her losses her greatest gains Charity is kind 1 Cor. 13.4 not to those only that are nearly related and allied but even unto strangers and professed enemies like unto a sparkling fire which heats and warms the by-standers and the flames likewise reach unto those of remote distance And being a common good it is so much the more excellent There is the same difference betwixt Faith and Charity that is betwixt the Root and Branches Faith is as the root of the tree that attracts and sucks in the juyce of the earth to conserve and preserve the life of it But charity is as the boughs and branches down laden with plenty of ripe fruit which stretch out and as it were spread forth their arms to as many as are willing to take the pains to pluck and gather them Secondly Charity is greatest in the longitude and length of it Secondly in the longitude and length of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 13.8 charity never faileth neither in this life nor in that which is to come It is but a Popish gloss of Caietan upon the place Take heed when you read these words that you fall not into that error (d) Charitatem semel habitam nunquam amitti Charitas quantum est exparte temporis nescit casum Caiet in locum That charity once bad cannot be lost And yet that which he adds is sound and Orthodox wherewith he strangles and cuts the throat of what he had formerly laid down for a sure conclusion charity knows no loss nor end in respect of time For whereas Faith and Hope shall determine and expire in another world Faith being turned into a Vision the beatifical vision of God and Hope into Fruition yet both Faith and Hope shall be swallowed up of Love which then shall be consummate and made perfect (e) Appetitus inhiantis erit amor fruentis August The thirsting desire of the soul after happiness shall be then exchanged with the full fruition and perfect enjoyment of Love through all eternity And hence it was that Henry Nicolas the Founder of the Family of Love was wont in a most prodigious and blasphemous manner to boast among his seduced Sectaries (f) Se nimirum Mosi Christo praepenendum eo quod Moses spem docuisset Christus fidem ipse vero cbaritatem utraque majorem Jo. Laetus Camp Hist universal pag. 583. Calvin in Locum That he was every way to be preferred before Moses and Christ upon this ground and reason That Moses taught the people of Israel the grace of Hope Christ the grace of Faith but he the grace of Love which is greater then both And so pronounced by the definitive sentence of the Apostle Now abideth Faith Hope and Charity these three but the greatest of these is Charity Nor doth this any way allow or priviledge the corrupt gloss of the Papists that if charity be the greater grace it must needs have the greater hand and stroke and proves more availsome then faith it self in point of justification A strained and forced inference an inconsequential and unconcluding argument and it is all one as Calvin well observed as if they should reason in this manner Therefore the King must till the ground more knowingly then the Husbandman and make a neater shooe then the Shoemaker as being far above both therefore a man must ran swifter then a Horse or Dromedary and bear an heavier weight and burden then an Elephant because he surpasses them in worth and dignity therefore the glorious Angels must afford a better and brighter light unto the earth then either Sun or Moon as being creatures of greater excellency For the force and efficacy of justifying Faith is not to be measured by any intrinsick and inherent quality in the nature but by the proper place and office of Faith whereunto it is designed wherein it hath no coparcener nor corrival In this respect Faith hath the preheminence even as Charity is the greater in the forementioned partiâ—ulars the Bredth the Length the Extent and Continuance This is the reason why the spirit of God every where inculcates and inforces the duty with a reiterated and a zealous vehemency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Above all things put on charity which is the bond of perfection Colossians 3. verse 14. Therein resembling it to an outward garment that is put over and covers the other apparrel that is larger and wider that is more comely and costly then the rest and serves to distinguish the several Orders and Ranks of men according to their different capacities and conditions Such a spiritual garment is charity to the soul a proper badge and cognizance of a Christian the livery of Christs Disciples By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another Ioh. 13.35 And it is not without cause that the Apostle stiles it the bond of perfectnesse it being of the same use unto other vertues that the bond is unto the faggot that holdeth the sticks together and keeps them from severing and falling from each other and to the Church of God in common which is the mystical body of Christ it is in the place of the nerves and sinnewes in the body natural which connect and joyn the several members and make them mutually helpful and serviceable to each other this is St. Pauls commendation Above all things put on Charity And that leads me to the second speciality that was promised the extent of the duty in reference to the object 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let all your things be done with Charity Every sacrifice shall be salted with salt Mar. 9.49 such a salt is Christian charity which must season every sacrifice and so make it well pleasing and acceptable