days of Humiliation and when else their hearts are loosed to mourn do deplore Yet here is our Comfort That in answer to our Supplications the Lord hath stirred up the hearts of those who have power effectually to minde that which we are confident will prove the Remedy of these and many more of our present Evils I mean The setting up without further Delay of the Lords Government in his own House over all the Land The whole Government being transmitted from the Assembly and looked upon by both Houses with a gracious Aspect and sundry Votes already past upon the chief parts thereof it is certainly expected that in a very short time the whole Frame shall be erected and not onely be accompanied with the joyfull Acclamations of this Land and of all the Churches abroad but also filled with so much Grace and Power from the presence of the Lord as shall prove an heavenly Attractive without any need of humane violence to draw the spirits of those who for the time do most dissent and oppose to its admiration and love Waiting and praying for the sight of that happie day I rest Thy Servant in the Lord R. B. A Sermon preached before the Right Honourable the House of Lords July 30. 1645. ISAI 63.17 Lord why hast thou made us to erre from thy ways and hardned our hearts from thy fear Return for thy servants sake the Tribes of thine Inheritance IN this and the two next Chapters The Division of the Chapter we have a heavenly Conference and Dialogue betwixt Christ and the Church of Israel in the time of her affliction in Babel The Dialogue hath Three or Six parts Three Questions of the Church and Three Answers of Christ In the first verse of this Chapter The first Pars. we have the first Question and Answer The Church about that time of the Captivity to which this part of the Prophecie relateth was much oppressed with many Enemies God after all his wrath begins to arise and take order with them who long had deyoured her especially with Edom the neerest and most bitter Enemy of Jacob. When she sees the sudden and unexpected Vengeance on Edom admiring who could be the author and worker of it she proposes the Question Who he was that had destroyed Bozra the principall City of the Edomites and was marching in his great and glorious strength from the Land of Edom the service there being ended to other of the Enemies Countreys Unto the Churches Interrogation Christ answers That it was he himself who now by his works was demonstrating the truth of his ancient promises and shewing the might of his power to save his people from the Enemies oppression Observe The Doctâ—ine When the Church hath wrestled long with her enemies and is ready to faint and give over on a sudden Christ the King and Captain of the Host of Israel comes down and breaks the strength of the prevailing enemy to the Church her great admiration The second part of the Dialogue is in the next five verses The second part of the Chapter The Church finding it was her Lord and God who was begun to take vengeance on her enemies before he go she is desirous of more conference with him and proposes a second Question Wherefore his Garments were red as if he had been treading a Presse of red wine The Lords Answer is That the set time of his Vengeance upon her Enemies was come That though her strength was gone and among all her friends there was none able to stand against her foes yet he alone would do it and by his own Arm had destroyed already some of them with so great a slaughter that all his glorious Raiment was stained with the blood of the slain Hence observe The first Doctrine first When the condition of the Church is most desperate upon earth then is the day and hour of her certain redresse from heaven The Church The second deserted of her self and all men else hath one fast friend who alone is worth many Ten thousands able to draw her out of all deeps In the day of the Lords anger The third wo to all the enemies of the Church When the Lord begins to trample them in the Wine-presse of his Indignation if there were no more but the dashing of their bodies in pieces the watering of the ground with their blood and the staining of the garments of their killers therewith if no more followed it were well to them But they must drink after death in the Cup of the everlasting fury of the Almighty as John comments it Rev. 14.10 They shall be tormented with fire and brimstone for ever and ever In the third part of the Dialogue from the seventh verse The Subdivision of the third part the Church finding her Deliverance sensibly begun but not accomplished for though Edom was destroyed yet Babel was sitting like a Queen over the Nations and most over the rubbish of desclate Jerusalem she turns her self to her present Redeemer and most humbly supplicates him to perfect what he had begun To deliver her fully from the great burdens both of sin and misery that yet lay upon her This Prayer is set down in the remnant of this Chapter and all the next whereunto a large and gracious Answer is returned by Christ in the 65 Chapter thorow the whole The first part of the Prayer is Thanksgiving Its first member from the seventh to the fifteenth To prepare their hearts for petitioning they lay out before the Lord the great goodnesse which he of old had bestowed on the house of Israel his wonders in Egypt his glorious works at the Red Sea and in the Wildernesse the constancy of his kindnesse