in strict combination one with nother this Peace is the close rest of the parts by which every one adheres with greatest kindness to each other and desire of self-preservation in the preservation of the whole and so all the parts seek the commodious situation each of other and abhor the disturbance the disease of any And because this Peace cannot procure or conserve it self seeing it is not a dull sluggish Rest but in the midst of Motion and Action Love is as I may call it the Divine Archeus that Divine Spirit of Nature the great Instrument of the Holy Spirit the supreme Author of this Love and Peace And Love runs every way pries into all the causes of Division and removes them sees into all the ways of conciliating and effectually pursues them This is that Love that edifies the body it takes off all the asperities and roughness of the parts those particular sharp angularities of Opinion reduces them to a square to a Figure fitted one to another and then cements and ties them one to another till they grow into a spiritual Temple What incomparable Virtues to this purpose does the Apostle at large and with greatest speciality express in that Divine Treatise of Love 1 Cor. 13. All knowledg without 1 Cor. 8. 1. this is nothing of what sort soever it be That only puffs up and swells men as if they themselves were All as if they could themselves be an Intire Temple a Spiritual Building alone the understanding all Mysteries it makes a man look to himself like the whole Body of Christ or at least as if he were to determine the posture and figure of the whole and all the other parts to obey and be contented with the room he leaves We know this is the general temper of Opinion the product of Knowledg without Love Knowledg therefore alone cannot build Airy Knowledg is big boisterous angry if it be not admir'd if it be not venerated so as to take up what space it pleases to order as it pleases Even the following of the Truth the earnest search after and Eph. 4. 15. pursuit of what is True a much more excellent thing than meer Knowledg yet if this be not in love there cannot be a growing up into the Head in all things even Christ Love then is that which takes care of all the members of all the lively stones how they may all most comply with and advance each other and rest in their peaceable conformity one with another and sweetest application one to another even while they are in a most intense Christian motion like the Heavenly bodies so harmonious so at peace in all their activity that there is in this true sense The sweet musick of the spheres so it should be so it is in true Christianity in all its motions govern'd by love how various soever in other respects yet they are all melodious because they are all in peace how different in lesser things soever Now this Love and Peace are spiritual and intellectual and they therefore are fix'd upon a complication of spiritual intellectual Centers if I may so express them all the Right True Lines from which and returns to which are in Love and Peace And these are those several points of union the Apostle hath laid together Ephes 4. 4 5 6. There is one Body and one Spirit even as ye are called in one hope of your calling one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of All who is above All and through All and in you All. 1. One Body Even the whole Society of Christians dispersed throughout all the world and united so as to make up this one Body and that by virtue of the second point of union that follows 2. One Spirit One Divine Spirit Author of the same Spirit of Holiness and Grace within Christians informing every Christian and making them All of the same Christianity as the soul in men makes them All of the same Rationality This is the one Spirit into which All are made to drink and so are this one body for without this they would be indeed but as so many single stones or scattered parts else too their union were no other than dull and stupid but now all the parts feel throughout in this Center of one Spirit 3. One Hope of our Calling The same Heaven and Eternal Happiness Mansions of this same House of our Father is the one hope of Christians unto which the Gospel alike calls them They then who are to meet together in the same Eternal Blessedness and to be one general Assembly and Church of the first born for ever with what unconcernedness in little trifles should they aspire to that Glory together with unexpressible indearedness of Love and Peace 4. One Lord even Jesus Christ instead of the Lords many is the One Lord to Christians by whom are all things Rom. 11. 18. and they by him they therefore who subsist and are borne upon the Root as branches of the one Vine must not boast 1 Cor. 8. 6. against the Branches for they bear not the Root but the Root them the worshipping of one True Supreme Lord how 1 Cor. 8. 