Hermon that descended upon the mountaines of Sion Psal 123. There are many promises made to this Mat. 5. Blessed are the peace-makers 2 Cor. 13. 11. Be of one minde live in peace and the God of peace shall be with you John 15. 12. Christ sayes This is his commandement that we love one another ver 14. he sayes Ye are my friends if ye doe whatsoever I command you By loving others we doe not only get them to be our friends but Christ too Me thinks I see Christ here pleading for love as one who had to deale with two men who were at some variance perswading them to peace and love Come you shall passe by all former things you shall be made friends by this you shall gaine me also to be a friend to you as long as I live Genes 13. ver 8. to the end is a remarkable Scripture to shew how God is with a loving gentle peaceable disposition Ver. 8. 9. we have Abrahams kinde gentle yeelding to Lot his inferiour for peace sake but mark what followes and you shall finde he lost nothing by this his yeelding for as soone as Lot was gone from him the Lord came to him ver 14. and said to him Lift up now thine eyes and looke from the place where thou art Northward Southward Eastward and Westward for all the Land that thou seest to thee will I give it and to thy seed for ever arise walke thorough the Land in the length of it and in the breadth of it for I will give it unto thee The difference of what Jacob sayes of Reuben when he was to dye Gen. 49. 4. from that of Moses Deut. 33. 6. is observable Jacob sayes Hee is the first borne the beginning of his strength but he shall not excell because he went to his fathers bed But Moses Let Reuben live and not dye and let not his men be few The reason of this difference is given by some because it was fit that Jacob to deter his other children should exercise the authority of a father but Moses frees him from the curse because he was alwayes loving to his brother Ioseph Brotherly love hath a blessing going along with it God loves it exceedingly for it makes much for the glory of God And to what purpose do we live if God have not glory by us Rom. 15. 5 6 7. the Apostle first prayes that the God of patience and consolution would grant them to be like minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus that they may with one minde and one mouth glorifie God Then he exhorts Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God Much of Gods glory depends upon our union Yea God stands so much upon this that he is willing to stay for his service till we be at peace one with another Mat. 5. 23 24. Leave thy gift before the Altar and first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift My worship shall stay till you be reconciled I love my worship and desire it much but I must have peace and love amongst your selves first I will stay for that But I beseech you let us not make God stay too long Remember while you are wrangling and quarrelling God stayes on you all this while If children should be quarrelling and one comes to them and sayes Your father stayes for you it is time for them to break off But not unmannerly with God in making him stay so long upon you some of you have made him wait upon you for an acceptable duty of worship divers weeks yea it may be many moneths and yet your spirits are not in temper to offer any sacrifice to God What a fearfull evill is it then to stand out in a stubborne sullen dogged manner refusing to be reconciled Learned Drusius cites Hebrew Writers saying That he that offends his brother ought to seeke to pacifie him if he refuse to be pacified then he must bring three of his friends with him to intercede twice or thrice and if he shall after this refuse then he is to leave him and such a man quia implacabilis est vocatur peccator is called a sinner with a speciall note upon him Lastly the Saints enjoyment of the sweetnesse of love peace and unity among themselves what is it but heaven upon earth Heaven is above all storms tempests troubles the happinesse of it is perfect rest We pray that the will of God might bee done on earth as it is done in heaven why may not we have a heaven upon earth this would sweeten all our comforts yea all our afflictions But the Devill envies us this happinesse Come Lord Jesus come quickly If you would have the excellency of love set before you more fully reade over and over again the Epistles of Iohn Ecclesiasticall story reports of this blessed Apostle whose heart was so full of love that when he grew very old not able to preach yet he would be brought into the congregation in a chaire and there say only these words Little children flee idolatry love one another But the more excellent union and peace is the more is the pitty that it should be abused to be serviceable to mens lusts the more would our misery be if we should be abused in our treaties about it if we should have a mock-peace if we should be gulled in either offers of or conclusions about peace if peace should be made our ruine but a preparation of us for slaughter It hath been by many observed that what the English gained of the French in battell by valour the French regained of the English by cunning Treaties The Lord deliver us from such French tricks Let us all be for peace yet so as not to be befooled into bondage by the name of peace Now God hath by his mighty arme helped us let us not be put off with a bable and made to beleeve it is this Pearle We know with whom we have to deale And now as the Apostle 2 Thess 3. 5. The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God Let me adde And into the love of one another Let us all study peace seek peace follow peace pursue peace and the God of peace be with us FINIS The Contents Chap. 1. THe Text opened and suitableness thereof shewed p. 1. Chap. 2. The evill of dividing between God and any thing else p. 6. Chap. 3. Heart-divisions one from another the difficulty of medling with them 11. the Causes of them and method in handling them 12. Chap. 4. The first Dividing Principle There can be no agreement without uniformity 14. wherein is shewn in what things it is necessary for peace we should be the same and in what not 15. Chap. 5. The second Dividing Principle All Religions are to be tolerated wherein is discussed the power of the Magistrate in matters of Religion 19. and 158. Chap. 6. That question discussed What should be done to a man
this where the patience and quietness of spirit is very much tryed and that is when a servant meets with a harsh rugged cruell master that abuses him very injuriously if any thing would put ones spirit into a rage one would thinke this would do it No saith the Apostle such must be the command you must have over your spirits as you must patiently bear this and he grounds it upon this For hereunto were ye called 1 Pet. 2. 21 22. But though husbands and wives should live at peace though they suffer one from another though servants should put up wrongs from their masters yet it followes not that the like patience should be required in us when we are wronged by our equals by those to whom we have no such band of relation to tye us Yes this argument of calling is strong in this case also 1 Pet. 3. 8 9. Love as brethren be courteous not rendring evill for evill or railing for railing but contrariwise blessing knowing that ye are thereunto called The tenth Consider the presence of God and of Christ OUr God our Father our Master our Saviour stands by looking on us It is a most excellent passage that I finde in an Epistle of Luther to the Ministers of Norimberg There were great divisions amongst them he writes to them that he might pacifie their spirits one towards another Suppose sayes he you saw Jesus Christ standing before you and by his very eyes speaking thus unto your hearts What do you O my dear children whom I have redeemed with my blood whom I have begotten againe by my Word to that end that you might love one another Know that this is the note of my Disciples Leave this businesse ye wholly cast it upon me I le look to it there is no danger that the Church should suffer by this though it should be stilled yea though it should dye but there is a great deale of danger if you dissent amongst your selves if you bite one another Do not thus sadden my spirit do not thus spoile the holy Angels of their joy in Heaven am not I more to you then all matters that are between you then all your affections then all your offences What can any words of a brother can any unjust trouble penetrate your hearts stick so fast in you as my wounds as my bloud as all that I am to you your Saviour Jesus Christ Oh that we had such reall apprehensions of Christ looking upon us speaking to us The eleventh Consider what account we can give to Jesus Christ of all our Divisions WHen Christ shall come will you stand before him with scratched faces with black and blew eyes 1 Thes 3. 12 13. The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one towards another and towards all men To what end To the end saith the Apostle he may establish your hearts unblameable in holinesse before God even our Father at the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ with all his Saints It will be a sad thing to be found in our divisions at the comming of Jesus Christ Mat. 24. 50. the comming of Christ is mentioned as a terror to those who shall but begin to smite their fellow-servants We may wrangle stand out one against another in our contentions now but it will not be so easie to answer Jesus Christ as it is to answer one to another In the Name of Jesus Christ I now speak unto you yea as from him charge you let no reason move you to contend with dissent or seperate from your brethren but that which you are perswaded in your conscience and that after due and serious examination will hold out before will be approved of Jesus Christ at his comming The twelfth Let every man consider his owne weaknesses YOu are ready to take offence from others within a while you are as like to be offensive to others There will be as much need they should beare with you as now there is you should beare with them The Common Law of those who intend to live at peace one with another is Veniam petimus damusque We desire pardon and we doe pardon The thirteenth Let us consider our mortality IT is but a little time we have to live shall the greater part of it nay why should any part of it be ravel'd out with contentions and quarrels I have read of Pompey that upon a time passing over divers hils where there lived many people in caves but their order was that the man lived in one cave and the wife in another he asking the reason they said In those parts they live not long therefore they desired that the little time they did live they might have peace and quiet which they had found by experience they could not have if man and wife lived constantly together Though the means they used for their quiet was sordid yet the good use they made of the shortnesse of their lives was commendable Virgil sayes if swarms of Bees meet in the ayre they will sometimes fight as it were in a set battell with great violence but if you cast but a little dust upon them they will all be presently quiet Sprinkle upon your hearts the meditations of death that within a while this flesh of yours will be turned to dust this will quiet you The fourteenth Consider the life of heaven THere is and will be perfect agreement there We are here as Bees flying up and down from flower to flower all day but at night they come all into the same Hive That is a place where Luther and Zuinglius will well agree Shall not we whom God from all eternity hath ordained to live co-heires in heaven to joyn together in praises there agree together here on earth CHAP. XXXIII Joyning graces 1. Wisdome THe deepest Seas are the most calme so men of the deepest judgements are most quiet A man of understanding is of an excellent spirit Prov. 17. 27. or thus is of a coole spirit for so the word signifies his spirit is not heat with passion there is a coole dew of examination and deliberation upon his spirit he weighs the circumstances consequences and issues of things he orders and disposes of things so as jarres contradictions and oppositions are prevented The wisdome that is from above is pure peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated Jam. 3. 17. Reason and Wisdome have a majesty in them and will force reverence Let Passion reverence the presence of Reason sayes Basil as children doing things unseemly are afraid of the presence of men of worth 2. Faith 1. THis unites us to Christ and God and in them to one another 2. Faith commits all causes all feares injures to God 3. Faith layes hold upon and improves those gracious promises that God hath made to his Churches for union Faith sues out the Bond. 4. Faith is able to descry the issue of troubles and afflictions Though Sense sayes It will not be Reason It cannot be yet