notwithstanding their Rebellion and vexing of his Spirit Though sometime he punished them for their sins yet he never left them for the glory of his Name and the Multitude of his mercies Not onely Moses his Shepherd but the Angel of his Presence went before them He was afflicted in all their afflictions he bare them and carried them in his arms all these days of old thorow that howling Wildernesse This is the Churches Preface to her subsequent Prayer Hence observe first The first Doctrine Thanksgiving is the meetest usher which a Petitioner can have to the Throne of Grace Praise perfumes the lips of a Supplicant it sweetens it softens it opens the heart of a Seeker and fits it singularly to receive all its desires from God The kindnesse of God in the days of Moses The second and the most ancient times is the Churches Inheritance to the worlds end All the favours of God registred in Scripture all the gracious experiments of the Saints in any time in any place are our Patrimony serving as ruled Cases to strengthen our Faith Hope and Patience in the days of our adversity The sins of many persons The third remove not the favour of God from an elect Nation
marvell therefore that men of awakened consciences make it a chief part of their complaint and grief That God had caused them to erre This being a figne of wrath and increase of guiltinesse and a forerunner of greater punishment The use is first for Caution 1 Vse for Caution To beware of that dangerous errour of taking comfort and encouragement from Gods judiciall hand in our sins that is to glory in our shame and to joy for what we should be sad It is to cast off our self the burden of our sin to whom alone it belongs on God whose eyes are purer then to behold iniquity Secondly 2 Vse for Counsel It serves for Councell to make it our chief grief in our mourning That we have faln under so heavy displeasure as to be scourged with the worst of Gods Rods Of all the Arrows in Gods Quiver this is the most venemous To be given over by God to sin this comes from a speciall wrath and is a presage of very great misery following When Gods spirit stirred up David to number the people it came from his anger against Israel and was a forerunner of the destroying Angell The blinding of the peoples eyes Isaiah 6. and John 12. is made an antecedent of a nationall ruine When ever we feel this to be our condition it should be the matter of our most mournfull complaint The fourth observation will clear the third it is this The fourth Doctrine Judiciall errours are most lamentable The godly when their eyes are opened to see their wandrings they are singularly affected with their judiciall errours As here the Church mourning and praying to God for sin and misery begins her complaint for these errours into which by Gods anger and judgement she had faln Old Israel by Gods judgement The Proof had faln in the grievous errour of civill discord which cost in two dayes the eleven Tribes the lives of fourty thousand men and in the third proceeded very near to the extirpation of the twelfth Tribe When the hand of God was lifted off them and they began to look back upon their actions Judges 21.2 they weeped fore before the Lord and complained to him of the great mischief wherein they had faln Though the injustice and obstinacy of Benjamin had been the immediate cause of the dissention yet they pittied their Brethren seeing it was the Lords judgement upon them all that had made that breach in Israel Verse 15. Ephraim in his pride would needs rebell against the house of David and have a King among themselves and Altars of their own making at Dan and Bethel God in justice gave them over to these sins of continuall sedition and idolatry till they were totally ruined He gave them a number of Kings in his anger Hos 8.11 Because Ephraim hath made many Altars to sin Altars shall be unto him to sin But when the Lord gave repentance to Ephraim see how much they are grieved ashamed and confounded for their madnesse wherein by the judgement of God they were made long to go on Jere. 31.18 I have heard Ephrains bemoaning himself thus Surely after I was turned I repented and after I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I bore the reproach of my youth The Jews were plagued of God with a horrible blindnesse of minde and obstinacy of heart so that they rejected the Gospel crucified the Lord of Life and remain in Rebellion to this day But when the Lord shall take off the vail of their eyes and they begin to see their judiciall errours their madnesse against Christ and the Gospel wherewith God in justice did plague them their grief for it will be extraordinary as it is set down Zach. 12.10 They shall look on him whom they have peirced and they shall mourn for him as one mournath for his onely son and shall be in bitternesse for him as one is in bitternesse for his first-born 2 Thes 2. The Churches of the Gentiles are in Gods justice many of them given over to strong delusions to beleeve Antichristian Lyes but when God begins to open their eyes to see these delusions their grief and indignation for them is so great Revel 17.16 That they hate the whore who did seduce and bewitch them They make her desolate and naked They eat her flesh and burn her with fire The Reasons of this Doctrine The Reasons are the same which of the former especially the second The singular and extraordinary guiltinesse