6. much a stronger tye of Union than a precarious visible but visible Apostate head If one Earthly Prince be such a band of Union how much more one King of kings and Lord of lords they are to be forgiven every thing conceded every thing who sincerely worship this one Lord every thing that can possibly consist with their sincere acknowledgment of him 5. One Faith the Principles of Revealed Religion which they believe even the substantial Principles as I nam'd them in the last Head are one and the same and therefore a solid band of Agreement and it is the same Living and like Precious Saving Act of their Souls wherewith 2 Pet. 1. 1. they believe these alike Precious Principles Faith that worketh by Love Love to God and Love to all Christians Gal. 5. 6. Love is the very natural Breath of that life of Faith 6. One Baptism One open Profession and Confession of Faith Christians make to Salvation with one Mind and one Mouth from under one end of Heaven to the other generally seal'd with the same Sacramental Rites Baptism comprehending all the instituted Rites of Christianity a voice of Confession as the voice of Thunder so high as to still and quiet all the small murmurs and jars of Division Rites so solemn and great as to make void and vain all other Ceremonies as notes of Distinction 7. One God and Father of All who is above All through 1 Cor. 8. 6. All in you All To us Christians there is one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him This grand Uniting Principle of Natural Religion is more nearly condescended to us in Christianity and the Bounties of the Creator in and through the Redeemer flow with an Infinite Redundancy in and through and over All
digest their Reason and take in the Light they judge by so as to make it their own else if they cannot find their Reasons nor acquit themselves from doubt they must suspend For a Christian is Commanded by his Lord to call no Man upon Earth Master or Father Quest What is the meaning of that Answ It is this very Thing that we should receive nothing as Doctrine or Indisputable Truth or Precept upon any Man's Word that does not offer such Reason and Authority from God and his Word that we our selves see Reason not to receive it as the Word of Man but of God Quest But is it not said that they that have the Rule over us watch for our Souls as they that must give an Account for the same If we are not to believe them and surrender our Judgment to theirs how can they give an Account Answ They that Rule over us watch for our Souls and must give an Account as Ezekiel's Prophets and Watchmen by giving Warning laying Truth before us offering the sincere Word of God in all Cases the success of which upon Souls Converted and Saved is their Crown and Glory and their unsuccess lookes like a sorrow to see those Souls lost for whom they laboured in vain and spent their strength upon them for nought yet so that if they have been faithful though without success their reward is with the Lord and their Work with God But notwithstanding this every Man is so to account for his own Soul that the very success is not a Blind Obedience to Rulers but as is said a Receiving the Word not as the Word of Men but as it is indeed the Word of God And if these Watchmen neglect their Duty or Seduce instead of Teaching Men are to apply to better Means afforded by God and if they do not they still die in their Iniquity and following their Blind Leaders fall into the Pit which is an unanswerable Argument that we may trust in no Man but in God only For if an implicit Faith could be a saving Faith it should save those that followed such Guides though they themselves were justly Condemned in not discharging their Trust Quest But were not the Apostles and Prophets to be Trusted at a higher rate than thus Answ No There were such evident Marks of Divine Doctrine always given by God to those that desired to Know Love and Obey him that even the very Prophets and Apostles were not to be received without them nor to be believed but according to them nay to be plainly Anathematiz'd if they varied from it Christians were therefore to judge to try the Spirits to search the Scriptures whether the things spoken were so to have recourse to undoubted Principles of Truth that were as standards to all that came after besides the Unction from the Holy One whereby they were inabled to know all things necessary to Salvation Quest But is not all Humane Teaching and Instruction hereby taken away and what becomes of the Ministry the Eldership of the Church and their Rule Answ They are all hereby Established for they are the Ordination of God to this very purpose to make Men see to bring them Light to clear things to them that by the awakening their Judgments the summoning and collecting their Principles they may see with their own Eyes the ways of God and Religion the Holy Spirit graciously adjoyning it self to their Ministry They have no Dominion over their Faith but are helpers of thier Joy that is they facilitate and make pleasant the knowledge and assurances of Religion and they Rule by Exhorting Admonishing Rebuking Comforting and even Commanding in the Evidences of Divine Authority on Account of which they are to be obey'd and highly esteemed for their Works sake Notwithstanding all this no Man is excluded from his own Office to himself for every particular Christian is in some Sense a Congregation and Preacher to himself as Solomon his Conscience hath the Keys binds and looses within it self nay Christians are not excluded from Rule in the Church when they have the Word of God on their side they may plead and reason with their Mother Hos 2. 