A SERMON CONCERNING Unity & Agreement. PREACHED AT CARFAX CHURCH in OXFORD, August 9 1646.  
By Jasper MAINE, D. D. and one of the Students of Christ-Church, OXON.  
ROM. 12. 18. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.  
Printed in the year, MDCXLVII.   

A SERMON CONCERNING UNITY and AGREEMENT.  1 COR. 1. 10. Now I beseech you Brethren, by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no Divisions among you: but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgement. 
THough Truth, from what mouth soever it be spoken, or in what shape or dress soever it appear, be but one and the same; and where it is rightly understood, carries this uniting, peaceful quality with it, that it makes all its followers of one consent, and mind too; yet I know not from what mist, or impotence, lodged in our nature, with whom errors and mistakes do for the most part prevail more than Arguments or Demonstrations; and with whom our own misconceipts (conveyed into us from such whom we think too holy to deceive us, or too learned to deceive themselves) do for the most part stick so deeply, and take such root and impression in us, that it is not in the power of truth itself to remove them: This one, uniting, peaceful Bond of minds, this Ray of our souls, according to the several Teachers of it, and according to the several forms and shapes, into which they have cast it, hath always been looked on as so many several Truths; And to the discredit, and disadvantage of it, hath in all Ages been as severally entertained and followed. Thus among the Heathen Plilosophers, we find the number of Sects, to be much greater than the number of Sciences. Every new famous Teacher, who professed severlty in his looks, and austerity in his manners, had the power to draw a cloud of Disciples after him, and to erect a new Truth with a new School. And thus in the very Church of God itself, the gospel no sooner began to be preached to the world, but it began to have its Sects and schisms, and sidings too. The Apostles taught but one Faith, one baptism, one Christ, one plain, open way of salvation to men; yet they were misunderstood by some, as if they had preached many: Or as if the numbers of their several Doctrines, had equalled the number of their several persons, and they had (every one where he went) scattered a several gospel.  
To speak yet more plainly to you, and nearer home to the History of this Text; The Corinthians (to whom this Epistle was written) as if from every new Teacher that came thither, they had learned a new Religion, began at length to have as many Religions among them as they had heard Teachers. You might have distinguished divers Churches in the same City, and have divided their beliefs and Creeds by their Families and streets. Where, by a fallacy and deceit of the ear, judging of the things taught, by their affection to the Teacher, and not judging of the Teacher by the things which he taught, every one chose to himself the name of his Minister to make a Side and faction by. One (as you read at the 12. Verse, of this Chapter) said, I am of Paul, another, I am of Apollo's, a third, I am of Cephas, a fourth, I am of Christ: As if Christ had either been divided, or else were to stand with the rest as the name of a distinct Religion; Or at least, as if the gospel (which at first sprung from him) like streams broken off from their springhead, were no longer to retain the name of the Fountain from whence it rose, but were to wear the stile of the several pipes and channels, by which it was conveyed abroad into the world.  
This diversity of names, and sides, grew at first from their diversity of opinions, and minds. When the unlearned wresting the Scripture which they had heard preached to an Apostles sense, would presume to impose that sense, which was indeed, not an Apostles, on others. And those others, equally as unlearned, thought it as reasonable, so they could entitle it to another Apostle, to impose their interpretation of Scripture on the first.  
This diversity of minds, proceeded at length to diversity of language and speech. Congregation spoke censoriously of Congregation, as if none had been in the right, but they only who most vehemently could charge others with being in the wrong. Saint Paul was urged, and quoted against Saint Peter, and Apollo's against both, and Christ against all three. Whose Sermons, like those changeable figures which melancholy men frame to themselves in the clouds, were made to wear the shape and form, which every man's zeal and fancy suggested to him.  
Hence, in time, from difference and disagreement in minds and speech, they grew to difference and disagreement in society and conversation too. Difference of opinion bred separation of companies; and that which was at first but a neighbourly dispute, by degrees took flame, and grew to be mortal hatred, division and schism. Men of the next door were no longer neighbours to one another. All the bonds of Charity became utterly broken. All Christian intercourse, and familiarity and commerce ceased between them. He was thought to be false, and to betray his side, who offered to show himself affable or civil to one of another party.  
In short, the breach became so wide, that he was thought to be the only religious man who could most enlarge the rent, and could bring most fuel to the present combustion which was thus unhappily kindled among them. To compose these differences therefore, (differences not unlike those of our miserable, distracted times) and to make the Knot and Reconciliation as fast and strong, as the disagreement and rent was large and wide, S. Paul here in this Text, prescribes a several Cure, for every particular and several breach. First, to remove the discord which rose among them, by calling themselves by several names, and to banish the ill consequences of all such factious compellations, which for the most part are bitter Invectives, and sharp arrows of detraction hurled at one another, he persuades them to unity of language and speech, and exhorts them to call themselves all by the same name, in these words, Now I beseech you Brethren, that ye all speak the same thing. Next, to remove their want of meetings, and Communion together in the same place of God's Worship, he persuades them to unity of Assemblies, and Congregation, in these words, Now I beseech you, Brethren, that there be no divisions, That is, (as I shall in the progress of this Sermon, make it clear to you from the Original) that there be no separations, that is, (as our English word doth well express it) that there be no private sequestered meetings, no such things as Conventicles among you. Thirdly▪ to remove the root, and spring of all these uncharitable strifes, and divisions, and separations, he persuades them to unity of opinions and minds, in these words, Now I beseech you, Brethren, that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgement. Lastly, that he might with the greater success do this, and (like a skilful reconciler) might win upon all sides, he for a while lays aside the Authority of his Apostleship; and mingling Request and Conjuration, with Exhortation and Advice, he acts the part of an Apostle, in the form of a Petitioner, in these words, Now I beseech you Brethren, by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, &c. Upon these parts, the Apostles mild insinuation, and address of himself, and the several Degrees of unity and concord, in speech, in Assemblies, and in Opinions, to which he here exhorts the Corinthians, I will build my future discourse. In the ordering of which, I will begin with the Apostles submissive insinuation, or address of himself, in these words, Now I beseech you, Brethren, by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  
For the clearer and more useful handling of this part of the Text, First, 
S Paul's qualification.  it will be necessary that I speak something to you of Saint Paul's person, the Preacher here in the Text, and of his calling to the ministry; which well considered, will conduce very much to the removal of a certain dangerous error received of late into the minds of too many unlearned, vulgar men among us: Which is, That Universities, and books, and Studies, and Learning are so far from being necessary preparations to make a Preacher of the gospel, that any layman, though perhaps brought up to a manual Trade, of a vocation of Husbandry, or attendance upon cattle, if he find by himself that he is called by the Spirit of God, may put himself into Orders, and take the ministry upon him. And thus enabled from above, without the form of Ordination, or those other slow, tedious, lazy helps, of sitting twenty years in a college to understand the Bible, may in the few minutes of a powerful Inspiration spring up an Apostle, and go forth a Preacher of the Word of God.  
To this persuasion they have been invited by two sorts of Examples in the Scripture; one in the Old Testament, the other in the New. In the Old Testament, do you not read, say they, that God called Elisha from the Plough to be a Prophet? And doth not Amos tell you in the 7. Chapter of his prophecy, at the 14. Verse, that he was a Herdman, and a gatherer of Sycamore fruit? Then for examples in the New Testament, pray what were the Apostles? were they great scholars? or did Christ send to Athens for them? were they not Fishermen, men altogether unlettered, men called from mending nets to preach the gospel? If this were so, That God according to his good pleasure, without any consideration of study, or height of parts, chose simple, unlearned, unstudied men, to be Prophets and Apostles, and Teachers, then why should any think he hath so confined, or entailed his free Spirit, or vocation of men, upon great parts, and studies, that he may not, if he please call the like unstudied, simple men from the Plough or fisherboat, or Stall, or shopboard, to be Ministers of his Gospel, and Teachers of his people now?  
My Brethren, you see I have not prevaricated, or diminished aught of the strength of the Argument which is urged in favour of laymen's preaching. In answer to which, laying aside all partiality to myself, and prejudice against them, I shall with the same spirit of meekness and Candour, with which Saint Paul here in this Text bespoke his Corinthians, beseech you, who hear me this day, to observe, and weigh, and consider well this which I shall say for a Reply?  
