him And Abassia and other extra-imperial Churches were never under the Roman or Imperial Government § 12. V. And that the terms of Catholick unity must not be very many things is evident from the foresaid Incapacity of the most to comprehend many things and also from the confession of almost all sorts of Christians Even the Papists who have advanced the Christian Religion to the monstrous magnitude of their vast and numerous Decrees of Councils are forced yet to make them almost all unnecessary under the name of Implicite belief and do narrow the necessary articles of the Christian faith almost to an annihilation while they agree not whether it be necessary explicitely to believe the life death resurrection mediation judgement yea or being of Christ himself or any more than that there is a God and an Infallible Church Of which see Francisc de sancta Clara his Deus Natura Gratia at large And those of our selves that eject Ministers and Christians for dissenting from some of their own impositions are yet contented to admit such as submit to themselves upon very low terms of Christian knowledge to the Sacraments and Communion of the Church And indeed he knoweth not man who knoweth not that universal unity and concord will never be had upon the terms of Many dark uncertain humane or unnecessary things but only on the terms of things Few sure plain divine and necessary CHAP. II. Some instances of Gods description of these terms in the words of the Sacred Scriptures § 1. I Have before proved that Christ instituted the terms of Catholick Unity in Scripture and have cited some texts on the by It will not be amiss for conviction to set divers texts together which will fullier open the terms themselves § 2. The words of the institution of Baptism before mentioned are the most convincing Matth. 28. 19 20. Go ye and disciple all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you alway even to the end of the world Here Christ himself sendeth his messengers and prescribeth them their work and maketh the terms of Baptism the Entering and Constitutive terms of his Church which they were to gather But the Administring or Governing terms are larger even teaching them all things which Christ hath commanded them And this was a Law not only for that age but to the End of the world § 3. It is the same in sense which reduceth all the terms to Believing in Jesus Christ as including Belief in the Father and the Holy Ghost John 1. 12. As many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name John 3. 14 15 16 18 36. Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life He that believeth on him is not condemned He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life John 17. 3. This is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent John 14. 1. Ye believe in God believe also in me John 15. 1 2 3. Now are ye clean through the word that I have spoken to you abide in me and I in you c. See John 6. Mark 16. 16. Preach the Gospel to every creature He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned It will be needless to repeat all words to the same purpose Matth. 18. 6. He that offendeth one of these little ones that believe in me it were better a mill-stone were hanged about his neck c. And yet must Bishops curse such from Christ and excommunicate them Mar. 1. 15. John 6. 29 69. 7. 39. 4. 35 38. 11. 27 42. 12. 36. 13. 9. 16. 30. 31. 17. 20 21. 20. 31. 2. 11 22. 9. 53. 16. 27. 7. 31. 8. 30. 10. 42. 11. 26 27. 5. 24. 6. 35 40 47. 7. 38. 12. 46. Acts 10. 42. 5. 14. 8. 37. 13. 39. 16. 31. 19. 7. 18. 8. 17. 4 34. 14. 1. 13. 12 48. And all these believers no doubt of no hard numerous humane articles lived in Love and Communion Acts 2. 44. 4. 32. so Rom. 3. 22. The Righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ is unto all and upon all them that do believe for there is no difference 4. 11 24. Abraham is the Father of all them that believe and righteousness shall be imputed to them all Rom. 10. 9 10. If thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation Gal. 3. 22. 2. 16. Heb. 11. 6 c. 10. 39. 4. 3. 1 John 3. 23. 5. 1 5 10 13. § 4. Other texts that add Repentance to Faith speak but the same sense adding the express mention of the terminus à quo as well
invented expositions will be as liable to be wrested by Hereticks as the Scripture It is ridculous presumption to talk of making any Law profession or Articles that a false Heretick may not subscribe to 3. But there is another remedy against them while they conceal their heresie they are no Hereticks in the judgment of the Church Non apparere here is as non esse when they divulge it the judicatures must correct them It 's vanity to dream that the Law is faulty as long as it is but such as men can break or that any Law can be made which none can break But as they break them they are to be judged 4. And we must not rack and divide the good for fear of such letting in the bad The Churches Concord and peace is of more regard than the keeping out of some secret Heretick yea of old he was not called a Heretick that did not separate from the Church All good men agree to the word of God but all will not agree to every word of yours § 13. I conclude In humane affairs there is nothing without imperfection weakness and incommodity and to pretend the cure of these by impossibilities or mischiefs is the way of such as these Thirteen hundred years have been the true schismaticks and distracters of the Church CHAP. X. A draught or specimen of such Forms as are before mentioned for the Approved and the Tolerated Ministers § 1. TThis Chapter should have gone before the ninth But I thought to pass it by lest it seem presumptuous But the observation how ordinarily men miscarry in this work hath perswaded me to run the hazard of mens censures § 2. 1. The form to be subscribed by the Approved Ministry I A. B. do seriously as in the sight of God profess that as I have been in Baptism devoted by the sacred Covenant to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost renouncing the Devil the world and the flesh so far as they are his enemies so I do unfeignedly Believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and consent still to that Covenant in hope of the grace and Glory promised obliging my self to continue by the help of that grace in Faith Love and sincere obedience to the end More particularly § 3. I. I do unfeignedly Believe 1. That there is one Only God an infinite Spirit of Life understanding and will most perfectly powerful wise and good incomprehensibly Three in One and One essence in Three called persons or subsistences by the Church the Father the Word and the Spirit of whom and through whom to whom are all things he being the Creator preserver Governour and the ultimate End of all Our absolute owner our most just Ruler and our most gracious and amiable Father and benefactor 2. I believe that this God created all the world things invisible and visible And made man in his own Image forming a fit Body and breathing into it a spirit of Life understanding and will fitted and obliged to know love and serve his Creator giving him