avoid them and the causers and fomenters of them There was never Master so much for Unity as Christ and never was there a Law or a Religion that did so much condemne Divisions and command brotherly Love and Peace and concord and forbearing and forgiving one another as the Christian Law and Religion doth And will you yet say that our Divisions are long of our Religion or of Christ the author of it You may as wisely say that eating is the cause of weakness because that some are weak for all their meat But you will find that none can live without it Or you may say as wisely that Physicians are the causes of the diseases of the world because they do not cure them all I tell you there is none in all the world that have done so much for Unity and Peace as Christ hath done No all the world set together have not done half so much for it as he He hath preached Peace and Unity forgiving and forbearing and Loving one another yea Loving our enemies and he hath gone before us in the perfect practice of what he taught He hath offered himself a Sacrifice to the Justice of his Father that by his blood he might reconcile us unto God He is the great Peacemaker between God and man between Jews and Gentiles taking away the enmity and becoming himself the Head of our Unity and giving us One Spirit one faith one baptism that we might be One in him who is One with the Father So that to charge the Center of Unity with our Divisions and the Prince of Peace himself with our Discords or his holy Word or waies with our Disagreements is all one as to charge the Sun with Darkness and to say that our Law-givers and Laws are the causes of theft and murder and Adultery which condemne them to death that are proved guilty of them The cause of all our disagreements and divisions is because we are no more Holy then we are and because we are no more Religious So that I may leave it now as a Proved Truth that we must Unite in the Spirit and Agree in Holiness of Heart and life if ever we will have true Unity and Agreement AND now Sirs you have seen the only way of Unity opened to you It s plain and past all doubt before you If yet you will divide from God and his servants and if yet you will be numbered with the straglers or quarrellers do not say but Peace was opened and offered to you Do not say You could not have Peace but that you would not Do not say any more hereafter that there were so many Religions and so many waies that you could not tell which to joyn with Never more pretend the differences of the godly as a cloak for your ungodliness I have opened the nakedness of such pretences You shall not be able when your lives are scan'd to look God in the face with such an unreasonable impudent pretence Your consciences and the world shall then be witnesses of your shame that while you cryed out of Sects and heresies and were offended at the Divisions of the Church it was your selves that were the cause of it It was you and such as you that were the great Dividers and that obstinately proceeded in your Divisions when the way of Peace was opened to you and would not be United in the Spirit to Christ nor would not Agree in Holiness with his Church when you were acquainted that there was no other way to Peace Would you but have joyned in a firm and everlaling Covenant to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as your only Creator Redeemer and Sanctifyer as members of the Holy Catholick Church and have lived in the Communion of the Saints you should have received the Forgiveness of sins the Resurrection of the just and Everlasting Life But in refusing and obstinate refusing these you refused all your hopes of Blessedness and wilfully cast your selves on the wrath of God and therefore must endure it for ever THE last Advice that I have to give upon the ground of this Doctrine is To all that are United in the Spirit and Agreed upon an Holy life I mean to say but little to you now but briefly to tender you these two requests 1. I beseech you Christians but to live as Christians in that holy Unity as your principles and profession do engage you to Hath true Christianity and Holiness such abundance of advantages against division and yet will you be guilty of it Against all these bonds and healing principles and helps will you be dividers Doth it not grieve you and even break your hearts to hear ungodly persons say that Professors are of so many minds and partyes that they know not which of them to follow and that we had never concord since you bore sway O do not seek by your contentious wayes to perswade people that Holiness is a dividing thing and that Religion doth but tend to set the world together by the eares Is it not a precious mercy to us of this place that we have among us but one Church and one Religion and and have not Church against Church and Christian against Christian I charge you from the Lord that you be thankful for this benefit and that you look upon divided places and compare their case with yours that if ever dividers come amongst you the sense of your felicity in this blessed Unity may cause you to reject them and that you do not suffer any Dalilah to rob you of your strength and glory Were you but once here in pieces among your selves what a scorn would you be to all the ungodly what sport would it be to them to hear you disputing against one another and reproaching and condemning one another as bitterly as the wicked do reproach you all Do you not pitty those places where divisions have made Religion to be a scorn and the tender Love and Unity of the Saints is turned into uncharitable censures and separations Take warning then that you come not to the like If you should you would be as unexcusable as any People in the world because you have tryed and tasted so much of the sweetness and benefits of Unity as you have done shew men by your lives that Holiness is the most certain way to Unity as ever you desire either to propagate Holiness or to have any evidence of it in your selves 2. Judge by this undoubted truth of any doctrine that shall be offered you and of the wayes of men and of your selves 1. Suspect that doctrine that tendeth to divisions in the Church If it be not for Unity it is not of God Rom 16.17 Christ came to heal and reconcile and is the Prince of Peace and therefore sendeth not his servants on a contrary errand He will justifie your dividing from the unbelieving world but he hateth dividing among his servants He that 's for Church-division is not in that for Christ or you 2.