First, Far, far be it from me so to flatter the place of my Education, or so to bias my belief, by any false ovevarluing of human Industry, or great parts that I should pinion, as it were, or put limits to the power of the Almighty; Or should be so irreligiously bold, as to gainsay that piece of his gospel which compares his holy Spirit to the Wind, which bloweth where it listeth. If they who thus pretend to a private Inspiration do mean, that whatever God did in the times heretofore, he is able to do now, I shall easily grant it; And here in the presence of you all, confess myself to be of their opinion. Nor shall I make any doubt or scruple at all, to say, that, if we look upon what God is able to do, by the fame power by which he was able to raise up Children to Abraham out of stones, or (to speak yet more nearly to the Argument in hand) by the same power that he was able to make a Herd-man a Prophet, or a fisherman an Apostle, he is able, in our times also, if he please, to make the meanest Tradesman one of the greatest Luminaries of his Church. Since to an Omnipotent Agent, whose gifts are merely Arbitrary, and depend wholly upon the pleasure of his own will, the greatest endowments of men, and the least, are alike easy. But though he be able to do this, and in the ancient times of the Scripture have imparted his Gifts without respect of Persons, yet whether he now will, or whether in our times he doth still thus extraordinarily raise up Teachers to himself, is extremely to be doubted. For here with all the Christian gentleness and reason, which may possibly conduce to the clearing of this doubt, were I to argue this controversy with one of those men who invade our function, and from gathering of Sycamore fruit step up into the Pulpit, I would only ask him this question; What Commission he hath thus to usurp upon our Office; Or who signed him his patent; Since the Apostle tells us in the fifth Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, at the fourth Verse, (A place well worth your marking, my Brethren) That no man taketh this honour of a Priest to himself, But he who is called of God, as was Aaron? I know his common answer will be, that God hath called him to this Office by the secret Instinct, and Motion of his Holy Spirit. But, then, he must not take it ill, if I yet farther ask him, by what signs, or marks, or testimonies, or tokens, he can either ma●e it reasonably appear to himself, or others, that God hath dealt with him as he dealt with some of the Prophets, or Apostles; called him from his Trade by such a motion of his Spirit? Elisha we know, made Iron swim, and knew men's Closet-discourses in a far country, which was a sure and certain sign that God had called him to be a Prophet. The Apostles also we know, wrought many of Christ's miracles, which was a most infallible sign that God had chosen them to be Apostles. If any of these men, who derive their warrant from the same sacred spring, can make Iron swim, or like Elisha, remaining here in their own Israel, can tell us what the King of Syria says in his bedchamber; Or if like Saint Peter they can cure fevers and diseases by their bare shadows passing over them; Or if, like the rest of the Apostles, having never before known Letters, they can of a sudden speak all Languages, the controversy is at an end; It would be a very great sin against the Spirit of God to deny, that he is in them of a Truth. But if all the proof and sign they can give us that they have him, be only a strong persuasion of themselves; Nay, if by an infallible Illumination they could assure themselves, that they have him, yet as many as have not the like infallible Illumination to assure them so too, will not be guilty of an unpardonable offence, if they suspect they have him not. For here, I must once more repeat my former Question, and ask by what effects, or signs of the Spirit, men shall know them to be called? By what? will some man say, why? Do you not hear them preach, expound Scripture, unfold Prophecies, interpret Parables, nay pluck the veil and cloud from the book of Mysteries itself, the very Revelation? Can any of you great scholars, with all your study of Philosophers, Fathers, counsels, schoolmen, Historians, orators, Poets, either hold your Congregations longer, or send them away more edified? And will you yet ask Questions? Or doubt of the certainty of their vocation? I must not dissemble with you, if I could meet with an unlearned Handicraft-man, who without study, can do this to the same height, and measure of Truth, as those unjustly-cryed down, learned, and well-studied men do, I should begin to alter my opinion; And should reckon him as he deserves, in the number of the inspired. But alas, my Brethren, as I am not come hither to disparage the gifts of the Holy Ghost, in what person soever I find them, or to persuade that Scripture rightly expounded, is not one, and the same, from the mouth of a Priest, or an inspired layman; so this I must freely say to you, That as many of those strange Teachers as I have heard, have expounded Scripture indeed, and have ventured upon some of the hardest places of the Prophets. But, then, if all my studies of the Bible, assisted with all those holy, uncorrupted learned helps, which might enable me to understand it aright, have not deceived me, their expositions, and Sermons, how passionately delivered, or how long soever, are evident proofs to me that they have not the Spirit. If they had, they would never, certainly, expound Scripture so directly contrary to his meaning; Or make the writings of the Prophets or Apostles, wear only that present shape, not which the holy Ghost hath imprinted and stamped upon them, but which tends to the division of a Kingdom, and the confusion of a Church; Nor would they, as they do, what ever the Text be, press that sense from it, not which is genuine, and natural, but which tends most to the destruction of a party, or the fomentation of a most unnatural civil war. Saint Paul tells us in the fift Chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians, at the 22, and 23. Verses, that the fruits, or effects of the Spirit, are love, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, temperance. He useth to speak to men in the voice, and figure of a Dove: But to entitle him to all those forbidden works of the flesh, of variance, hatred, sedition, heresies, envyings, murders, and the like, there reckoned up in the precedent Verses of that Chapter, is to make him speak with the voice of a Raven.  
In short, my Brethren, the Holy Ghost is not the Author of such Doctrines as break God's commandments in the Pulpit. Nor is it a long Prayer, or a zealous two-houres reviling of the footsteps of the Lord's Anointed, their lawful sovereign, which can make their Sermons to be any other then so much libel, or holy Detractation; Or which can make their Intrepretations of the Word of God, how moderate soever in other cases, if they be not agreeable to the scope, and mind, and intention of the Holy Ghost, to be any more than so many zealous mistakes, and so many illegitimate births, and creatures of their own deluded fancies.  
Next, in pursuit of this seasonable Argument, give me leave, I pray, with all the plainness I can, (for I well know where I am, and to what auditory I speak) to make it yet farther evident to you, that if I should grant what these {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, as S. Basil calls them, these Saints of a day's growth, challenge to themselves, who think that all that is required to make a Minister of the gospel, is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, only to be willing, and to start up a Preacher. If, I say, it should be granted them, that they have the inward calling of the Spirit, yet God is so much the God of order, that unless they will enter themselves into his service, by undergoing those Rites of Consecration and Imposition of Hands, which God hath prescribed in his Church, to stand for ever as the outward forms and signs of their vocation too, every act of the ministry which they perform, is but a sacrifice like theirs who offered strange fire before the Lord, and miserably perished by their own forbidden Censors. Or if you will have me express the danger of it by a judgement as terrible. Thus to put their hand to the ark, thus to support it, if 'twere ready to fall, is such an unwarranted piece of officiousness, as will (Certainly) unrepented, at some time or other, draw the punishment of Vzzrah upon them, provoke the abused Almighty to break forth in a flame of fire upon them, and consume them for their unnecessary diligence. For here, all the Scripture examples which embolden them to this work, do return upon them, as so many instances and proofs of their encroachment on our office. For here let me once more ask them, How was Elisha called to be a Prophet? merely by the secret, unknown whisper and instinct of the holy Ghost? Truly, if he had, yet this would not make much for them; because God never tied himself precisely to those outward forms in the choice of a Prophet, which he then did, and still doth in the choice of his Priests. Yet the calling of this Prophet was not without its visible sign▪ go, says God to Elias, in the 19 Chap. of the first book of Kings, at the 16. Verse, Anoint Elisha the Son of Shaphat to be Prophet in thy room. And whether the like Ceremony of pouring oil on his head, were not also performed by some elder Prophet upon Amos as the younger, as 'tis not affirmed, so 'tis not denied in Scripture, but left probable. In the Consecration of the Priests of those times, the case is much more evident: Read at your leisure the 29. Chapter of Exodus, there you shall find, that before God would receive them into that sacred function, first, divers Sacrifices were to be offered for them; then they were to be brought to the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation, and there to be washed; then the Priests Garments, the Coat, the Ephod, the breastplate, and Mitre, were to be put upon them. Lastly, followed the anointing oil, which was poured upon their heads: And this was the Consecration of the Priests of those times.  
The Ceremonies of Consecration in the New Testament, were different, I confess, from those of the Old; but yet equivalent, and answerable to them in their kind. These were, a public meeting of the Church together, a presentation there made of the person to be made a Priest; solemn prayers and supplications put up to God, to make him useful to his Church: and for a seal of all the rest, the Imposition of the Bishops hands, assisted by his Presbyters. Now, my Brethren, apply this to the strange Priests of our times, who with unwashed feet thrust themselves into the Tabernacle; not a sacrifice, not so much as a handful of meal, or grain of Incense, or drop of oil spent towards their Consecration; No solemn assembly, no presentation of themselves made to God, no imposition of hands, not so much as a short Prayer, or benediction, or God speed you, used towards their setting forth into the Lord's Vineyard, and you will find that these are the thieves and robbers (pardon the hardness of the language, I cannot make the Scripture speak mildlier than it doth) which our Saviour Christ speaks of in the 1●. Chapter of S. John at the first Verse, Men who enter not in by the door into the sheep-fold, but climb up some other way. In brief, men, whose Sermons and Doctrines correspond to their consecrations. By stealth they enter into the ministry, and by stealth they exercise it. And whereas the mark and Character of all the true Ministers of the Gospel is to stand, having their feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace, 
Ephes. 5, 15.  these men wander, and go about, having their feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of strife. Men, who never think themselves sufficiently Apostles, till all the world do call them the sons of thunder too. Men who speak fire, and throw lightning among the people; and think they have then only done the work, and business of an Apostle, when they have cast the Congregation which they leave behind them into a combustion and flame. I shall trouble your patience but with one Objection, which may possibly be made against what I have hitherto said; that is this: Here, some one of these modern, self-inspiring Teachers may say, Sir, you tell us of Ceremonies and Consecrations, and I know not what, Imposition of hands; but either you have forgot yourself, or wisely dissembled the vocation of the Apostles. Were not they without your formality of laying on of hands, without all this ado of conveying orders, and the holy Ghost by fingers, immediately called by Christ? What imposition of hands went to change S. Peter from a fisherman into an Apostle? or what Bishops Ceremonies past to make S. Paul (in whose person you have all this while preached against us) of a persecutor of the Church to become a Doctor of the Gentiles? Doth not your own Tertullian say, Nonne & Laici Sacerdotes sumus, That any layman, if he please, may be a Priest?  
To this I reply; first, As for the Apostles, 'tis true, indeed, we do not read that they were consecrated to their ministry by such Rites and Imposition of hands, as were afterwards received and practised in the Church. Yet something answerable to the Imposition of hands went to their Consecration, before they were invested with full Authority to preach the gospel to the world. For besides their first vocation by Christ to be his Disciples, from whom they learned that gospel which they afterwards preached, what says the Scripture? Tarry ye at Jerusalem, says Christ to them, 
Luk. 24. 49.  after his Resurrection, till I send the promise of my Father upon you, and ye be endued with power from above. And, pray, what was that promise, and what was this power? Certainly, that which you read of in the second Chapter of the Acts, where at the time prefixed by Christ, the Holy Ghost descended on them. And how did he descend? in a still, soft, secret, invisible persuasion of the Fancy? Or in the silent whisper of an unperceived Illumination? No such matter, Quod Episcopus aliis, Spiritus sanctus Apostolis, says a learned man. The holy Ghost here supplied the Office of a Bishop, descended upon them in an audible rushing wind, which signified his election of them to the ear; And sat upon their heads in the shape of cloven Tongues of fire; which signified his election of them to the eye. Hi ritus, haec impositio; These were his Ceremonies, this his Imposition of hands, says that Author. So that all the difference between the Admission of the Apostles to the ministry, and others, was only this: In other Consecrations the Bishop only granted the power to preach, but bestowed not the gifts; Here the Holy Ghost bestowed both. He first by visible, outward signs, testified to the world whom he had chosen, and to whom they were to harken; And then furnished them with Tongues, and Languages, and knowledge, and parts, fit to be the Guides and great instructors of the world. Let these men make it appear to me, that the Holy Ghost hath thus descended upon them, thus furnished them with parts, and I will most willingly resign my place to them in the Pulpit.  