the inferior Creatures for this use making him their Owner their Governour and their End under God But specially forbidding him to eat of the Tree of knowledge on pain of death 3. The woman being tempted by Satan and the man by the woman both fell by wilful sin from their Holiness Innocency and Happiness into a state of Pravity Guilt and misery under the slavery of the Devil world and flesh under Gods vindictive Justice and the condemnation of his Law Whence sinful corrupted guilty and miserable natures are propagated to all mankind And no meer Creature is able to deliver us § 4. II. I believe that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son to be their Saviour Who being God and one with the Father took our Nature and became man being conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary named Jesus the Christ who was perfectly holy without sin fulfilling all righteousness and being tempted overcame the Devil and the world and after a life of humiliation gave himself a sacrifice for our sins by suffering a cursed death on the Cross to ransome us and reconcile us unto God and was buryed and descended to Hades and conquering death the third day he rose again And having sealed the New Covenant with his blood he commanded his Apostles to preach the Gospel to all the world and promised the Holy Ghost and after forty daiesascended into heaven where he is God and man the glorified Head over all things to his Church all power being given him in heaven and earth our prevailing Intercessor with God the Father to present us our service acceptable to God and communicate Gods grace and mercies unto us to Teach us Govern protect and judge us and to save and bless and glorifie us § 5. 2. By the new Testament Covenant or Law of grace God through the aforesaid Mediation of Jesus Christ doth freely give to fallen mankind Himself to be their Reconciled God and Father his Son to be their Saviour and his holy Spirit to be their sanctifier and comforter if they will accordingly believe and accept the gift and by faithful covenant give up themselves to him in these Relations Repenting of their sins and consenting to forsake the Devil the world and the flesh so far as they are enemies to God and their salvation and sincerely to obey Christ his Laws and his Spirit to the end bearing the Cross and following him though through sufferings that they may reign with him in Glory All which God will faithfully perform § 6. III. I Believe that God the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and from or by the son was given to the Prophets Apostles and Evangelists to be their infallible Guide in preaching and recording the doctrine of salvation and to be the great witness of Christ and his truth by his manifold Divine operations And that he is given to quicken illuminate and sanctifie all true believers and to save them from the Devil the world and the fleshes temptations from sin and from spiritual misery And that the Holy Scriptures indited by this Spirit are to be believed loved and obeyed as the word of God § 7. 2. I believe that all who by true Consent are devoted to God in the foresaid Baptismal Covenant and so continue are one sanctified Church or Body of Christ and have Communion in the same spirit of faith and Love and have forgiveness of their sins and having one God one Christ one spirit one faith one Baptism and one Hope of Heavenly Glory are bound to keep this unity of the spirit in the bond of peace in the Doctrine worship order and conversation and mutual helps which Christ hath by himself or his Apostles commanded avoiding uncharitable contentions divisions injuries and offences And that the Baptized Covenanters and external Professors of the foresaid Covenant consent are the visible
the Father and the Holy Ghost nor Sanctification Consolation and Sealing to the Holy Ghost than to the Father and the Son and so that they are not hence relatively distinguishable to us and by us at all III. Of the Person of Jesus Christ 1. That Christ is but a Creature or not eternal or not of the same Divinâ— Essence as is the Father 2. That Christ hath no humane created soul but the Divine nature was to his body instead of a soul 3. Or that a superangelical created nature united to his Divine nature was instead of a humane soul to his body 4. That Christs body was not derived from the Virgin Mary but only passed through her as water through a Channel 5. That the Mother of Christ alone was as much the cause of his soul and body as our Fathers and Mothers both are of ours 6. That the Virgin Mary was not the Mother of him that was God and man 7. That she was the Mother and actual cause or procreator of the Godhead and of Christ as God 8. That Jesus Christ was two Persons a Divine and Humane 9. That he had not two distinguishable natures viz. the Divine and Humane 10. That he had not two distinguishable understandings wills and operations 11. That the Body of Jesus Christ was incorruptible in and by its own nature and constitution and not only by its union with the Deity and by Gods will decree and preservation 12. That he was begotten by Joseph or some other man 13. That Christs humane nature soul or body suffered no real pain nor was capable of suffering any 14. That he was not of the line of David after the flesh 15. That he had original sin guilt or vitiosity 16. That Christ is not now God and man in heaven 17. That the Glorified Body of Christ is now formally flesh and blood so called univocally as ours having the same formal constitutive essence 18. That every Priest maketh Bread and Wine by the Consecration in the Eucharist to become no longer Bread and Wine but the very Body Flesh and Blood of Christ or that God so maketh it or the Priests speaking those words And so that all the consecrated Bread and Wine since Christs days till now are made Christ's flesh and blood and yet his flesh and blood no whit increased 19. That all believers are by union part of the Natural Person of Christ 20. That the humane nature of Christ is now the Godhead or is become a proper part of the second Person in the Trinity as such And here presumptuous men must take great heed of medling too far some Scholastick Divines say It is errour to say that Christs humane nature is a Part of his person because his Person was perfect from eternity and the Divinity cannot be a Par. of any thing Others say that It is erroâ— to say that the Humane nature is no part of Christ 〈◊〉 seeing it is no part of the Divine Essence or nature therefore it is a part of his person Others say that it is only an Accident of Christ some think that if it were not for fear of the clamours of Ignorant Hereticaters that will call it Nestorianism it were soundest and safest to say that the word Person is equivocal And that as it is taken for the second eternal person in the Trinity the humane nature is no part of it But as it is taken Relatively for the Person of the Mediator the humane nature is a part And so that Christ hath two persons but not univocally but equivocally so called IV. Of the Holy Ghost and the Holy Scriptures 1. That the Holy Ghost is but