in it but they joyned Malcham that is their King The worship and service proper to God hath been too much divided between God and the Kings of the Earth but here it 's probable is meant their Idoll to which they gave a Kingly power over them their Idoll Moloch had his name from hence I have read of Redwald King of the East Saxons the first Prince of his Nation that was baptized in the same place worshipped Christ and set up an Altar to worship his Idols Many mens spirits lye like that Haven Acts 26. 12. towards the Southwest and Northwest two opposite points Surely their spirits must needs be very winding and crooked which lye towards such opposites This dividing with God is very wicked what communion hath God with Belial How can you partake of the Table of the Lord and the Table of Devills 1 Cor. 10. 21. And lest they should thinke it a light thing thus to divide with God hee adds vers 22. Doe we provoke the Lord to jealousie are we stronger then he It is a great provoking of God and a fighting against him thus to divide in his worship To think that God should accept of such a dividing is to make him cruel like that Harlot 1 King 3. 26. who was content to have the child divided Let it be neither mine nor thine but let it be divided Gods worship is as deare to him as any child can be to the most tender-hearted mother in the world When Darius would have divided with Alexander No sayes Alexander there can be but one Sun in the Firmament If we will be dividing with God he will cast off all 2 King 17. 33. it is said they feared the Lord and served their Idolls but vers 34. it is said they did not feare God God accounted a divided feare no feare at all Verse 16. it is said They left all the Commandements of the Lord their God and made them molten Images If they give any part of Gods honour to molten Images he acknowledges no honour at all given to him he accounts all his Commandements to be left So Jer. 32. 23. They have done nothing of all that thou commandest them to doe and vers 30. The children of Israel and the children of Judah have onely done evill before me God is infinite and hath all excellency in him therefore he must have the whole heart Idols doe not challenge so much because they have not an universall excellency a piece of worship is enough for them our hearts estates liberties all wee are or have are more Gods then our owne Cyrus tooke Babylon by dividing the River The Devill soon surprizes us if he can but divide our hearts The reason why heathen Rome rejected Christ from being of the number of their gods when such a thing was tendred to their Senate was Because say they if we receive him to be a God he will suffer none of our other gods if we take in any other new god we may yet retain still our old ones but if we take this Jesus all our old ones must be abandoned Many at this day reject Christ upon this ground The Romanists since thinke they can take in Christ for a God and yet divide between him and other gods their Religion is made up of divisions between God and their graven Images between Christ the Mediator and Saints and Angels between the Word and their owne Traditions between Divine Institutions and Humane Inventions 1 King 18. 21. Why halt ye between two opinions Wee must not be voluntary Cripples to halt between two Why are you dismembred in your hearts and your opinions so Josephus in his History mentioning that place That is observable when the Prophet put that question to them the Text saith The people held their peace their mouths were stopped they had not a word to say for themselves If any thing be pretended for this dividing it is that trouble may be prevented exactnesse in Religion through Reformation giving up our selves wholly to God and his truth hath a shew of bringing much trouble with it Hence men winde and shift about and doe what they doe by halves It was a notable speech of Calvin to those who were offended with troubles they met with in the work of Reformation If wee could be content with halfe a Christ sayes he our worke would more easily goe on we could soone bring about what wee would have we should not meet with so much opposition but nothing but a whole Christ will serve our turne But it is necessary that all things be reformed at once No Affirmative Precepts doe not binde to all times but Negative doe therefore it is necessary at all times that there be no mixture of evill with any good we doe that our Mediocrity be not Medium participationis but Medium abnegationis between two extreams which are evill but not partaking of any evill no good thing is moderated by mixture of evill but by removing from it something that is evill that hath already mingled it selfe with it But must God have all our hearts so as we may not let them out at all to any thing else If wee let out our hearts to any thing but in subordination to God then we divide between God and that thing sinfully but though we do let out our affections to other things yet if it be in subordination to God so farre as God is in those things and we may be led nearer to God by them this is no dividing between God and other things but an uniting all in God and enjoying God in all The Saints are instructed in this mistery of godlinesse they know how to give God the whole heart and yet to enjoy the comforts of wives and children and estates and callings as much as any in the world they have that heavenly skil to unite all in God and enjoy God in all God is all in all unto them in their enjoyments of all good whatsoever but if our hearts be let out to any thing otherwise then thus they go a whoring from God and will certainly vanish in their own folly This is contrary to that singlenesse to that onenesse of heart promised as a blessing of the Gospel Many of you complaine of barrennesse here is the reason your hearts are divided were the stream of your hearts wholly after God it would runne strongly and bear down opposition before it you would be fruitfull in all the wayes of holinesse How fruitful and gloriously usefull would men in publike place be if their hearts were single and one for God did they only care to honour God in their duty and leave the care of protection of and provision for themselves and state to God Let not mens hearts be cut be divided with their cares and fears about consequences and successes their wisdom should be how to work all about for God not how handsomely to contrive that God may have part and themselves part
portion of some soules in the Congregation they dared not mention them 4ly When your profession of some truths will take off mens hearts from other that are more weighty and necessary The rule of the Apostle Rom. 14. 1. holds forth this Receive not those men who are weake in faith to doubtfull disputations this may hinder them in the great things of the Kingdome of God Righteousnesse peace joy in the holy Ghost vers 17. As if the Apostle should say Let them be wel established in them but these doubtfull disputations will hinder them in such things as these are Fiftly when my profession at this time in this thing is like to hinder a more useful profession at another time in another thing Prov. 29. 11. A foole uttereth all his mind he that is wise keeps it in till afterward It was the wisdome of Paul when he was at Athens not presently to break out against their Idols hee staid his due time and yet all the time hee kept in his uprightnesse in the hatred of Idolatry as much as ever Sixtly when our profession will cause publick disturbance and that to the godly the disturbance of mens corruptions who will oppose out of malice is not much to be regarded When it was told Christ the Pharisees were offended he cared not for it but he made a great matter of the offence of any of his little ones When men who love the truth as well as wee shall not only be against what we conceive truth but shall be offended and that generally at it if we have discharged our own consciences by declaring as we are called to it what we conceive the mind of God we should sit down quietly and not continue in a way of publique offence and disturbance to the Saints The rule of the Apostle will come in here Let the spirit of the Prophets be subjects to the Prophets wee should wait till God will some other way or at some other time have that prevaile in their hearts and consciences of his people which we conceive to be truth and they are now so much offended at There could never be peace continued in the Church if every man must continually upon all occasions have liberty openly to make profession of what he apprehends to be a truth never have done with it though the Church which is faithfull and desires unfeignedly to honour Christ and his truth be never so much against it In divers of these cases the consideration of that Text Eccl. 7. 