that is in these judiciall errours the blinded soul sees them not while God in mercy remove the cloud and send in his light but then the lightned soul beholding the horrible wayes wherein it hath been wandring such wherein it would never have walked had it not been led by a powerfull Divell set on by the permission and commission of a just God Seeing in these sins a just God a wicked Divell and a heart stirred up by extraordinary temptations by this horrible back-sight is affrighted and amazed till Faith in the infinite mercies of God doth calm and settle it The Use is for admonition The Vse Beware of judiciall errours very often they are never pardoned but bring on destruction both temporall and eternall 2 Thes 2.11 They to whom God sends strong delusions are damned Isai 6.11 When God shut the peoples eyes and made their heart fat the Cities were wasted and the Land made desolate Before Ephraim and Juda recovered themselves from that snare of rebellion and came to the repentance spoken of How many hundred thousands and millions of them did perish both temporally and eternally And these few whom the Lord bringeth to see and mourn for their judiciall ertours How great is their grief How much do they wish to have seen in time their madnesse that they might not so much have been plagued therewith But what are these judiciall errours which we would beware of Search the Scriptures they will make you wise in this very necessary point of knowledge For your use I shall point at some First Civill discord a Judiciall errour Civill Discord is a sin and a great judgement a sin to the authors and fomenters a judgement to all as well the innocent as nocent party Isai 19.2 God punisheth the sins of the Egyptians with his plague I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians and they shall fight every one against his brother and every one against his neighbour City against City and Kingdom against Kingdom and the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof and I will destroy the counsel thereof The same is the Judgement of Israel Zech. 11.6 I will no more pity the inhabitants of the Land but I will deliver the men every one into his neighbours hands and into the hands of his King and they shall smite the Land and out of their hand I will not deliver them This is the great Judgement that long hath lien upon us the
it First The first cure of hardnesse is The embracing of the word by faith believe the Word of the Lord. Gods Word is the means that softneth the heart like the Sun that melteth the wax likethe Hammer that breaketh the stone the Fire that softneth the Iron the watry cloud that moistneth the dry and parched ground With all care and conscience set thy heart under the beams of that Sun the stroke of that Hammer before the heat of that fire under the droppings of that cloud The contempt the neglect the misbelief of this holy instrument of the Spirit is a great cause of all the hardnesse of heart we speak of Heb. 3. To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your heart Take heed there be not in any of you an evil heart of misbelief Who will not hear the voice or doth hear but with an evil heart of misbelief they harden their heart The Word which should melt them as the Sun doth Wax hardneth them as the Sun doth Clay that Word which to the believer is the loud voice of the Trumpet of God to waken them when sleeping to quicken them when dead becomes to the unbeliever and carelesse hearer the song of a pleasant voice to sing them asleep and to keep them sleeping To such the most powerfull Ministery of a Prophet of an Apostle of Christ himself serveth to make the heart more hard and fat and dead then it was before as from the sixth of Isai and twelfth of John it is manifest That which to the faithfull is a quickning Spirit to the misbeliever is a killing letter What to the one is the power of God to salvation to the other is but as sounding Brasse and a tinkling Cymbal Let it therefore be your earnest endeavour in all holy exercises about the Word private or publike be it preaching or reading or conference to embrace it with an honest heart with all attention reverence and faith Particularly Especially the promise of a soft heart embrace and lay up in thy heart the promise of a soft heart as it is set down Ezek. 36.26 there the people of God were in a worse condition then we yet The fury of the Lord was so far kindled against them for their sins that they were cast out of their Land they were swallowed up on every side as it is in the third verse They were taken up in the lips of talkers they were an infamy of the people and the reproach of the Nations and for all that were not reformed but continued to profane the Name of God and to encrease their provocations in the midst of all their Judgements Yet even then the Lord doth promise For my own Names sake not for your sake will I do this A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and will give you an heart of flesh Let this Word as a pickle of good seed be laid up in the heart it will in time break up to good fruit This is a part of the new Covenant as appeareth from Jer. 31 and 32. and Heb. 8. which belongs to us as to any other which we would embrace humbly waiting till the Lord perform it to us A second help to softnesse of heart will be a Catalogue of sins for which we ought to mourn The second Cure of hardnesse is A