2. When they have more understanding than their Teachers or the Rulers Rule not according to the Word of God they that speak according to the Law and the Testimony even Rule their Rulers and prove the more noble Organs of the Church when those that should Rule it are as the Idols Eyes that see not Ears that hear not or as the Idol Shepherd a Blast is upon their Right hand and Right-eye that their Arm is clean dried up and their Eye utterly darkened the most naked unfurnished Christian with outward Accomplishments that yet knows the Word of God is among the Prophets in such a time of necesity CAP. XII Of Schism and Scandal Quest FRom the precedent Discourse of the Church I conceive the truest Notion of Schism may be deduced I desire you therefore to Explain what the true Nature of Schism is Answ The Question concerning the Nature of Schism follows very pertinently upon the right settlement of the Nature of the Church now the whole Being of the Church consisting in its Union to God and Christ in Love according to the Truth of his Word and that it receives all its Members into Union with it self by their being first united as it self is Schism which is Division must needs in its strictest and most formal Notion be a Division from that Truth wherein the whole Church is one and so from the Love consequent upon such an Union Quest What is that Truth of the Word of God in which the Church is One Answ The Truth of the Doctrine of God or the Unity of the Faith of the Son of God in things to be believed and the Truth of his Law and Commands in things to be done Quest How is the Love of the Church Vnited in these Answ It is a Love in the Truth and hereby we know we Love the Brethren when we Love God and keep his Commandments John Epist 2. No Love how great soever is Christian-love nor Union how close soever Christian-union if it be not in the Truth and Commandments of God From whence it necessarily follows the Schism that is a Schism from the Church must be a Disunion from the Faith of the Scriptures and the Love springing from that Faith and there is no danger of any other Schism from the Church as it is a Church Quest How does Schism differ from Heresie Answ Heresie in the highest Sense and worst Sense of it is a Disunion from Truth in some Fundamental and Grand Concernment of Religion either in the Doctrine or Commands of God so that a Man is subverted and sinneth and must needs be Condemned of a Separation from the Assembly of Truth both by himself and the Thing it self and that both as to Faith and Christian-love he is so separated Schism is a Disunion in some less momentous parts
all that pierced him whose very own eyes shall see him as so pierced by them It is the appearance of men in their Bodies of Nations in their National Capacities of all men and things in their Restitution For it is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Regeneration Mat. 19. 28. to their former state that Religâ—on and Piety may receive its recompences of Glory that Irreligion and Wickedness may have its just rewards of Shame and Punishment and that in the very circumstances wherein each were seen and known and shall then be remembred to â—ave stood here in the world though for the generality very different from the esteem and disesteem they then found Lastly This Representation of the day of Judgment is the most lively feeling and sensible Engagement to speedy Repentance and Reformation that our sins may be blotted out when the times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Re-enlivening all things shall come from the presence of the Lord Who would not take greatest care that when they are Acts 3 19. sought for they may not be found Who would not desire and so use the most effectual means to appear in Glory and not under shame and contempt This is also among the strongest Arguments upon the most honourable Personages and Governors of a Nation yea upon all that love the honour of their Nation and desire the glory of it with the true publick Spirit to mind the promotion of sincere Religion Piety and Goodness in themselves together with the State of the People Times and Governments to which they belong since if they desire their Nations Renown in this world and that their management in it may be transmitted fair in Chronicle that