he might tell Joseph that his heart did close much with him and if he had any opportunity to be useful to him oh what a happinesse should he think it to himselfe Surely it should be improved for the good of Joseph to the uttermost But when he was preferred when he had respect amongst great ones and Joseph still was kept low then he is not the same man that he was when he was Josephs fellow-sufferer Now he hath other things in his head Joseph is forgotten by him Where this evill is be sure God will find it out for it is an evill very grievous to his Spirit Put these together and it will appeare that it is no time now to contend whatsoever we doe at other times I remember I have read of Sir Francis Drake having a dear friend of his slaine by a bullet as he sate with him at supper Ah sayes he I could grieve for thee but now is no time for me to let down my spirits So when any shal do such things as might cause contention do you speak to your own heart Ah I find my anger stirred I could contend but now is no time for me to let my spirits rise in a contending way these times call for peace and union not for strife and debate This is the 11. aggravation we are divided in such a time as this The twelfth is we are divided notwithstanding we are all convinced of the evill of divisions We cry out exceedingly against them we tell one another that of all the tokens of Gods displeasure amongst us these are the greatest Yet scarce a man does any thing or leaves any thing undone towards any help against divisions or furtherance of our union Every man cries out of the Theefe but who stops him We all say we would have peace oh peace is an excellent thing But where is the man who is willing to be at any cost for it either in putting up any wrong which he conceives is done to himself or bearing with his brother in any thing differing from himself The Lord may justly judge us out of our own mouths 13. We have complained of others who are in place of power to be of harsh cruel dispositions We have sayd if they had been of gentle loving peaceable dispositions tendring the glory of God dearly the good of their brethren as their own what abundance of good might they have done We have thought in those times Oh if such men were in place who were then our dear brethren whom we conceived to be of holy humble sweet peaceable spirits very tender-hearted towards any they saw godlinesse in had they power in their hands what safety peace rest would the Saints have How comfortably should they goe on in their work How would they be edified praysing the Lord What a heaven upon earth should we have And yet we finde it otherwise We may say we looked for light and behold I will not say darknesse but behold dimnesse even from them for brightnesse but behold obscurity Oh how doe the carriages of these men in some degree justifie the harshnesse sowernesse domineering and cruelty of some of the Prelates We hope nothing shall ever befall us as to be such a temptation to us as to justifie their places But some of their persons are so farre justified as there is occasion given to think they were not such vile men as heretofore we thought they were For now we see what a temptation there is in having the times shine upon me in having power put into mens hands We see now that men who have other manner of principles then ever they had yet how sadly they miscarry when they come under the like temptations How can we answer Christ Jesus for these things 14. We are still divided though we have seen the wofull evils that divisions have brought upon others yet we cannot be warned by other mens harmes Those who are acquainted with Ecclesiasticall Histories may furnish themselves with Volumes in this kind Who can read that short but sowre History of the troubles at Frankford but his heart must needs bleed within him And of late what evills have almost all the Protestant party in Germany and through the Christian world suffered by divisions And yet we engage our selves in them and are every day engaging our selves more and more How deep we shall sink the Lord knowes 15. In our very labouring for union we are divided in our endeavours for peace we are at variance Nazianzen in his 12. Oration rebuking this strange miscarriage of men hath this notable expression While we would have charity we study hatred while we seek to set up the corner stone which unites the sides together we are loosned our selves we are for peace and yet we fight one with another Our wayes of late have been little else but doing and undoing yea we crosse our selves in what we would do by doing what we doe We are all full of contradictions in our own spirits and actions and we cry out of others that they are not consistent to their own principles Lastly the sin of our divisions is the greater because we make Religion to patronize them We divide from one another and all under a pretence of Religion Surely this Virgin is forced for there is nothing more contrary to the name or nature of Religion then to cause or further divisions The name carryes union strong union with it Religio à Religando from binding us againe to God and to one another after we were divided by our sin To father our wicked divisions upon Religion is no other then to bring down the Holy Ghost in the likenesse of a Dove to be like a Vultur or a Raven What spirit is it that we professe our selves to be acted by when we are working for Religion is it not the Spirit of God and is not that a Dove-like spirit although we dishonour our selves by discovering the basenesse of our own spirits by our divisions yet let us not put dishonour upon the blessed Spirit of God this makes the sin to be abhominable Nazianzen in his fore-named Oration inveighs against this in those in his time In our pleadings for the truth we sayes he belye one another as if this were the way to maintain truth CHAP. XXIX The wofull miseries that our divisions bring upon us THey are themselves fruits of the curse therefore there can come no other but cursed fruits from them except God contrary to their nature be pleased to over-rule them which he only is able to do It was the curse of God upon the ground Briars and thorns shall it bring forth It is no lesse curse of God upon mens hearts that they bring forth such briars and thorns by which they tear one another First our divisions provoke the wrath of God against us though the wrath of man accomplisheth not the righteousnesse of God yet it may accomplish the wrath of God Esay 9. 21. Manasseh against
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