clear sight of sin for softnesse of heart is either the same thing or proceeds in a great part from grief and forrow for sin as hardnesse of heart and impenitency are the same or are always conjoyned Thou from thy hardnesse or impenitent heart The tendernesse and melting of Josiahs heart was his mourning for the Lands sin The softning of the Jews heart from their long Plague of induration is when they are weeping and in bitternesse for their sins as one for his first-born The clear sight of sin being a help to grief sorrow and repentance must be so towards the softnesse of heart The speciall end of these solemn Humiliations is for registrating in clear and legible letters in the hearts of the godly the sins both of the Land and of their own persons The Tables of our conscience have been so oft impressed with these Types that I need no more but to remit every one to the books of their brests There you may read in capitall letters the cause of our Woes the matter of our Mourning While the Lords Candle did shine over our head What are the sins of the Land and we washed our steps in butter while to all the Neighbour-Nations for a great number of yeers we were a wonder of Prosperity and with abundance of all Temporall blessings we had likewise plenty of the Gospel How did we meet the Lord Great numbers of all ranks and estates were obstinate in Idolatry and known Papists Of them who professed the Truth how many were altogether void of knowledge void of fear without any conscience of God The most did pollute the Service and Church of God with manifold Superstitions and Prelaticall Tyranny persecuting all who had the least zeal to oppose their Corruptions True Piety was mocked The Sabbath by publike Authority profaned Covetousnesse Pride Oppression Pampering of the flesh Uncleannesse like a flood did overflow the Land In these very times when the Lords patience is broken off and he from heaven is revealing his wrath against our wickednesse yet where is our Repentance How many have an ear to hear more what the present Rods of God do speak then what his former Favours How many Popish and Prelaticall spirits have yet mourned for their old ways How many upon conscience have left any of the named abominations How great an addition have we made to our old heap of sin How much have we put to our old treasure of wrath Rather then to be reclaimed from their ways Hath not a great part run to the Sword and covered the Land with more innocent blood more Rapines and Ravishments then this Isle did see for many Ages together Many whom Gods mercy hath separate to the right hand Episcopacy and Independency flow both from one fountain How do they still provoke the Lord continuing without grief for their old ways And sundry of them who professemost Piety advancing the old unhappie way of this Land an affectation of singularity and difference from all the Reformed The bitter Potions of Gods Judgements have not yet purged out this very evil humour of many stomacks The vain spirits of this Land made that the peculiar glory of England which was truely her peculiar infamy and proper unhappinesse and the speciall grief of the most godly in the Land The gloriation of these light spirits was That England did excell all other Reformed Churches in their Episcopacy and Service-book also That the moderation of their King and Prelats was such that Romane Catholikes might enjoy a sober liberty
them but because they were The Tribes of his Inheritance Among all the inhabitants of the earth he had chosen for his portion the Tribes of Jacob as the word signifies the Rods or Branches that sprang out of the Root of Jacob for his peculiar possession Deut. 32.8 When the Most high divided to the Nations their Inheritance when he separated the sons of Adam the Lords portion was his people and Jacob the lot of his inheritance Out of the whole world he chose Israel for his peculiar portion as it is in Amos 4. Thee onâ—ly have I known of all the families of the earth Not for any good in them but alone for his own love and good will as it is Deut. 7.8 Were not the time past we would have enlarged these Observations First Observ 1 The proper the sovereign the onely Cure of an erring spirit and hardned heart is the presence the return the gracious entrance of God in the heart Secondly When the Lord upon entreaty hath come into the heart and begins to enlighten and soften it he would be entertained with much love humility fear care All in the heart that may grieve his holy eye would be swept out lest if again he depart in anger the last estate be worse then the first Thirdly A Land wherein the spirit of Errour and Induration doth predomine cannot enjoy the gracious presence of the Spirit of Truth 2 Cor. 6.15 What communion hath light with darknesse What concord hath Christ with Belial Fourthly All who plead for a Liberty of habitation to errenious spirits in this Land require in plain English a Liberty so far as is in them to banish God out of England Fifthly When by the Judgement of God the spirit of Errour hath entred a Land there is no putting of him out but by Gods own Arm for he is a great deal stronger then men Zech. 13.2 It is the Lord who takes it on him to cause the false Prophets and the unclean spirit that leads them to passe out of the Land Sixthly Though the Judgement of Erring and Induration cannot be cured but by the return of the Lord though