is the final part of the Duty here required To keep the Vnity of the Spirit The Preserving cause is the Peaceable behaviour of the members and this is the mediate Duty here required In the bond of Peace Our own Endeavours are hereto required because as every natural body must by eating and drinking and fit exercise and usage be a cause of its own preservation and not forbear these under pretence of trusting the all-sufficiency of God and as every Political Body must by Government and Arms in case of need preserve themselves under God so must the Body of Christ the Church be diligent in using their best endeavours to preserve the Being and well-being of the whole So that you see here are two causes of the Churches Unity expressed 1. The principal Constitutive cause in which our Unity consisteth and that is The Spirit 2. The Preserving cause by which our Unity is cherished and that is Peace which therefore is called the bond of it The fifth and sixth verses do open this Vnity of Spirit in its parts effects and ends There is One Hope of our Calling that is One Heaven or Life Eternal which is the end of our Christianity and Church Constitution There is one Lord Jesus Christ One Head one Saviour one Soveraign Redeemer to whom by this Spirit the members are all United There is One Faith both one summe of holy Doctrine which all that will be saved must believe which was used to be professed by the adult at Baptism and One internal saving Faith which this Spirit causeth in our Spirits and useth it as a means of our union with Christ in whom we do believe There is One Baptism or solemn Covenanting with God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost and the same promise there to be made by all And there is One God the Father of all from whom we fell and to whom we must be recovered and who is the End of all and to whom Christ and all these means are the Way So that all these are implyed in and conjunct with the Vnity of the Spirit The sense of the Text then briefly is this As all the living true members of Christ and the Church have one Spirit and so one Faith by which they are all united to Christ the Head and so to the Father in and by him which Vnion in One Spirit is your very Life and it that constituteth you true members of Christ and his Church so it must be your care and great endeavour to preserve this Spirit in you and this vital Vnity which by this Spirit you have with Christ and one another and the way to preserve it is by the bond of Peace among your selves It is here evident then that all the members of Christ and his Body have One Spirit and in that is their Union All the question is What Spirit this is And that 's left past all doubt in the Chapter For though the common gifts of the Spirit are sometime called by that name yet these are no further meant in the Text then as appurtenances or additions to greater gifts As godliness hath the promise of the common mercies of this life as well as of the special mercies of the life to come but yet with great difference the later being absolutely promised and the former but limitedly so far as God sees best for us Even so the Spirit gave to the members of the Church both Sanctifying Grace and common Gifts but with great difference giving Sanctification to all and only the members of Christ but giving common gifts also to some others and to them but with limitation for sort and season and measure and continuance as God should see good It is then the same Holy-Ghost as our Sanctifier into whose name we are baptized as wel as into the name of the â—ather and the Son and in whom we all profess to believe that is here meant in my Text. And it is only the Sanctified that are the people United to Christ and to One another This is proved expresly by that which foâ—loweth vers 6 7. It is those that have the One Hope one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God the Father vers 12. It is the Saints and body of Christ that are to be perfected by the Ministry vers 13 15 16. It is those that must come in the Vnity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ and that grow up in all things in Christ the Head It is the Body that is Vnited to him and compacted in Love and edifieth itself in Love vers 20 21 22 23 24. It is those that hâ—vâ— so leâ—rned