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
cruelty and revenge her husband delighting in her caused her Image to be made lively representing her and apparelled with costly garments but indeed it was an Engin to torment men withall he made use of it thus when he could not have his will upon men by his owne perswasions he tooke them by the hand telling them that perhaps his wife Apega who sate by in a chaire could perswade more effectually so he led them to the Image that rose up and opened the armes as it were for embracement those armes were full of sharpe iron nayles the like whereof were also sticking in the brests though hidden with her clothes and herewith she griped these men to death At which Nabis standing by laughed to see the cruell death of these miserable men The Lord deliver us from revengefull spirits CHAP. XXVII The evill of Divisions They hinder much good EVsebius reports of Constantine That he was more troubled with the dissentions of the Church then with all the warres in his dominions that he took them so to heart that he could not sleep quietly for them yea although he had a spirit full of heroick valour yet the dissentions of the Church were such evils to him as to cause him to cry and sob Thus he writes in an Epistle to Alexander and Arius Let me enjoy the dayes in peace and the nights without molâ—station that the pleasure which riseth out of the pure light of concord and quiet life may henceforth inviolably be conserved if it otherwise happen it behoveth us to sob and sigh and to shed many a salt teare What heart that hath any tendernesse in it bleeds not in the sense of those sore dreadful heart-divisions there are amongst us The evill there is in them is beyond what tongue or pen can expresse Take a view of it under these three Heads 1. The good they hinder 2. The sinne they cause 3. The misery they bring First the quiet comfort sweetnesse of our spirits is hindered by divisions They put the spirit out of tune men who heretofore have had sweet spirit full of ingenuity since they have interessed themselves in these Divisions have lost their sweetnesse their ingenuity is gone When the Bee stings she leaves her sting behinde her and never gathers Honey more men by stinging one another doe not lose their stings but they lose their honey they are never like to have that sweetnesse in their hearts that heretofore they had Shall I lose my sweetnesse sayes the Fig-tree and goe to be promoted over the trees Why doest thou not reason thus with thy spirit Shall I lose my sweetnesse in contending to get my will to be above others God sorbid There was a time that both my my selfe and others found much sweetnesse in the temper of spirit there was nothing but peaceablenesse quiet calmnesse contentednesse in it and how comfortable was such a temper of spirit me thought when my spirit was in that sweet frame all things were sweet to me but since I have been interested in quarrels and contentions it hath beene farre otherwise with me Prov. 15. 4. Perversnesse in the tongue causes a breach in the spirit Contentions cause much perversnesse in mens tongues and this causes a breach in their spirits Your contending costs you deare though it were in nothing else yet the losse of this sweetnesse of spirit makes it very costly to you All the wrong that you should have put up if you had not contended had not been so great an evil to you as this one thing is There is nothing more contrary to ingenuity then quarrelsomnesse It is reported of Melancthon that when he was to dye he had this speech and Strigelius at his death had the same I desire to depart this life for two causes First that I may enjoy the desired sight of the Sonne of God and the Church in heaven Secondly that I may be delivered from the fierce and implacable hatred of Divines There was much disputing contending quarrelling in those times which was so tedious to the spirits of these good men as it made them the willinger to dye that they might be where their souls should be at rest That Saint of God old M. Dod never loved to meddle with controversies he gave that reason He found his heart the worse when he did Men seldome come away from hot disputes or any other contentions but their spirits are altered for the worse They finde it so and others finde it in them If a man has beene abroad and met with company with whom he hath been contending his wife children servants finde that he comes not home with the same spirit that he went out with Secondly they hinder the freedome of a mans spirit which a wise man sets a high price upon the strength of many mens spirits is spent in contentions they have no command of them to any thing else When a man is once engaged in a contest he knows not how to get off Contention is a great snare to a man he wishes he had never medled with it he is weary of it but knowes not how to come off fairely I have read of Francis the first King of France consulting with his Captaines how to lead his Army over the Alpes into Italy whether this way or that way Amarill his Foole sprung out of a corner where he sate unseene and bad them rather take care which way they should bring their Army out of Italy back again It is easie for one to interest himselfe in quarrels but the difficulty is to be disengaged from them when you are in Thirdly they hinder the good of the body many men contending with their Brethren are so full of stomach that they have no stomach they hinder their sleep men lye tossing up downe a great part of the night sometimes whole nights musing plodding and contriving how they may make their party good what advantages they may get of those they contend with Have the thoughts about the breach sinne hath made between God and thy soul broke thy sleep so much as the thoughts of breaches between thee and thy neighbours and brethren We reade of Moses Deut. 34. 7. that he was an hundred and twenty yeeres old when he died his eye was not dimme nor his naturall force abated Some give this to be one reason of such a wonderfull preservation of his health and strength the meeknesse of his spirit God witnesses of him Numb 12. 3. That he was the meekest man upon the face of the earth That good old man Mr. Dod came very neere to Moses in the one and in the other Fourthly they hinder mens judgements if the water be muddie we cannot see what lies at the bottome These dissentions disturb the medium of our sight you cannot weigh gold in the middest of blustring windes you cannot consider and give a judgement upon truth except the heart be calme Gregory Nazianzen hath this similitude As the
