ivided? No, but out of refpect to their owne advantage, every one hoping it might fall to his fhare, therefore fay they, Let us caft lots for it; so, faith he, men would not have Chrifts coat divided, they would have no divifion in the Church; but what do they aime at? their own advantage, that they might enjoy quietly their owne eafe, honour, and means, that they might have none to contradi& them, but that the ftreame may run smoothly and wholly wich them, what a fine brave thing were this? And because they fee they cannot doe this while their ways are looked into and croffed, therefore they make fuch an outcry againft the dividing the feamleffe coat of Chrift. But certainly, till our hearts be otherwise then yet they are, all our out-cries wil not ferve our ends, the filling our divifings. Did we lefs divide between God and our own ends, our own ways, we fhould not divide fo much one from another. Wherefore let us firft turn our thoughts to confider a little of this divifion between God and other things, and the evil of it. CHAP. II. The evill of dividing between God and any thing else. His people would give God fomething, and their idols fomething, and fo think to please both, 2 King.7.33. They feared the Lord, and ferved their Idolls. Thus Judab in the days of Fofiab, Zepb. 1.5. fware by the Lord, and by Malcham; Swearing is a part of Gods worship, therefore no humane instituted Religious ceremony ought to be joyned with it, no more then with the Sacrament, or any other divine worship, no creature fhould fhare in it, but they joyned Malcham, that is their King. The worship and fervice proper to God hath been too much divided between God and the Kings of the Earth ; but here it's probable is meant their Idoll, to which they gave a Kingly power over them, their Idoll Moloch had his name from hence. I have read of Redwald King of the Eaft Saxons, the first Prince of his Nation that was baptized,in the fame place worfhipped Chrift, and set up an Altar to worship his Idols. Many mens mens fpirits lye like that Haven, A&s 26. 12. towards the Southweft and Northweft, two oppofite points: Surely their fpirits muft needs be very winding and crooked which lye towards fuch oppofites. hee This dividing with God is very wicked; what communion hath God with Belial? How can you partake of the Table of the Lord, and the Table of Devills? 1 Cor. 10. 21. And left they fhould thinke it a light thing thus to divide with God, adds, verf. 22. Doe we provoke the Lord to jealoufie are we stronger then be? It is a great provoking of God, and a fighting against him, thus to divide in his worship. To think that God fhould accept of fuch a dividing, is to make him cruel,like that Harlot, 1 King. 3. 26. who was content to have the child divided, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but let it be divided. Gods worship is as deare to him as any child can be to the most tender-hearted mother in the world. When Darius would have divided with Alexander, No, fayes Alexander, there can be but one Sun in the Firmament. If we will be dividing with God, he will caft off all. 2 King, 17.33. it is faid, they feared the Lord, and ferved their Idolls; but verf. 34. it is faid, they did not feare God, God accounted a divided feare no feare at all. Verse 16. it is faid, They left all the Commandements of the Lord their God, and made them molten Images. If they give any part of Gods honour to molten Images, he acknowledges no honour at all given to him, he accounts all his Commandements to be left. So Jer. 32. 23. They have done nothing of all that thou commandeft them to doe: and verf. 30. The children of If-. rael and the children of Judah have onely done evill before me. God is infinite, and hath all excellency in him, therefore he muft have the whole heart; Idols doe not challenge fo much, because they have not an univerfall excellency, a piece of worfhip is enough for them; our hearts, eftates, liberties, all wee are or have, are more Gods then our owne. Cyrus tooke Babylon by dividing the River: The Devill foon furprizes us, if he can but divide our hearts. The reason why heathen Rome rejected Chrift from being of the number of their gods, when fuch a thing was tendred to their Senate, was, Because (fay they) if we receive him to be a God, Si di midio ny a God, he will suffer none of our other gods; if we take in aother new god, we may yet retain ftill our old ones; but if we take this Jefus, all our old ones must be abandoned. Many at this day reje& Chrift upon this ground. The Romanifts fince thinke they can take in Chrift for a God, and yet divide between him and other gods; their Religion is made up of divifions between God and their graven Images; between Chrift the Mediator, and Saints and Angels; between the Word, and their owne Traditions; between Divine Inftitutions, and Humane Inventions. 1 King. 18. 21. Why balt ye between two opinions? Wee must not be voluntary Cripples to halt between two. Why are you difmembred in your hearts and your opinions? lo Fofephus in his Hiftory mentioning that place. That is obfervable, when the Prophet pur that queflion to them, the Text faith, The people held their peace, their mouths were ftopped, they had not a word to fay for themselves. If any thing be pretended for this dividing, it is that trouble may be prevented: exactneffe in Religion, through Reformation, giving up our felves wholly to God and his truth, hath a fhew of bringing much trouble with it. Hence men winde and fhift about, and doe what they doe by halves. It was a notable speech of Calvin to those who were offended with troubles they met with in the work of Reformation, Christi effemus If wee could be content with halfe a Chrift, (fayes he) our worke contenti, facile would more easily goe on, we could foone bring about what wee would tranfigeremus have, we should not meet with fo much oppofition, but nothing but a whole Chrift will serve our turne. omnia. Object. 