a creature or not God of the same essence with the Father and the Son 2. That the Holy Ghost is but the Angelical nature or species and as the diabolical nature and many Devils are called singularly the Devil so the many Angels are called the Holy Spirit 3. That the Immortal part of man called his Spirit is the essence of the Holy Ghost 4. That the Holy Ghost as operative on man is not a valid witness of the truth of Christ and Christianity in the world 5. That the Holy Ghost did not impregnate the Virgin Mary or that Christ was not conceived by him 6. That Adam had not the Holy Ghost or true Holiness 7. That the Prophets spake not by the Holy Ghost Or that their prophecies are of Private interpretation that is objectively to be interpreted of such private persons and things as they immediately spake of and which were but types of Christ or grace 8. That the Holy Ghost in the Prophets was not the Spirit of the Redeemer and sent by him 9. That the miracles of Christ and his Apostles were not wrought by the Holy Ghost 10. That the Holy Ghost may set the seal of true uncontrolled miracles to a lie 11. That the Canonical Scriptures were not indited by the Holy Ghost as infallible records of the Divine will 12. That they are but for a time till a perfecter Law is made called The Law of the Spirit 13. That they are imperfect without the supplement of Roman Tradition as part of the Rule of faith and life 14. That they were but occasional writings never intended for the universal law or rule of faith and holy living 15. That there are in the true original as they came from the Apostles some errours 16. That in the present received Originals there is any errour inconsistent with true saving faith and practice 17. That we are not bound to believe the Holy Scriptures to be Gods word but by the authoritative proposal of the Church of Rome that is A general Council subject to the Pope or called or approved by him as authorized thereto by Christ or that we must believe that the Pope or Council are authorized by Christ before we are bound to believe in Christ himself 18. That the Scriptures are not intelligible in necessary things till the Church Council Pope or Fathers expound them to us 19. That the Scriptures have no such imâ—â—ss or excellency by which they manifest themselves to be of God supposing necessary conveyance and ministerial explication 20. That we must not understand any text of Scripture but as the consent of ancient Fathers expoundeth it 21. That the Spirit now given to Poâ—â— Councils or to individual Christians is as much the Rule of faith and life as 〈◊〉 holy Scriptures or that the Spirit is not given now to us 〈◊〉 to teach us to understand believe love and practise Gods word indited by the more emmenâ— inspiration of the Apostles and Prophets â—ut also to inspire us as infallibly to know more than is revealed in the Scripture and that as needful to Salvation Or that it is not so much the Spirit extraordinarily inspiring the Apostles as the Spirit as inspiring ourselves which is every mans rule of faith and life 22. That the Light which is in Heathens Infidels and all men is this
and peace will hardly prosper much less if their spiritual Nurses become their chief afflicters Doct. 9. Vnity of the spirit is most necessary to the Church of Christ and to its several members though their measures of Grace be divers Doct. 10. The bond of Peace must preserve this Vnity Doct. 11. This Vnity consisteth in these seven things 1. One body 2. One spirit 3. One Hope 4. One Lord 5. One Faith 6. One Baptism 7. One God Doct. 12. This Vnity must be studied carefully and diligently endeavoured and preserved by all the faithful members of the Church These last Doctrines being the subject which I design to handle I shall speak of them together in the following Order I. I shall tell you What the Vnity of the spirit is which is so necessary II. I shall tell you What necessity there is of this Vnity and what are its happy fruits III. I shall open the seven particulars in which it doth consist and defend the sufficiency of them to the use here intended in the Text. IV. I shall open the nature and terms of counterfeit Unity V. I shall open the Nature and mischiefs of the contrary Division VI. I shall shew you what are the enemies and impediments of this Unity VII I shall shew you What are the study and endeavour and the bond of peace by which this Unity must be kept VIII I shall conclude with some directions for Application or Use of all CHAP. II. The Nature of Vnity and this Vnity of the spirit opened 1. WHat UNITY in General is and what This Vnity of the spirit in special I shall open in these following connexed propositions 1. I must neither here confound the ordinary Reader by the many Metaphysical difficulties about UNITY nor yet wholly pass them by lest I confound him for want of necessary distinction 2. UNITY is sometimes the attribute of an Vniversal which is but Ens rationis or a General Inadequate partial conception of an existent singular being and so All men are ONE as to the species of Humanity And all Living things are One in the Genus of Vitality And so of Bodies Substances Creatures c. It is much more than this that we have before us 2. Some think that the word ONE or UNITY signiâ—ieth only Negatively an Vndividedness in the thing it self But this conception is more than Negative and taketh in first in Compounds that peculiar Connexion of parts by one form and in simple spiritual beings that more excellent indivisible essentiality and existence whence the Being is intelligible as such a subsistence as is not only undivided in it self but divisible or differenceable from all other existent or possible beings so far as it is one 4. Passing by the distinction of Vnum per se per accidens and some such other I shall only further distinguish of Vnity according to the differences of the Entities that are called One Where indeed the difference of Things maketh the word ONE of very different significations 5. GOD is Supereminently and most perfectly ONE as he is ENS BEING No Creature hath Vnity in the same perfect sort and sense as GOD is One He is so ONE as that he is perfectly simple and indivisible and so as that he cannot be properly a Part in any composition 6. Therefore GOD and the World or any Creature are not compounding parts for a part is less than the whole And that which is less is not Infinite 7. Yet God is more Intimate to every creature than any of its own Parts are no form is more intimate to the matter no soul to the body no formal vertue to a spirit than God is to all and every being But his Perfection and the Creatures Imperfection is such as that creatures can be no addition to God nor compounding parts but like to Accidents 8. The same must be said therefore of Christs Divine and humane natures The Schoolmen therefore say that Christs soul and body are Parts of his humane nature but his Godhead and manhood are not to be called Parts of Christ Because the Godhead can be no Part of any thing 9. When Paul saith that God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All in All things he meaneth not that he is formally all things themselves But yet not that he is less or is more distant from them than the form but is eminently so much more as that the title is below him so he is said here Eph. 4. 