The First DECADE OF Useful Observations, Raised out of Modern Experience.  
Scientiae mater Experientia.  
Temporis filia Veritas.  

I.  
HAving fixed a serious eye upon the late holding forth of pretences, and managing of Counsels, I find, that as one plausible and common end engageth, and for a time unites persons of several opinions, interests, and affections, distasting the present state of public affairs, and displeased with them that sit at the Helm, or move in a higher sphere above them, through ignorance, ambition, spleen, or covetousness for the most part (though some things are really amiss, and obvious even to vulgar apprehension,) amongst which the great dealers in the project for a change shuffle other things under the common notion of errors in Government, and pressures of Liberty, that thereby they may take in sunder the frame, and overthrow the foundations of that standing Government, which wisely regulated doth make most for the security and happiness of all, and be a stop to dangerous innovations and particular designs: so again, through factious ambition, perverse emulation, and other passions, the daughters of humane impotence in the heads of parties divided in their special interests, after close and secret undermine of each other, when their affairs are in a posture (as they conceive) to affront their rivals, there is a sudden springing of their mines, to the blowing up (if possible) of each other, at least to a mutual balancing, as near as may be, of their powers, till by advantage of counsels, opportunity of time, and the activeness (which is ever most vehement and industrious in the younger brethren) as well as numerousness and train of their adherents, one serpent devours and swallows up the rest, or charms them so, that they lie as it were benumbed, or retire to their holes and coverts, where they spit their venom against them, whose overpowering virtue by force hath driven them from the public Stage and Theatre, upon which the newest disguises and latest inventions please the vulgar spectators best.   

II.  
As many Factions headed by one, which is most potent and popular at the first, under its shelter and protection grow up and strengthen themselves, and for a time contribute their utmost to the pulling down of the orderly structure and well framed building of that Government which is settled, though in all hearts not so firm and uniform as in time it may be: So when the first days work of ruin and destruction is at an end, the next morning's business proves like that of the worm which bred in Jona●● gourd, and smote it at the root, so that the leaves thereof withered and fell away; for the under and weaker faction rooting itself at the bottom of that which is more grown and spreading, secretly smirts, and suddenly overthrows it: and as it grew up in a night, so it perisheth in a night; growing up in a night of darkness and confusion overspreading a people, and perishing in a night of new Schisms and black Errors supervening the former shadows and obscurity.   

III.  
Schism as a shaking Ague in the body of the Church, and Faction as a burning Fever in the body of the State, have the●● retreats and intermissions, as well as their violent fits and conflicts: but such their intermissions are no longer, then either while they are affronted & overmastered by a superior commanding power, or by condescensions in way of Treaty, they hope to mount and raise themselves the higher, or to prevent the provoking of Magistrates, and the occasioning of strict Laws against their course and motion; in which space notwithstanding, their putrefaction spreads itself more and more throughout the veins, until at last an ill-tempered habit seizeth on, and disaffects the whole, for want of timely vomits, or Phlebotomy in the second place, where preventional cleansings and seasonable drainings have been neglected in the first: And because the symptoms of these sickly perturbations, by reason of their inward and secret workings, oft times appear not until the very breaking forth of the maladies; its wisdom (an imperious tyranny, and arbitrary lording of it, with an implicit faith, and servile obedience avoided) to hold all to an outward subjection and conformity; sufficiently providing withal, that tender and unquiet Consciences may receive satisfaction to their scruples in public, from select persons designed and authorised for that end in all parts of the Land, if from the next in office, whether civil, or spiritual, they cannot: but that (in case of not acknowledging themselves satisfied) under severe penalties, they shall neither publicly teach or maintain, nor privately instruct or persuade any, contrary to that which is established in Church or State by legal Authority, nor divulge, by any means, whatsoever tends to undermine and overthrow the same.   

iv  
The seed of Schism and faction is very small at first, resembling a grain of mustardseed, which is one of the least of seeds; but if suffered to take root, in a short time it grows to be so great, that it becomes a tree, so that the fouls of Heaven come and build in the branches thereof: So Schism and Faction, not rooted out at the first, become lofty and spreading, so that ambitious and airy spirits perch upon the boughs, and seat themselves in the branches thereof, desirous to be eminent, and appear in chief above the rest. As the little cloud also, which Elijahs servant saw rising out of the Sea like a man's hand, and suddenly the Heaven was all over black with clouds and wind; so the malign vapour of Schism and Faction, exhaled out of the foaming sea of men's restless and blackish passions, appears at the first discovery but of a hand-bredth, and inconsiderable, in regard of its strength or danger; but neglected, it spreads apace through turbulent winds, to the obscuring of the face of a Church and State, and darkening the refulgent splendour and lustre thereof: Wherefore the Poet's counsel cannot be amiss herein; 

Principiis obsta, serò medicina paratur,  
Cum mala per longas invaluere moras.   