they may live High in Story how much more must they if at all serious desire to mâ—ke an Honourable Figure in that most Illustrious Representation of the last Judgment and the Eternal Records of All Things They and their Countrey together according to the station and Relation wherein they have stood to it and the love they have born to it And certainly every good man desires by an immutable Instinct by a Law of Goodness within himself to be good in a Community and to be saved in their Salvation which he earnestly aspires to in and with his own and his own in and with that Yea though he be so low or mean in his Fortunes Abilities or Discourse as not to be in any Advantages for propagating True Religion yâ—â— he hath an inward force to it and as every good man rises in his Stature and Condition and influence in the Nation to which he belongs so in his service to the publick Religion but especially every eminent great truly Religious Person of a publick Character and a Lover of his Nation hath a most vehement and ardent desire not only of his own Salvation but of the Salvation of his Nation of as many and great numbers of as universal a Body of it as may be Moses was so high in this that he desired to be blotted out of Gods Book of Exod. 32. 32. Favour that he rather than his Nation should and the Apostle Paul for Israel his National Kindred wished to be Anathema from Christ The scruples of either of which I will not dispute being satisfied Rom. 9 3. they express a high and mighty zeal for the National Salvation and which in a degree is to be imitated by the best men Therefore such Persons as Moses Paul and other of the Worthies of Nations and People that have been successful in bringing many to Righteousness and Happiness shall have as our Saviour speaks Rule over Cities proportionable to their service they shall for ever be exalted as Princes over their People in Eternal Glory even as the Apostles shall sit upon Thrones judging that is shall be Rulers and Governors over the twelve Tribes of Israel Those that have not been successful as Noah Lot Esay c. that have yet had the Zeal the publick Spirit that was commensurable to the Piety Religion and Salvation of their whole Community shall not though Israel be not gathered yet spend their strength for nought their judgment is with the Lord and their work with their God They shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord they shall Isa 49. 3 4 be a sweet savour to God of true Holiness and Piety in them that perish even as in them that are saved The glory and happiness shall accumulate upon themselves though it redound not on the Nation God makes them of themselves as it were a great Nation in the blessedness of Eternity as he promised Moses if he would have been contented with the destruction of that present Nation of Israel They are reckoned as a Nation by themselves and not of that Community that perishes For as the Apostle says The Lord knows how to deliver the Righteous out of Temptation and so out of the Infamy of a common corruption and especially that everlasting contempt and reserve the wicked to swallow it wholly in themselves Their Reproach their Lord will return upon them for ever it being turned off from himself and his Servants But though there is an infinite wisdom in the Divine Judgment in rescuing thus his own Glory and the Glory of his Servants that have been unsuccessful in turning men to righteousness while they have been faithful with all their Talents and in all their House yet the salvation of Men and Nations is the plain and manifest glory of God and of his most Eminent Servants Those that are their Converts are their Hope now and their Joy their Rejoycing their Crown of 1 Thes 2. 19 20. Rejoycing in the presence of Jesus Christ at his coming in that day only thus Men of eminency in holiness are secur'd against loss if they save only their own souls while they endeavour the good of many that they may be saved they are Crowned with those whom God hath given them as Children by being inâ—truments of their Conversion On the other side they are assur'd of their reward with God in them that perish But further Every man that is good in a Nation though his Interest be private may like the one poor wise man have done all he can to save a City and therefore shall not be forgotten here If he be a holy good man he will not be lost by being alone nor overseen by being low in the world though he be but one of a Family or even of a City yet God will bring him to Zion the City of the living God Every one shall with Daniel stand in his own lot proportionable to what it was here it shall be in that future state God will seek his Sheep out of all places whither they have been driven in the dark and cloudy day though but the poor of the flock and they shall stand at his right hand at that great Division of the Sheep from the Goats To conclude this Particular The honour of Nations