6. To be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Father of all above all and through all and in us all And 1 Cor. 12. 16. it is said that the same God worketh all in all as to the diversity of operations He is the most intimate prime Agent in all that acteth though he hath enabled free Agents to determine their own acts morally to this or that hic nunc c. For in Him we live and move and have our Being for we are his offspring Act. 17. 10. Somewhat like this must be said of the special Union of Christ and all true believers As to his Divine Nature and so the Holy Ghost he is as the Father Intimately in all but more than the form of all or any But he is specially by Relation and Inoperation in his members as he is not in any others So Col. 3. 11. Christ is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All in All that is to the Church And so I conceive that it is in a Passive or Receptive sense that the Church is said to be the fulness of him that filleth all in all Eph. 1. 23. Whether it be spoken of Christs Godhead only or of his humane soul also as being to the Redeemed world what the Sun is to the Natural illuminated world I determine not But which ever it is Christ filling all in all the Church is called his fulness as being eminently â—possessed and filled by him as the Head is by the humane soul more than the hand or other lower parts 11. The Trinity of Persons is such as is no way contrary to the perfect Vnity of the Divine essence As the faculties of Motion Light and Heat in the Sun and of Vital Activity Intellection and Volition in man is not contrary to the Unity of the essence of the soul yet man is not so perfectly One as God is 12. The Vnity of a spirit in it self is a great Image or Likeness of the Divine Vnity As having no separable Parts as passive matter hath but being One without divisibility even one Essential Vertue or Vertuous substance 13. The most large extensive Vnity as far as spirits may be said to have extension or Degrees of Essence is likest to God And the Unity of a material atome is not more excellent than the Vnity of the material part of the world made up of such Atomes Whether there are such Atomes physically indivisible I here meddle not but the shaping of an Atome into cornered hollow and such other shapes is
first Disciples to give the world such a specimen of Love in this extraordinary way of Community For as extraordinary works of Power that is Miracles must be wrought by the first Preachers of the Gospel to shew Christs power and convince the unbelieving world so it was as needful that then there should be extraordinary works of Love to shew Christs Love and teach them the great work of Love which he came to call and bring men to For the first Book that Christ wrote was on the Hearts of Men which no Philosopher could do In fleshly tables he wrote LOVE TO GOD and MAN by the finger of his Spirit many a year before any Book of the New Testament was written And as his Doctrine was Love one another and Love your enemies forbear and forgive c. so his first Churches must extraordinarily exemplifie and express this doctrine by living in this extraordinary community and selling all and distributing as each had need And afterwards their Love-feasts did long keep up some memorial of it For they were the first sheet as it were of the New Book which Christ was publishing And LOVE was the summ of all that was imprinted on them And their Practice was to be much of the Preaching that must convert the world Christ was not a meer Orator or teacher of Words And non magna loquimur sed vivimus was the profession of his disciples He came not meerly to talk and teach men to talk but to Do and teach men to Do even to do that himself which none else ever did and to teach his followers to do that which no other sort of men did in this world But this leadeth me up to the next Use of Unity V. The SPIRIT of UNITY and LOVE is the Great means of the Churches increase There is a twofold augmentation of the Church 1. Intrinsick and Intensive when it Increaseth in all Goodness and hasteth to perfection And it is this Vital principle of Vniting Love or the Spirit of Vnity which is the immediate cause of this 2. Extensive when the Church is enlarged and more are added to it And it is a Life of Vniting Love among Christians that must do this as much or more than preaching Or at least if that preaching which is but the effect of Knowledge produce Evangelical Knowledge in the hearers yet a Life of Love and Vnity is the adapted means of breeding Love and Vnity the Life of Religion in the world Light may cause Light but Heat must cause Heat and it must be a Living thing that must generate life by ordinary causation That which cometh from the Head may reach the Head and perhaps the Heart but is not so fit to operate on Hearts as that which cometh from the heart Undoubtedly if Christians did commonly live in such Love and Vnity among themselves and shew the fruits of common Love to all about them as their Great master and his Religion teacheth them they would do wonders in converting sinners and enlarging the Church of Jesus Christ Who could stand out against the convincing and Attractive power of Uniting Love Who could much hate and persecute those that Love them and shew that Love This would heap melting coals of fire on their heads Our Saviour knew this when he made this his great Lesson to his disciples and when he prayed Joh. 17. 21 22 23 24. over and over for them which should believe on him through the Apostles word that they all may be One as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me And the Glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be One even as we are One I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in One and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me O when will Christ revive this blessed principle in his followers and set them again on this effectual way of preaching that Love may draw the world into the Churches Vnity Some look for new miracles for the converting of the now-forsaken Nations what God will do of that kind we know not for he hath not told us But Holy Vniting Vniversal Love is a thing which he hath still made our certain duty and therefore we are all bound to seek and do it And therefore we may both pray and labour for it in hope And could we but come up to this known duty we should have a means for the worlds conversion as effectual as miracles and more sweet and pleasant to them and us Obj. But why then is the world still unconverted when all true Christians have this love Ans 1. Alas those true Christians are so few and the hypocrites that are selfish worldlings are so many that the poor people that live among professed Christians do judge of Christianity by those false professours who are indeed no Christians Men see not the hearts of one another Thousands of ungodly persons for interest education and custome take on them the name of Christians who never were such indeed by heart-consent When these counterfeit Christians live like Infidels men think that Christians are no better than Infidels For they think they must judge by the greater number of such as go under the Christian name But if the world could tell who they be that are truly Christians at the heart they would see that they have that spirit of Love which is not in unbelievers 2. And alas the Love and Vnity even of true Christians is yet too imperfect and is darkened and blemished with too much of the contrary vice were Christians perfect Christians they would indeed be the honour of their profession Then Love would be the powerful principle of all their works which would taste of its nature and as it is said of Wine Judg. 9. 