Next, as for S. Paul, 'tis clear by the story of his Conversion, that he received not his Commission to preach from that which Christ spoke to him immediately from Heaven. But what says the place? 
Acts 9 6. &c.  After he was fallen to the Earth blind, Arise, says Christ to him, and go into the City, and there it shall be told thee what thou must do. When he came into the City, a certain Disciple named Ananias, 
Act. 9 17.  pre-instructed by Christ in a vision, was sent to him, who putting his hands on him, says the Text, said to him, Brother Saul, the Lord (even Jesus that appeared to thee in the way) hath sent me, that thou mightst receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. Till his Imposition of hands, the holy Ghost was not bestowed upon him. And when he was bestowed upon him, yet he had not his full Commission; he was but yet a Disciple consecrated by a Disciple. To make him an outright Apostle, a higher, second, and more solemn consecration past upon him, which you may read in the 13. Chapter of the Acts, where, says the Holy Ghost to the Prophets, and Teachers of the Church of Antioch, Separate me Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have called them, Ver. 2. And how were they separated I pray? The third Verse tells you, When the Prophets and Teachers (there mentioned) had fasted, and prayed, and laid their hands on them, says the Text, they sent them away, till than they wanted power. To which passage of this vocation, or calling to the ministry, give me leave to add this for his parts. That in a human way of acquired Learning, he was the greatest scholar of his time, bred up at the feet of Gamaliel, a great Doctor of Law, spoke more Tongues, attained by his own Industry, than all the other Apostles, which had almost all Languages instilled into them by infusion. In short, he was versed, and read, and studied, not only in the Scripture, but in the highest parts of secular learning; In the writings of Menander, Epimenides, and Aratus, Heathen Poets. Which is sure sign to us, that studies, and learning, and parts acquired in Universities, are no hindrances, or impediments, if not helps to the ministry. Lastly, as for that saying of Tertullian, that laymen may be Priests, he tells you, in the following words, in what case this is to be understood. ubi Ecclesiastici ordinis non est consessus; Where the condition of the time and place is such, that ecclesiastical orders cannot be had; If a Christian layman should come into a Pagan Island, or into a country of Heathen people, where there is no true Minister, here Tinguis, & offers, & sacerdos es, every man is a Priest, and may baptize, and administer the Sacrament, and preach as much of the gospel as he knows. But where this necessity is not, to snatch the Sermon out of the mouth, or the Sacrament out of the hands or the child out of the arms of the true Minister, is certainly to be in the number of those uncalled Teachers, of whom God complains in the 23. Chapter of Jeremy, at the 21. Verse, where he says, I have not sent these Prophets, yet they ran; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. And farther than this I will not pursue the first thing I proposed to you; which was by occasion of Saint Paul's calling to be an Apostle, to remove an error of late taken into the minds of some, that craftsmen may exercise the place and function of a Priest.  
The next thing I shall observe to you, 
The arti●… insinuation himself.  is, the holy art and insinuation which S. Paul here useth to win upon the minds of his disagreeing Corinthians. Though he profess, in the beginning of the next Chapter, that he came not to them with that part of an Orator about him, which consists in the excellency of speech, or the enticing words of man's wisdom, (lest if he had done so, he might perhaps, have gained much glory to himself, but then his Master must have been in danger to lose his, and so the gospel have suffered from his Eloquence; and his Epistles might, perhaps, have past for a good piece of rhetoric, but not for good Sermons) yet he everywhere carried this other, equally prevailing part of a good orator with him, that by complying with the affections of those to whom he wrote, he first transformed himself into their shapes, and became all things to all men, that he might the better transform them into his, and make all men become like himself. Thus to the Jews he became as a Jew; and put himself a while with them under the Law, that by insensible degrees he might take their yoke from them, and might beget their liking, and entertainment of the gospel. And thus to the Gentiles, who were without the Law, he became as a Gentile, without the Law too, that he might unite them to the Jews. If I may speak of him, by his own description of himself, (and certainly, in that description of himself, he was inspired to speak truth as well as in his other writings) as he was not chosen, like the rest of the Apostles, out of fishermen, or men unlearned, nor called to preach the gospel from mending Nets; But as there was a concurrence of natural, acquired, and infused abilities in him, which rendered him though not one of the twelve, yet of equal gifts and endowments to them all. Lastly, as his task and patent to preach the gospel was much larger than the rest, as much larger, as the rest of mankind was larger than the Nation of the Jews; So in the performance of his task, he never failed to express all this. Like the beast, of which Pliny speaks, which puts on the likeness of every thing next it, and shows like a flower before a flower, like a stream before a stream, and like a flame before a flame; so 'twas a piece of this Apostles (Art shall I say? or) holy commission, to be all things to all men. Strong with the strong, and weak with the weak. To part with his Liberty to the scrupulous, and to use it with the indifferent. To eat all things wtth those that did eat all things, and with those that did not, to keep himself to herbs. Will you hear him in all these particulars express himself? Turn to the ninth Chapt. of this Epistle, and to the nineteen Verse, where setting down the end, and aim, which he proposed to all his holy Arts, he says, Though I be free from all men, that is, no way obliged to do as I do, but for my Master's service, yet have I made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more. Now if humility, and the casting of himself below himself; if to beseech, and entreat, and petition there, where he had sufficient authority and commission to enjoin and command, be to wear the form of a servant; and if all discreet behaviours, compliances, and applications, take their measure, and use, and praise, from the good end to which they are directed, and the good success which they are likely to procure, in all his Epistles I find not this Apostle more expediently making use of his Art in the form of a suppliant, then in this Text. For consider these Corinthians, to whom he here applies himself, divided, and broken into Factions; and these Factions severally deriving themselves, some from him, others from Cephas, others from Apollo's, (Names in their opinions, as holy, and great as his) and to have dealt imperiously with them, or to have used his apostolical power, and to have commanded them to agreement, had not been to make peace, but to animate, and inflame that party which called themselves his side. It had been too, to call up opposition, and disdain in the others, who were not of that side. Who citing Apollo's, or Saint Peter against him, and thinking it to be some confession of their error and weakness to yield first, or to go over to them who said they were of Paul, it being as reasonable that they should come over to them, who said they were of Cephas or Apollo, might have asked the same question which the striving Israelite asked Moses, Who made thee a Judge over us? And might have seconded this question with another, and have asked him, how one interested, and engaged, nay the head (as they conceived) of a Faction, could be presumed to be an impartial reconciler? The better therefore, to establish a peace and concord among them, S. Paul in this Chap. proceeds by three conducible ways of Reconciliation. At the 13. Ver. he clears himself from all interest and engagement to a side; and equally blaming those who said they were of Paul, as those who said they were of Cephas, or Apollo's; he asks them how it came to pass, that they dealt with the gospel of Christ, which was entire and seamless, like his Coat, as the soldiers did with his other Garments, divided it by a kind of blind Lottery among them, and every one take his share? Is Christ divided? says he. Was Paul crucified for you? Or were ye baptised in the name of Paul? If you were not, why do you raise a Sect, and Faction from him? Why do you call yourselves by way of mark and distinction, Paulists? And so turn the name of your Preacher and Apostle, into the name of a schism and side?  
Next, as he well knew that the readyest way to reconcile all sides, was to manifest himself to be of none; so he well knew too, that he that would knit, and reunite disagreeing minds, was not to deal roughly, or magisterially with them, (for that were to lose both; and to turn the enmity and hatred which they held between themselves, upon the Reconciler, who strived to make them friends) but was to quench such discords with soft language, and to cure such rents and wounds of the Church by pouring oil into them. Though, therefore, being armed with the authority of Christ himself, he might, with justice enough, have made Decrees and Ordinances to bind them to agreement, yet he rather chooseth to reconcile them to one another with their own consents. In a mild, and humble address of himself; therefore, not entitling himself more to one side then anonher, he equally beseecheth them all, that he might the more regardfully be listened to by all. And he beseecheth them for things which little concerned himself, but for their own good. He petitions them that they would be saved, and spends entreaties that they would vouchsafe to go to heaven. He requests them that they would not be worse Christians, that is, schismatics and separatists, than they were Heathens, that is, unanimous Idolaters.  
Lastly, he begs of them that they would once more be a Church and City; that is, a place of communion, and society, and Christian conversation. And that he might the more prevailingly obtain this of them, he addresseth himself to them in a stile and compellation of the greatest and gentlest persuasion to peace that can be used, and calls them Brethren. A word, which to remove all opinion of better or worse, or of inferior or superior, (the usuail grounds of discord) not only signifies an equality between the beseecher and the beseeched, and the besecched among themselves; (For Esse Fratres est relatio inter aequales, says the Lawyer as well as the Logician; to be brethren, carries a reference of equality to one another) but it implies all the natural and religious grounds for which men ought to maintain League and Agreement, and Peace with one another. For in calling them Brethren, he called them men of the same sociable kind, equally descended from the same common original and stock, and equally wearing in their nature one and the same common Image of God. And therefore, for this they were not to disagree, or quarrel with one another: Since likeness of kind maintains agreement between savage beasts and tigers. Leonum feritas inter se non dimicat, serpentum morsus non petunt serpents; Who ever heard of a lion devoured by a lion? Or who ever heard of a Serpent stung by a Serpent? much less should men then, bite and devour, and prey upon one another.  
Again, in calling them Brethren, besides the natural affinity that was between them as men, he put them in mind of their spiritual alliance, as they were Christians too. That is, men allied to one another by one common Faith, one common Hope, one common Redemption, and therefore to meet in one common bond of Peace and Charity too. Rixari, & se invicem convitiis lacessere Infidelium est; 'Tis for infidels, and men not converted to the Faith, to provoke, or brawl, or quarrel with one another.  
Thirdly, lest all this sweetness of address and language should not prevail, he joins Conjuration to Petition, but veils it in the stile and form of a Petition too, and beseecheth them to unity by the name of his, and their Lord Jesus Christ. A name, by which as he had before dispossessed devils, cured sicknesses, and restored the dead to life again, so he repuests that he may dispossess opinions, cure divisions, and restore agreement by it too. It being that name into which they were all baptised, and to which they had all past their promises, and vows. Lastly, a name by which they were all to be saved; and by which they, by whose names (to the blemish and disparagement of this) they called themselves, were, with them, equally to be called, that is, Christians.  