16. is very sutable Be not righteous over much neither make thy selfe over wise why shouldst thou destroy thy selfe Amongst other things this is included in the scope of the Holy Ghost when you apprehend a thing to be a truth do not think that you are bound all times upon all occasions to the utmost profess practise promote that truth without any consideration of others being carried on with this apprehension it is a truth come of it what will whatsoevâ— becomes of me whatsoever trouble shall follow upon it I must and will professe it and publish it again and again to the death In this you had need look to your spirit in this you may be over-just and make your self over-wise though there may be some uprightnesse in your heart some love to Christ and his truth yet there may be mixture of your own spirit also you may stretch beyond the rule this is to be over-righteous to think out of a zeal to God and his truth to goe beyond what God requires It is true at no time upon no occasion though thy life and all the lives in the world lay upon it thou must not deny any the least truth but there may be a time when God doth not require of thee to make profession of every thing thou believest to be a truth You will say This tends to loosness to lukewarmness to time-serving men pretending and pleading discretion grow loose and remisse and so by degrees fall off from the truth Vers 17. Let men take heed of that too Be not over-much wicked neither be thou foolish As you must be carefull not to goe beyond the rule so take heed you fall not off from it so you may grow wicked and foolish yea very wicked over-wicked God will meet with you there too Wherefore vers 18. It is good thou shouldst take hold of this yea also from this withdraw not thine hand Take both be carefull of thy self in both but especially mark the last clause of the 18. vers He that feareth God shall come forth of them all The feare of God possessing thy heart will help thee in these straits thou shalt by it be delivered from being ensnared by thy indiscreet sinfull zeale and it shall likewise keep thee from bringing misery upon thy selfe by falling as farre on the other hand to looseness and time-serving The fear of God will ballast thy soul even it will carry thee on in a way that shall be good in the eyes of the Lord and of his Saints There is a natural boldnes and a mixed zeal in many who are godly that carries them on in those ways that causes great disturbance to others and brings themselves into great straits and snares and these men are very ready to censure others of nesse and loosenesse who do not as themselves do but this Scripture reproves them shewing that it is not through fleshly wisdome and providing for ease that is the cause others do not as they do but the fear of God in a right way ballasting their spirits God will own his fear to be in their hearts ordering them aright when thy disorderly mixed zeale shall receive rebuke from Christ But doth not Christ say Hee came into the world to witnesse to the truth and is not every truth more worth then our lives That man who in the former five cases wherein profession is shewed to be our duty shall witness to the truth he shewes that truth is indeed precious to him and gives that testimony to the truth that he was born for although in the six latter he shall forbear But when these latter cases shall fall out how shall the truth be maintained will it not suffer much prejudice 1. Christ will not be beholding to mens weaknesses for the maintenance of his truth 2. If every man according to his place to deliver his own soule shall declare observing the rules we shall speak to presently what he conceives to be the mind of God though he shall not either in words or practice continually hold forth the same yet thereby the truth is maintained 3. The truth is maintained by forbearing that practice which those opinions of men that are contrary to the truth puts them upon not doing as they do is a continual witnesse against them and so a witnesse for the truth this is a Christians duty at all times although I must never upon any ground do that which my conscience sayes is in
may be devoured one of another We read Ezek. 5. 3 4. the Prophet was bid to bind up a few hairs in his skirt which was to signifie a few of the people which were preserved from that common calamity but after these were cast into the fire and fire came forth from these to all the house of Israel Polanus upon the place hath this note that grievous evils may come upon those who have been preserved from former common miseries and those who for a while have been preserved by their contentions and divisions may be the cause of woful evil to others God forbid that this Text should be fulfilled in us Let not a fire come from us who yet are so graciously preserved to devour the house of Israel 4ly God in this work of his hath joyned severall sorts of instruments men of severall opinions he hath made them one to do us good why should not we be one in the enjoyment of that good Let the one part and let the other part have their due honour under God in the mercy God hath made use of both and why may not both enjoy the fruit of this mercy together in the Land Fiftly We were not without some feares lest God should leave us in the work of Reformation begun but now God speaks aloud to encourage us he tels us he owns the worke Now what doth this require of us A little Logick will draw the consequence Hath God declared himself that he intends to go on in this work he hath begun Then let us all joyn together to further it to the uttermost we can let us not exasperate the spirits of one another in ways of strife and opposition but let every one set his hand and hand to this worke that he may be able to say Oh Lord God thou that knowesâ— the secrets of all hearts knowest that upon this great mercy of thine my heart was so moved that whatsoever I could possibly see to be thy will for the furtherance of this great work of Reformation and that I was able to doe I did set my selfe to doe it and am resolved to spend my strengâ—h and life in it If every one did thus oh what glory might God have from this mercy of his 6ly When the Lord comes to us with mercies and such great mercies he expects we should rejoyce in them and sing praise but how can we sing without Harmony Prayer requires an agreement Mat. 18. 19. If two of you shall agree on earth touching any thing they shall aske it shall be done for them Surely Praise requires agreement much more Psalms out of tune are harsh to the eare disagreement of heart is much more to the Spirit of God 7. Surely when God hath done so much for us it must be acknowledged to be our duty to study what sacrifice would be best pleasing to him some sacrifice we must offer If there be any more acceptable to him then other surely he deserves it no. If a friend had done some reall kindness for you you would be glad to know what might be most gratefull to him wherein you might testifie your thankfulness Is this in your hearts Do you now say Oh that we did but know what is the thing that would be most pleaâ—ing to God what sacrifice would smell sweetest in his nostrils The Lord knowes we would fain offer it whatsoever it be I will tell you That we would lay aside our divisions our frowardnesse that we would abandon our contentions and strife that we would put on the bowels of mercies kindnesse humblenesse of minde meekenesse long-suffering forbearing one another forgiving one another If any man hath a quarrell against any even as Christ forgave you so also do ye Col. 3. 12. And 1. Pet. 3. 4. A meeâ—e and a quiet spirit is in the â—ight of God of great price it is much set by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 15. 17. The sacrifice of God that which is in stead of all sacrifices is a broken spirit Our hearts have been broken one from another in our unhappy divisions oh that now they could break one towards another in love and tenderness Here would be a sacrifice more esteemed of God then thousands of Rams and ten thousand Rivers of Oyle Loving mercy and walking humbly is preferred above such sacrifices Micah 6. 8. 8ly God might have sodeâ—'d us together by the fire of his wrath he might have made our blood to have been our cement to have joyned our stinty hearts together but it is otherwise God seeks to draw us to himselfe and one to another by the cords of love the allurings of his mercy Ninthly what can have that power to take off the sowrnesse of mens spirits like mercy the mercy of a God surely if any thing possibly can sweeten them that must needs do it We read 1 Sam. 11. 11 12 13. a notable experiment of the efficacy of mercy to sweeten mens hearts After Saul had slain the Ammonites some of the bosterous spirits would have had him to have slain those who formerly had rejected him but mark Sauls answer ver 13. There shall not a man be put to death this day Why For this day the Lord hath wrought salvation in Israel Though Saul at another time was a man of a harsh and cruell spirit yet now mercy sweetens him that which he was one day by the sense of mercy that should we be not only in the day of our Thanksgiving but in the course of our lives When salvation came to the house of Zacheus O what a sweet temper was he in Behold halfe of my goods I give to the poore and if I have wronged any one I restore foure-fold Salvation is this day come to the Kingdome O that all we had hearts to say If wee have wronged any wee will restore if wee have wronged any in their names by word or writing any way we will restore Mercy and love calls for mercy and love if we were in a right tune there would be a sympathy between the bowels of God and ours as in two Lures if the string in one be wound up to be answerable to the other if you then strike one string the other will move though lying at a distance Now Gods love Gods bowels move let our love our bowels move answerably 10. God shewes that he can owne us notwithstanding all our infirmities Was ever Kingdome in a more distempered condition then ours hath been of late and yet the Lord hath owned us Why should not we own our Brethren notwithstanding their infirmities Why should our divisions cause uâ— to call off one another seeing our divisions from God hath not provoked him to cast us off 11. Is it not in our desires that this great Victory might be pursued that it might not be lost as others in great part have been Surely it cannot be pursued better then to take this advantage of it to unite our selves more together then ever we have done
begin to be hot and to rise against those men they hear such things of their thoughts are altered concerning them their spirits alienated breaches are made and men who are innocent wonder from whence all comes O take heed of these men of evill tongues especially at your tables for while you are warme with mirth and good cheere you are in greater danger to take downe the discourse of such as are at table with you some poyson may get into your spirits and you not think of it Saint Augustine could not endure such guests at his table he caused therefore these two verses to be writ over his Table it were well they were over some of yours Quisquis amat dictis absentum rodere vitam Hanc mensam vetitam noverit ipse sibi To speak ill of the absent forbeare Or else sit not at Table here But if men of evill tongues doe so much hurt to men of moderate spirits what hurt doe they doe one to another when two or three or more of them meet together having all of them bitter spirits and evill tongues what hot burning venome doe they infuse one into another inflaming one another with malice That proverbiall speech 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is true of these men if one Serpent did not eate another there would bee no Dragon by taking in one anothers poyson they grow to bee fiery Dragons flying up and downe from place to place with their fiery stings Destroy O Lord and divide their tongues for I have seen violence and strife in the City Psal 45. 9. The same letters in the Hebrew word that is to signifie verbum a word is also for pestis the plague an evill tongue hath the pestilence in it The whisperings of an evill tongue causes divisions Rom. 1. 