13. it cheereth God and man so I may say God and man would be delighted in the sweetness of these fruits For with such Sacrifice God is well pleased Heb. 13. 16. But alas what crabbed and contrary fruits how soure how bitter do many distempered Christians bring forth If it will increase the Church and win men to the Love of Christianity to be reviled or persecuted to be contemned and neglected to be separated from as persons unworthy of our-love and kindness then Christianity will not want propagaters The pouring out of the Spirit was the first planting of the Christian Church And where there is most of Love there is most of the spirit As there needeth no forcing penal Laws to compel men to obey God so far as Love prevaileth in them so if Love were more eminent in the Church Pastors and Professors that they preached and ruled and lived towards all men in the power of sincere and fervent Love there would be less pretence for all that violence oppression and cruelty which hath been long
exercised by the worldly Clergy and so much the more odiously by how much the more the sacred name of Religion hath been used for its justification or excuse VI. UNITING LOVE is the GLORY and Perfection of the Church And therefore there will be in Heaven much greater Love and much nearer UNITY than there is of the dearest friends on earth yea greater and nearer than we can now distinctly understand And again I say that they that in thinking of the state of separated souls do fear lest all souls do lose their individuation and fall into one common soul do foolishly fear a greater Vnity than is to be expected And yet nothing else about the souls Immortality is lyable to a rational doubt For 1. It s substance certainly is not annihilated 2. Nor its formal essential Virtues lost by mutation into some other species 3. Nor doth the Activity of such an Active nature cease 4. Nor will there want objects for it to act upon Were it well considered that LOVE is as Natural to a soul as Heat is to the Sun that is an effect of that Act which its very essence doth perform 2. And that our UNITY is an Unity of LOVE Voluntarily performed it would much abate such selfish fears of too much Unity For who ever feared too much Love too extensive or too intensive too large or too near a Union of minds And as the beloved Apostle saith that GOD IS LOVE as a name which signifieth his essence why may not the same be said of souls which are his Image that A SOUL IS LOVE Not that this is an Adequate conception of A SOUL much less of GOD but of the partial or inadequate Conceptions it seemeth to be the chiefest The SOVL of Man is a Pure or Spiritual substance informed by a Virtue of Vital activity Intellection and Volition which is LOVE informing or animating an organical body for a time and separable at the bodies dissolution And as the Calefactive Virtue is the Essence of the Fire though not an adequate Conception of its essence For it is a pure substance formally induâ—d with the Virtue Motive Illuminative and Calefactive and the act of Calefaction is its essence as operative on a due recipient so LOVE is the souls essence in the faculty or Virtue and its Essence as operative on a due object in the Act which Act though the soul exercise it not ad ultimum posse by such a Natural necessity as the fire heateth yet its Nature or Essence immediately exerciseth it though in a freâ—r manner yea some Acts of Love quoad specificationem though not quoad exercitium are exercised as necessarily as calefaction by the fire yea more though now in the body the exercise by cogitation and sense be not so necessary we cannot say that in its separated state it will not be so yea yet more even in the body the LOVE of a Mans SELF and of felicity or pleasure seemeth to be a deep constant or uncessant Act of the soul though not sensibly observed And if LOVE be so far essential to it the perfection of Love is the souls perfection and the exercises of Love are the chief operations of the soul And consequently the perfection and glory of the Church which is but a conjunction of holy persons consisteth in the same Uniting Love which perfecteth souls And indeed Vniformity in circumstantials and in external Polity were but a Carkass or Image of Unity without Uniting Love which is its soul As much external Union in good as we are capable of doth advantage Vnity of spirit But all Union in evil and all in unnecessary circumstantials which is managed to the diminution of Christian Love are to the Church but as the glory of adorned cloathing or monuments or pictures to a carkass And the Church-Tyrants that would thus Unite us and sacrifice Love and the means of it to their sort of Vnity are but like the Physician that prescribed a sicâ—man a draught of his own heart blood to cure him The Inquisitors that torture mens bodies to save their souls are not more unskilful in their pretended Charity to save men than is he that hindereth or destroyeth Love while he seeketh the Churches Unity in humane Ordinances by fraud or fear When they have killed any Church by Love killing snares and practices and glory that it is united in Papal power splendor and decrees it is but as if they cut all a mans nerves or cast him into a Palsie or killed him and gloried that they have tyed his limbs together with strings or bound them all up in the same Winding-sheet and Coffin That edifieth not the Church which tendeth not to save but to destroy mens souls CHAP. V. This Vnity conduceth to the good of the world without the Church § 1. THe chief hopes of the Heathen and Infidel world consist in their hopes of being brought into the faith and Church of Christians And as God addeth to the Church such as shall be saved so the means that our charity must use to save them is to get them into this ark The measure of their other hopes or what possibility there is of their salvation I have elsewhere plainly opened It sufficeth us here to remember that no man cometh to the Father but by the Son and that he is the Saviour of his body however he be called also the Saviour of the world § 2. And as in nature it is the principle of life in the seed and womb which is the Generating Cause of formation and augmentation of the soetuâ— And it is the vital powers in Man which maketh his daily nourishment become a living part of