Here then, 'twere much to be wished, that the Preachers of our times would deal with their disagreeing flocks, as this Apostle dealt with his: That is, that they would employ their holy, and religious arts and endeavours, by sweetness of language, and indifferency of behaviour to all parties, to reconcile them. For since it may be truly said of Preachers, what was once said of orators, that the people are the waters, and they the winds that move them; to be thus the winds to them, as to speak, and move, and blow them into waves and billows, which shall roll, and strike, and dash, and break themselves against each other; Or to be thus the winds to them, as to rob them of their calm, and to trouble the peaceful course, and stream of things well settled, and to raise a storm and tempest there, where they should compose and allay one, is not to act the part of an Apostle, or of a Preacher of the gospel, but of an Erynnis, or Fury, who ascending from hell with a firebrand in her hand, and snakes on her head, scatters wars, and strifes, and hatreds, and murders, and treasons, and betrayings of one another as she passeth. Every hair of her head hurled among the people becomes a sedition, and serpent; and every shaking of her Torch sets Villages, and Towns, and Cities and kingdoms, and Empires in a Combustion.  
Alas, my brethren, how many such furies, rather than Preachers, have for some years walked among us? Men who speaking to the people in a whirlwind, and breathing nothing but pitcht-fields, and sieges, and slaughters of their Brethren, do profess no Sermon to be a Sermon, which rends not the rocks and the mountains before it: forgetting that God rather dwells in still, soft voices. 'Tis true indeed, the Holy Ghost once assumed the shape of cloven Tongues of fire: But that was not from thence to beget Incendiaries of the Church; Teachers whose Doctrine should be cloven too; and which should tend only to divide their Congregations.  
If I should ask you, from whence have sprung our present distractions? Or, who are they who keep the wounds of our divided kingdom bleeding? Are they not certain tempestuous, uncharitable active men, who make it their work and business to rob men of the greatest temporal blessing of the Scripture, and to preach every man out of the shade of his own Vine, and out of the fruit of his own figtree, and out of the water of his own cistern? Are they not men who will stone you for your Vineyard, and then urge Scripture for it? And will take away your field, your possession, your daily bread from you, and then repay you with a piece of Esay or Ezekiel, or one of the Prophets, anc call this melting, and reformation? Are they not men who do only profess to have the art not to heal, or close, or reconcile, but to inflame, and kindle sides? Men who blow a Trumpet in the Pulpit, and there breathe nothing but thunder, and ruin, and desolation, and destruction, Whose followers call themselves Brethren, indeed, and boast much of their charity; But they call only such as are of their own confederacy, Brethren: and make no other use of the word which was at first imposed by Christ, to be the stile and mark of agreement and peace, then to be the word and mark to know a faction by, and make no other use of their charity, which should extend itself to all men, even to their very enemies, but only to keep themselves together in a separation and conspiracy.  
Lastly, these are the men, who when they should strive to quench the present flame with their tears, do conjure as earnestly by the name of Christ to discord and confusion, as S. Paul here in this Text doth to order and agreement. Men who call it prophecy, and edification, and building up of the people, when they break and divide them into Sects and Factions. As zealously exhorting them to speak divers things, as S. Paul here exhorts them to speak all the same. Which is the next thing to be considered; and the first step towards the reconciliation, and peace, here petitioned for, which is unity and agreement in compellations and names in these words, Now I beseech you Brethren, that ye all speak the same thing.  
Whether the dispersion of men, after the building of the Tower of Babel, over the face of the whole earth, were a panishment or a blessing to mankind, I shall not in this Auditory examine or dispute. Only thus much we learn from the History of that place, that the occasion of that dispersion and separation of men from one another, sprung first from the confusion which God threw among them, and that confusion sprung from their diversity of speech. For as speech was at first bestowed upon us by God, that we might hold league and society, and friendship with one another: so you may read in the 11. Chapter of Genesis, that as long as all the world was of one language, and of one speech, they lived unanimously together like men of one family and house. One heart, one soul seemed to move in them all. But when they once ceased to be unius labii homines, men of the same lip and speech, when as many languages were thrown among them, as they afterwards possessed Countries, than society, and cohabitation, and brotherhood ceased among them too. They were scattered abroad upon the face of all the earth, says the Scripture. They who were before children of the same common ancestors, and derived themselves from the same common parentage and stock, as if they had been borne in the adverse Hemispheres of the world, or had taken their beginning from as many several Parents, as they afterwards found Islands, of one great Family and Kindred, became so many divided Nations.  
As this diversity of Tongues at first broke the world into the several crumbles and portions of men, who from that time to this have divided it among them; so there is not any one thing which hath so fatally divided kingdoms, and States, and Churches against themselves, sometimes to an utter extirpation, many times to an eternal breach, and Irreconciliation, as diversity of Language. I do not mean when men speak divers tongues of several dialects, and significations, (as when they at the building of Babel spoke some of them Hebrew perhaps, some of them Greek) but my meaning is, that nothing more directly tends to the division of a State, or Church, then for several companies of men to distinguish, and divide and separate themselves from one another by certain words and names of mark and difference, especially if they be words of disgrace, and scandal, and reproach, mutually imposed, and stuck upon each other; Or words of faction, and combination, assumed and taken by themselves. Then, if hatred of person, or difference of Religion do accompany such words of distinction, that for the most part befalls them, which befell the men of the old world, they break society and Communion, and crumble asunder; and of one people become so many divided Nations, and Churches to each other. This is an Engine which the devil and wicked politicians have in all ages of the world made use of, to disturb the peace, and trouble the happiness of kingdoms and commonwealths. Making holy, virtuous words and names, many times the partition wall of separation; And the device, and incitement, not only to divide kingdoms but Corporations, and private Families against themselves. As long as the Jews called themselves by one and the same common name of their Father Jacob, Israelites, they made but one State, one commonwealth among them. But when once ten Tribes engrossed that name to themselves, and the other two for distinction sake called themselves by the name of the Tribe of Judah, the most united, happiest, neerliest allied people in the world, a people of one blood, as well as one language, fell asunder, and divided themselves, like Jacob and Esau, into two hostile, irreconcilable, never more to be united kingdoms. And this was the case of these disagreeing Corinthians, to whom S. Paul directed this Text. As long as they called themselves by one, and the same common name of Christians, they made but one City, one Church, one place of Concord. But when they once began to distinguish themselves by their several Teachers, when some said, We are of Paul, others, we are of Cephas: As third sort, we are of Apollo's; And only a fourth sort, more Orthodox than the rest, we are of Christ; Then, then indeed, as if Christ had been divided, or had been the Author of several Religions, preached among them by several Apostles, they became broken, and rent, and torn asunder, into several Churches and Congregations. Where their usual custom was, not only to oppose Sermon against Sermon, and gospel against gospel, and Teacher against Teacher, but every one in the defence of their own Teacher, and his gospel, thought it part of their Religion to extol, and quote, and urge the purity and infallibility of the one, to the depression, and disgrace, and contempt of the other: Till at length it came to pass, (as I told you before) that that which begun in Religion, proceeded to bad manners, and ill behaviour. Marks and words of distinction, and difference, grew to bitter invectives, and mutual reproaches of one another. They who were the followers of Saint Paul's Doctrine, called those who followed Apollo's, by way of mark and infamy, Apolonists. And they who were the followers of Apollo's, by way of retaliation, and brand, called the followers of Saint Paul, Paulists, though Saint Paul and Apollo's preach both the same Doctrine. Hard censures flew between them in as hard language; who ever was not of a party, nor enroled of a side, was thought to be without the pale of the Church. The gates of heaven were shut against him, and nothing but reprobation, and the lot of the damned, and hell fire were allowed to be his portion.  
Here then, my Brethren, lot me make my appeal to eyery one of you, who hear me this day, hath not this been our very case? I must with sorrow of heart confess to you, that as often as I have for some years, made to myself a contemplative survey of this unhappy kingdom, I have been able to discover no cause so pernicious for the many alienations of mind, or the many separations of Congregation from Congregation, heightened at length into the tragedy of an overspreading civil War, as certain vain, ridiculous, empty words, and names of distinction among us; which have sprung from some men's stricter or looser carriage of themselves in their profession of the same Religion. They of the more free, and open carriage and behaviour, who call a severe regularity and strictness of life, preciseness, and an abridgement of Christian liberty, have called those of a more reserved, and locked up, and demure conversation, Puritans, and roundheads, and I know not what other names of contumely, and reproach. And they of the more strict behaviour, have equally as faulty, called those of afreer, and less composed conversation, Libertines, and Papists; the usual words of infamy made to signify a Cavalier. These two words my Brethren, have almost destroyed a flourishing kingdom between them.  