and mute in the Commission of Sin or neglect of Duty upon these appearances and who can say herein I have made my Heart clean I am pure from this Transgression so far hath he been Scandalised and indanger'd to his Ruine This is the first great Pillar of Truth and the primary Scandal is placed here That Men think there is no reason God should have so much Love Fear Honour Obedience so much Worship and Service And the Second is like to it 2. Even the Faith of Jesus Christ the Saviour of the World is like to that first great Principle and equal to it both because the whole Riches and Treasure of all Religion is deposited and concentered in it so that he hath not the John 17. 3. Father nor the Knowledge of the only true God nor the Eternal Life proceeding from it who hath not the Son who hath not the Knowledge of Jesus Christ whom God hath sent Even as Christ is the brightness of the Fathers Glory and the express Image of his Person so is the knowledge of Christ the express Image of the Knowledge of God and the brightness of it wherever it is revealed if it be not believed in the God of the World hath blinded the 2 Cor. 4. 6. minds of them that believe not least they should see the light of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ who is the Image 2 Cor. 4. 4 6. of God shining to them Especially and more particularly that great Attribute of Divine Mercy and Pardoning Grace is illustrated and breaks out with brighter and warmer Beams in this Son of his Love the Lamb of God who takes away the Sins Acts 4. 12. of the World by the Sacrifice of himself His is the only Name given under the whole Heaven to the Children of Men whereby they can be saved This indeed was the Scandal of the Jews who assumed to themselves as the only Masters of the true Religion in the World and foolishness to the Greeks who took Isa 28. 16. upon them as the like Masters of Reason but this corner Stone of Truth was laid so sure and of so tryed an excellency 1 Pet. 2. 6. that all that reject and spurn at it stumble and fall are snared and broken They are false Notions of God and Truth that will not be reconciled to it and while even the Builders refuse it it will yet rise to be the Head of the Corner Ver 7. It hath now surmounted before any Impartial Judges all other Names of Religion in the whole World so that to strike at it where it is known and received argues a disaffection and being Scandalised at Religion it self and is become the same with denying God Providence and Eternal Judgment Corrupted Reason and Lucian-Wit aims at Religion in its very Essence when it pretends to dash upon that and if when it seem'd to encounter with Gods own Administration by Moses there was yet such a presence of God with it that it would be more tolerable Mat. 10. 15. c. for Sodam and Gomorrah in the day of Judgment than for those that refused it as the Lord in several places testifies how much greater will the Condemnation be now when it hath so perfectly antiquated all that pretension against it and worn out the Prejudices of Elder Paganisme And yet so far as the Foolishness of God as the Apostle 1 Cor. 1. 25. styles it does not appear to us wiser than Men and the weakness of God stronger than Men we are ready to be Scandalised at the Doctrine of a Crucified Saviour And it seems the easiest place for the Attacks of Atheism Irreligion and Prophaneness who yet at last will find themselves in a Gin or Trap when they thought they had gained Ground and made entrance and shattered to pieces when they believed a Conquest For God taketh the wise in their own 1 Cor. 3. 19 20. Craftiness and he knoweth the wisest thoughts of Men that they are vain Every Degree of Apostacy from Christ is Heb. 3. 12. departing from the Living God Transactions in Prayer or Publick Discourses of Religion are so much the more Divine as they send forth the sweet savour of his Name which is as an Oyntment poured out The Apostle desired to 1 Cor. â— 2. Phil. 3. 8. know nothing but Christ and him crucified It is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Top and Transcendency of Knowledge Apostolick Epistles full of Christ and the Truth as it is in Jesus are the best Patterns for Sermons much exceeding the Rationalism or Moralism of tâ—â— wisest Philosophy It is a Degree of Scandal first taken â—nd then given to speak little of him All Preaching is not giving the savour of his Knowledge 2 Cor. 2. ult and if it have not Life to the Soul it is deadly a Symptom to Death The very diverting though to other Parts of Sacred Scripture speaks Men offended in him when they do not find him and express him the Alpha and Omega in all the Bright Morning Star the Amen And though a Battology a vain Repetition in naming him is blamable yet it is more blame to conceal him even in the best Discourses of his Religion The Rays of Religion are paler more weak and chill as they fall farthest off from him He is the Sun of