29. Full of envy debate malignity whisperars 2 Cor. 1â— 20. Debates envyings wraths strifes whisperings Many of fidling paltry dispositions goe up and down whispering they speak very secretly to you you must tell no body by any means and yet themselves tell it to a second a third a tenth and any one they meet with with whom they desire to ingratiate themselves and to every body they speak yet still they must tell no body they doe not love to be brought forth as the authors they tell you as a friend what they heare and thus carrying tales up and downe in a secret way they doe what in them lyes to blast the names of their Brethren jealousies suspitions envyings displeasure anger is raised and the parties against whom all this is wonder what is the matter they being no wayes conscious to themselves of any miscarriage towards such from whom they finde such strange carriage at last some nibling whispering Mouse is found to be the cause of all These whispering Tale-bearers have such an art as to cause what they thus speak in secret to sinke very deeply into mens hearts They professe themselves very sorry for what they tell you but it is too true and with a deep sigh they mischiefe their Neighbour Et sic cum vultu maesto procedit maledictio Bern. But let men take heede of them for they strike they wound them as much if not more then they doe those against whom they speak for they know nothing of it and though they suffer yet they doe not sinne but you may not only be troubled and that causelesly it may be and for nothing lose the sweetnesse of your love to your friend and the enjoyment of his to you but withall you may entertain sinne into your heart and so be wounded Prov. 18. 8. The words of a tale-bearer are as wounds and they goe downe into the innermost parts of the belly beware therefore of such Prov. 20. 19. He that goeth about as a tale-bearer revealeth secrets therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lippes Hee may come glavering and fawning and smiling to you as if he accounted you a speciall friend and therefore would not tell every body but meddle not with him if you shall hug and embrace him you have received a wound even in the innermost parts of the belly Prov. 26. 20. Where no wood is there the fire goeth out so where there is no tale-bearer the strife ceaseth Prov. 16. 28. A whisperer seperateth chiefe friends Those who have lived in entire friendship many yeares sometime by some whispering woman have their hearts very much estranged the beauty of their friendship darkened and the sweetnesse of it almost lost Whispering tale-bearing tongues is the cause of strife take heed of it And so is a censuring tongue I can compare this to nothing better then to a candle whose tallow is mixed with brine as soone as you light it it spits up and down the roome Thus many have salt brine in their spirits which when they get a little knowledge they spit here and there in hard and bitter censures which are exceedingly provoking to the spirits of men though the censures should prove true yet the mixture of so much salt brine in them cannot but exasperate cause mens hearts to fret but much more if they prove to be meere slanderers Jer. 9. 4. Take ye heed every one of his neighbour and trust ye not in any brother for every brother will utterly supplant and every neighbour will walke with slanders and c. 6 28. They are all grievous revolâ—ers walking with slanders they are brasse and iron they are all corrupters And yet more if this be a raging tongue Hos 7. 16. Their Princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue Discontents rise high first by too much liberty of the tongue then higher by the bitternesse of it but when it comes to the rage of it by this many times they rise so high that great men yea Princes come to fall by the sword There is a story in the Tripartite History of a Christian who professed he had beene seven and thirty yeares learning that lesson Psal 39. 1. I said I will take heed to my wayes that I offend not in my tongue and yet had not learned it I feare there are many amongst us who have beene Professors these seven and thirty yeares and yet have not learned this lesson notwithstanding the Scripture saith If a man bridleth not his tongue hee deceiveth his owne heart this mans Religion is in vaine James 1. 26. The second dividing practice Needlesse Disputes WHen men have got a little knowledge they thinke it a fine thing to be arguing and disputing in matters of Religion unnecessary disputes are their necessary practice for otherwise they shall be accounted as no body if they have not something to object against almost every thing but in this way of theirs they shall bee accounted knowing men men who have an insight into things who understand more then ordinary men doe hence they turne all their Religion into disputes and by them they grow giddie Wine is good when it goes to the heart to
themselves though their lives be ill There is a mighty change in mens spirits now from that which was heretofore Times have been when any opinion that tended to loosenesse was presently distasted as unfavoury and rejected by such who made profession of Religion Sleidan in the tenth book of his Commentaries sayes The Devill that sought to doe mischiefe at Munster was not a skilfull Devill but rude and simple because he sought to prevaile by tempting men to loosenesse whereas sayes he if he had beene a cunning Devill he would rather have deceived by abstaining from flesh by abhorring Matrimony by shewes of wonderfull lowlinesse of minde c. he might sooner have taken men this way but truly now the most cunning Devill sees it to be the best way to attaine his ends to raise up and foment opinions that â—end to the liberty of the flesh so be it he can carry them on under the colour of magnifying free grace he findes that these things are exceeding suitable to mens spirits in these times that they are taken in by such who formerly appeared so conscientious that hee feared hee should never have beene able to have prevailed with them hee never found a way like to this to prevaile with such men yea never a way like to this to choake the Word when it first begins to worke upon the heart he hath blasted more young seeming converts this way then ever hee did by any way since he was a Devill Heretofore the way was to stirre up others to deride them for following the Word and for praying now he hath a way worth two of that to make them to deride others for their conscienciousnesse in following the Word and praying and this strengthened with a high perswasion that hereby they are the great magnifiers of the free grace of God in the Gospel the only men who understand the Gospel way This Devill now lookes upon himselfe and his fellowes as simple and foolish in all their former devices here is an experiment beyond them all seeing this Christ must needes be magnified hee will magnifie him too seeing the Gospel must goe on hee will put it on too hee will finde out a device here to strike at the practise power life of godlinesse in a more secret and prevailing way then ever formerly was done it is like in this generation the former principles of godlinesse will not be got out but if this way prevails still in proportion to what it hath done in a generation or two it is like to bring generall prophanenesse and licentiousnesse upon the face of the Christian world more then any way of Satan ever did since the world began for here is a way to be loose and prophane and to satisfie Conscience too CHAP. XXII The third Dividing Practice Men no keeping within the bounds that God hath set them FIrst when men will be medling with that whith concernes them not that is out of their sphere 1 Thes 4. 11. Study to be quiet and doe your owne businesse Prov. 20. 31. It is an honour for a man to cease from strife but every foole will be wedling Choller in the gall is usefull to the body but if it overflow the body growes into distemper presently we may be all usefull in our places if we keepe to them contenting our selves with the improvements of our talents in them thus both our selves and others may have quiet When Mannah was gathered and kept in that proportion God would have it it was very good but when men must have more and keep it longer then God would have them then it breeds worms Thus it will be in all that we have or doe let us keepe our proportion God sets us and all will be well but if we thinke to provide better for our selves by going beyond our measure wormes are presently bred in all But especially where men will not keepe within their bounds in their power over others for what is all our contestation at this time it is not about mens stretching their power beyond their line both in State and Church From whence are our State-divisions our Warres but because Princes have been perswaded their power was boundlesse at least not to be kept within those bounds the State sayes it ought to bee They think there is such a distance between them and others that the estates liberties lives of all men within their country lie at their mercy not considering how they come to be raised so high that what they have above others is given to them by those above whom they are No man inheriteth more then was given to his forefathers and so to him whereby they might see that they are not limited onely by the lawes of God but by the lawes of men also namely The agreement between them and the people when they are raised to such dignities There is nothing weakens their right more then the pleading it by conquest Princes have little cause to thank those who plead their right that way The surest foundation for Princes to set their feet on is the agreement between the people and them or their progenitors but if they will goe beyond this agreement what stirres what wofull disturbances doe they make Secondly if either they or any Governours of the State shall instead of being helpfull to the government of the Church take it all from it into their owne hands in this they goe beyond those bounds Christ would have them it is by the Civill power that the Governours of the Church have the peaceable exercise of what power Christ hath given them but they have not their power from them Civill authority cannot put any spirituall power into a man or company of men which they had not before it can onely protect encourage and further the exercise of that power that CHRIST hath given They are inconsiderate men sayes Calvin who make Magistrates too spirituall This evill sayes he prevailes in Germanie and in the Countries about us we finde what fruit growes from this root namely that those who are in power thinke themselves so spirituall that there is no other ecclesiasticall government this sacriledge comes in violently amongst us because they cannot measure their office within its due bounds And for Church-Governours if they would keep within their Limits we might enjoy much peace if first they would assume to themselves no more power then Christ hath given them Secondly if they would not extend it over more congregations then Christ hath committed to them Thirdly if they would not exercise it in more things then Christ would have them Let us looke a little into these three for the want of a right understanding in them hath caused and may yet further cause much disturbance For the first That Christ hath appointed some to rule in his Church and that all the members of the Church are not in the office of ruling is apparent in Scripture 1 Cor. 12. 28. Rom. 12. 8 but that these Officers