To this, I cannot but add one most pernicious cause of our present divisions more, which people have derived to themselves from making themselves followers too much of several Teachers; and affecting too much to be called after their names: whilst one says, I am of Paul, another, I am of Cephas, a third, I am of Apollo's, only a few neutral men, We are of Christ. Nay, if we needs must go several ways, I could wish we had such sacred names as S. Paul, or S. Peter, or Apollo's to divide us. I know not whether it will be seasonable for me to speak it in this Assembly: But we for some late years have chosen to ourselves names more modern, and fallible to divide ourselves by; whilst some have said, We are of Calvin, others, We are of Arminius, others, we are of Socinus. These, to the blemish, and reproach of Christian Religion, have been made names of strife and faction, Yet they have been great and learned names; though some of them, I must confess, have been liable to human errors. But if you consider the many rents and separations into which the ordinary sort of people have for some years divided themselves, either you will find no names at all for them, or names so unlearned, so obscure, so altogether mechanic, and unconsiderable, that it will be your wonder how such vulgar, rude, untaught Teachers should draw Disciples after them. It would pose me very much to tell you by any Monument of learning, or piety, which he hath left behind him to be known by, who was the Father, or first bringer up of the Sect of the Brownists; or who was the first Author of the Sect of the Anabaptiss. I know there were Anabaptists in divers of the father's times; and I know too, that the Parent of that Sect then, though he were an heretic, yet he was a scholar. But as for the author of the Sect of the Anabaptists of our times, I cannot well say what he was. One who hath written the History of their wild proceedings at Munster, (where they begun with the Reformation of the Church of Jesus Christ, and proceeded at length to three wives a piece) says, he was a Dutch butcher; one who repaired old Germents under a stall at Leyden in the Low-Countries; Another says, he was a Garmane cobbler; A third, that he was a Westphalia Needle-maker; But another controls that, and says he was a Westphalia Baker. But whatever he were, have not we in our times seens patriarchs and Prophets, as vulgar and mechanic, as unlearned and base as he? Men who have invaded the Pulpit. I will not say, from mending old breeches, or cobbling old shoes, (pardon the homeliness of the expression I beseech you, it is but the Historians Latin translated into my English) but from Trades so mean, so disingenuous, so illiberal, that I should defile your ears, and the Pulpit to describe them: And yet, have not these modern shades of Muntzer, John of Leyden, Rotman, Knippenburge, Knipperdolling, Melchior Hoffman, the great Enthusiasts, and disturbers of Germany, to the Astonishment of all Judging men, drawn Disciples after them, I wish I could only say, as mean, and base, and vulgar as themselves? Certainly, my brethren, consider the parallel well between the inspired Troublers of our kingdom, and those, who by their wild Doctrines did set Westphalia, Saxony, Munster, and all the noblest parts of the German Empire in a flame, and you will find, that in this sad Eclipse of Monarchy among us, there wants only a Sarcinator, or botcher, to assume to himself the crown, and to be called by a Sanedrim or privy council of the like Trades, Rex Justitiae, & novae Jerusalem Imperator, King of righteousness, and Emperor of the new Jerusalem, to make our case the very same with theirs.  
Again, in this diversity of Guides and pastors, (Pastors scarce fit to be Overseers of unreasonable Flocks) do we not also hear as great a diversity of language spoken? The Lay-Preacher accuseth the University-man with want of the Spirit; and we of the Uaiversity do back again account such laymen mad. Nay among us scholars, they who pretend to Calvins' Doctrine, do banish all those out of the state of salvation, who deny absolute Predestination; Or hold not, that from all eternity without any respect of their works or actions, whether they be good or bad, God hath past this sad irreversible sentence and decree, That some shall necessarily be saved, others shall as necessarily be damned. They who think this a piece of Stoicism, or a Doctrine brought into the world to drive People to despair, do equally banish those from the state of salvation, who thus uncharitably banish others. But what speak I to you of this Congregation of such high, schollarly dissentious? or discourse to you of disputes and controversies, not in the power of Scripture, Synods, or general counsels to decide? That which hath more troubled the peace of our distracted kingdom, hath been a strife of words about things as small as Cummin, or anise And about that part of the kingdom of heaven, which lies not wrapped up in an insearchable 〈◊〉 or an eternal sentence of God's concealed Will, but in a grain of mustardseed: A little, slight indifferent Ceremony, or piece of Church-Discipline. One hath called it an Idolatry to make an obeisance in the Church; another hath called it a piece of God's outward worship to do so. One hath styled the cross in baptism a sign of Superstition; another hath styled it the mark, and badge, and emblem of his Christianity and profession. One calls all Pictures in Church windows, Idols; another looks on them as so much holy story, brought into Imagery and Colours. The very garments we wear have not escaped contradiction. One calls the Surplice a Romish vesture; another calls it a white robe of Innocence, and decency. Nay our very Prayers and Devotions have not been free from quarrels. Whilst some have called the Lord's Prayer, A perfect form, enjoined by Christ to be said as it is; others most irreverently have called it a tailor's Measure, fit only to cut out other Petitions by▪  
In this miserable diversity of sides, then, where Countrymen, and men of the same speech, do so ordinarily speak divers languages, What why is there left to beget a peace and union among us?  
Truly, my brethren, I know none so fit as that Saint Paul here prescribes in this Text; a way, which if it were well practised, or if men would either have more charity, or less gall in them, would in time beget an union and agreement between all Churches; that is, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, that we all speak the same thing. That is, first, that we lay aside all those odious, hateful names and words of reproach, which serve only to Provoke and engender strifes, and to beget a dislike of one man's conversation with another; that the honest, strict, regular, heedful, conscientious man, be no longer called a Puritan, nor his wife a holy Sister; Nor the free, sociable, affable, open, harmlessly unssrupulous man, be any longer called a Papist, or Atheist, or by way of reproach, a Cavallier. I speak not now of the adulterous, swearing, riotous, lying, drinking, covetous man; these are such, that one of the ways to reform them, is to call them by their right names.  
Next, that we no longer, as our interest, or affections, or prejudices, or education, or customs sway us, pin our belief or faith upon any one Particular Guide or Teacher, so irremoveably, as without comparison or examination to reject and desplse all others. I am of opinion we should quickly make one Church again, if those newborn names and words of Independent and Presbyter did not divide us. And I am also persuaded, that our several Disciplines and Doctrines have not kept the Church of Rome at a greater distance with us, than the style and compellation of Protestant and Papist  
Thirdly, that we scholars, in those high mysterious points which have equal argument and proof on both sides, and which both sides (for aught I know) may hold yet meet in heaven, do factiously or peremptorily betake ourselves to neither; But either lay them aside, as things of mere contemplation, not of practice or use; or else speak of them to the people, only in that general sense wherein all sides agree, and as that general sense is laid down to us in the Scripture.  
Lastly, that in matters of Ceremony and form, things either altogether indifferent, or at most, neither enjoined, nor forbidden in the Scripture, that our carriage and words be always as indifferent: That we call not that scandalous which is decent; or that decent which is scandalous: That we press not things as necessary, which are merely ornamental; nor impose ornaments as things of necessity. That where no well-establisht Law is broken by it, both in Actions and Language, where ever we come, we conform ourselves to the harmless (though to us unusual) custom of the place: Herein imitating that sure example of S. Paul, by being strong with the strong, and weak with the weak, as near as we can, to become all things to all men. In things merely ceremonial, to part with our Christian liberty, and peaceably to yield to those, who, being otherwise persuaded, will contentiously refuse to part with theirs. And where our salvation, or the salvation of our neighbour is not concerned, charitably to comply, and sort with their infirmities; neither crossing them by our practice, though perhaps the better, nor perplexing them with our disputes, though perhaps the more rational: But if it be possible, as much as lies in us, not only to have peace with all men in words and speech, but in society, and conversation, and Church-Assemblies too: Which is the next degree of Unity here petitioned for, that is, an unity of meeting together in the same house of God, set down in these words, I beseech you Brethren, that there be no divisions among you.  
That I may the clearlier proceed in the interpretation of this part of the Text, 
Unity of Asse●…blies.  I shall desire you to observe, that the word which we here in English do translate Divisions, is in the original Greek (by which we are to order our exposition) {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}: A word which signifies not every kind of rent, or division, or disagreement among men; but such a division only as is accompanied with a perverse, unreasonable denial of society and communion together in the same Church. A division which carries with it an obstinate separation upon unnecessary grounds. Which unnecessary separation upon weak, slight grounds, is that which Saint Paul here in this Text, by way of difference and distinction from lighter Rents, calls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, schisms. A sin, my Brethren, of which if I should discourse to you at large, and should show you the heinousness of it, by its dangerous effects; I might tell you that it is not only a sin against the sociable nature of men, who are borne for Communion and Commerce, and the mutual help of one another; but it is a sin directly against that unity and peace, which Christ, as his last Legacy bequeathed to his Church. A sin, which (besides the uncharitable opinion which accompanies it, which is, that they who are separated from, must therefore be separated from, because they are wicked, deplorably wicked men, men reprobated, and utterly lost in the ways of error, and with whom all communion is destructive to our Salvation) doth not always confine itself within the retired, sequestered limits of a bare separation. But that which at first began from a scruple, hath many times proceeded to a Tragedy and massacre. They who at first causelessly separated themselves from their Brethren, because they were wicked, have many times, as their strength and numbers have encouraged them, and as the time hath favoured their Reformation (as they have called it) proceeded from the rectifying of men's Errors, to the lessening of their fortunes. And they only have at length been called the wicked, who have been rich, and have had estates to lose.  
That only which I shall further say to you of it, is this: Separation is a sin which hath always veiled itself in the disguise of sanctity. Thus Montanus, and his followers broke off Communion with the whole Christian Church then in the world, because, forsooth, 'twas revealed to them by divine illumination, that the Holy Ghost was nowhere to be found but in their Conventicle. An heresy, which beginning in schism proceeded at length to this monstrous conceit among them, That only the house of Montanus was the true, Church, and that Montanus himself was the Holy Ghost. Thus also the Donatists (an over-scrupulous Sect of men) divided themselves from the than Catholic Church, because it was not pure enough for such sanctified Communicants; nor complied with the inspired doctrines of the Father of that Sect. And this, it seems, was the fault of these Corinthians here in this Text; who having entitled themselves to several Teachers, proceeded by degrees to divide themselves into several Churches and Congregations: every one of which challenging to themselves the true and right Religion, and charging the others with the name of the false, thought at length that no way was left to keep themselves pure and unspotted, but by breaking off all Religious, nay civil Commerce and Communion with each other. Hence, for fear of infection, it was held a crime for any but the Righteous, to assemble, or converse with any but the Righteous; or for any to meet together at a spiritual Exercise, but such who first agreed in the same purity of Opinions.  
Here, then, if I may once more take the liberty to parallel one people with another; is not this our very case? Hath it not been the practice of many, many years, for those who call themselves the godly, the righteous, the children of the most High, to break off society and communion, nay almost neighbourly civility, with those whom they call the wicked? As there were among the Jews certain unclean places, and things, and persons, which whosoever touched were for that time unclean too; so, hath not the like opinion past among us, that there have been certain unholy, unsanctified places, and persons, which make those who touch, or approach near them unholy too? Have not some Pulpits been thought unsanctified, because, forsooth, the Preacher hath been ungifted? And wherein, I pray, hath his ungiftedness appeared? Because he hath not expressed himself in that light, fluent, running, passionate, zealous stile, which should make him for that time seem religiously distracted, or beside himself? Or because his Prayer or Sermon hath been premeditated, and hath not flown from him in such an Ex tempore loose career of devout emptinesses and nothings, as serve only to entertain the people, as Bubbles do children, with a thin, unsolid, brittle, painted blast of wind and air? Or because, perhaps, the sands of his glass have not fleeted for two tedious hours together with nothing but the bold insolent defamation and reviling of his Prince?  