Righteousness with healing in his wings and Blessed is he in these days even in these days whoever is not offended in him 3. The Spirituality Purity Cleanness and Chasteness of the Worship of God dictated by the clearest and sincerest Light of Natural Conscience approved by Divine Revelation or founded instituted and directed by that undoubted Heavenly Oracle is the next great Pillar of Truth upon which the Glory of God and the Salvation of Mens Souls is setled But against this sensual and defiled Imagination hath in all Ages raised Scandal and so befool'd Reason that it hath cast down many wounded yea many strong Men in their Intellectual Endowments and Reputation for Wisdom have been ensnar'd and ruin'd by it It hath been the Renown therefore of those Princes in Sacred Story that have had the Religious Magnanimity to resist the Charmes of this Sorceress and kept Divine Worship uncorrupted in whose Glory so much as the High Places was a dark Shade and ecclips'd them though it had fair Pretence Idolatry and Superstition have been most evidently branded in Scripture for the most wretched State of being scandaliz'd and Idols for the most abhorr'd Scandals This was the Snare of Gideon and his House and yet as Interpreters give us in a Matter as innocent at first as laying up the Ephod he had inquir'd at in his Danger as a Monument of Gratitude for his Victory that was after turn'd thus into a Scandal Judges 8. 27. This was the Scandal Balaam taught Balak to cast before the Children of Israel These were the Wiles the Gins and Traps in which the
Corruption They walk in the Light of their own Sparks and have only this at Gods hand to lie down in sorrow Besides that God in just displeasure sends down upon them the Revenges of an abused and injur'd Power and Godhead Now all this expresses the Heighth both of the Deception and Mischief of Scandal 4. The fourth great Principle of Truth is the absolute and indispensible Necessity of Holiness both in Heart and Life without which no Man shall see the Lord Against which Heb. 12. 24. there lies no such Scandal or cause of Offence as inward and inherent Lust and inordinate Appetite which is obstinately set to obtain its Satisfaction and is no way to be tam'd but by beinâ— cut off though it be the Right Hand or Right Foot or even the Right Eye The Love of God Mark 9. 43. and his Law is the best Security against this Scandal and daily Mortification and Crucifixion of the Old Man with Ephes 4. 22. its sinful Lusts and Affections Pretences from Reason or Doctrines of Religion there can be none in this Case to those who acknowledge either Christianity or Morality But Men are carried down the violent Stream of ungovern'd Passion and that falls into the wide Sea of general Corruption and Bad Example which looks most like an Authority There are the Palliations and Excuses of Sin which may serve in a time of Peace and Carnal Security but cannot so delude Conscience as to be in a strict sense Scandal The continual Practice of Sin hardens the Heart sears benumbs and stupifies all inward Sense and cancels the Awe of those ingraven Laws and revealed Commands of God for a time but cannot either deny their Just Power or challenge them of Unreasonableness So that if any where Men are forc'd to take Refuge at the Atheistick denial of Religion it self or to blind Conscience with Superstitious Acts which seem to commute and make satisfaction for Sin Or if Men are resolved to blind their Eyes and obstruct all Sense they may make the Profession of True Religion a Cover to Sin as they that cry Lord Lord and Mat. 7. 22. the Temple of the Lord are we that name the Name of Jer. 7. 4. 2 Tim. 2. 19. Christ with great ostentation and so may deceive their own Souls but to hold out against either the Challenges of Divine Truth or of their own Reflexions is impossible So that upon the whole matter Predominant Lust from within and Bad Example from the so abounding Iniquity of all sorts of Men the Falls of Good Men the Miscarriages of Hypocrites and insincere Professours of Religion are the greatest Scandals or Stumbling-blocks in the Ways of Holiness to those that are not insnared in the afore-named Scandals But although the necessity of Holiness is above the reach of strict and proper Scandal yet it is the very Center of all Scandal in the effect of it for then a Man is indeed scandalised when the Salt of Divine Truth when the Spirit of Truth can have no power nor efficacy upon him because of that Scandal to season the Heart nor govern the Life and Action in the Love Fear and Obedience of God and Jesus Christ But if it be possible for any Man to understand in his Heart and Life what he does not promise by Profession or if he seem to deny any Principle of Truth and does not understand in his Heart and Life the Extent and Force of his Denial but hath better Principles that are an Antidote and Counter-poyson to any Mistakes in the Doctrine of Religion he is not scandalised with the great Mischief of Scandal But that Man is scandalised that through False Principles or the denial of True ones wants their Power and Vertue upon his Affections and Actions For no Truth is for Notions sake but to make truly good the Heart and Practice the very Confession with the Mouth is to recoil back into the Soul and make that better and to move forward and ingage the Life along with it 5. It is a grand Pillar of the Truth of Religion That we love our Neighbour as our selves and that he that loves 1 John 4. 