they judge all that doe not joyne with them to be as Heathens this is the most uncharitable interpretation that can be CHAP. XXVI The fifth dividing practice The aspersing and seeking to blast the credits of those men whom the Lord uses to be instruments of good THis may be done you know otherwise then by the tongue This hath beene an old dividing way if wee can blast the cheife of a party we shall doe well enough with the rest wherefore let us make as ill interpretations of what they doe as possible we can let us fasten as ill things upon them as we can have any colour or pretence for let reports be raised fomented and spread whether they be true or no it makes no matter something will stick Jer. 20. 10. Report say they and we will report it doe but raise a report let us be able to say wee heard it or there was a Letter writ about such a thing and wee will boldly assert it and divulge it the very apprehension of it will prevaile with many howsoever these men shall not have that esteeme in the hearts of men so generally as heretofore they have had and if we once get downe their esteeme we shall doe well enough with their cause if we can meet with any bold spirit that will venture to encounter with them in this that will dare to take upon him to gather up or make or aggravate or wrest reports or doe any thing that may render them otherwise in the thoughts and hearts of men then hitherto they have beene we shall break them it is but one or two venturing the hard thoughts of men to make an experiment some may bee found fit for such a businesse we will finde out wayes to encourage them if their hearts begin to faile we will apply warme cloathes to them we will one way or other support them this must be done or else whatsoever we doe will be to no purpose something or other must be found to serve our ends in this Doth Moses prevaile too much in the hearts of the people something must be found against him if we can finde nothing against himselfe yet we will finde something against his wife Shee is an Ethiopian woman Numb 12 1. and yet who was she but the daughter of Jethro to whom he had been married many yeers before for an Ethiopian and a Midianitish woman are all one but now we are resolved to pick out whatever we can get information of though it be in things done many yeers since when they were in the University when they lived in such or such places in times of old it will serve our turne we may fasten it upon them Prov. 16. 27. An ungodly man diggeth up evill and in his lips there is a burning fire If he hath nothing above ground he will digge something up though it be what both by God and man hath been buried long since David was a publike instrument of God for much good yet Psalm 31. 1. Hee was a reproach amongst his enemies but especially amongst his neighbours Nehemiah raised up by God for great service what dirt was cast upon him he was accused of sedition and Rebellion Paul a pestilent fellow hee and his company with him turned the world upside downe what evill can be devised but was fastened upon the Christians in the Primitive times They charge them for being the cause of all their misery if they have ill weather if the Rivers overflow if Nilus does not flow if there be any earthquake plague famine hale the Christians to the Lions At their meetings they said they made Thyestes suppers who invited his brother to a supper and presented him a dish of his owne flesh a limbe of his Sonne Many such abominable things were fastened upon them as are not fit to be named Tertul tells the Christians that they were Funâ—mbulones like men upon a rope if they went one stept awry they were in danger to be undone by it so narrowly did their enemies watch them and so maliciously did they aggravate all their miscarriages Thus the most eminent after his time as Athanasius he was as miserably aspersed as ever poore man in this world by the Arrian party they rendred him most odious to his friends and strangers In the beginning of Reformation the Waldenses were so aspersed that the story sayes of them there was not one Arrow in the quiver of malice but it was drawne forth and shot at them Luther Calvin Beza Oecolampadius Bullinger and the rest are by some in writing rendred the most black and vile pieces that the earth bore both in their lives and deaths I find it recorded of Zuinglius that he was a man so eminent as his friends made him almost a God and so traduced by his enemies that one would wonder the earth did not open and swallow up such a man The like dealings did that worthy instrument of God Mr. Knox finde who in Queene Maries time fled with divers others to Frankford when men of vile contentious spirits could not prevaile against him any other way they sought to asperse him and that so maliciously as his life was in danger accusing him to the Governours of Frankford for a Sermon preached in England in which the Emperour was concerned The words were these O England England if thou wilt obstinately râ—â—urne into Egypt that is if thou contracting marriage confederacy or league with such Princes as doe maintaine and advance Idolatry such as the Emperour who is no lesse enemy to Christ then Nero if for the pleasure of such Princes thou returne to thine old abhominations then assuredly O England thou shalt be plagued and be brought to desolation by the meanes of those whose favour thou seekest The same measure did those worthy men of God meete with who sought after Reformation in Queene Elizabeths dayes they called Mr. Cartwright an Anabaptist and whatsoever evill there was in any opinion in those times they fastned it upon him Mr. Vdall was accused for his life and condemned to be hanged for writing That if the Parliament did not bring in the Government of Christ Christ himselfe would bring it in by some meanes that would make their hearts to ake or to that effect meaning as he expounded the words Christ would in some way of judgement make way to set up his own government in the Land but they wrested the words to a seditious sense as if he had meant to conspire to raise a force and by violence of Armes to make the Parliament to yeeld to that way of Government that he conceived to be Christs justly like those accusations that are amongst us at this day that if such kinde of men cannot have the liberty of their way granted to them seeing they have or hope to have the Sword in their hand they will take it to themselves and defend themselves also in it Only in this they goe beyond the bitternesse of the
over This evill many times comes of it that reason and truth from one man is little regarded and error and weaknesse from another man is greedily embraced and stifly maintained whereas it should be with Reason and Truth as it is with money one mans money in a market is as good as anothers so should one mans reason and truth spoken by him be as good as anothers The ninth dividing practice Because men cannot joyne in all things with others they will joyne in nothing SOme men are of such dividing dispositions that if they be offended with a man in any one thing in hearing or otherwise they will goe away in a tetchy moode resolving never to heare him more You think you have liberty in any froward mood to cast off that meanes of good which God offers to you to refuse to partake of such mens gifts and graces as you please It may be your stomack is so high and great on a sudden or your spirit is falne into such a sullen humour as you will not so much as go or send to him to see if upon a serious and quiet examination of things you may not have satisfaction in what for the present offends you No mens spirits are carryed on with present rash heady resolutions I believe there was never such a kinde of spirit prevailing amongst such as professe godlinesse since Christian Religion was in the world never did so many withdraw from hearing even those by whom they acknowledge God hath spoken to their hearts and that before they have gone to them to impart what it is that scruples them to try whether they may not get some satisfaction Certainly if you have no neede of the Word the Word hath no neede of you You may easily express your discontents one to another you may easily say you are resolved you will never heare such an one any more but you cannot so easily answer this to Jesus Christ When your weaknesses the prevailing of your distempers shall grate upon your consciences this will be a great aggravation of the evil of them You neglected in a humorous way and selfe-willed resolution those means that might have done your soule good even such as many hundred if not thousands of soules blesse God for all the dayes of their lives yea are now blessing God in heaven for Heretofore you would have been glad of that which now you sleight and reject this is not from more light or strength that you have now which you had not then but from more vanity pride and wantonnesse Others deny hearing not from such a distempered spirit but out of tendernesse because they think the Minister is no true Minister of Christ because he had no true call because he was ordained by the Prelats c. I confesse though for mine own part I never yet doubted of the lawfulnesse of the call of many of the Ministers of the parishionall congregations in England though they had something superadded which was sinfull yet it did not nullifie what call they had by the Church that communion of Saints amongst whom they exercised their Ministery yet I doe not thinke it the shortest way to convince those which refuse to heare to stand to prove to them the lawfulnesse of the call of those Ministers whom they refuse to heare but rather to make it out to them that though their call be not right to the Ministery yet they have not sufficient ground of withdrawing from hearing them For they hold it is lawfull for a man to preach the Word as a gifted man and that these men from whom they withdraw are gifted and faithfull and preach excellent truths they deny not But they will say If they did this as gifted men it were another matter but they preach by vertue of their call The answer to that is if they be acted by that principle and therein mistake this is their personall sinne not the sin of those who joyne with them in a good thing which they doe upon an ill ground When I joyne with a man in an action I am to look to the action and to the principle that I goe upon but let him with whom I joyne look to the principle that he goes upon Your hearing a man doth no way justifie his call to the office of the Ministery If a man doth a thing that he may doe by vertue of two relations or either of them it may be he thinks he stands in one of those relations which indeed he doth not yet he doth the action by vertue of it in his owne thoughts in this he sinnes but there is another relation wherein he stands that is enough to warrant the action that he doth to be lawfull Now though he doth not intend the acting by this relation the action may be sinne to him but not at all sinne to those who joyne with him in it If he will goe upon a false ground when he may goe upon a true let him looke to it I will joyne with him in that action as warranted for him to doe by vertue of his second relation which it may be he will not owne himselfe Take an instance in some other thing and the case perhaps will be more cleare Giving almes is a worke that a man may doe either by vertue of Church office as a Deacon or as a Christian whom God hath blessed in his estate or betrusted with the distribution of what others betrust him with Now suppose a man is in the place of a Deacon he thinks himself to be in that office by a right call into it and he gives out the almes of his Church by vertue of his call but I am perswaded his call to that office is not right he is not a true Deacon yet if I be in want I knowing that both he those who have given him money to dispose may and ought to distribute to those that are in need by vertue of another relation as men as Christians enabled by God surely then I may receive almes from him lawfully though his principle by which he gives them me is sinne to him I may communicate with him in this thing though he acts by vertue of that office that he had no true call unto why may I not as well communicate with a man in his gifts though he acts thus sinfully himselfe This consideration will answer all those objections â—gainst hearing men that they say are not baptized grant they are not and so you thinke they cannot be Ministers yet they are men gifted by God and thereby enabled to dispence many truths of God to your soule The tenth dividing Practice Fastning upon those who are in any errour all those false things and dangerous consequences that by strength of reason and subtilty may be drawne from that errour THis imbitters the spirits of men one against another it is true grant one false thing and a thousand may follow but I must not judge of a man that holds that one