Again, have there not been some who have thought our Temples unholy, because the commonprayer book hath been read there? And have renounced the Congregation, where part of the Service hath been tuned through an Organ? Hath not a dumb Picture in the window driven some from the Church? And in exchange of the Oratories, have not some in the heat and zeal of their Separation, turned their Parlours, Chambers, and Dining-roomes into Temples, and Houses of Prayer? Nay, hath not Christ been worshipped in places yet more vile and mean? In places, which have reduced him the second time to a Stable? If I should ask the people of both Sexes, who are thus given to separation, and with whom a Repetition in a Chamber edifies more than a learned Sermon in the Church, upon what religious grounds, or motives either taken from the Word of God, (which is so much in their mouths) or from reason, (which is so little in their practice) they thus affect to single and divide themselves from others: I believe it would pose them very much to give a satisfying Answer. Is it because the persons from whom they thus separate themselves, are irreligious, wicked men? Men who are Christians only in form, and whose conversation carries nothing but evil example and pollution with it? If I should grant this to be true, and should allow them to be outright what they call themselves, The Elect, and Godly, and Holy ones of the earth; and other men to be outright what they call them, The Reprobate, the wicked, the ungodly and profane, yet is not this warrant enough to divide or separate themselves from them. Nor are they competent Judges of this, but God only, who by the mouth of his Son, hath told us in the Parable, that the wheat and corn is not to be separated from the chaff and tarres when we list, but that both are to grow together till the great harvest of the world. Till then 'tis a piece of the building of it, that there be a commixture of good and bad.  
Besides, let me put this Christian Dilemma to them: either the persons from whom they divide themselves are holy or unholy: If they be holy, they are not to separate themselves from them, because they are like themselves; If they be unholy, they are in charity to converse with them, that they may reform and make them better. Did not our Saviour Christ (and certainly his example is too great to be refused) usually converse with Publicans and sinners? Did he forsake the Table, because a Pharisee made the Feast? Or did he refuse a perfume, because a harlot poured it on his head? Or did he refuse to go up into the Temple, because buyers and sellers were there, men who had turned it into a den of thieves? Certainly my Brethren, we may, like Christ, keep company with Harlots, and Hypocrites, and Publicans and Sinners, and yet retain our innocence. 'Tis a weak excuse to say, I will never consort myself with a swearer, lest I learn to blaspheme: Or, I will utterly renounce all familiarity and acquaintance with such and such an Adulterer, or with such and such a Drunkard, lest I learn to commit Fornication from the one, or Intemperance from the other. In all such conversations, we are to imitate the Sun, who shines into the foulest puddles, and yet returns from thence with a pure untainted Ray. If men's vices then, and corruptions, be not a sufficient cause to warrant a separation, what else can be? Is it the place of meeting, or Church, or the things done there, which hath made them shun our ordinary Congregations? Yes, say some, we have held it very unlawful (as we conceive) to assemble in such a place, where we have seen Altars, and windows worshipped, superstitious garments worn, and have heard the more superstitious commonprayer book read, that great bolster to slothful Ministers, and twin-brother to the Mass, and liturgy of Rome.  
Were this Charge true, (a very heavy one, I confess) had there been any among us so unreasonably stupid, as to spend their devotion on a pane of glass, or pay worship to the dumb senseless creature of the Painter, or adore the Communion-Table, the wooden issue of the Axe and Carpenter, (as I think there were none) had there (I say) been very Idolaters among us, yet unless they would have compelled them to be Idolaters too, I (after all the impartial Objections which my weak understanding can frame) can see no reason why they should not communicate with them in other things wherein they were no Idolaters. I am sure, if S. Paul had not kept company with Idolaters, we to this day (for aught I know) had remained Infidels.  
My Brethren, deceive not yourselves with a fallacy, which every child is able to discover. If such superstitions had been publicly practised among us, it is not necessary that every one that is a spectator to another's man's, sin, should presently be an offender. Nor are all offences so like the Pestilence, that he that comes within the breath and air of them, must needs depart infected. Thou seest one, out of a blind zeal, pay reverence to a picture, he hath the more to answer for. But why dost thou, out of zeal altogether as blind, think thyself so interested in his error, as to think thyself a partaker of his fault, unless thou excommunicate thyself from his conversation.  
Again, tell me thou, who callest Separation security; what seest thou in a Surplice, or hearest in the commonprayer book, which should make thee forbear the Congregation where these are retained? Is it the web, or matter, or colour, or fashion of the garment, or is it the frame or form, or indevotion of the Book which offends thee? Or art thou troubled because they have both been borrowed from the Church of Rome? That indeed is the great argument of exception; which under the stile of Popery, hath almost turned Religion itself out of the Church. But, then, it is so weak, so accidental, so vulgar an Argument, an Argument so fit for none to urge but silly women, with whom the first impression of things always takes strongliest, that I must say in reply to it, That by the same reason, that thou poor, tender-conscienced man, (who art not yet past milk, or the food of infants in the Church) makest such an innocent, decent vesture as Surplices, unlawful, because Papists wear them, thou mayest make eating and drinking unlawful, because Papists dine and sup. The subject is not high or noble enough to deserve a more serious confutation. That therefore, which I shall say by way of Repetition, is only this: If to wear or do, whatever Papists wear or do be unlawful, as it will presently concern us all to throw off our garments and turn Adamites, so it will very nearly concern us too, to lay aside our Tables, and betake ourselves to fasting, as the ready way to famine. Then to reject the commonprayer Book, because some of the Prayers in it resemble the Prayers in the Romish liturgy, is as unreasonable, as if thou shouldst make piety and devotion in general unlawful, because Papists say their Prayers. And so, in opposition to whatever they do▪ shouldst think thou art to turn atheist, because most in that Church do confess there is a God.  
The time will not give me leave to say much in the defence of that excellent Book; Or, if I should, 'tis in any thing, I presume, which can fall from my imperfect mouth, which will be able to recover the use of it back again into this Church. Yet thus much, out of the just sense, and apprehension which I have of the wisdom, as well as piety, and devotion of it, I shall adventure to say. That I cannot think, that ever any Christian Church, since the time that that name first came into the world, had a public form of God's Worship, more Primitively pure, more Religiously grave, and more agreeable in all points to the Scripture, then that is.  
To which I shall only add this one praise of it more, that there is not any Ancient, Classically condemned heresy, to be found in the Records of counsels, Church-Histories, or the Confutations of Fathers, which is not by some clause or other in that most Orthodox Book excluded.  
Here, then, if there be any in this Assembly of that il-perswaded mind, that he would not at this present make one of the Congregation, if the Common-prayers were read, let me once more ask him, what that great antipathy between him, and that admirable Book is, which should make them quarrel one another out of the Church▪ Is it because it prescribes a Ring in marriage, or a Cross in baptism? over-scrupulous man! who wouldst rather choose to make a rent and schism, and division in the Church, then be spectator to th●ngs so harmless, and indifferent. But thy weak Conscience is wounded. Weak, indeed, when a piece of marriage-Gold, or a little water sprinkled in the sign, and figure of a cross, the Type, and Emblem of thy Christianity, shall drive thee from the Church. I must confess to you freely, if such things, as the veneration of images, or adorations of Altars, or sacrifices for the dead, or the worshipping of the host, or the Mass-book, with all the unsignificant Ave Mary's, and superstitious prayers, which use to travel round the Circle of a numerous set of Beads, had been established among us by public Authority; And had been enforced upon the practice, and Consciences of men, and no Liberty of person, or freedom of estates allowed them, unless they would conform to the present Golden Calf of superstition set up before them, a separation had not only been allowable, but necessary.  
We would have offended God very much to be partakers of such dross. And our best Answer would have been the Answer of the Three Children, 
Dan. 3. 16.  when the King would have had them fall down to the huge image, and Colossus which he had set up, O King, we are not careful to observe thee in this matter. But where no such things were enjoined, where every one was left to the full use and exercise of his Christian liberty, where nothing was blameable among us, but the ridiculous, overacted postures and gestures of some few busy, fantastical men, whose Popery lay in making discreet men laugh, to see them so artificially devout, and so affectedly ceremonious, to divide, and separate, or to give us over for a lost Church, because the psalms of David, after his own musical way, used to be sung to an Organ; As innocently, certainly, as if they had been tuned through his own loud cymbal, or had more softly been sung, and vowelled to his harp: Or to renounce our solemn Assemblies, for such slight, indifferent things, as a piece of holy story in a glass window, or because the Minister wears white, or because married people come together by a Ring, or because the Lord's Prayer is more than once repeated, is not only schism, and I may safely say, schism upon scandal taken, not given, but 'tis directly contrary to S Paul's advice, here in this Text; who is so far from tolerating any such needless divisions, and separations of presences and bodies, that he will not allow in the same Church and Congregation the least dissent or division of minds; But makes it the least part of his Petition to his disagreeing Corinthians, that they would not only meet together in the same place of God's Worship, but that they would be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgement, which is the last part of the Text. To which I shall only add some brief Application of some things in this Sermon to you my hearers, and so commend you to God.  