unto God The second speciality The extent of the Duty all your things and beneficial and profitable unto men charity is a spiritual leaven which affords tast and savour to the whole mass of dough that it may prove toothsome to the palat and wholesome and nourishable to the body Charity is the soul of religion and like to the soul in the body it is Tota in toto tota in quelibet parte and is well translated by the Apostle in the words of the Text Let all your things be done with charity And would you know the comprehension of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and now far the All things extend and reach you may have them explicated and inlarged in a foursold consideration 1. In our diligent enquiries and researches after truth These all things inlarged in a fourfold consideration 2. In passing judgment and censures upon others 3. In the exercise or forbearance of our Christian liberty 4. In all our affaires and business the whole series and course of our conversation First Charity must take place in our diligent inquiries and researches after truth First In our diligent inquiries and researches after truth and moderate in all our disputations
nostri calamitas and one principal cause of the defeat and overthrow that hath been given unto both parties hath been the neglect of Sconts and Emissaries to discover and descry the approach of the enemies Give me leave therefore at this time to take upon me the office of a Church Scout to give timely notice and intelligence of an enemy and that not upon the frontires or borders but Hanibal ad portas that knocks at the gates for entrance One that hath made an invasion and inroad into the heart of the Kingdom and subdued a great part of it who are here indigitated and pointed out by Saint John and branded with the title of false Prophets For false Prophets are gone out into the world I shall likewise furnish you with sundry weapons out of Saint Johns Armory for the better encounter with this enemy Weapons defensive Believe not every spirit Slowness of belief is a defensive weapon against the assaults of a sly seducer Weapons offensive Try the spirits whether they be of God And lest that my discovery seem unpleasant or prove unwelcom unto any of you I shall borrow and take up Saint John's Preface for my just Apology Dearly Beloved and apply it to every one here present I will speak the words of truth and oberness a Paul told Festus yea and love too without any gall of bitterness And so I come to the Text. The General parts whereof are two The division of the Text. 1. A compellation Dearly beloved 2. And a command in the sequel In the command we have two specialities or particular circumstances 1. The Matter 2. The Motive 1. the matter is partly disswasive or monitory Believe not every spirit 2. Partly perswasive or injunctive Try the spirits whether they be of God 2. The second speciality of the Command is the motive unto the matter or the ground and reason of it And that is couched in the close or latter part of the verse For mony false Prophets are gone out c. I begin with the compellation Dearly beloved 1. There were two great Apostles of our blessed Saviour The first parr The compellation Saint Peter and Saint John Saint Peter was a man of an hot temper and a fiery metal the freest and forwardest of his order one that was ready to vent and put forth himself at every turn and to ply Christ with replies and answers upon each occasion who like unto the foreman of a Jury was commonly the mouth of all the rest To say with Aquinas that Christ loved Saint Peter above the rest of the Apostles in ordine ad Ecclesiam savours strong and soure of the Leaven of the Pharisees the Doctrine of the Church of Rome For Christ loved his Disciples alike with an even and uniform love in reference to his Church yet did Christ advance Saint John above the rest of his brethren in ordine ad personam in reference unto his person as the same Aquinas affirmeth as being the natural and neer kinsman of Christ and in that respect the more affected and indeared to him And as Saint John was the beloved so the most loving Disciple of his Lord and Master Magnes amoris amor the love of Christ to him was as an attractive Loadstone of his heart to the love of Christ and to draw Christians to the mutual love of one another His soul was a full volume of charity and every leaf of this volume each leaf in his Epistles each Chapter and well near verse and line in those Chapters contain sundry invitations and inducements unto charity And as it was said of Homers Iliads (a) Justin Martyr Orat. ad Graecos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it was carnal and sensual love that was the beginning and end of his writings so may it be much more truly affirmed of Saint Johns works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divine and spiritual love that was the beginning and end yea and the middle too of his Epistles This was his constant practice in his declining time and extremity of old age that being carried into the Temple upon the shoulders of his Disciples and being unable to preach to them in regard of his weakness and infirmity he would then inculcate and press upon them this short and pithy exhortation which was in effect a very powerful and perswasive Sermon Filioli diligite vosmet invicom little children love one another For as Saint Paul was an Apostle of faith constantissimus gratiae praedicator as Austin stiles him a most constant Preacher of the free grace of God in Christ As