the subduing of the spirit of Errour and Obstinacie be the work of Gods hand yet every good man according to his place and calling above all the Nobles of a Land and the Houses of Parliament would employ their whole strength to help the Lord against that strong one We tempt God when we neglect to use the means for doing of that work wherein he hath the principall hand Because we live in God Shall we not eat and drink and keep our selves from seen dangers It is the Lord that subdues our enemies under us therefore shall not our Souldiers fight The Lords Spirit is the subduer of the spirit of Errour therefore Assemblies and Parliaments need to have no care of this matter When Satan reasoned thus with Christ He hath given his Angels charge over thee therefore cast thy self down headlong he replieth wisely Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God Seventhly God will return for his servants sake in the most desperate times When Calamities have wracked the State when Errour and Obstinacy and these Judiciall lie on the spirits of a people the faithfull expect believe pray for favour upon the ground of their relation to God still remaining in the mids both of sins and miseries they are his servants and he their Lord. The conscience of a desire to serve the Lord is a Ground of hope in our hardest conditions Eighthly No hope of a deliverance by God in mercy from any Judgement unlesse we be willing to serve him as an absolute Master The greatest enemies of a State are those who would evert or enervate the Relation of master and servant between God and a people for this Relation is the ground-stone of all the Protection of all the Deliverance we may expect or pray for from God Popes Kings Bishops have been striving to be lords over Gods Flock that ambition hath cost all the three dear Let Christ alone by his own Laws his own Officers and his own Courts have the full Spirituall and Ecclesiastick Government of his Churches The taking of this from him may spoil us of his protection Those men that are most carefull to vindicate the right of Christ are best servants to the State for they lay a sure foundation of Christs favour and protection to that State wherein they settle Christ as the onely King Lord and Master of the Church Ninthly Consider the unexpressible benignity of God chusing out among the children of sinfull and miserable men some to be his own inheritance That the Infinite and All-sufficient God who hath need of nothing and to whom all creatures can adde no perfection in all Agesshould delight to have a possession and inheritance among men as his peculiar treasure they to be his and he to be theirs it s a wonderfull love to men Tenthly Gods Inheritance his peculiar People his dearest Children if they will venture on sin they shall be sure of Plagues both Spirituall and Temporall rather then any other people of the world For their sins are greatest being against a most loving Father It concerns him in honour and glory not to let them go with their scandalous trespasses He would be blasphemed if they went unpunished Thee onely have I known of all the families of the earth therefore I will punish thee for all thy transgressions Eleventhly The Spirit of Adoption under great sins and grievous punishments therefore moves the children of God to lay hold on their priviledges for the melting of their heart and bringing them to Repentance Finally The sweetest exercise of a Christian is the improving of the priviledge in band The making use daily of this mutuall Relation We are Gods Inheritance and God is our Portion A soul truely religious must give it self up fully to be possest and filled by God to be replenished in minde will affections memory conscience and every faculty with the whole fulnesse of God as an inhabitant as a due proper and onely heritor On the other part it will claim and lay hold by faith on the power the glory the truth the mercy and all that is in God as its own peculiar portion as the onely heritage which either in earth or heaven it desireth to enjoy But being cut off by time from enlarging these things I commend them and the rest to your meditation and the blessing of God FINIS
Princes or States refuse or delay to grant Ecclesiastick Government to the Churches that live in their Dominions Have the Independents the Brownists or the Anabaptists or any of the Hetorodox Societies among us wanted their own Government since the first hour of their self-erection The Judgement of this Errour appeareth in three Circumstances It is demonstrate to be a Judgement and Plague First That it is evident to all Secondly That it were most easily amended Thirdly That it is singularly hurtfull The Evidence of it may be seen in the confession of all The greatest and most unreasonable Sectaries will not deny but every true Church should be without all delay invested with Government And if you will speak with the men who most have and do retard the erection of the Government desired they will professe their true intention and desire to see the Church-Discipline established For this evil Anarchy hath been so oft by so many of Gods faithful servants witnessed against that now it s defended by none Concerning the second The facility of its erection it is as clear For I pray who are the men that will take it upon them to impede it Can we at this present or could we for some yeers complain of the