himself and causeth his growth So is iâ— the Spirit in the Church that is Gods appointed means to quicken and convert the Infidel world And it is those Christian Countreys which are adjoyning to Mahometans and Heathens that should do most to their conversion who have far easier means than others by proximity and converse to do it and therefore are under the greatest obligations to attempt it As also those remoter Countreys that are most in amity and traffick with them § 3. And as Instruction by evidence must do much so this Vniting Spirit of Love must do a great part of this work and that both as it worketh inwardly on our selves in the Communion of Saints and as it worketh outwardly by attraction and communication to draw in and assimilate others § 4. I. The Churches Vnity of Spirit doth fortifie and fit it for all its own offices in order to the conversion of the world All parts are better qualified for the work by that Wisdom Goodness and Life which they must work by And each member partaketh of the common strength which their Unity causeth An united Army is likest to be victorious Their routing is their flight and overthrow And the Army or Kingdom that is Mutinous or in Civil Wars or not unanimous is unfit to enlarge dominion and conquer
others They will have worâ— enough at home § 5. Were but Christian Princes and people united as they would be a terror to Turkish and other Infidel Oppressors and in likelihood easily able to vanquish them so they might easily contribute their endeavours to instruct and convince these Infidels with probability of greater success than any attempts have yet had upon them They might with greater advantage send out and maintain men of Learning and other fitness to perform it The Eastern Christians by divisions were broken off from the Greeks The Greeks by division and wickedness fell into the hands of the Turks The divisions of the Western Nations furthered their Conquest and hindred the Greeks recovery The divisions of the Military forces lost Palestine and frustrated their vast labours and expences Lost also Armenian aids and destroyed the hopeful beginnings of the Conversion of the Tartarians The division of Christian Princes hath set up the Papal Kingdom as the Umpire of their feuds That which hath done so much to destroy Churches and Kingdoms and hath murdered many hundred thousand Christians and gone far towards the extirpating of true Christianity out of much of the formerly Christian World must needs unfit us all to recover the World and convert unbelievers § 6. And were but Christian Preachers and Pastors United instead of their pernicious Church-destroying contentions how great things might their united diligence have done If all the mischievous unskilful proud wrangling and worldly ambitious strife by which the Christians were divided into Nestorians Eutychians Monothelites Phantasiasts Donatists Novatians and their Anathematizers c. had been turned into an united force and diligence by Light and Love to have converted Infidels What a happy case had the World been in And what blessings had that part of the Clergy been that now have left their Names and History to reproach and shame § 7. II. And as Efficiently so Objectively and Morally the Vnion of Christians tendeth to convert the World as it is notorious that their divisions have hindered their Conversion Men commonly suspect them to be deceived or deceivers that do not agree among themselves They that reverence united Christians despise them when they see them fall into divisions and learn of themselves to condemn them all by hearing them revile and condemn each other Christ had never made it so great a part of his prayer to his Father that his disciples might be One even as the Father and he were One to this end that the world may know that the Father sent him if this their Union had not been a special means of convincing unbelievers And this was not by a Political Union of the rest of his Disciples under some One of them as the Governing Head of all the rest For no such Head was set over them by Christ nor ever claimed or exercised any such authority But it was a holy Union of Minds in knowledge and faith and of Hearts in Love and of Life in their published Doctrine and their Communion and Conversation The common Sun-light maketh all mens sight whose Organs and Viâ—ive faculty are sound to agree and though a man hath two eyes they see unitedly as if they were one The more united fuel make one fire the more powerful it is to kindle on all other combustible matter near it When many Ministers of the same or several Churches agree it much availeth to procure the belief and obedience of their flocks And when Pastors and people agree it strongly inviteth the reverence and consent of those without By wilful dissensions we are scandals and snares to unbelievers and if Christians live not in Unity Love and Peace they rob the world of a great appointed means of their conversion And they who for so doing do justly exclaim against persecutors and hinderers of the Gospel should also remember how much they participate in that guilt while the Love of Christians to one another is made almost as needful as preaching to the winning of mens Love to faith and holiness § 8. As in the solemn singing of Psalms the harmony of concenting well tuned voices inviteth the hearers to joyn with them by delight when bawling confusion and discord one singing one tune and another another is loathsome and tiresome and driveth men away so would the sweet concent of Christians have won unbelievers to the Love of Christian faith and piety when their divisions and wicked lives have had contrary lamentable effects wo to the world because of offences and wo to them by whom offences come CHAP. VI. The Vnity of Christians is due to the Honour of Christ and is pleasing and amiable to God § 1. IT is not only Miracles that are Christs witness in the world The spirit of Prophecie also is called his witness Rev. 19. 10. And if many Prophets should all say that they speak from Christ and speak contrary things and charge each other with falshood and deceit would this be to his honour or to the credit of their testimony It is the great Concord of the prophecies promises and types of the Old Testament with the history and doctrine of the New and the great concord of all the writers of the New Testament among themselves which greatly facilitateth our belief both of the Old and New And all Infidels who accuse the Scriptures of untruth do accuse it also of contradictions And if they could prove the later they would prove the former § 2. And the spirit of Holiness as it regenerateth and sanctifieth sinners from generation to generation is no less a witness of the Truth and Love and Glory of Christ than prophecies and miracles The same spirit that is the author of prophecie and sacred doctrine is also the author of believers renovation to the image of God And Illumination is not the least or last part of this sanctifying work Christ is the light of the world and his word and spirit are given to enlighten blinded minds and to bring them out of darkness into his marvellous light and from the power of the Prince of darkness and from doing the works of darkness to the Father of Lights who giveth wisdom liberally to them that ask it that they may walk as Children of the light Light is usually called Glory Heaven is the place of the greatest Light and greatest Glory And heavenly wisdom in believers is much of their Glory here begun in which their Father their Saviour and their sanctifier is glorified Whatever therefore obscureth or diminisheth this sacred Light in Saints opposeth that Glory of God and our Redeemer which must appear and shine forth in them The holy Learning of his disciples is the honour of the heavenly Teacher of the Church All true believers are taught of God were they no wiser nor no better than other men where were the testimony and the honour of their Teacher and who would believe that he were a happier Teacher than Philosophers or that he were the true Saviour of
