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A62715 A call to the Shulamite, or to the scattered and divided members of the church delivered and published upon occasion by Thomas Tanner. Tanner, Thomas, 1630-1682. 1674 (1674) Wing T139; ESTC R30157 22,246 32

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will not learn to be wise unto sobriety but still they seem never to pray with more spirit such as it is than when they pray against their Brethren 3. The third and last loss which I shall mention is also most invaluable our charity is distracted and abated which the poor do sadly feel our civility is disturbed so that men do not dare to become free in conversation till they have sufficiently proved the company our neighbourly love is abated and instead of a friend which one had before it may be he hath an enemy or but a faint-hearted kindness or an hollow pretence of some good will consisting rather in some good wishes that he were but such as his former friend would have him to be that he might love him whose love at best is not without its rigour But I will also spare to dilate my self on this point that at least on one side charity may remain the sounder The last reason why the Church doth so earnestly desire the return of her scattered and divided Members is the great benefit and content that she should find therein which is 1. The delight of love The Shulamite was passionately beloved for her good parts and beauty which the Daughters of Ierusalem do acknowledg when they say Return return ô Shulamite that we may look upon thee and the Shulamite understands no other when she answereth What shall ye see in the Shulamite We acknowledge the like and we will tell you with your favour what we would see in you We would see and be partakers of your knowledge and of your gifts of understanding in the Scriptures We would see your zeal for God and for his Sabbaths and for his Ordinances We would see your charity towards your neighbour whom you would not have seen heretofore to sin at least to commit a sin unto death but you would have aided and admonished him howsoever you think your selves to be excused since of being your Brothers keepers We would see the strictness of your lives and of those of your families We would hear your Readings Prayers Instructions Catechisings and other good Conferences that were wont to be there fit to edifie and to minister grace unto the hearers We would over-hear your private prayers and devotions in your Closets where you were wont to strive with God for the pardon of your sins and for the obtaining of his holy Spirit to sanctifie you throughout in body soul and mind We would see your first love again if it be possible and those fruits which you then brought forth worthy of amendment of life This is the beauty which the Church would now see in the return of the wandring Shulamite whether it be as in the dayes of old that if so she might admire and cherish her 2. The beauty of array which hath much decayed since our Congregations have been diverted our Families divided our People scattered We can no more see men coming with their whole Train to the House of God as they were wont to do And that was a beauty in the Streets of our Ierusalem We cannot see their order here where their seats are void so that our Churches look like great Houses that are specious to behold without but being unfurnished within afford the colder comfort We cannot hear their voices in his holy Temples singing aloud and praising God making also melody in their hearts so keeping time on earth with the Saints and Angels that are in heaven Much less can we meet them as we used to do at the Lords Table at that Feast of Feasts the only Feast of Loves that Feast of marrow and of wine refined on the Lees. And when we remember these things to use the Psalmists words we pour out our souls within us for we had gone with the multitude we went with them to the House of God with the voice of joy and praise with a multitude that kept holiday These are the daies that would return ô Shulamite with thy return Then if any unbeliever or any other bearing evil will to Zion should look into our Assemblies he might be apt to be striken and to be driven to confess that surely God were amongst us or in the midst of us But now if he look in here what shall he see but a despicable emptiness and if he go there a more contemptible multitude for want of order which is the beauty of holiness 3. Lastly Would but our divided Members return again as Brethren unto the body of our Church we should then come to have the strength of two Armies whereas we are now unstable and weak as water and cannot excel we should then become strong and invincible and might boldly write upon our banner Deus nobiscum quis contra nos God is with us who can stand against us The gates of hell shall not prevail neither policy nor power nor any weapon that is form'd against us We should then renew our strength like the Eagle our youth should return to us as in the day when we came up out of the land of Egypt in the beginning of the Reformation we should have strength within and the blessings of peace with it we should become a terror unto foreign Nations which do now despise us and mark us out for a prey in the day of their power and of our weakness Have we forgotten our deliverences from the power of Spain and Austria and the Pope of Rome our Victories in Ireland our Aids that we were then enabled to afford to Henry afterwards the Great King of France and to the then poor distressed States of Holland Having at the same time a Superintendency over all the Councils in the Realm of Scotland and an influence upon divers of our Neighbours with such a firm peace at home that we hardly read of any insurrection worthy to be mentioned in four and fourty years and upwards Nay the benefits of that blessed reign of Queen Elizabeth did extend to propagate a longer peace unto posterity than ever Albion knew before And if we have not yet forgot those flourishing dayes of our renown let us now remember that they were the rewards of an unanimous Reformation when the heart of the people rose as one man to establish the Protestant Religion as one Religion in the midst of us And oh that any one could promise me such another spirit to arise in England in these dayes of ours and under God I might as boldly promise even greater things than these But though there be but little hopes of this and but just reason to expect and fear that all our labour which is thus applyed is like to be in vain yet it is our duty to desire and endeavour it And with that I shall conclude Return return ô Shulamite return return that we may look upon thee You that have been offended with our Church and have left us that have sadned our hearts and weakned our hands thus long return at last to