another so as one would think it impossible that ever in this world there should have been that distance between them that now there is How often have we prayed Oh that once we might be blessed with such a mercy as to worship God according to his own mind that we might be delivered from conscience oppression from spirituall bondage Oh that we might be delivered from the inventions of men in the service of God that the Saints might joyn and serve the Lord with one shoulder There were never such hopes that the Saints should enjoy their prayers so as of late there hath been and yet never were they so divided as now they are they now seek to bring one another in bondage If five or six years since when many of us were praying together making our moans to God for that oppression we were under God should have then presented as in a Map such times as these are to our view could we have beleeved that it were possible that there should be such a distance in our spirits as now there is Fourthly our Divisions are very dishonourable to Jesus Christ were it that they darkned our names onely it were not so much but that which darkens the glory of Jesus Christ should goe very neere unto us I have read of Alexander Severus seeing two Christians contending one with another commanded them that they should not presume to take the name of Christians upon themselves any longer For sayes he you dishonour your Master Christ whose Disciples you professe to be It is dishonour to a General to have his Army routed and run into confusion The Devill seems to prevaile against us in these our divisions so as to rout us John 17. 21. 23. is a notable Scripture to shew the sinfulnesse of our divisions in the dishonour they put upon Christ and it may be as strong an argument against them as any I know in the Book of God Christ praying to the Father for the union of his Saints uses this argument O Father let this be granted that the world may beleeve that thou hast sent me And againe ver 23. Let them be perfect in one that the world may know that thou hast sent me If they be not united one to another in love and peace but have a spirit of Division ruling amongst them what will the world thinke surely that thou didst not send me that I who am their head their teacher and Lord never came from thee for thou art wisdom holiness and love if I had come from thee then those who own me to be theirs and whom I own to be mine would hold forth in their conversations something of that spirit of holinesse wisdome and love there is in thee but when the world does not see this in them but the clean contrary they will never beleeve that I came from thee those truths that I came into the world to make known as from thee O Father will not be beleeved but rather persecuted if those who professe them by their divisions one from another and oppositions one against another shew forth a spirit of pride folly envy frowardnesse therefore O Father let them be one as thou and I am one if this Petition be not granted how shall I look the world in the face I shall be contemned in the world what am I come down from thee for such glorious ends as indeed those were for which I came into the world and when I should come to attaine those ends for which I came shall there be such a carriage in those who doe professe my Name that by it the world shall perswade themselves that thou didst never send me O what a sore evill would this be surely any Christian heart must needs tremble at the least thought of having a hand in so great an evill as this is Fifthly Divisions are sinfull because they grieve the holy Spirit of God Ephes 4. 30 31. Grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed to the day of redemption Surely there is no godly heart but will say O God forbid that I should doe any thing to grieve the good spirit of God it is the Spirit that hath enlightned me that hath revealed the great mysteries of God of Christ of eternall life unto me it is that Spirit that hath drawn my Soul to Jesus Christ that hath comforted it with those consolations that are more to me then ten thousand worlds the Spirit that hath strengthned me that helpes me against temptations that carries me through difficulties that enables me to rejoyce in tribulations the Spirit that is an earnest to assure me of Gods electing love the spirit thet hath sealed me up to the day of Redemption and now shall I be gâ—ily of so great a sinne as to grieve this blessed Spirit of the Lord If I did but know wherein I have grieved it it could not but make my soul to bleed within me that I should have such a wretched heart to grieve this holy Spirit by whom my soule hath enjoyed so much good I hope should for ever hereafter take heed of that thing I would rather suffer any griefe in the world to mine owne spirit then be any occasion of grief to that blessed Spirit of God But would you know what it is that hath grieved it and what it is that is like to grieve it further mark what followes ver 31. Let all bitternesse wrath anger clamour and evill speaking be put away from you with all malice And would you doe that which may rejoyce it Oh! God knowes it would be the greatest joy in the world for me to doe it then ver 32. Be ye kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you Sixthly these divisions doe grieve and offend our Brethren this should not be a light matter to us Christ accounts it a great evill to offend one of his little ones We may thinke it a little matter to give offence to some of Gods people who are poore and meane in the world so long as we have the bravery of it and the countenance of great men no matter for them But friend whatsoever slight thoughts thou hast of it Christ thinks it a great matter you may look upon them as under you the times favour you more then them but if you shall give them cause to goe to God to make their moanes to him of any ill usage they have had from you Lord thou knowest I was for peace to the uttermost that I could so farre as I was able to see thy Word for my guide but these who heretofore were as Brethren to me now their spirits are estranged their hearts are imbittered their words their carriages are very grievous and all because I cannot come up to what their opinions their ways are certainly this would prove very ill to you regard it as lightly as you will it may be when others carry themselves towards you
Ephraim and Ephraim against Manasseh and they together against Judah for all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still When we are thus one against another the anger of God is not turned away from us we may feare his hand will yet be further stretched out against us so long as our wrath one against another continue so hot certainly Gods wrath is not appeased We read of Abraham when he was about sacrificing Isaac he found a Ram entangled in the bryars which God had prepared for him to be a sacrifice We are this day entangled in the bryars and we know not how to get out it is a signe that we are prepared to be a sacrifice even to the wrath of God Secondly by them we serve the designes of our enemies what would they have given when they first divided from us to have procured so great divisions amongst our selves as have been yet are If a Million would have purchased them rather then they should not have been they would no question have given it I am sure they further their designes more then many Millions would have done Hoc Ithacus velit magna mercentur Atridae We have often said that some who have kept at the Parliament have served the designes of the King and those about him better then they who were with him Certainly those who foment divisions amongst us do serve our enemies turne more then many that are with them When in our contentions our spirits rise one against another and we reproach one another we do not consider sayes Nazianzen how unsafe it is to put weapons into our enemies hands Yea he thought in his time though neer thirteen hundred yeers since the divisions of the Churches to be a great means to further and hasten the comming of Antichrist for so he sayes in the same Oration before quoted I verily fear lest Antichrist should come sodainly upon these our divisions and lest he should take the advantage of these our offences and distempers to raise his power over us Let those therefore who cry down Antichrist so much cry down divisions also lest they prove to serve the designes of Antichrist in a very great-measure though they think not so Thirdly by these we make our selves a scorn to our enemies Hosea 17. ult The rage of their tongue shall be their division in the land of Egypt When Malignants hear our rage one against another we are a derision amongst them these Egyptians jeere us they contemne us and all the power we can make against them I find in one of Melancthons Epistles a story of one Bessarion exhorting the Princes to concord that they might joyne against the Turks he brings in this Apologue There was a war between the wolves and the dogs news came to the wolves that there was a hâ—ge army of dogs comming against them intending to tear them in pieces the wolves sent an old wolfe out to be a scout he comes and tells them there were indeed a great company of dogs more then themselves were but they need not fear for he perceived they were of different colours Upon this the wolves made nothing of them accounting it an easie matter to deale with them who were so differing amongst themselves In the same manner sayes Melancthon doe Staphilus and Canisius and others of the pogish faction triumph in respect of us upon which he folls to prayer That the Sonne of God the Lord Jesus Christ would governe them and make all in our Churches to be one in him Fourthly yea by these we are like to be made a prey to our enemies Here many sad storyes might be told you of the prevailings of enemies against divided people The divisions of Israel at this time made them a prey to their adversaries which you may see cleerly if you read 2 Kings 17. afterwards the divisions of the other tribes made them a prey to the Romans When the Turks have prevailed over Christians do not all stories tell us it hath been through the divisions of Christians When Normans Danes prevailed in England it was by the advantage they had of our divisions if we will still divide and contend our condition may prove to be like two birds peâ—king at one another in the mean time the Kite comes and catches them both away Fiftly if God should free us from our enemies yet we are like to devoure one another and this is a greater misery then to be devoured by the common adversary Gal. 5. 