the world that doth not save his own disciples from sin and folly No wonder that God hath no pleasure in fools and that the foolish shall not stand in his fight when they are such a dishonour to Christ and him what fellowship hath Light with darkness And who knoweth not that disagreement proveth ignorance and errour in one party at least When they hold and plead for contrary opinions both cannot be in the right And when this is but in dark and difficult matters of no great influence on our hearts and lives and future hopes it is tolerable and no more to be wondered at than that we are yet but imperfect men in flesh and in this low and darksome world But when it amounteth to that which maketh Christians judge it necessary to anathematize one another and to cast out each other from their communion as intolerable and perhaps to seek one anothers destruction do they not loudly proclaim their shameful ignorance to the world § 3. I know that discipline must be exercised and the precious separated from the vile and this especially for the honour of Christianity For if the Church be as a Swinesty and the clean and unclean the sober and the drunken the chaste and the fornicators equally members of it such a society and their religion will be contemned For sin is a reproach to any people But casting a felon or murderer in Jaile doth much differ from a civil war For the Church to cast out the impure that repent not is necessary to their honour but to divide and subdivide among themselves is their reproach though the dividers have never so fair pretences § 4. I know also what pretences against heresie c. the dividing sects have had in all ages They have pretended that they only being the true Church the condemning and rejecting of all others was necessary to the Churches honour But is it indeed to the honour of the Christian name that so great bodies for so many ages have continu'd to condemn and anathematize each other That the Greek Church condemneth the Western and the Western them That the Eastern and Southern are separated from both And the Western Christians so divided among themselves Who that is not a stranger to man and history knoweth not that it hath been to exercise a Dominion over others and also to extol the skill of their understandings as speaking rightlier than others when they strove about ambiguous words that very much of their anathematizing hath been used And when the Pope hath anathematized the Patriarch of Constantinople he hath anathematized him again yea so hath the Patriarch of Alexandria also And when the three parties the Orthodox the Nestorians and the Eutychians for so many ages have continued anathematizing each other the dishonour falleth on them all in the eyes of beholders and no party recovereth their honour with the rest § 5. Undoubtedly it is they that God shall make the blessed instruments of restoring the necessary means of Concord and thereby of reviving Christian Love and peace that will be the chief and honourable agents for the repairing of the honour of the Christian Church if ever it be repaired in this world All parties seem agreed in this even they that most foolishly and cruelly tear and distract the Church that it must be Love and Concord that at last must heal it and recover its glory if ever it be healed And how much Christ is pleased to see his servants live in Love and peace his office his nature his many and vehement Commands do tell us CHAP. VII III. What obligations are on all Christians to avoid sinful divisions and discord and to promote this Vnity and peace § 1. FRom what is already said it is easie to gather that many and great obligations are on all Christians to be promoters of Concord and enemies of discord and divisions I. The many and express commands of Christ in Scripture do oblige them This is no dark or controverted point written in words which are hard to be understood but plainly uttered and often urged Yea when several of Gods commands are mentioned this is still preferred before most others that can be imagined to stand in competition against it As the uniting Love of God is called the first and great Command so the uniting Love of man is called the second like to that and the summ of the second table and the fulfilling of the Law It is not mentioned as an Accident of the New Creature but as an essential part not as the high qualification of some rare Christian but as that which is necessary and common to all that are the living members of Christ Not only as needful to some inferiour uses but as necessary to all the great Ends of our Religion preferred before sacrifice and all the rituals and not to be dispensed with on any pretence § 2. II. No man therefore can be an obedient servant of Christ that seeketh not to keep the Vnity of the spirit in the bond of peace If he that breaketh one of the least commands and teacheth men so to do shall be called Least in the Kingdom of God what shall he be called and where shall be his lot that breaketh the greatest § 3. III. The Love of God our Father and of Christ our Redeemer doth oblige us For if he that loveth not his brother whom he seâ—th daily cannot Love God whom he never saw how much less he that loveth not the multitude of believers and so great an interest of God in the world as is that unity and concord of the body of Christ And if he that doth or doth not good to one of the least of the servants of Christ is supposed to have done it or not done it to himself how much more he that doth or omitteth that which Christ and his whole Church is so much concerned in § 4. IV. The Love of our own souls obligeth us considering how many and great impediments discord doth raise against all grace and duty and against our holiness comfort and salvation And how much Christian Love and Concord do conduce to the preservation of all grace and to the attainment of Glory All men in true Concord are our helpers and all men in discord are our hinderers and tempters How fair and easie is the way to Heaven among true Loving and agreeing Christians and how hard is it where divisions and contentions take place § 5. V. The Love of our neighbours souls obligeth us to this That which is best for us is best for them Alas carnal minds deceived by sin need not to have the way to heaven made harder nor to be tempted by the discords of Christians to despise them Their own malignity and the devils temptations when we have done our best may suffice to deceive them and undo them Every Christian should be a helper to the salvation of all about him and a souldier under Christ to fight against Satan as he
