14. 15. on in their work! How would they be edified, prayfing the Lord! What a heaven upon earth fhould we have! And yet we finde it otherwise. We may fay, we looked for light, and behold, (I will not fay darkneffe) but behold dimneffe even from them: for brightneffe, but behold obfcurity.Oh how doe the carriages of thefe men in fome degree juftifie the harthneffe, fowernesse, domineering and cruelty of fome of the Prelates! We hope nothing fhall ever befall us as to be fuch a temptation to us, as to juftifie their places. But some of their perfons are fo farre just ified, as there is occasion given to think they were not fuch vile men as heretofore we thought they were. For now we fee what a temptation there is in having the times fhine upon men, in having power put into mens hands. We fee now that men who have other manner of principles then ever they had, yet how fadly they mifcarry when they come under the like temptati ons. How can we answer Chrift Jefus for these things? 14. We are still divided, though we have feen the wofull evils that divifions have brought upon others, yet we cannot be warned by other mens harmes. Those who are acquainted with Ecclefiafticall Hiftories, may furnifh themselves with Volumes in this kind. Who can read that fhort but sowre Hiftory of the troubles at Frankford,but his heart muft needs bleed within him? And of late what evills have almoft all the Proteftant party in Germany and through the Chriftian world,fuffered by divifions! And yet we engage our felves in them, and are every day engaging our felves more and more, How deep we fhall fink the Lord knowes. 15. In our very labouring for union we are divided, in our Aady endeavours for peace we are at variance. Nazianzen in his 12. Twii-Oration rebuking this ftrange mifcarriage of men, hath this noμereτnoa table expreffion, while we would have charity, we study hatred, nap to a while we feek to fet up the corner ftone which unites the fides togenegyvidve ther, we are loofned our felves, we are for peace, and yet we fight διελύθημε one with another. Our wayes of late have been little elfe but doLut Tns eign-ing and undoing, yea we croffe our felves in what we would do, vs Tonun- by doing what we doe. We are all full of contradictions in our oauh. Naz. own spirits and actions, and we cry out of others, that they are Orat.12. not confiftent to their own principles. 16. 1 Laftly, the fin of our divisions is the greater, because we make Religion to patronize them. We divide from one another, and all under a pretence of Religion.Surely this Virgin is forced,for there is nothing more contrary to the name or nature of Religion,then to cause or further divifions.The name carryes union, ftrong union with it: Religio à Religando, from binding us againe to God, and to one another, after we were divided by our fin.To father our wicked divifions upon Religion, is no other then to bring down the Holy Ghoft in the likeneffe of a Dove to be like a Vultur or a Raven. What spirit is it that we profeffe our felves to be acted by when we are working for Religion? is it not the Spirit of God? and is not that a Dovelike fpirit? although we difhonour our felves by discovering the bafeneffe of our own fpirits by our divifions, yet let us not put difhonour upon the bleffed Spirit of God; this makes the fin to be abhominable. Nazianzen in his fore-named Oration, as œ'aninveighs against this in thofe in his time, In our pleadings for the déias daλtruth, we (fayes he) belye one another; as if this were the way wv xale-feuto maintain truth. σάμεθα. CHA P. XXIX. The wofull miferies that our divifions bring upon us. are themselves fruits of the curfe, therefore there can come no other but curfed fruits from them, except God, contrary to their nature, be pleased to over-rule them, which he only is able to do. It was the curfe of God upon the ground, Briars and thorns ball it bring forth; It is no leffe curfe of God upon mens hearts, that they bring forth fuch briars and thorns, by which they tear one another. de First, our divifions provoke the wrath of God against us; though the wrath of man accomplisheth not the righteoufneffe of God, yet it may accomplish the wrath of God. Efay 9. 21. Manafeh against Ephraim, and Ephraim against Manaffek, and they together against Judah; for all this his anger is not turned aMay, but his hand is ftretched out ftill. When we are thus one as gainst another, the anger of God is not turned away from us, we may feare his hand will yet be further ftretched out against Ff us; I. 2. 14246 us; fo long as our wrath one against another continue fo hot, certainly Gods wrath is not appeased. We read of Abraham, when he was about facrificing Ifaac, he found a Ram entangled in the bryars, which God had prepared for him to be a facrifice:We are this day entangled in the bryars,and we know not how to get out,it is a figne that we are prepared to be a facrifice even to the wrath of God.. Secondly, by them we serve the defignes of our enemies; what would they have given when they first divided from us, to have procured fo great divifions amongst our felves,as have been, & yet are? If a Million would have purchased them, rather then they should not have been, they would (no question) have given it; I am fure they further their defignes more then many Millions would have done : Hoc Ithacus velit, & magno mercentur Atride. We have often faid that fome who have kept at the Parliament Jimin March have served the defignes of the King and those about him better then they who were with him. Certainly those who foment divifions amongst us,do ferve our enemies turne more then many that are with them. When in our contentions our fpirits rife one against another,and we reproach one another,we do not conÖTι in ȧspa- fider, fayes Nazianzen, how unfafe it is to put weapons into our eλὲς ὅτιλον nemies hands. Yea he thought in his time, though neer thirteen. xe sú- hundred yeers fince,the divifions of the Churches to be a great HIV. Naz. means to further and haften the comming of Antichrift: for fo he fayes in the fame Oration before quoted, I verily fear left Antichrift should come fodainly upon these our divifions, and left he should take the advantage of thefe our offences and distempers to raise his power over us. Let thofe therefore who cry down Antichrift fo much, cry down divifions alfo, left they prove to aur Juna ferve the defignes of Antichrift in a very great measure, though seias Ta nus- they think not fo. Orat.14. The Alais- Thirdly, by thefe we make our felves a fcorn to our enemies. μalaxy apps- Hosea 17.ult. The rage of their tongue shall be their divifion in Shuara. Naz. the land of Egypt. When Malignants hear our rage one against Orat.14. 