15. If ye bite and devour one another take heed ye be not consumed one of another What biting and devouring was this It was not in an open hostile way they did not take up Arms one against another but by their different opinions and contentious carriages in matters of Religion Their differences in the matters of Religion were very great Non de finibus sed de haereditate not about the bounds but the inheritance it selfe yet unpeaceablenesse and violence in their carriages one towards another though the matter of their difference was so great is condemned and threatned by the Apostle Do not our Adversaries say Let them alone and they will devoure one another God gives us good hope that he will deliver us from our enemies but the hearts of many godly and wise men tremble within them fearing lest that wolvish distemper of ours should feed upon our own flesh when the matter that it had to feed upon from without is taken away Sixtly if we should not devour one another yet being thus divided we are like to perish of our selves as those Insecta which after they are cut asunder yet the severall parts live they wriggle up and down a little while but they cannot hold long So it is like to be with us except we joyn we cannot live Seventhly these divisions are like to make many miserable indeed for if God be not mercifull to them and that soon they are like to be such a rock of offence as to split them upon which they are running they are in very great danger to make shipwrack of their consciences yea I fear some have done it already if it be not so the Lord be mercifull to them and prevent it The spoiled houses the torn estates the maimed bodies of men caused by our divisions are sad objects to look upon but the broken maimed spoiled consciences that these have caused and are like further to cause were and yet are like to be objects before us to be lamented with tears of bloud This shipwrack of conscience it may be is not felt now but it will prove horrour of conscience hereafter Eighthly they are like to lay a foundation of much evill to posterity this consideration is almost as sad as any We think it a great evill that Kings children shold be brought up in the sight of bloud that they should be in danger to have principles of cruelty or tyranny infused into them in their
be to get one another to them upon this they struggle with one another the more as for those who are at a great distance they have no hope to prevaile with them therefore they make no onset but seeing themselves frustrated of their hopes there this troubles them yea it oft stirs up a spirit of anger against them whom they cannot get up to themselves 3. Those who agree in many and great things and yet stand out in few and of lesse consequence are thought to be the more unreasonable if you yeeld thus far why not a little farther the one thinks so of the other and the other thinks so of him and hence their spirits are stirred one against another 4. Those who come up near to others and yet dissent seeme to stand more in the light of those they come up so neare unto then those do who are at a greater distance it makes men think such a one is not in the right if he were those who come so near to him would see it they who think themselves got beyond others cannot enjoy that comfort and content in what they are beyond others in as otherwise they might because such as are so near them are against it if they did not agree in most things and those of greatest moment their opposition would not be much regarded but because they are such men who for their judgements and lives are so unblameable their differing in such a thing is more then if a hundred times as many who were at a greater distance in their principles and lives should differ from us 5. They who are so near one to another have occasion to converse more together then others have and to argue things oftner one with another then with such as they differ more from Now it is seldome that men of differing judgements and wayes meet and argue but there is some heat between them before they have done and so their spirits grow more estranged one from another then before And if your spirits be estranged then those that you have reference to and such as are in your way will have their spirits estranged too your relation of things to them according to what apprehensions you have of them will be enough to estrange their hearts and so by degrees a bitternesse grows up between you The fifth thing That God hath a hand in our divisions and how farre GOd had a great stroak in the division of these ten Tribes from the two 1. Kings 1â— 23 24. The word of the Lord came to Shemaiah the man of God saying Returne every man to hits house for this thing is from the Lord. In the sense of the Prophet there we may say that our Divisions are from the Lord. We are wrangling devising plotting working one against another minding nothing but to get the day one of another but God is working out ends above our reach for his glory and the good of his Saints There must be Heresies sayes the Apostle I Cor. 11. 19. So there must be Divisions That word Haeresis is used to signifie severall opinions severall wayes Haereses Platonicae Haereses Peripateticae Chrysostome interprets the place of the Apostle There must be Heresies of such Divisions as we are treating of But why must there be Divisions what does God ayme at in them Answ First the discovery of mens spirits that they which are approved may be manifest sayes the Apostle By those divisions in Corinth wherein the rich divided from the poore whereby the poore were condemned the graces of the poore in bearing this were manifested Thus Chrysostome upon the place The Apostle sayes this That he might comfort the poor which were able with a generous minde to bear that contempt The melting of the metall discovers the drosse for they divide the one from the other These are melting times and thereby discovering times If Reformation had gone on without opposition we had not seen what drossie spirits we had amongst us Those who have kept upright without warping in these times are honourable before God and his holy Angels and Saints 2. By these Divisions God exercises the graces of his servants A little skill in a Mariner is enough to guide his Ship in faire weather but when stormes arise when the Seas swell and grow troublesome then his skill is put to it In these stormy troublesome times there had need be much wisdome faith love humility patience selfe-deniall meeknesse all graces are put to it now they had need put forth all their strength act with all their vigour our graces had need be stirring full of life and quicknesse now God prizeth the exercise of the graces of his Saints at a very high rate He thinks it worth their suffering much trouble It is a good evidence of grace yea of much grace to account the trouble of many afflictions to be recompensed by the exercise of graces In times of division men had need stirre up all their graces and be very watchfull over their wayes and walke exactly be circumspect accurate in their lives Those who have not their hearts with them have their eyes upon them prying into them watching for their halting When there is siding there is much observing Lord sayes David Psal 27. 11. teach me thy way and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies so it is in your books but you may reade it because of mine observers enemies are observers Hence it was the policy of the Lacedaemonians alwayes to send two Embassadours together which disagreed among themselves that so they might mutually have an eye upon the actions of each other 3. God will have these to be in just judgement to the wicked that they may be a stumbling block to them who will not receive the truth in love There are so many opinions such divisions so many Religions say some that we know not what to do If your hearts be carnall not loving the wayes of God not prizing spirituall things not savouring the things of another world these opinions divisions may be laid by God in judgement as a stumbling block in thy way that thou mayest stumble upon them and break thy selfe for ever God hath no need of thee If thou wilt be froward and perverse against his truths if thou hast a mind to take offence you shall have matter enough before you to take offence at Stumble and break your necks as a just reward of the perversnesse of your hearts These divisions which you rejoice in which you can speak of as glad that you have such an objection against my people and wayes that your hearts are opposite to shall cost you dear even the perdition of your souls everlastingly It was a speech of Tertullian I account it no danger to affirm that God hath so ordered the revelation of truth in Scriptures that he might administer matter for Hereticks 4. God hath a hand in these Divisions to bring forth further light Sparkes are