Christ as to put off tâ—e â—ld man thâ—t is câ—rrupt â—nd are râ—neweâ— in the Spirit of their â—inâ—s and put on the nâ—w man which â—fter God is reâ—tâ—â— in righteouâ—neâ—s and true holiness If thereâ—â—re any words be plain its plain tâ—at its true â—aints only that are here spoken of that have the Vnity of spirit which they must preserve in the bond of Peace And therefore I shall make this Observation the ground of my discourse Doct. The true Vnity of the Catholick Church of Christ consisteth in this that they have all one Sanctifying spirit within them By the Holy-Ghost within them they are all United to Christ and to one another By this One Spirit they are all made â—aints or an Holy people having One Heaven for the matter of their Hopes One Christ their Head One summe of Christian doctrine which they believe containing all the Essentials of Christian Faith and One living principle of Faith to believe it One solemn Covenant with Christ and One God the â—ather their End and All. It is only the Sanctified that have true Christian Vnity and it is unholiness or ungodliness that is the cause of the miserable Divisions of the world Now Sirs you see the Only way to Vnity Even to have One Sanctifying spirit within us and be all an Holy People and there is no way but this Now you see the principal cause of Division even unholiness and refusing the Spirit of Grace In handling this point 1. I shall give you some Propositions that are necessary for the fuller understanding of it 2. I shall demonstrate the Point to you by fuller Evidence of Reason 3. I shall make Application of it I. PRop 1. Though it be only the Sanctified that have the true Unâ—on of Members wâ—th Chrâ—st and the Body yet all that make Profession of Sanctification and Null not that Proâ—ession have an Extrâ—nsick Analogical Union in profession As the wooden or dead leg is united to the body and the dead branch to the Vine And so even Hypocrites must not only dwell among us but be of the same visible Church with us as the chaff and tares are in the same corn-field And as long as they seem Saints we must value them and use them as Saints and love them
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
to cure such small distempers that arise without The life of â—aith the love of God the love of Brethren and the Churches peace and welfare with the humility and self-dâ—nyal that is in every Christian will do a great deal to the healing of divisions among the Godly They will be content to meet together in Love and pray it out and refer the matter to the holy Scripture and they have all some special illumination of the Spirit But perhaps you will say Why are they not then more fully agreed I answer 1. Because there are such a multitude of ungodly persons among them that hinder them from opportunities and advantages for agreement And many of these ungodly ones are hypocrites that take on them to be godly and so are traytors in our bosoms and hinder peace the more by seeming to be godly when they are not 2. Because of the remnant of sin that is yet in the sanctified and because they are not yet perfect and in Heaven If they had no sin they would have no divisions And as their sin is healed as to the dominion of it but not perfectly till they come to heaven so their divisions are healed in the main but not perfectly till they are perfectly United to God in Glory 9. Consider also I beseech you what a joy it would be to Christ and to the Angels of heaven and to all good men if you would but all make such an Agreement and heartily joyn together in Holiness The whole 15. Chapter of Lukâ— â—s by divers Parables to tell you this wâ—at Joy there is in heaven it self for the conversâ—on of one sinner O what would there be then if Towns and Countries would agree in Holiness And I am certain it should be a Joy to the Princes and Rulers of the earâ—h for such a Unity only will â—old and be a blessing to their Dominions Plutarch makes it Agâ—silâ—us his reason why the Spartans had no Walls because the people being 〈◊〉 of one minde had no need or Walls And Pliny tells us of a stone that will swim if it be whole and sink if it be broken And so will Common-wealths that are brokeâ— fâ—om Christ and void of the cement of the Spirit that should â—nite them And to the Ministers