'Twas well said of one of the Philosophers, (which saying of his hath since almost grown into a proverb of truth) Nihil est in Intellectu, 
Unity of minds  quod non fuit priùs in sensu; That there is nothing in the understanding, or mind within, which was not first in the sense without. 'tis as great, and measured a Truth, that there is nothing in our speech, or words, or actions without, which was not first in our mind, or will, or affections within. For what our Saviour Christ said, that Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, 
Mat. 15. 17.  thefts, false witness, blasphemies, and the like; to every one of which sins without, belongs some secret, invisible spring within. As, I say, to every Adultery without, belongs some hidden lust within; and the uncleanness of the body is but the soul issue, and offspring of the soul; And as to every murder without, belongs some secret envy, or hatred, or thirst of revenge within; and the rancour of the heart only clothes itself in the violence and bloodshed of the hand: so we may say of our Divisions, and Disagreements too. All those odious words, and names of mutual infamy and reproach; all those perverse crossings, and thwartings, and contradictions of speech; all this duel, and skirmish, and quarrelsomeness of language; Lastly, all this shunning and loathing of one another's company; all this separation, and denial of communion, which we so ordinarily see exercised, and practised without, are but so many unchristian behaviours, which take their original and birth from as unchristian grudges, and prejudices, and jealousies, and misapprehensions within. Never man yet dissented from another in speech, but he first dissented from him in opinion: And never man yet separated from another in communion, but he first separated from him in affection and will. To remove, therefore, the root and spring of all disagreements, as well as the current and stream; and to beget a peace, and concord, and reconciliation without, Saint Paul, like a skilful Artist, who reserves the hardest part for the last, proceeds from men's words and actions, to their opinions and thoughts: and like those who fet Watches, and Clocks, where the Hand upon the dial without, cannot move regularly, unless the weights and springs which guide it, move orderly within; the better to make us go all alike, and strike the same time, he endeavours to settle and compose those inward wheels, by which our words and behaviours without, are to be ruled and governed.  
The thing then for which he here so earnestly Petitions, is Unity, and Agreement, and Consent of minds. Which, in plain terms, is to exhort us, that as we are all men of one and the same reasonable kind, formed and created like one another in the shape and figure of our body, so that we would approve ourselves to be men of one and the same reasonable kind, in the music and Harmony of our souls too. Which would then come to pass, if every one of us would by the impartial search, and examination of his own mind, dislodg those mists and clouds of error, which blind him towards himself, and benight him towards others. Or, if he cannot do this by the strength and diligence of his own natural Forces, that he would have recourse to those who are most able to pluck this beam out of his eye; and whose work and business it is so to apply their Cures, as by proposing that one, constant, immutable, eternal, Divine Truth to his mind, in which 'tis possible for all minds well enlightened to concentre and agree, by degrees to reduce him from his blindness and error, and to make him not only speak, but conceive, and think the same things with him that taught him.  
It was well said of him, who compared our minds to Looking-glasses, or mirrors; For certainly if we could but keep them open, and unclouded, they carry this property of mirrors with them, not only to return the images, and shapes, and truths of things, which pass before them as they are; but all minds in a clearer, or less clear degree, have a capacity to receive into them the truth of the same things alike. As a thousand Glasses, if they be true, successively looked in, will show us the same faces: But then, as Glasses, if they be false, will cast false resemblances; or if they be discoloured, will transform all things which flow into them into their own die: So 'tis with us. I know not how it comes to pass, or whether I may ascribe the fault to Education, or custom, or to our parents, or to our Affections, too much knit, and wedded to the Religion, or doctrine, or Opinion, or Teacher, which most complyes with our Fancies; but there are certain ill-cut, false-reporting minds, which look upon men, and things, in another size and figure than they are. Other minds there are stained and died (as it were) with certain weak prejudices, and corrupt opinions; through which, as through so many deceiving colours, they discern no truths which wear not that hue. As he that looks through a green Glass, takes all things for green; and he that looks through a blue Glass, takes all things for azure. And this was the very case of these Corinthians here in the Text. They first addicted themselves over-partially to several Teachers; and from their several Teachers, took in several apprehensions, as they pleased to like or affect him above others, whose Disciples they called themselves. Some, though they did not well understand what they held, resolved (without any examination what they were) to be only of Saint Paul's opinions: Others resolved to hold only what had been taught them by Apollo's: Others resolved to hold only what had been preached by S. Peter. All which three taught and preached one and the same gospel; yet that Gospel was not alike entertained by all hearers. 
2 Cor. 10▪ 10.  Whilst some disliked it in S. Paul, because (as himself complains) he was of an humble presence, and of an ungrateful utterance. Others dislike it, perhaps, in the mouth of Apollo's, because it came Rhetorically from him, and he was guilty of that unedifying crime, forsooth, of being eloquent in the Pulpit. Others perhaps entertained it coldly from S. Peter, because he had not been bred up in the School of Demosthenes, nor tasted of the finer Arts and educations of Greece.  
In short, one and the same saving Truth, for want of a little right judgement in the Hearers to compare it, coming from several mouths, past into divers opinions first; and than these opinions broke forth into divers factions. And is not this, my brethren, our very case? Do but consider the present distempers of our poor, divided kingdom; and, pray, what hath been the true root and spring of so much variance, and hatred, and heartburning among us? What hath crumbled us asunder, and turned one of the purest, and most flourishing Churches of the world, into a heap of Heresies and confusion? Hath it not been the very word of God itself? In which all minds, I confess, should agree, and which should be the rule to compose all our strifes; and before whose decisions the greatest Scholars Disputes, and the meanest man's Doubts, should fall down, and mutually embrace, and kiss each other. How comes it then to pass, that Religion, which was ordained by God to be the oil to cure our wounds, should prove only the oil to feed, and nourish our combustious? Whence is it, that the Scripture, that Sword of the Spirit, should prove to us only {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, a two-edged sword, and that no other use should be made of it by us, but only to be the weapon of our Conflicts, by committing the edges, and making them enter duel, and combat with each other? Truly, my brethren, all the reason that I can give you for this, is, That some (perhaps well minded people, but not of understandings either strong, or learned enough to reach the true sense and meaning of some places) have stepped beyond their measure; and have presumed to interpret more than they have well understood. Others, of a more modest, but credulous composition, have thought that only to be the right meaning of the Word of God, which they have heard from the mouth of the Preacher which they most affect. Others, of a more dangerous policy, finding that the Scripture rightly expounded would extremely make against the plot of their dark proceedings, and that the holy Ghost cannot be bribed to find Texts to make covetousness, sedition, or the slaughter of their Brethren, or Rebellion against their Prince, lawful; have, with some formal helps of piety, and zeal, put to their expositions, made the Scripture speak only those plausible untruths, which most complied with their ends, and the people's Fancy. Hence, the better to arrive to their Estates, by the distractions of their minds, they have dealt with them as cunning Anglers do with silly fishes, troubled the stream, and blinded them, and then made them their prey. The way to do this was to affront, and disgrace, clamour down all the primitive Truths for some Generations taught among them; and to recall from their sepulchres, and dust, all the old, intricate, long since buried Opinions, which were the madness of their own times, and the civil war of ours. With which opinions they have dealt, as the Witch of Endor dealt with her Familiar, raised them up to the people clothed in a long mantle, and speaking to them in the shape and voice of a Prophet. Hence come those several acceptions, and interpretations among you, even in your ordinary discourses, of one and the same plain, but sinisterly understood places of Scripture. One, following the practice of all the purest ages of the Church, thinks the Sacrament of baptism is to be administered to Infants. Others, (who would certainly be a strange sight to the Congregation, if they should appear the second time at the Font) of late are taught to think that none are to be baptised, but such as are old enough to be their own Godfathers, and can enter into Covenant with God, and promise for themselves. Some, because it hath been called a binding of the spirit, to fetter their devotions in a set form of Prayer, have banished that Prayer, which Christ prescribed to his Apostles, out of their Closets, as well as Temples. Others, of as rectified a piety, think no Prayer so likely to find acceptance with God, as that which was conceived, and put into form by his son. I should tire your patience too much to give you an exact Catalogue of all the rotten opinions which at this present swarm among us. One who hath computed the Heresies, which have sprung up in this kingdom within these five years, says, they have doubled the number of those which were in Saint Austin's time; and then they were very near fourscore. One is a Chiliast, and holds the personal reign of Christ upon Earth. Another is a Corporealist, and holds the death of the Soul with the Body. Nay, as 'tis said in Africa, a lion will couple with a tiger, from whence will spring a Libbard; so certain strange, unheard-of, double-sexed Heresies are sprung up among us: not able to understand what he would hold himself. You shall have an Arian and Sabellian lodged together in the same person. Nay, (which is yet worse) whatever Celsus spoke in scorn, and Origen in vindication of our Redeemer, Christ and his Mother, hath of late trodden the Stage again, and appeared to disturb the World. One (I tremble to speak it) hath called the Virgin Mary's chastity into question; And others have spoken of the Saviour of the World so suspiciously as if he had been a thing, of a stolen, unlawful Birth. In short, there want only some of those Munster men among us, of whom Sleydan writes, where one calleth himself God the Father, another God the son, A third Paraclete, or God the holy Ghost, to make our Babel and confusion of wild opinions at the height. In this miserable distraction, then, where heresy, and error, hath almost eaten up the true Religion; And where all the light at the Gospel, which shines among us, is but like that imperfect light at the Creation, which shined before the sun was placed in the firmament; A light creeping forth of a dark Chaos and blind mass, and strifefull heap of jarring Elements: In this thick fog of strange Doctrines, I say, which hath condensed itself into a cloud, which hath almost overspread this whole kingdom, from which Truth seems to have taken slight, and made way for Ignorance to style itself once more the Mother of devotion, what way is there left to reconcile our minds, or to beget one right knowledge, and understanding of the ways of God among us? Truly, I know none but that which Saint Paul here prescribes in the Text; which is, that we endeavour as near as we can, to be of one mind, and of one judgement.  
But how shall this be brought to pass, unless all judgements were alike clear, and unbiased? Or, unless, laying apart all partiality, and affection to their own side, and all prejudice, and hatred against those from whom they differ, men would submit themselves to him, who is best able to instruct them; Or who can bring with him the most saving Truths into the Pulpit? Besides, (may some one say) if people should bring minds prepared to entertain the Truth, where is that instructor so infallible, or so opinionated of the strength of his own gifts and knowledge, that another pretending to the same Truth, may not challenge to himself the like infallibility? who shall be the judge of Controversies? or who shall present Truth to us with such known marks and notes about it, that as soon as 'tis presented, every congregation (of what mean capacities soever) shall presently acknowledge, and entertain it? Will you, Sir, who have all this while thus bemoaningly pitied our divisions? We are bound to thank you for your charity to us; and should be desirous enough to embrace a truth of your description. But you are a Scholar, whose parts and abilities lie in the human model, and building of your own secular studies. We are therefore bid to doubt very much, whether you have the Spirit; and are told by some who profess themselves inspired, that all your Readings, and Studyings, and tirings of yourself over a difficult piece of Scripture, at midnight perhaps, when all others sleep, by a lone, solitary, dumb candle, are but so many labours in vain, Since 'tis impossible for any to understand the Scripture aright, but such only who have it revealed to them by the same holy Spirit that wrote it.  