Saint James was an Apostle of works which he vehemently urges against loose Libertines and carnal Gospellers So this was the special excellency of S. John that he was an Apostle of love which he expresses and evidences in the Compellation here in the Text A double duty Dearly beloved And implies and intimates a double duty 1. The one of the pastor The duty of the Pastor to love his people to love them affectionately tenderly from the very heart-root and bowels yea in the bowels of Christ For God is my record how I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. It is Saint Pauls profession to the Philippians Phil. 1.8 2. The other of the people The duty of people to be throughly assured perswaded of the love of their Pastor and to embrace his instructions admonitions and his severest reprehensions as so many love-tokens and arguments of his affection And if the peoples hearts be once possessed and taken up with this belief it will be as an Harbinger to make way for the entertainment of their doctrine it will welcome their Message and their Ministry and make their sharpest reproofs not onely saving but sweet and cause them to pray in the words of the Psalmist Psal 101.5 Let the righteous smite me for that is a benefit and let them reprove me and it shall be a precious oyl that shall not break my head And let this suffice to have spoken of the compellation Dearly beloved For I must not stay in the porch or entry which though it be both useful and necessary in a Building yet it is onely to lead us into the inward rooms whereunto I now come 2. The Command The second Part. The command which contains in it the Matter The second general part of the Text where the matter and the motive present themselves unto us And in the matter first of the dissuasive or monitory part believe not every spirit And then of the persuasive or munitive Try the spirits whether they be of God I will take them up as they lie in order 1. Believe not every spirit The dissuasive or monitory part That is St. John's disswasion or admonition There are spirits in their nature spiritual and immaterial substances and those either uncreated as God himself God is a Spirit John 4.24 or else created as Angels and the Souls of men And there
like to an unskilful (b) Ridetur Cytharâ— dus chordn qui seirper oberrat eadem Har. de art Poetiea A double reason of the Precept Musitian who by striking double and trebble upon the fume string is justly exposed to censure but as a prudent Physitian he prescribes it as a Catholicon a Catholick Medicine an Universal Receipt and Remedy of all spiritual Maladies and Diseases There is a double reason why the Apostle is so frequent and importunate in urging and reinforcing the grace of Charity The one respects the Corinthians to whom he inscribes this Epistle The first respects the Corinthians who were men of an active spirit a pragmatical and busie headed people such as were split asunder into strange Sects and Schisms into several Rents and Ruptures in the Body of Religion and Church-Discipline which should have been like unto the (c) Now the coat of Christ was without seam woven from the top throughout Joh. 19.23 Desuper Texta quid significat nisi charttatem Desuper Texta Tunica quid significat nisi unitatem Aug. in Joh. Tract 13. Sacramento vestis signe declaravit Ecelesiae unitaetem Cypr. de unit Eccles cap. 6. Coat of Christ without seam Every one of you saith I am of Paul and I of Apollo and I of Cephas and I of Christ Is Christ divided 1 Cor. 1.12 13. Surely not in himself yet was he divided among them by means of their differences and distractions When ye come together in the Church I hear there are differences among you and I partly believe it 1 Cor. 11.18 Nor were they only broken in pieces and crumbled into Factions and Fractions In Sacris in the worship and service of God but they were of an unquiet and restless temper of a litigious and troublesome disposition and immoderately affected vain-jangling and wrangling in vita communi even in civil affairs and business Now therefore there is utterly a fault amongst you that ye go to Law one with another 1 Cor. 6.7 So that strife and contention was their proper and peculiar sin the Dalilah and darling lust of these Corinthians And there could be no Doctrine more appliable to their condition or snitable to their necessities then to hear a Lecture or Lesson of Love and Charity The second reason concerns the incomparable worth and excellency of the Duty it self which shines clear and bright in perfect beauty and lustre among other graces The second Reason concerns the duty it self as the Morning or Evening Star or the Moon amidst the lesser Lights Saint Paul was wonderfully in love with the Grace of Love and seems to express and profess his affection to it as David did to Hierusalem Psal 137.5 6. If I forget thee let my right hand forget her cunning If I do not remember thee let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He could not forget to give the Corinthians some brief intimation and hint of Charity both in the beginning and end of this Epistle That is never too much spoken of which is never learnt enough The Text contains in it an Apostolical Precept and injunction consisting of these two specialities 1. The Duty commended and commanded and that is Charity 2. The parts of the Text two The extent of the Duty in reference to the Object or Subject of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let all your things be done with charity I begin with the