1. Object. 2. But it is neceffary that all things be reformed at once? No: Affirmative Precepts doe not binde to all times, but Negative doe; therefore it is necessary at all times, that there be no mixture of evill with any good we doe, that our Mediocrity be not Medium participationis, but Medium abnegationis, between two extreams, which are evill, but not partaking of any evill; no good thing is moderated by mixture of evill, but by removing from it fomething that is evill, that hath already mingled it felfe with it. But muft God have all our hearts,fo as we may not let them out at all to any thing else? If wee let out our hearts to any thing but in fubordination to God, then we divide between God and that thing finfully; but though we do let out our affections to other things, yet if it be in fubordination to God, fo farre as God is in those things, and we may be led nearer to God by them; this is no dividing between God and other things, but an uniting all in God, and enjoying God in all. The Saints are inftructed in this miftery of godlineffe, they know how to give God the whole heart, and yet to enjoy the comforts of wives and children, and eftates, and callings, as much as any in the world; they have that heavenly skil to unite all in God, and enjoy God in all, God is all in all unto them in their enjoyments of all good whatfoever; but if our hearts be let out to any thing otherwife then thus, they go a whoring from God, and will certainly vanish in their own folly. This is contrary to that fingleneffe, to that oneneffe of heart promised as a blerfing of the Gofpel. Many of you complaine of barrenneffe, here is the reafon your hearts are divided; were the stream of your hearts wholly after God, it would runne ftrongly, and bear down oppofition before it, you would be fruitfull in all the wayes of holineffe. How fruitful and gloriously usefull would men in publike place be, if their hearts were fingle and one for God; did they only care to honour God in their duty, and leave the care of protection of, and provifion for themselves and ftate to God? Let not mens hearts be cut, be divided with their cares and fears about confequences and fucceffes; their wisdom should be how to work all about for God, not how handsomely to contrive that God may have part, and themfelves part. The more fully we give up our (elves, our ends, defignes to God, the more fecurely may we fit under Gods prote&ion, care,. and bleffing. Many of the good Kings of Judah had their hearts for God, but yet they let the high Places ftand; their politick wisdom divided their hearts between God, and their fears of disturbance in the State; If they should raife their Reformation fo high, by this their divifion, their hearts lay flet, the worke was neglected. But 2 Chron. 17.6. Jehoshaphats heart was lift up in the wayes of the Lord, he tooke away the high places and groves, be fought to the Lord God of his father, and wal C ked Anfw. ked in his commandements, not after the doings of Ifrael, verf. 4. But did he not bring difturbance to the Kingdome by this his zeale? No, Verf. 5. Therefore the Lord ftablished that Kingdome in his band, ani all Judab brought to Jebfbapbat prefents, and bee badriches and honour in abundance. And verf 10. The feare of the Lord fell upon all the kingdomes of the lands that were round a bout Judah, fo that they made no warre against Jehoshaphat. Verf. 12. Jeboshaphat waxed great exceedingly. Let our hearts be for God alone, tor God alone is enough to fatisfie our hearts, to fupply all good unto us for ever. There is infinite reafon our whole hearts fhould be for him, he is willing his whole heart fhould be for us. Jer. 32. 41. Yea I will rejoyce over them to do them good, and I will plant them with my whole heart, and with my whole foule. CHAP. III, Heart-divifions one from another. WHen they divided from God, then they divided from his people,they would not joyn with his people in the way of his worship, only fuch as fet their hearts to seek the Lord God of Ifrael, went to Ierufalem to facrifice to the Lord God of their fathers, 2 Chr. 11. 16. only those whose hearts the Lord touched; but others for their owne carnall ends would not joyn with them, they faw trouble attended that way; and having divided themselves from God & his people, it was Gods curfe upon them that they fhould be divided one from ano. ther; if you be divided from the truth, what can hold you to Augides Together? Truth is a fingle, fimple, plain thing, but error is va 70-rious,and enfnarls it felf with infinite contradictions: If peoλοξόπον.Theod ple goe out of the plaine path of truth, they wander up and ποίκιλον και πο Toix down God knows, whither, intangling themselves in bryAuerdes xy-ars and thornes, fo as they cannot extricate themselves: As Kutt κεχυμλύον ἡ Am - thofe ten Tribes which at fift divided from Iudah only in their andia . fubjection to the houfe of David, and in their worship at IeruChryf. Hom.3. falem, but after they denied all Scripture but only the 5.books πολυσχιδές ληθεία μια ad Rom. of |