Each Schism and Faction in the Cradle smite:  
Let not such serpents long enjoy the Light.  
When maladies are strong, and aged grown,  
That physic cannot cure, in vain we moan.     

V  
As it is the cursed fruit, and immediate effect of Schism and Faction, to destroy Unity, and disturb Order, in regard of that which is peaceably and well settled, as to the public: so it's the usual folly and punishment of either of them, after a while, to break in sunder into Divisions, and multiply into Sects; and each fight more or less against its fellows, whilst they are on foot; they are not of power, nor so in league, as to imbody themselves any long time against the forces of an orderly truth, and a well-constituted Government; and in the end through mutual conflicts destroy each other, or crumble into such petty Sects and under-Factions, that like so many sparks flying from the same fire-coal, they go out and vanish of themselves.   

VI  
Many are the causes and occasions which contribute to the multiplying of Schisms and Factions, as affectation of novelty and variety implanted in men by nature, weary for the most part of things when they grow stolen and common, as children are of babies, with which they are much taken at the first. For if Manna itself became loathsome to the Israelites, because it grew common, though it was the Bread of Heaven, and answered at first to every man's taste and relish, so that they lusted after the fleshpots of Egypt, and after Leeks and Onions, even to a nauseous rejecting of that which might have been food for Angels, if they could have hungered: If men grew weary of Christ himself, and his heavenly Doctrine, the spiritual Food and Manna of their souls, so that within a while after the Christian Faith was planted in the Churches of Pergamus, Thyatira, and Laodicea, the first became infested with the Idolatrous and impure doctrines of Balaam, and the Nicolaitans: The second suffered the woman Jezabel, vailing herself under the name of a Prophetess to teach and deceive many, even such as professed themselves the servants of God and his blessed Truth, to make them commit fornication, and to eat meat sacrificed to Idols: And the third was become lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, without zeal, either to maintain truth, or practise holiness. Is it possible that schismatical Opinions, erroneous Tenets, and seditious Doctrines, which are the poison of the soul, though cooked, and set forth, and sweetened by the best art of Satan, should still please the same appetites, though corrupt, much less divers, if they be still the same, and offered after the same mode and fashion. And as there is a desire of novelty and variety in all men more or less by a secret spring in nature, though men of wisdom and sobriety much restrain and rectify the same; so is there oftentimes too a disease of inconstancy in the same particular men, which, after much acquaintance and intimate familiarity, grow out of love with, and become strangers to their own Principles which they held forth to others, and fall away from their own party, with whom they solemnly, if not superstitiously, had engaged; which inconstancy of Individuals (for the most part) proceeds from the access of clearer light, and fuller knowledge, with which by degrees they come acquainted, which discovers to them the vanity and falsehood of that, whose defects in the twilight of their ignorance, and first dawnings of their knowledge did not appear unto them; from discovery of dangers not foreseen, and inconveniences, as to to their own benefit and proper interest, if they persist in the worship of that golden Image (their peculiar imaginations) which themselves have set up, with calling upon others by the various music of the most harmonious and best tuned Rhetoric of their tongues and pens, to the dedication of, and falling down to the same; and from new and more advantageous ends presented upon desisting to prosecute their hitherto professed way, which makes them shake hands with themselves, and steer a new course, to arrive at a more safe Port and commodious Haven. The different tempers also which are predominant in men, the divers senses which oversway men in their judgements, together with the several ends which they aim and level at as their whites and marks, occasion diversity of Sects, Schisms and Factions at their first advance and marching forth; the which, through some men's spleentique discontent with others in chief afterwards, or their ambitious singularity to set up their own Ensigns and Standards apart, are much widened and increased.   