Duty laid down in the end and the very last word of the verse Charity Charity is one of the three Theological Vertues a created Trinity in the Soul of man The first part The Duty commanded Charity saith Altisiodorensis and are famously known to be these Faith Hope and Charity That is a supernatural and infused Habit a sanctifying and saving Grace which comprizeth and comprehendeth the love of God and of our Neighbour as the several Branches Not to speak any thing of the love of God which is no part of the Apostles charge nor any way falls within the verge and compass of the Text. And as for the love of men it is either that general affection that belongs unto men as men the not hiding of our selves from our own flesh as the Prophet Isaiah phraseth it Isa 58.7 such as partake and share with us in the common interest of Humanity or else it is that special degree of Christian love that we own and exereise to our Brothren either by a visible and external profession of Religion or a vital participation of the spiâ—it of Grace and Holiness Which are thus distinguished by Saint Peter under several names and titles Brotherly kindness and charity 2 Pet. 1.7 And in the vulgar and common acception of the word Charity is that part of love that is exhibited to men in misery and distress and is all one with mercy and compassion And herein the good Samaritan who bound up the wounds and poured in oyl and wine approved himself a Neighbour to him that fell among Theeves which was ingenuously acknowledged by the Lawyer in answer to our Saviours question and by him propounded as a pattern for our imitation Go and do thou likewise Luke 10.37 Saint Paul compares the three Theological Vertues together and gives the right hand of Fellowship unto Charity 1 Cor. 13.13 And now abideth Faith Hope and Charity these three 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the greater or greatest of these is Charity The comparative degree being put for the superlative and yet not simply and absolutely the greatest but in some respects in the several acts and offices and those two in number 1. The Latitude and breadth 2. The Longitude and length of it 1. The Extent 2. The duration and continuance You have them both recorded in the former part of the Chapter Charity greater then Faith and Hope in two respects First Charity is greatest in the latitude and breadth of it whereby it respects and reflects upon others First in the latitude or bredth of it This the Apostle makes good by a particular enumeration and rehearsal of fifteen several Attributes and Properties partly Negative in the careful eschewing and avoidance of whatsoever is offensive and hurtful And partly Affirmative in the sollicitous procuring and promoting the good of our brethren 1 Cor. 13.4 5 6 7. For whereas Faith is the receiving band of the soul which apprehends and applies Grace offered and is narrow handed and close listed and will in no case part with what it hath formerly laid hold on and seized to its own use The operation whereof is wholly terminated in a mans own person for his private benefit and advantage Hast thou Faith have it with thy self Rom. 14.22 Charity is a communicating and giving hand and that wide and open in distributing to the necessities of others Hoc habet quodcunque dedit Accounting and reckoning that only as her own possession which it hath disbursed and expended Her wants are her wealth and
because ye go to law one with another why do ye not suffer wrong why do ye not rather suffer your selves to be defrauded this was the 〈◊〉 the spiritual impotency and infirmity of their dispositions that they did not voluntarily relinquish and in some measure recede from their own right thereby to piece and flitch up differences out of a zealous desire and endeavour after brotherly love and concord This was very remarkable and signal in Gregory Nazianzen who when the Council of Constantinople was split in two about the choice of a Bishop he took his leave both of the Council and of his Bishoprick with this farewel speech (z) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gregor Naz. vita If I be the cause of this dissension I am not better then the Prophet Jonas cast me forth into the sea so shall the sea be calm unto you onely remember that of Zacharie love the truth and peace 3. The third work of charity is a liberal communicating and distributing with a free heart and an open hand to the necessities of our brethren who soe hath this worlds good and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him â—how dwelleth the love of God in him The third Work of Charity A free distributing to the necessity of our Brethren 1 Ioh. 3.17 and then do men shut their bowels of compassion when they shut their hands and are close fisted and in so doing how dwelleth the love of God in them and the Apostles interrogation hath in it the force of a vehement negation that there is no love at all It is a grosse yet common error of the Papists to confound good works in the general with works of charity and liberality as if the part and the whole were all one and there were no other works besides and yet almes-deeds are good works good in their kind and nature Good and profitable unto men Titus 3.8 And much more profitable unto our selves for howsoever works of charity are not either efficient or meritorius causes entitling or interessing us in the Kingdome of Heaven which descends upon us as an inheritance provided by our Father from all Eternity and purchased in the fulness of time