us that they were settled only in One Empire and not in the rest of the World 5. And that the Emperour and Councils of that Empire made them 6. And therefore when they were at first but three they added at their pleasure two more Constantinople and Jerusalem 7. And none of all these pretend to Apostolical Institution and Succession but Antioch that claimeth to be St. Peters first Seat and Rome to be his second and that but as Bishops when that also is a frivolous pretense Alexandria claimeth succession but from St. Mark and Jerusalem from that St. James who saith Dr. Hammond and others was none of the Apostles and Constantinople from none at all though above the rest Councils as Constant and Chalced. professing that the Fathers and Princes made them what they were Sect. IV. It is certain that the Christian World is not now united in Patriarchs nor ever was nor ever will be The Patriarchs of the rest of the Empire are all now broken off from the Church of Rome Constantinople Alexandria Antioch and Jerusalem are all against him The East had four and the West but one and are now at odds condemning each other The rest of the world have none and had none And it is commonly confessed that as men set them up so men may pull them down again Yea even in the old Empire many Churches were from under all the Patriarchs as is commonly known Sect. V. And how should these Patriarchs unite all the Church It must be either by meeting or at distance As for their meeting Princes that are some Mahometans and some Christians of divers Interests and Minds will not suffer it And neither by meeting or distance can we be secured that they will agree when even under one Emperour that laboured to unite them they were among their Clergy like the Generals of so many Armies distracting and at last destroying the Empire by hereticating and persecuting one another Those that have divided and undone that Empire are never like to unite the Christian World Sect. VI. And what I say of Patriarchs I say of all humane Forms of Churches or Church-government and so of such an Episcopacy as is not necessary to the being of the Church There are here three distinct questions before us 1. Whether the Pastoral Office be necessary to Church-unity 2. Whether Parochial Episcopacy be necessary to it 3. Whether Diocesan Bishops distinct from Archbishops be necessary to it And you may adde a fourth Whether Archbishops be necessary to it not disputing now the lawfulness of any of all these Sect. VII 1. Of the first I have spoken before No doubt but Christs universal Church hath ever had Teachers and Pastors as the most noble organical part And a Body may as well be without a Stomack Liver or Lungs as the Church be without them And to a particular Church as political organized or Governed they are a constitutive part But I have before shewed reasons to doubt whether yet it be necessary to salvation to every individual Christian to know that the Ministry is an instituted Office and to own such But this little concerneth our Cause Sect. VIII 2. Parochial Episcopacy that is the preeminence and government of one Presbyter called a Bishop over the rest in every single Church was early introduced to avoid the discord of the Presbyters and the Flock In the time when Ignatius's Epistles were written he tells us That every Church had One Altar and one Bishop with his fellow-Presbyters and Deacons Whether this was of Apostolical Institution or a humane Corruption is disputed in so many Volumes by Petavius Sancta Clara Faravia Whitenitto Downham Hammond Hooker Bilson c. on one side And Gersom Bucer Beza Cartwright Salmasius Didoclane Jacob Blondel Parker Paul Baine c. on the other that I think it not meet here to interpose my thoughts But that it is not essential to a Church and that all the Church will not unite in it appeareth as followeth Sect. IX 1. They are not united in it now The Reformed Churches in France Belgia Helvetia and many other parts are against such Bishops as necessary and a distinct Order And in England Scotland and Ireland New-England c. they are by some approved and by others not 2. Former Ages have had many pious Christians against them especially in Scotland and among the Waldenses 3. The School-men and other Papists are not themselves agreed whether Bishops and Presbyters are distinct Orders 4. The Church of England even while Popish denyed it and said they were but one Order as you may see in Spelman Aelfreds Laws or Canons 5. Hierome and Eutychius Alexandrinus tell us how and why Episcopacy was introduced at Alexandria and that the Presbyters made them there 6. The Scots were long governed without them as Major and Beda tell us And their Presbyters made the first Bishops in Northumberland as Pomeranus a Presbyter made those in Denmark 7. Almost all the Churches in East and West as far as I can learn have cast off Parochial Bishops of single Churches and in their stead set up Diocesans over multitudes of Parishes without any Bishops under them but Curats only 8. While there is no hope of all agreeing whether it be a Divine Institution and that of essential necessity there is no probability that ever the Universal Church will unite in them 9. The Diocesans we find will never yield to them 10. The reception of them will not unite the Church were it agreed on it being more and greater matters that they differ about I confess that the ancient reception of them was so general and the reason of the thing so fair that I am none of those that accuse such Episcopacy as unlawfull or Schismatical but rather think it conduceth to prevent Schisms But 1. I am satisfied that it will not be agreed to by all 2. Nor serve for universal Concord were it agreed on 3. And that it is Schismatical to make them more necessary than God hath made them and to cut off Christians or Churches that cannot receive them Sect. IX Diocesan Episcopacy by which I mean a single Bishop over many hundred or score Parishes and sacred Assemblies that have Altars and are large enough to be single Churches or at least Many such without any Bishops under him of those Churches will much less ever unite the Universal Church however it hath obtained over very much of the Christian world For first more Churches by far at this day are against it than against Parochial Episcopacy and more Volumes are written against it and Men have a far greater aversness to it as more dangerous to the Church Sect. X. 2. It is contrary to the Scripture Institution which set up Bishops in all single Churches whether the same with Presbyters I now dispute not but they were such as then were received And those that think such Single or Parish or City Bishops necessary will never agree to put them all