of the Gospel and all good Christianâ— such an Unity as this would be an unspeakable joy Somewhat I know of other mens hearts by mine own Could I but prevail with this Nation yea with this one Town and Parish to meet all together and hearâ—ily Consent Agree and Resolve to joyn all together in an heavenly life I should more rejoyce in it then if I had the house full of gold and silver yea as to mine own interest then if I were Lord of all the world O what a joyful day were this if I could this dâ—y bring you to this Holy Unity and Agreement How comfortably should I spend the few remaining dayes of my pilgrimage among you if you would but all be brought to this Whereas I may now say as David Psalm 120.5 for all the godly that are among you Wo is me thâ—t I sâ—journ in Mesech that I dwell in the Tâ—ntâ— of Kedar My soul â—ath too long dwelt with him that hateth this holy peace I am for peace but when I speak and perswade men to it they are for war and continuance in the dividing course 〈◊〉 ungodliness Alas it grieveth us to see such divisions in all the Churches and Nations of the Christian world and O that we did know how to heal them But when we cannot heal the most ungodly separations and divisions of one Town and Parish it discourageth us from hoping for any great matters of such large extent Some attempts I have made and more I would fain make to further a Union and Peace among the Churchâ—s through the Land But when I cannot procure the Unity of this one Town and Parish what hope can I have to look any further â—lâ—s what a shame is this to you and what a grief to us that we cannot bring one Parish one Village that ever I knew of in all England to be all of a mind in thosâ— great those weighty needful things where it is worse thâ—n a madness for men to bâ— unresolved or disâ—greed As Melanthus made a jeâ—t of a great man that went about to reconcile all Greece and bring all the Princes and Stâ—tes to Peâ—ce when he could not bring hâ—s wiâ—e and her servant-maid to agreement in his own house So with what hopes can we attempt any publick peace when we cannot bring one Parish one Village yâ—a but very few â—amilies to agree in that which they must agree in or else the refusers will be certainly condemned I beseech you â—irs make glad the 〈…〉 of your Teachers â—nd of all good mâ—n by your Agreement You owe us this Comfort and you owe it to Christ and the Angels of heaven deny us not our due but without any more delay Agree togeâ—her to live as Saints What a Joy it would be to your Pastors you are not easily able to believe When Gregory Thaumatuâ—gus came first to be Bishop of Neocâ—sarea he found but seventeen Chrâ—stians in the City And when he lay on his death-bed he desired them to make enquiry how many Infidels were unconverted and they found but just sâ—venteen Infidels left and all the rest were converted to Christianity And though he rejoyced that he left but just as many unconverted Infidels as he found converted Christians yet he grieved withall that he should leave those seventeen in the power of the Devil When I came to you I found you all Professed Christians But Oh that I could say that I shall leave but seventeen unconverted when I am called from you for all that O that there were no more thâ—t are Infidels or Impious under the name of Christians But I and you are unworthy of so great a mercy 10. And I pray you consider this in time that all of you that now refuse this Agreement in Holiness will wish ere long that you had heartily embraced it and joyned with the godly and done as they And why will you not be of the mind that you will be shortly of And why will you be of that way and company that you will wish at last you had not been of The Prodigal in Luke 15. did think it a slavery to be kept up so strictly by his Fathers eye he must have his portion in his own possession and abroad he must be gone but when smart had taught him another lesson and misery had bâ—ought him to himself then he is glad to be an hired servant and casteth himself at his Fathers feet in the confession of his unworthiness to be called a son God grant that thâ—s may prove your case But let me tell it you for a certain truth theâ—e is not one of you that now 〈…〉 tâ— become so 〈◊〉 and joyn your selves in the wayes of God but