VII.  
Schismatics and Sectaries though divided amongst themselves, are of several professions, in regard of their peculiar and specifique Principles, are fellow-labourers notwithstanding in building up the Devil's Kingdom, as the fellow-craftsmen of Demetrius the silver-smith for Diana at Ephesus, who (obnoxious without question to private spleens and emulations, faber enim fabro invidet) being called together with other workmen of like occupations, in an unanimous shout almost for the space of two hours cried as the Ephesian Diana, and her Temple: For though the Devil's Kingdom, if it were divided against itself could not stand, yet by the divisions of seduced men through evil lusts, and seducing spirits, his Kingdom is enlarged and propagated, because such divisions separate from Union with God, and Communion with his Saints, and make the divided belong to the same Army under their Captain General Abaddon or Apollyon, Rev. 9.11. though following divers Colours, and different Ensigns, whose service they advance, in seeking by a joint labour, though with sundry Engines and means to pull down Gods spiritual palace, and holy Temple on Earth, as Ephraim and Manasses to oppress Judah, the Pharisees and Saducees to destroy Christ, and the Manichees by their two Principles and fatal necessity, and Pelagians by their free will and universal grace, to pervert the Catholic Faith of true Believers.   

VIII.  
Amongst Schismatics and Sectaries, some [like the Adversaries of Judah and B●njamin, Ezra 4. (( viz. the inhabitants of Samaria, whom the King of Assyria had placed there instead of the ten Tribes,) hearing that the children of the late Captivity were building the Temple to the Lord God of Israel, to the end they might retard and hinder it, came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief Fathers, and said unto them, we'll build with you, for we seek the Lord your God as ye do, and we have sacrificed unto him, etc.] too interrupt and trouble the spiritual workmen about God's Temple, consisting of many well polished and living stones, whose Foundation is Humility and Patience, whose Pillars are Order and Uniformity, whose Windows are Wisdom and clear Knowledge in spiritual Things, and whose Roof is Faith arched with Charity, and overlaid with the precious gold of shining and good Works, and to hinder the advancement and amplifying of Christ's in the hearts of Believers, will pretend to the same mystical Body, the same gracious Spirit, the same sovereign Lord, Evangelical Faith, and Christian-Baptism too, except in this evening of time, and dotage of the world, when some (though but once born from their mother's womb) will needs be twice newborn within the bosom of the Church, with those who sincerely follow the Truth in Peace and Love, and meeting together in the Unity of Faith and Knowledge of the Son of God, grow up into a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the Fullness of Christ.   

IX.  
An Assembly of Schismatics may be justly styled a generation of Vipers, for the young Vipers (as Naturalists observe) gnaw their way through their Dam's belly to come into the world: So these struggle in the womb, and tear in sunder, as it were, the bowels of the Church of Christ, to bring forth themselves into the world to deceive simple and unstable souls, whose unhappy labours and pernicious diligence tend to the breach of spiritual Unity, to corrupt the purity of Faith, to dissolve the bonds of Peace, to untwist the cords of Love, to slain the beauty of order and grace of Uniformity, to unlink and sever the chain of heavenly Graces; and in a word▪ to undermine the strong Pillars, loosen the Couples, darken the Lights, and shake in sunder the whole frame of God's Spiritual House and Building, the Congregation of Believers.   

X.  
To conclude, The happiness of a particular or national Church free from Schism, redounds to the happine s and quiet of the Civil State, and preserves it from unnatural Combustions, unreasonable Divisions, and factious sidings; Rebellion for the most part masking itself under the visor of Religion, which teacheth Christians, under the yoke of subjection, innocence, prayers and patience; not arms, resistance, or reviling. Within a Church so becalmed and settled, the Jerusalem of God is builded as a City which is at Unity in itself, Christ protecting it, his Spirit breathing on it, his Angels ministering unto it, who rejoice at its Order, Peace and Unity; the Devil and his Emissaries cast out, and her spiritual Sons and Daughters growing up into Christ, by whom all the Body being coupled and knit together, according to the effectual working in every part, receiveth increase of the Body to the edifying of itself in Love.    

June 25. 1649.  
Imprim.  
T. J.   

London, Printed for T. M.  
FINIS.