21. God should love his Brother also And there is not there cannot be any Law of Religion wherein the Equity the Love Favour and Compassion of the Lord our God and of Jesus Christ our Saviour towards Humane Nature does more evidently recommend it self It is the Justification of the Religion of the Scriptures to be the True Religion And as the Love of God to Man his Philanthropy does shine out more illustriously in the Gospel so does the Law and Doctrine of this Love of Christians to one another and not only to Christians but to all Men And in this as of greatest concernment thâ— Gospel is so abundant and its Discourses of so great weight that it is made another Hemisphere of Religion to the Love of God The one is the first and Mat. â—1 38 39. great Commandment and the second is like to it It is the Law and the Prophets it is the whole Law It is irreconcilable Rom. 13. 8 9. to the Love of God not to love our Brother It is 1 Joh. 3. 15. such a Degree of Murther that whoever is guilty of cannot have Eternal Life abiding in him It is the great Mark 1 Joh. 3. 14. We have passed from Death to Life because we love the Brethren So many are the Arguments and so strong the Obligations to this Duty that they cannot be recounted all may be summed up in that God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love is born of God dwelleth in God and God in him Now that this Love is fix'd in an Uniformity of Opinions or points of outward order in the Worship of God is most unreasonable to believe for besides the impossibility to reconcile all the innocent Varieties that are in Humane Nature though it be Christian humane Nature in their Sentiments and Elections in these things the things themselves are not of that amount as to be the proper rest of this Divine Love or that if it misses these Poles it should therefore cease to be the Axis upon which the Catholick Society of Christians and Christian unity turns for that in the very Nature of the thing must be substantial Christianity it self And this is indeed the Great Schism to be divided in Affection from Christians it is a wonder how it could be otherwise understood seeing smaller differences are frequently by the Apostle considered and allowed for without the least allowance for Christians not loving one another Christianity carries no Gall even towards utmost Strangers upon the account of its being the true Religion much less towards those that are truly Christians though not each uniform with one another in all things The great Scandals against this Love are private Men think it justifiable not to love those that have injured them but this Case hath been considered
every Quarter with Mischiefs How much better then is it that indifferent things in Religion were taken away even while the World standeth than that they should be kept up as the Sconces of Scandal For Indifferent Things let not the Work of God be destroyed nor any for whom Christ dyed in danger to Perish the more we esteem our Church our Religion our Worship of God the better and purer they are the more it is pity any should be divided from it should be so far scandalised as to be Schismaticks from it either in our account or if it be that Sin in the real danger of it and of perishing in it The more excellent our Church is the more the Apostles Rules take hold of us Let not the good of our Church be evil spoken of as if it was Ceremonial Let us not lose any from our Church for Meat and Drink Increase not the Woe of Scandal any way for so mean Things as Indifferents Let us not indanger our selves into the Woe of him by whom Scandal comes for Elements But besides all these Considerations there is not so absolute a security in adding any thing under any Name whatever to the pure Worship of God any more than to his Word lest we be found Lyars to him mismatching with it what will not endure the Fire Greatest Peace have they that Prov. 30. 