violence of a seduced Court Can the blame be cast on any Popish or Prelaticall Faction Will either Brownists or Anabaptists professe their deniall to us of what they long ago have taken to themselves Who then must answer to God for our shamefull Anarchy for so long a time The hurt of it is too too perspicuous Whosoever will lay the Sword the Pestilence and all the Calamities that destroy the Land on our delay to build the House of the Lord shall have for him the Prophet Zechariahs direct Warrant Zech. 8.10 Before these days there was no peace to him that went out or came in because of affliction For I set all men every one against his neighbour And if we indeed believe It is not the strength of men but the Lord Christ who setleth troubled Kingdoms What hope can we have that he will ever settle our State so long as his Church lies neglected in so wofull a confusion Beside outward Judgements this Errour is the cause of the greatest spirituall Mischiefs The hedge of Discipline lying level with the ground makes open doors yea invites and calls for all the devouring beasts to prey on the Flock of Christ From this it is that so many thousand souls are permitted to perish eternally in ignorance in profanenesse in Heresies in damnable Sects without the least controll or any mans endeavour to reclaim them So long as the Law permits no Pastor in England to exercise his Pastorall charge on any person he may well weep and mourn when the devil in his sight plucks away numbers of his Sheep but with his Shepherds Crook with the Ordinance of Christs Discipline to hold off that Lion it is not in his power It is not onely the passionate desire of all the Reformed Churches abroad of all the godly and Orthodox Party at home but also their confident expectation That the Honorable Houses without further delay will at last set up the walls of the House of God who now is going on apace by so many Successes to ruine their enemies and to settle the state of their affairs much according to their hearts desire The neglect of this piece of Thankfulnesse may provoke the Lord to repent him of his favours and to call back in one day what he had been giving in many I point but at one other Judiciall wandering False Doctrine is a Judiciall Errour that which usually and properly goeth under the name of Errour the word of our Text false Doctrine contrary to the ways of Gods Truth That Errour is a sin and a Judiciall one infliflicted by God as a punishment of former sins we may see in divers Scriptures 2 Thess 2.10 11. Because they received not the love of the Truth for this cause God gave them over to strong delusions to believe a lye Here Errours are Judgements which God puts Satan to bring on men for their coldrife entertaining of the truth And how grievous a Judgment Error is this and other Scriptures clear Here it is made a cause of damnation That they might all be damned who believed not the Truth The Socino-Remonstrants have taught our new Masters to extenuate much and at last to deny the sinfulnesse and danger of Errour They would hide the Vipers sting till the pretty and beautifull worm be once taken into the bosom where a little warmed it makes it quickly appear how innocent and harmlesse a creature it is They tell us that all sin is in the Will Errour is a dangerous evil and the cause of damnation but the seat of errour is the minde Is not the minde the most high and divine facultie of the soul Is not the corruption of the best things truely worst The mindes pollution with the darknesse of errour is eminently contrary to the light and truth of the divine nature Against this greatest of errours the excusing of all errours we should minde the truth of God who cannot lye In the place cited errour is made the cause of damnation elsewhere the Apostle tells us That false Doctrine eats up and kills the soul as a Canker Gangrene or Pest doth the body 2 Tim. 2.17 Also false Teachers are called Ravening Woolfs who tear and rent in peeces the souls of the seduced Acts 20.29 The Apostle Peter is in the same minde 2. Epistle 2. He tells us the condition of false Teachers They bring in damnable Heresies their wayes are pernicious their distruction is swift their damnation slumbereth not It is as certain as was the damnation of the Devils of the old world drowned in the deluge of the Sodomites All this is Peters Doctrine And this he had from his Master Christ Matth. 7.15 Beware of false Prophets When they have the fairest shew of piety he that knows the heart pronounceth They are but ravening Woolfs Matth. 15.14 If the blinde lead the blinde both shall fall in the ditch If we beleeve the Lord a false Teacher doth not onely destroy himself but draws with him all his blinded Scholers into the ditch of the same perdition 1 Cor. 12.25 27. The Apostle tells us The nature of Shism That the Church is the Body of Christ and that Schismaticks make a Schism in Christs Body that is they rent his Body in peeces they who crucified him would not rent his seamlesse Coat but Schismaticks can tear his skin cut his flesh rent his Joynts and Members in peeces Understand the Language of them who plead for liberty of errours What is meant by liberty of conscience and what is the true sense of their language who require a toleration of Errours If you beleeve Christ or the Doctrine of Paul attested by Peter and the rest both Prophets and Apostles whom I have not time