My Brethren, what shall I say to you? Modesty, and the knowledge I have of my own imperfections, will not allow me to say peremptorily, that I have the Spirit of God. Or if I could distinguish his secret influences and assistances from the operations of my own soul, or could certainly say I have him, (which S, Paul himself durst not say definitively) yet 'twould not become me so to confine him to my frail, narrow parts, as to deny him to all others more learned than myself.  
For the settling therefore, and composing of your divided minds, I will not take upon me to be the Judge of Controversies, but you yourselves shall be. Only the better to enable you to perform this charitable office to yourselves, and for your better direction how not to be out in your judgement, as a sure clue to guide you through the perplexed windings of that labyrinth into which some of you are fall'n, so fall'n, that they seem to me quite lost in a wood of mistakes, where every path is a guide, and every guide is an error, give me leave to commend to you that seasonable advice of Saint John, which he delivers in the fourth Chapter of his first Epistle, at the first verse, where (as if he had prophesied of our times) he says, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they be of God: because many false Prophets are gone out into the world. In which words; you have two of the best Rules assigned you to go by, that can possibly be prescribed for the settlement of minds.  
First, be not too credulous; do not presently believe every man that says he hath the Spirit; nor suffer yourselves to be tossed and carried about with every wind of doctrine: For that is not the way to be all of one, but of as many several minds as the art or cunning of several Teachers shall please to work upon you. I am persuaded this easiness of belief, this credulity, or (as the Apostle calls it) this admiration, this overvaluing of some men's persons, hath been one of the great parents of our present dissensions: whilst some weak, but yet well-minded people, building their judgement merely upon the outward appearances of men, have mistaken the zeal and strict life of their Preacher for his sufficiency. And taking their logic from the preciseness of his behaviour, have framed these charitable, but false conclusions to themselves: He is a man of a composed countenance, of a reserved speech, of a grave carriage, and of a devout elocution, therefore surely he is a holy man. And because he is a holy man, therefore whatever he says, shall be to us Oracle; as coming from the mouth of one, so much in the favour of God, that it is impossible he should deceive us, or speak that which is not right.  
My Brethren, I have no design or purpose to bring holiness into contempt; nor can I be so injurious to piety or a good life, where ever I find it, as to expose it to the scorn of the licentious, by not giving it its due. I am so far also from lending encouragement to the lives of vicious Teachers, (Teachers who are the shame of their Mother, and the scandal of their Flock) that I could wish that every Congregation in England were furnished with such an exemplary Minister, that his life as well as preaching, might be Sermon to the people. Nay, give me leave, I beseech you, to extend my charity yet one degree farther. I am so far from disliking holiness either in Preacher or people, that I wish we all made but one united kingdom of Priests. Or, if you will have me express myself in the words of one of the holiest and meekest men of the earth, 
Numb. 11. 29.  I could wish that all the Lord's People were Prophets. But, then, you must give me leave to say too, That holiness and strictness, and austerity of life, are no infallible signs that the Preacher may not err. Nor hath God so annexed the understanding of his Word to the unstudied, unlearned piety, or sober carriage of the Expounder, that he that is most zealous shall still be most in the right. 
2. Cor. 4. 7.  As long as that saying of S. Paul remains upon record, That we hold this treasure, this knowledge of God's Will, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, in earthen vessels; As long as the Preacher, how holy soever he be, is so much one of the people, as to dwell in a frail, weak Tabernacle of clay; Lastly, as long as men are men, they will be liable to men's infirmities. And as the learned scandalous Preacher may be sometimes in the right; so it is possible that the ignorant, zealous, holy Preacher may be often in the wrong. How to know this, and how to distinguish them, therefore, you are to make use of the next Rule prescribed to you by Saint John; that is, when you hear an Exposition, or a Sermon, or a new Doctrine preached to you, not rashly, without distinction or choice to consent to it, till you have past the impartial sentence of a clear judgement on it; compared and weighed Sermon with Sermon, and Preacher with Preacher; called every Doctrine, every proof, every confident Assertion to the touchstone, and measured it by some plain evident place of Scripture; and examined whether the Holy Ghost, or his own vain, popular ambition▪ have for that time inspired the speaker; or whether his Sermon have had some dissembled, secular end, or God's glory for its mark. And this Saint John calls, trying of the spirits; which is then done, when (as I said before) you reduce what you hear spoken by the Preacher to the infallible Rule of Truth, the Word of God; and make that, well cons●●●…ed, the scales to weigh his Doctrine in. Does he preach charity, and banish strife from his Pulpit? Does he not flatter Vice, though he find it clothed in Purple, nor speak neglectfully of virtue, though he find it clothed in rags? Does he strive to plant the fear and love of God in his Auditory, the forgiveness of their enemies, and pity towards the poor? Dares he arraign a public sin, though never so fortunate? or speak in defence of afflicted Innocence, though overborn by oppression? Dares he maintain his Christian courage in tyrannical, doubtful times? And dares he call prosperous Sedition, but a more successful mischief? Lastly, does he preach such Christian Truths for which some holy men have died, and to which he himself would not be afraid to fall a sacrifice▪ This, this man is to be harkened to; this man is fit to be obeyed. And this man speaking the same things which God himself doth in the Scripture, (whatever his gifts of pleasing, or not pleasing sick, fastidious, delicate fancies be) is thus at least to be thought of, That though he speak not by the Spirit, (as a thing entailed upon him) yet, for that time, the Spirit speaks by him, which ought to be all one to you. On the contrary, does the Preachers Sanctity and Religion consist merely in the devout composure of his looks and carriage? Does he strive to preach down Learning, or does he call Study a human folly? Does he choose his Text out of the Bible, and make the Sermon out of his Fancy? Does he reprove Adultery, but preach up discord? Is he passionate against Superstition, but mild and calm towards sacrilege? Does he inveigh and rail at Popery, and at the same time imitate the worst of Papists, Jesuits, urge Texts for the Rebellion of Subjects against their Prince, and quote Scripture for the deposing, and But cherry of Kings? Does he startle at a dumb picture in a Church-window, and at the same time preach all good order and right Discipline out of the Church? Does an Oath provoke his zeal, yet does he count lying in the godly no sin? Lastly, does he preach separation upon weak untempered grounds? Or does labour to divide the minds, which he should strive to reconcile? Let him bring what demureness or composure of countenance he please into the Pulpit; Let him, if he please, join sanctity of deportment to earnestness of zeal; Let him never so devoutly bewail the calamities of his Country, which he hath helped to make miserable; Or let him weep never so passionately over the Congregation, which he hath broken into factions; In short, how seemingly holy, how 〈◊〉, how unprophane soever his behaviour be; though the Scripture do so continually overflow in his mouth, that he will neither eat, nor drink, nor speak, nor scarce sleep but in that phrase, yet as long as he thus forgets his Charity, thus Preaches strife, thus Division, I shall so far mistrust whether he have the Spirit, that I shall not doubt to reckon him in the number of those false Prophets which S. John says are gone out into the world.  
The Conclusion then of this Sermon shall be this. Men and brethren, I have with all the sincerity and plainness which might benefit your souls, preached Truth, and Concord, and mutual Charity to you. I have also for some years, not been so sleepy an Observer, but that I have perceived some of you (who have thought yourselves more Religious than the rest) to be guilty of the (I might say Crime, but I will rather say of the) misguided zeal of these Corinthians here in my Text. There have been certain Divisions, and I know not what separations among you. I have farther observed, that certain false, causeless prejudices and aspersions have been raised upon our University, which to the grief of this famous Nursery of God's Church at home, and the reproach of it abroad, are still kept waking against us by some of you, as if Conscience and Religion, as well as Learning and Gifts; had so far forsaken us, that all the Schools of the Prophets cannot afford you a set of able, virtuous men, fit to be the Lecturers to this soul-famished Parish. How we should deserve to be thus mistaken by you, or why you should undervalue those able Teachers which you have already, or refuse to take your supply from so many colleges which here stand present and ready to afford you choice: or why you should supplicate to the great council of this kingdom, in pity to your souls, to send you Godly Teachers, (which, perhaps, is but a well-meaning Petition from you, but certainly 'tis a great scandal, and libel against us) I know not. But whatever the mysterious cause be, I am confident, that unless they will sleep over their infamy and reproach, it will always be in the power of our despised University-Divines, to make it appear, even to those whom you intend to petition, That this is but a zealous error in you: And that they are as able to edify you, certainly, as he, whose occupation it was to repair the old shoes of the Prophets. I should shame some of you too much, who were the Disciples of that Apostle, if I should describe him to you by a larger character.  
Instead therefore of a farther vindication of the reproach thrown upon us, that which I shall say of more near concernment to you, is this: If I have in the progress of this Sermon, ripped open any wounds among you, it hath not been with a purpose, to enlarge, or make them bleed, but to pour wine and oil into them, and to heal, and close them up.  
Next, If I have cleared any of your sights, or enabled you at length to discern, that the reason why the mote in your brother's eye seemed so big, was, because an over-scrupulous zeal had placed a beam in your own; and that in contributing to the ruin of one of the purest Religions in the world, the reason why you have swallowed so many monstrous Camels, hath been, because at first you made scruple, and strained at gnats, I have what I intended: Which was to let you see, that to divide and separate yourselves from the communion of our Church, if it had been guilty of a mole or two, is as unreasonable, as if you should quarrel the Moon out of her Orb, or think her unworthy of the skies, because she wears a spot or two writ on a glorious ball of light.  
Lastly, if I have said any thing in the reproof of discord, or the praise of charity, which may reunite your minds, and make you all men of the same heart and belief, as well as of the same city and Corporation, I shall think I have done the work and business of a just Divider of the World of God towards you, and of a faithful Servant and Steward towards my heavenly Master. Whose blessing of peace be upon you all, together with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost. To which glorious Trinity, be ascribed all honour, Praise, Dominion and Power, for ever. AMEN.  
FINIS.