comfort us that we may look upon you with delight and that our hearts may be stayed for you and our fears stinted Are you nothing moved by the force of duty considering that peace and love is the Legacy which our Lord hath bequeathed unto all his followers to the worlds end and the great bond of perfectness which his Apostles laboured to preserve entire knowing that Unity and Charity cannot be divided Doth it nothing move you to anticipate Christs intention which is our Union and to further Satans which is our division Are you nothing moved with the deluge of prophaneness that carrieth such a multitude headlong into hell whilst you dispute which is the way to save them and agree not on it Are you nothing moved with the growth of Popery which is like to over-run all and if it did would make you glad to digest the hardest morsel about which you are now so nice considering that there is no other way in probability to prevent this but your return into the Tents that you have left Are you nothing moved by the judgments which have followed upon our dissentions and do still lye upon them as a just punishment O God thou hast cast us off thou hast scattered us thou hast been displeased with us thou hast made the land to tremble thou hast broken it O heal the breaches thereof for it shaketh Thou hast shewed thy people hard things And nothing is more hard than this that our hearts are hardned against the wayes of peace after all our wars and unspeakable calamities Our blood hath been shed in vain Quintili Vare redde legiones quas perdidisti O Church-divisions restore again the blood that hath been spilt like water on the ground never to be recovered Return the spirits which we have lost We have undone the Posterity which is to come The children yet unborn are accursed in their Parents loins by reason of our divisions and the issues that are thence to be expected for as long as there is such a temper that doth over-rule the Genius of the Nation God who is offended with our prayers and services must needs with-hold that good that should establish us and though He should grant it yet should we with-hold it from one another and sooner rend and tear it into pieces than to let the publick be the better for it It can never be well with us till there be an healing and till Reformation do begin as was sometimes preached to the Parliament at the House of God To your Tents therefore To your Tents ô Israel not for war but for peace not to set up many Altars but to compass about the Tabernacle for why shouldst thou be any longer as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions O thou that hast turned thus aside hast thou any light more than others We are the darker for the want of it Hast thou any good affections more than others We are baren and unfruitful for the want of them Hast thou any power to add unto the Ministry of the word We are destitute thereof while it seems to be spent upon such as do the least need it Dost thou look upon us as being yet not fit nor worthy of thy Communion Return and strengthen us with better members if thou hast any such to add to us and we shall be thereby the more enabled to amend what is amiss Canst not thou serve God with so much purity and power amongst us as in separate Assemblies Remember whence thou hadst that purity and power and restore the benefit thereof to the same Church from which thou didst at first receive it Remember that heretofore thou couldst be richly edified in the bosom of the same Church and since thou hast left it both the purity and the power whereof thou speakest according to our estimate is much decayed and impaired Nay thou callest that the power of godliness which we take to be another thing Thou dost but make excuses not only against thine own duty but against an invaluable priviledge which is the Unity of the Spirit and if the Church cannot be compleat without Thee much less canst Thou be made perfect without the Body either edified in the true faith or love by which alone thou canst expect to come to that peace of God which passeth all understanding which should keep your hearts and minds through Christ Iesus Wherefore let me end my own Exhortation with that of the same Apostle in another place Above all things put on charity which is the bond of perfectness And let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which ye are also called in one Body and be ye thankful FINIS Some Books printed for Henry Brome since the dreadful Fire in London DR William Lloyd's Sermon before the King against the Papists His Sermon at the Funeral of John Lord Bishop of Chester A Seasonable Discourse against Popery Dr. Heylin on the Creed in fol. A Sermon at the Assizes at Reading by Jos. Sayer M. A. Mr. Stanhopp's four Sermons on several Occasions Mr. Hampton's Assize Sermon A Sermon at the Puneral of Dr. Turner Dean of Canterbury by Dr. Du Moulin The Anthems of the Church The Controversial Letters or Grand Controversie concerning the pretended Authority of Papists over the whole Earth Popery Manifested or the Papist Incognito made Known Toleration discussed The Vindication of the Clergy The Godly mans Companion The Guide to Heaven with a Brief Rule of Life Manuductio ad Coelum or a Guide to Eternity extracted out of the Writings of the Holy Fathers and Antient Philosophers Writen originally in Latin by John Bona. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doct. Judg. 5. c. Jer. 2. 3 5. Hos. 14. 1. c. Jer. 23. 3. 4. 1 Cor. 1. 10. c. Gal. 1. 6 7. Gal. 3. 1 Eph. 4. 1 c. Phil. 2. 1. c. Phil. 3. 15 16. Euseb. l. 5. cap. 26. Reas. 1. 1 Tim. 4. 15. Ro. 12. 3. c. 1 Cor. 12. 4. c. Eph. 411. c. Schismatis nomen in Ecclesia semper ignominiosum publiceque damnatum In Tert. de praescript adv Haeret. 1 Cor. 12. 15. c. Judg. 9. 15. 1 Joh. 2. 18. c. Vult nos fateri quod verum est An ipsi a nobis exierunt an nos ab ipsis sed abfit ut nos ab ipsis Habemus enim testamentum dominicae haereditatis Dabo tibi gentes haereditatem tuam Quis quis huic haereditati non communicat foràs e●iit Reas. 2. Socr. l. i. c. 6. Judg 21. Evert êre domos totas optantibus ipsis Dii faciles nocitura toga nocitura petuntur militia Juven Sat. 10. Reas. 3. Psal. 42. 4. Gen 49. 4. Applica Psal. 60. 2. Cant. 1. 7. Phil. 4. 7. Col. 3. 14 15.