by the blood of Christ Yet are they a necessary condition and an effectual means of our entrance and actual possession of that Kingdome the rule and measure of Christs award in pronouncing and passing that definitive sentence at the great and general judgment of the latter day Mat. 25.34 35 36. Come ye blessed children of my Father receive the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world For I was an hungred and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in naked and ye cloathed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in prison and ye came unto me Thus will Christ entertain and welcome men into his Kingdom at the day of his appearance And that is the reason of Saint Paul's charge to Timothy Why those that are rich in this world should be rich in good works Ready to distribute willing to communicate Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life 1 Tim. 6.17 18 19. 4. The Fourth work of charity is the exercise of benevolence and beneficence The fourth Work of Charity The doing good to our Enemies to such as are most alienated and estranged from us the person of professed Enemies And that whether enemies in Opinion Affection Action we must according to our Saviours counsel Love Bless Pray Do good to them and by all means possible intend and further their temporal and much more their eternal welfare This is the Genius of the Gospel the discriminating character of Christianity from all other professions and all Religions (a) Amicos diligere est omnium inimicos autem solorum Christianorum Tertul. ad Scapulam cap. 1. For men to love their Friends is common to all but to love their Enemies is proper and peculiar to Christians And herein must we express evidence our charity to enemies by an unfained earnest desire of their conversion to the unity of faith and love If that a member be dissected and out off from the society of (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we forthwith carefully closs and bind it up and use the best means of art and skill to incorporate it with the c fellows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is St. Chrysostom's comparison Even so should all our attempts endeavours aim and level at this main project and design The Application in a threefold Consectary Inference to reunite and combine our most enraged and implacable Enemies in the bond of Christian communion and Brotherly fellowship from which they are severed and divided for want of Charity 1. And is St. Paul's Aphorism sound Divinity Let all your things be done with charity The First affording matter of Grief and Sorrow That which we may from hence observe in the first place is matter of grief and sorrow Private grief and publick sorrow A copious Theme and subject large enough to make up a full volume of the same Argument with the Roll of Ezechiel ' s prophecy that was written within and without with lamentation and mourning and woe And just cause there is now if ever for every man in his own person to renew and take up that melting desire of the pathetical Prophet Jer. 2.1 O that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I may weep day and night for the want of this grace and charity Oh Charity the map and mirrour of Excellency the glory of graces the bond of peace the bond of perfectness the desire and delight of Angels the lively image and portraicture of God himself which is everywhere stiled The peace of God and the God of peace (c) Nazianz. Orat. 14. pag. 214. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nazianzen Which is of God and is God For God is love 1 John 4.8 Not only causally in us but formally in himself though not as an Affection but as his Nature Oh thou highly beloved and lovely Love the fairest among vertues Beautiful as Tirzah comely as Hierusalem What is become of thee where dost thou abide and dwell Hast thou quite left this habitable world and art ascended and gone up to Heaven there to enjoy the sight of Gods blessed Face and to repose and rest thy self in his Bosom from whence thou first came (d) Nazianz Orat. 14. pag. 214. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the passionate complaint of Gregory Nazianzen O dear and precious peace a Grace that is generally commended and cried up by all but observed and practised by a very few Where hast thou forsaken us for so long time And when oh when wilt thou
the rear and charge through and through far more furiously and desperately then the former Their Religion is errour themselves Hereticks their end destruction one Heaven cannot hold them and us hereafter nor one Church now That if we be not damned they will be damned for us This is the charity of the Papists And it would be no breach of charity to apply Jacobs imprecation against Simeon and Levi Brethren in evil Gen. 49.7 Cursed be them anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruel And I will pray yet against their wickedness A second sort that offend against the rule of Charity are professing Protestants Professing protestants and those of both sides and parties the Lutheran and the Calvinist but especially the Lutheran And albeit they are distinguished into Rigidi molles Lutherani Rigid and gentle Lutherans yet for the generality and greater part they are Esaus and Edoms red and hairy all over like a garment and are as rough and rugged in their dispositions as he was hairy in his body Such is the bitterness of spirit and acrimony and sharpness of stile that possesses and transports some of them that Isaiahs Prophesie