5 6. love thy Law O Lord and that only nothing shall offend them in nothing will they offend others Observing Rites that had been Divine was not so safe to the first Christians having to do with Rites that had been corrupted Idolatrously and Superstitiously proved very Fatal Ceremonies are but Shaddows Superstition easily pervades that little thin Essence they have They have not the Right of being Gods Creation to bring them off to lye lower than their Corruption and commend them There is no such Cause to be over-zealous of such things in regard of which a late * Father Simmons 's Critical History Romanist hath said The true Religion of the Church of England differs little from the Romish in outward appearance The Argument strikes all ways if our Constitution be so good and injur'd not at all by Ceremonies let us as Christ Seek and save that which is lost those we look upon as the least that believe in Christ let them not be lost for Ceremonies The Love and Compassion of a Saviour triumphs towards these least easily Offended narrow-soul'd morose suppose them Smoaking Flax bruised Reeds yet despise them not if Christians if Protestants Their Angels behold the Face of the Father of Christ in Heaven Let them not be Offended Scandalised from Union with our National Church for Ceremonies If on the other side our Ceremonies in Gods account should be blemishes of our Church and Imperfections or if they may be turned into such by an ignorant use of them or if they cause Divisions and Scandals if the Mischiefs of those Scandals fall upon Strangers to true Religion and keep them at distance All these considerations weigh heavy against a Zeal for them But if none of these can be laid to their Charge yet if Men doubt concerning them what must they do How shall they escape that of the Apostle He that doubteth is Damned if he Eats Whatever is not of Faith is Sin Why should this be hazzarded for Indifferents And when the Tyde of Advantages Preferments Publick Approbation are on one side Deprivation of all those Censures and Penalties on the other who dares answer for many Men that they do not offer Violence to their Principles much more venture over their Doubts And yet in those very Doubts has the Apostle laid his Doctrine Or Lastly Wo can reasonably suppose Men would stem this Tyde that is against them if they had not real Conscientious Doubts or higher than Doubts to contest with in prejudice of their Complyance Upon the whole then I cannot but conclude Imposing Indifferent Things in Religion by a violent Example much more by severe Ways is very contrary to the Apostles Doctrine in that Case and that upon Reasons that till I see them answered I must suppose unanswerable I have now thus far discoursed of Scandal in the more strict and particular Cases Scripture hath given us the notices of but in the remaining Heads to be treated of I shall consider it in that largest and most comprehensive Grasp of it Religion in general And there is nothing that requires greater Wisdom and the prepossessions of a more Religious Prudence than to sit and count the Charge of undertaking serious Piety as the Lord hath bidden us in relation to one Branch of Scandal Persecution so with respect to the whole Negotiation of Scandal in the World It is the great both Wisdom and Goodness of God in the Scripture that he hath given full and ample warning before hand of all the Disadvantages we are to encounter in our Faith Love and Obedience to him as when we are assured There shall be False Prophets There must be Heresies There shall be Persecution There shall be an Apostacy or general Defection from True Symmetral Christianity within Christianity it self And so in the present Case it must needs be that Scandals come For the Knowledge of these things is one greatest Defence against the Evil predicted as also against the staggering of our Minds concerning the Truth of Religion it self Let any man then enquire and search this thing out both in Scripture and close Reason and he will find Scandals must come though he may at first think Religion if it be so great and excellent as is given out of it should not be darkned and clouded with Scandal but stand clear from it and it be impossible it should be any way liable to it Now that it is in it self Just and Right even to Perfection it self is every where recorded and published of it Wisdom speaks excellent things and the opening its Lips are Prov. 8. 6. Right Things It speaketh Truth and Wickedness is an abomination to its Lips All its Words are in Righteousness and nothing froward or perverse in them They are all plain to him that understandeth and right to them that find Knowledge The Righteousness of thy Testimonies is everlasting give me Vnderstanding and I shall live Gods Precepts are right concerning All Things and secure from every False Way Psal 119. 104. c. His Law is the Truth By the Word of his Lips Men are kept from the Paths of the Destroyer Amidst all the scandalising Psal 17. 4. Hos 14. 11. and intangling Works of Men The Ways of the Lord are all right if Men have but right Feet right Intentions Affections and Motions And yet when all this is granted let any Man cast the thing in his severest Thoughts and he will find it impossible as things are Religion should be free from Scandal and that therefore as if any Man cannot deny himself he cannot be Christ's Disciple so if