3. another, we are a derifion amongst them; thefe Egyptians jeere us, they contemne us, and all the power we can make a gainst them. I find in one of Melancthons Epiftles, a ftory of one Beffarion, exhorting the Princes to concord, that they Bellum erat in nes; cumque tum canum ad might joyne against the Turks he brings in this Apologue: There was a war between the wolves and the dogs; news came to the wolves that there was a hege army of dogs comming a-ter lupos cam gainft them, intending to tear them in pieces; the wolves fent an old wolfe out to be a fcout, he comes and tells them there nunciatum eßet were indeed a great company of dogs more then themfelves lupis venire in were, but they need not fear, for he perceived they were gentem exerciof different colours: Upon this the wolves made nothing lacerandos lupos, of them, accounting it an eafie matter to deale with them misas eft fpewho were fo differing amongst themselves. In the fame manner, culator anus ex fayes Melanthon, doe Staphilus, and Canifius, and others of vetulis lupis, rethe pogifh faction, triumph in respect of us; upon which he unsia effe quifolls to prayer, That the Sonne of God, the Lord Jefus Chrift, nem canum lonwould governe them, and make all in our Churches to be one in gè majorem bim. dem multitudi quam luporum, Ted berê fperandum ‹ße quia viderit multas eße diffimilitudines colorum in canibus, hac voce confirmati lupi di fumiLes facile pelli poße perebant Melanchon.Epift. /08. f Fourthly, yea by these we are like to be made a prey to our enemies. Here many fad ftoryes might be told you of the prevailings of enemies against divided people. The divifions of Ifrael at this time made them a prey to their adverfaries, which you may fee cleerly if you read 2 Kings 17. afterwards the divifions of the other tribes made them a prey to the Romans. When the Turks have prevailed over Chriftians, do not all stories tell us it hath been through the divifions of Chriftians? When Normans, Danes prevailed in England, it was by the advantage they had of our divifions; if we will still divide and contend, our condition may prove to be like two birds pecking at one another,in the mean time the Kite comes and catches them both away. Fifily, if God fhould free us from our enemies, yet we are like to devoure one another, and this is a greater mifery then to be devoured by the common adverfary. Gal5.15. If ye bite and devour one another, take heed ye be not confumed one of another. What biting and devouring was this? It was not in an open, hoftile way, they did not take up Arms one against another,but by their different opinions and contentious carriages in matters of Religion. Their differences in the matters of Religion were Ff2 very 5. 6. 7. 8. very great, Non de finibus, fed de hareditate, not about the bounds, but the inheritance it felfe; yet unpeaceableneffe and violence in their carriages one towards another, though the matter of their difference was fo great,is condemned and threatned by the Apostle.Do not our Adverfaries fay,Let them alone and they will devoure one another? God gives us good hope that he will deliver us from our enemies; but the hearts of many godly and wife men tremble within them, fearing left that wolvifh diftemper of ours fhould feed upon our own flesh, when the matter that it had to feed upon from without is taken away. Sixtly,if we should not devour one another, yet being thus divided, we are like to perifh of our felves,as thofe Infecta,which after they are cut afunder, yet the feverall parts live, they wriggle up and down a little while, but they cannot hold long. So it is like to be with us; except we joyn we cannot live. Seventhly,thefe divifions are like to make many miferable indeed; for if God be not mercifull to them, and that foon, they are like to be fuch a rock of offence,as to fplit them, upon which they are running; they are in very great danger to make shipwrack of their confciences, yea I fear fome have done it already; if it be not fo, the Lord be mercifull to them,and prevent it. The spoiled houses, the torn eftates, the maimed bodies of men caufed by our divifions, are fad objects to look upon; but the broken, maimed, spoiled confciences that thefe have caufed,and are like further to caufe, were and yet are like to be objects beforens to be lamented with tears of bloud. This fhipwrack of confcience it may be is not felt now, but it will prove horrour of confcience hereafteri Eighthly, they are like to lay a foundation of much evill to pofterity, this confideration is almost as fad as any. We think it a great evill that Kings children fhould be brought up in the fight of bloud, that they fhould be in danger to have principles of cruelty or tyranny infufed into them in their tender age; we are afraid left the muddy water they drink now fhould breed diseases in them that may break out afterward. Surely it is a great evill alfo for the children of the Church, to be brought up in the fight and exercise of divifions in matters of Religion; that that knowledge of Religion which they now take in, fhould be |