seems to be verified and fulfilled in a spiritual sense Isa 9.20 21 22. No man shall spare his brother they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm Manasseh Ephraim and Ephraim Manasseh The Lutheran against the Calvinist and the Calvinist against the Lutheran and that with such animosities and heats of Passion that they (l) A Calviniana fraeternitate libera nos Demine Lutheranus quidam apud Prolaeum Fasc cap. 1. q. 7. pray against the brotherhood of the Calvinists And if Adam Contzen the Jesuite may be believed and an enemy deposes as a legal witness (m) Si quisquam Lutheranorum libros erislicos contra Calvinianos vel illerum centra Lutheranos legere velit non hominum in hâ—mines invectivas esse sed Daemonum contra Daemonas furores rugitus sibi persuad ebit Adam Contr. Polit. lib. 2. cap. 19. sect 6. Whosoever will spare so much time as to peruse and turn over the Polemical Writings of Lutherans against Calvinists or Calvinists against Lutherans he will not conceive them as the invectives of men but the rage and roarings of Devils This is the charity of professing Protestants Nor can we of this Church and Nation be acquitted and discharged from being guilty of breach of charity And there are so many faulty in this kind that I may say of them as Leah at the birth of Gad A Troop or company cometh Lo a multitude of all sorts and kinds I shall instance onely in these two Two sorts of professing protestants 1. The hot-headed Pastor 2. The giddy-headed People The first sort who are guilty of the breach of charity is the hot-headed Pastor The hot-headed Pastor who neglecting the well tempered gravity and (n) Mediis consiliis vel Author vel Approbator semper Bucerus Calvin Epist Buâ—ero pag. 81. meek spirited moderation that so well becomes the Ministers of Christ in the dispensation of the Gospel are every way more indulgent to their natural passion of sudden anger the boyling of hot blood about the heart then affected with true zeal they rather scald then warm mens consciences and in stead of a cutting reproof of mens corruptions they fall foul upon ther persons These men instruct the people as Gideon taught the men of Succoth with thorns and briars Judg. 8.16 by pricking and scratching by rending and tearing and by drawing blood of the Hearers The Pulpit while they are in it is nothing but thunder and lightning all in a burning flame like mount Sinai when the Law was given upon it Or rather like mount Aetna that breaths forth Fire and Brimstone to the aâ—tonishment and annoyance of such as are afar off and the utter endangering and swallowing up of those that draw neer All their Sermons are sharp Satyrs fierce Philippicks violent Declamations and are seemingly used to evacuate and empty spleen to vent and void choler in that they abound and run over with Gall and bitterness reproachful and reviling speechs The old Donatists are long since dead yet do they seem to live in this generation And what Optatus in his time affirmed of the one may fitly be applied to the other (o) Nullus vestrum est qui non convitia nostra suis tractatibus misceat Lectiones Dominicas incipitis Tractatus vestros ad nostras injurias explicatis profertis Evangegelium facitis absenti Fratri convitium Auditorum animos infigitis odia inimicitias fuadendo docendo suadetis Opt. cont Parm. l. 4. There is none of you but inserts and interlaces the personal disgrace of others with your own works and writings you begin the reading of the word of God and expound it in our wrongs and injuries you take a Text out of the Gospel and comment upon it with rayling you in til hatred into the minds of your Hearers you perswade Hatred yea you perswade by your teaching Such were the uncharitable usages of the old Donatists and one egge is not more like another then our actions resembles theirs 2. The second sort that are guilty of the breach of charity The giddy-headed people are the giddy-headed people unstable as water as Jacob said of his first born Reuben Gen. 49.4 And they have this property of water that they are very hardly contained within their own terms but most easily within the bounds of another substance who schismatically divide cut off themselves from the unity of the Church and gather separate Churches apart by themselves and so set up Church against Church and Altar against Altar with the old Donatists An evil as antient as the Apostolick times and timously forewarned and forbidden by St. Paul Heb. 10.24 25. Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together and then may men be said to forsake the assembling themselves together when they withdraw and separate from Christian communion and fellowship in doctrine breaking of bread and prayers Act. 2.42 which are so many essential parts of it and wherein as to the publick exercise it consists and stands as the manner of some is and unmannerly manner and that taken up in St. Pauls daies And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works as it is in the foregoing verse whereupon this is inferred so that to be friends and favorers of a separation is by the Apostles argument to be enemies to love and to good works and then are our works good when they are well done and they cannot be well done in schisms and faction to gratifie and please a party to support and uphold a private interest And would we have our works well pleasing and acceptable unto God (p) August in Psal 83. Ponenda sunt ova in nido Ecclesiae (q) Vade prius reconciliare fratri tuo tunc veniens offer donum tuum