of that one thing necessary the more strangely men looke upon you let your hearts be stirred up to seek with the more strength the face of God that you may never look upon it but with joy You hear harsh notes abroad such things as grieve you at the heart labour so much the more to keep the bird alwayes singing in your bosome 7. If your peace be made with God blesse God for it It is a great mercy for a man in these times of trouble to have rest in his own spirit while others are tossed up and down in the waves of contention you sit quietly in the Arke of a good conscience blessing the Lord that ever you knew him and his wayes 8. Labour to make up your want of that good and comfort you heretofore had in Christian communion with a more close and constant communion with the Lord who hath been pleased to speak peace unto you Although I have not that comfort in communion with the streams yet I may find it fully made up in the fountain 9. By way of Antiperistas let us labour to be so much the more united with the Saints by how much we see others to be divided Men make void thy Law sayes David therefore doe I love it above gold We use to put a price upon things that are rare what makes Jewels to be of that worth but for the rarity of them Unity hearty love sweetness of communion among brethren is now a very rare thing a scarce commodity let us prize it the more and you who do enjoy it bless God for it 10. The more confused broken and troublesome we see things to be the more let our hearts be stirred up in prayer to God putting him in mind of all those gracious promises that he hath made to his Church for peace and union Lord is it not part of thy Covenant with thy people that thou wilt give them one heart hast thou not said that they shall serve thee with one shoulder hast thou not told us that thou wilt make Jerusalem a quiet habitation that thou wilt take away violence that there should be no pricking bryar nor grieving thorn 11. Those whose consciences can witnesse to them that it hath been their great care not to enwrap themselves in the guilt of these divisions but they can appeale to God that they have endeavoured after peace so far as they could with a good conscience let them bless God for this mercy it is a great deliverance to be delivered from the guilt of those divisions Deut. 33. 8. Of Levi he said Let thy Vrim and Thummim be with thy holy One whom thou didst prove at Massah and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah Massah signifies tentation and Meribah contention Places and times of contention are places and times of tentation Now if God shall prove us at those places in those times and we be found upright this will bring a blessing upon us At those waters where the people murmured contending even with God himselfe Aaron though there was some weaknesse in him yet kept himselfe from being involved in the guilt of that sinne of contending with God And Sol-Jarchi with other of the Hebrewes say that the Levites were not in that sinne neither which they thinke that place Malachie 2. 5. refers unto My covenant was with him of life and peace for the feare wherewith he feared me and was afraid before my name The feare of God was upon Levi at that time he dared not contend as then others did and therefore my covenant of life and peace was and is with him We have been these three or foure yeeres at these waters of Massah and Meribah God hath tryed us How happy are those who have held out who have kept their consciences free upon whom the fear of God hath been and through that feare of his have walked before him in the wayes of truth and equity The blessing of the Covenant of Life and Peace be upon them for ever CHAP. XXXI The Cure of our Divisions VVHat gracious heart is not cut asunder with griefe for those sore and fearfull evils that there are in and come from our divisions and is not even the second time cut asunder with carefull thoughts in it selfe what may be done to heal them Mat. 6. 25. Christ forbids that carking care that cuts our hearts when it is in matters concerning our selves yea for our lives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 take no thought for your life so it is in your bookes but the word signifies Doe not take such thought as should cut your hearts asunder so v. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why doe you divide your hearts and ver 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and ver 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 again But though this charge of Christ be doubled and doubled againe against our carefull dividing cutting thoughts about our selves yet for the uniting the hearts of the Saints together for the good of the Church this heart-cutting care is not onely allowed but required 1 Cor. 12. 25. That there should be no schisme in the body but that the members should have the same care one for another The words are That the members may care the same thing one for another and that with dividing cutting care that there might be no schisme in the body The word that is here for care is the same that in the former places in the 6. of Mat. is forbidden The expressions of my thoughtfull cares about this work is the subject at this time When I set my self about it my heart doth even ake within me at the apprehension of the difficulty of it There are some diseases that are called opprobria medicorum the disgraces of Physitians because they know not what to say or doe to them or if they do any thing it is to little purpose If there be any soule-disease that is opprobrium Theologorum the disgrace of Divines it is this of contention and division How little has all that they have studied and endeavoured to do prevailed with the hearts of men What shall we do Shall we but joyn in this one thing to sit down together and mourn one over another one for another till we have dissolved our hearts into teares and see if we can thus get them to run one into another Oh that it might be what sorrow soever it costs us We read Judges 2. 12. 3 4 5. the Lord sent an Angell from Gilgal to the men of Israel who told them how graciously he had dealt with them yet they had contrary to the command of God made a league with the inhabitants of the Land for which the Lord threatned that they should be as thorns in their sides When the Angell spake these words to the children of Israel the people lift up their voice and wept And they called the name of that place Boehim a place of tears Their sin was too much joyning joyning in league where God
Faith gets above and sayes It shall be I descry land and thus quiets all in the soule all being quiet there the turbulent motions that are in our spirits one towards another are soon quieted 3. Humility COloss 3. 12. Put on as the elect of God bowels of mercies kindnesse humblenesse of minde Ephes 4. 2. With all lowlinosse and meeknesse and long-suffering forbearing one another in love endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Phil. 2. 3. Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory but in lowlinesse of minde let each esteeme others better then himselfe We may say of Humility as Tertullus Acts 24 said of Felix By thee we enjoy great quietnesse An humble heart looks upon every truth of God as infinitely above it selfe therefore it is willing to receive it from any a child may lead it Esay 11. 6. One Baldassar a German Divine writing to Oecolampadius hath this notable expression Let the Word of the Lord come let it come and we will put under six hundred necks if we had them Such a disposition as this would make much for peace Esay 32. 18 19. we have a promise that the people of God should dwell in a peaceable habitation and in quiet resting places and the City shall be low in a low place When the heart lyes lowest it is quietest 4. Self-denyall THe joynts in the body cannot joyne but one part must be hollow and give way to the other Condescention of one to another is a principall thing in friendship Philip. 2. the example of Christ emptying himselfe and making himselfe to be of no reputation is set before us as an argument for our union that therefore we should doe nothing through strife be like minded having the same love and be of one accord and one minde It is indifferent to a heart emptyed of Selfe whether it conquers or be conquered so Truth may triumph In other conflicts the Conquerour hath the honour and the conquered is disgraced but in the conflicts for truth both conquered and conquerour are honourable the mercy is the greater to him that is conquered but he must have a self-denying heart to make him think so 5. Patience THe Olive the Embleme of Peace will continue greene though overflowne by the waters for a long time together After Noah had been so long in the Ark the Dove brought an Olive leafe in her mouth to him It may be an Emblem of Patience as well as Peace Patience and Peaceableness are neere akin Ephes 4. 2 3. Long-suffering is amongst the graces where the unity of the spirit is to be kept in the bond of peace There is a notable story I finde in the lives of the German Divines One Vitus Theodorus a Divine sends to advise with Melancthon what he should do when Osiander preached against him Melancthon writes to him and beseeches him for the love of God yea charges him that he should not answer Osiander again but that he should hold his peace and behave himself as if he heard nothing Vitus Theodorus writes back again This was very hard yet he would obey Let not men be too hasty to oppose oppositions but let them go on patiently in a constant way resolving to bear what they meet with and God at length will make their righteousness break forth as the light Confute evill reports by thy life He that knowes not to beare calumnies reproaches injuries he knowes not how to live sayes Chytraeus another German Divine 6. Joy in the holy Ghost ROm. 14. 17. The Kingdome of heaven is righteousness peace joy in the holy Ghost This grace in the heart puts a grace upon all a mans conversation it makes it lovely and amiable The beames of the Sunne shining upon the fire will put it out The beams of this spirituall joy will put out the fire of our passions 7. Meeknesse Gentlenesse MIlk quenches wild-fire Oyle sayes Luther quenches Lime which water sets on fire Opposition will heat will fire men when meeknesse and gentlenesse will still and quench all Cicero sayes Sweetnesse of speech and rarriage is that which seasons friendship severity in every thing and sadnesse must not be among friends in their converse such a kinde of carriage may have a seeming gravity but friendship must have a remisness it must be more free and sweet disposed to all mildness and easiness Ephes 4. 2 3. Meekness comes in as a speciall grace for peace and unity so Col. 3. 12. 8. Love THat is the speciall uniting grace Faith indeed hath the preheminence in our union with Christ our head but Love is the grace that unites the members 1 Cor. 13. the Apostle shews many of the fruits of this grace all tending to union and peace It suffers long it envies not it is not puffed up it behaves not it selfe unseemly it seeketh not her owne it is not easily provoked thinketh no evill beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things Bearing all things and enduring all things seem to be the same Therefore some would have it it covereth all things for so the word also signifies but there is a greater elegancy in it in the Translation beareth all things it is like the crosse maine beam in a house supporting the whole building and were it not for some who have the love of God and his truth and the good of the publiquâ— enabling them to undergo what they do more then any encouragement from men all things in Church and State would be ready to fall into confusion to be nothing but a heap of rubbish but this love enables to beare all things But if they have no encouragement but see that though they hazard themselves never so much be of never so great use do the greatest services that can be expected from men yet when mens turns are served they are little regarded but envyed and narrowly watched to spy out any thing that may have some shew of excepting against them and left to shift for themselves as well as they can when they might justly expect a great reward of their services yet are disappointed their hearts are grieved But yet because they are acted by a principle of love to God his cause the publique they therefore still hold out go on in their way labour to be as instrumentall as they can for good commit themselves and all their endeavours to God expecting encouragement from him and so they endure all things such men are worth their weight in gold here is a heart that hath much of the spirit of God in it God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him No marvell though these men act so swiftly in their way no marvell though their motion in publick service be so speedy for their Charet is like that Charet of Salomons Cant. 3. 10. The middle thereof is paved with love and this is for the daughters of