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
infinite scandall that comes by dissention Oh that there were such hearts in us Christ expects it from us all but especially from his Ministers for they are his Ambassadours for peace to beseech men in his stead to be reconciled to God reconciliation with God will reconcile us one to another If God so loved us we ought also to love one another 1 John 4. 11. The faces of the Cherubims in the Temple looked one towards another which some think signified the agreement that should be amongst Ministers of the Gospel So the six branches in the Candlestick joyned all in one those who hold the light of truth before others should be united in peace in one amongst themselves The first thing Christs Ministers were to doe when they came to any place was to say Peace be to that place if any sons of peace were there they were to abide otherwise not Surely then it is expected that themselves should be sonnes of peace The contentions of private Christians are offensive but the contentions of Ministers is a scandall with a witnesse Yet in all Ages of the Church the corrupt Clergie have been the greatest causes of divisions they have been of the most cruell spirits against any that differed from them But let not such a spirit be in us we have enough to do to contend with the wicked of the world with the malice of Satan let us not contend one with another Luther writing to the Ministers of Norimberg brings in Christ saying to them Satis est vobis ob nomen meum malorum You are like to suffer evil enough for my name you need not be afflictions one to another It was barbarousnesse in the Priests of Baal to cut and slash themselves but it is worse for the Ministers of Jesus Christ to cut and slash one another 1 Kings 6. 23. The Cherubims were made of the Olive tree If you be typified by them as we hinted before let it appeare that you are olives not brambles yea and v. 31. For the entring of the Oracle the doores were of Olive-tree who will believe that you bring the Oracles of God with you when they see by your froward contentious carriage that you never entred in at these doores People cannot but think it a miserable thing to have a scratching tearing bramble to be over them Oh that God would set the beauty glory of peace friendship love before us That this precious pearle Vnion might be highly valued by us All men are taken in some degree or other with the excellency and sweetness of love and friendship Some men sayes Cicero despise riches others honours those things that by some are delighted in by others are vilified but all men of all sorts have a high esteem of friendship they think there can be no life without it Gen. 34. 21. The great commendation that Hamor and Shechem give of Jacob and his Sons as an argument to perswade the men of Shechem to joyn with them in the giving their daughters to them for wives and in taking theirs is These men are peaceable with us A peaceable disposition is very convincing Cant. 6. 6. My dove my undefiled is but one she is the onely one of her mother she is the choice one of her that bare her What then followes The daughters saw her and blessed her yea the Queenes and the Concubines and they praised her Who I se she that looketh forth as the morning faire as the moone cleare as the Sunne terrible as an Army of Banners Let the Saints be but one and then they will appeare beautifull and glorious indeed yea they will be terrible as an army of Baners Evagrius in his Ecclesiasticall History records an Epistle of Cyrill of Alexandria written to John of Antioch upon the occasion of a Pacificatory Epistle of John unto him his spirit was so taken with it that it breaks forth thus Let the heavens rejoyce and let the earth be glad the mid wall of rancour is battered downe the boyling choler which bereaved the mindes of quietnesse is purged from among us and all the occasion of discord and dissention is banished away for our Saviour Iesus Christ hath granted peace unto the Churches under heaven The Thebans made Harmonia a goddesse they accounted her the defender and patronesse of their City Harmonious peaceable uniting dispositions have much of God in them if not from sanctifying grace yet it is from a common work of the Spirit of God there is a noblenesse in such a heart By the Lawes of England Noblemen have this priviledge that none of them can be bound to the peace because it is supposed that a Noble disposition will never be engaged in brawles and contentions it is supposed that the peace is alwayes bound to him that of his own accord he will be carefull to preserve it It is the base Bramble that rends and teares Nazianzen reports of Alexander who having taken a City and consulting what to doe one Parmenius answered If he were King he would raze the City to the ground Alexander answers So would I too if I were what you are rigour may become you but gentlenesse becomes me Gentlenesse mercy goodnesse love tendernesse of others sufferings are the greatest ornaments to a noble spirit If this be sanctified the glory of God shines bright indeed in such a heart For God glories in this to be the God of peace and love 1 Thess 5. 23. The very God of peace 2 Thess 3. 16. The Lord of peace himselfe Jesus Christ in being the Prince of peace the holy Ghost in being like a Dove that hath no gall the Gospel is the Gospel of peace the Kingdome of God is peace as well as righteousnesse the legacy that Christ left is a legacy of peace the Apostolicall benediction is grace mercy and peace the glory of the Church is in this that it is a City compact at unity within it selfe Yea this will be the glory of that glorious Church that God is raising a new Jerusalem there shall be no more crying there Apoc. 21. 4. Ezech. 14. 9. The Lord shall be King over all the earth in that day there shall be one Lord and his name shall be one There is but one Lord now but he is called by different names but in that day his name shall be but one Zeph. 3. 9. Then will I turne to a people of pure language that they may call upon the name of the Lord and serve him with one consent The Hebrew word is with one shoulder now we shoulder one another but then all shall serve the Lord with one shoulder This love and peace is compared to the most delightfull and the most profitable things Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell at unity it is like the precious ointment upon the head that ranne downe upon the beard even Aarons beard that went downe to the skirts of his garment as the dew of