have a special care of those without) saith, 'If a heathen come in, and hear you speak with several tongues, will he not say that you are mad?" and certainly it is little better: when atheists and profane persons do hear of so many discordant and contrary opinions in religion, it doth avert them from the Church, and maketh them to sit down in the chair of the scorners.'

It is but a light thing to be vouched in so serious a matter, but yet it expresseth well the deformity; there is a master of scoffing, that in his catalogue of books of a feigned library, sets down this title of a book, The Morris-Dance of Heretics: for, indeed, every sect of them hath a diverse posture, or cringe," by themselves, which cannot but move derision. in wordlings and depraved politics, who are apt to contemn holy things.

3

As for the fruit towards those that are within, it is peace, which containeth infinite blessings; it establisheth faith; it kindleth charity; the outward peace of the Church distilleth into peace of conscience, and it turneth the labours of writing and reading controversies into treatises of mortification' and devotion.

Concerning the bonds of unity, the true placing of them importeth exceedingly. There appear to be two extremes; for to certain zealots all speech of pacification is odious. 'Is it peace, Jehu ?' 'What hast thou to do with peace? turn thee

1 I Cor. xiv. 23.

2 Avert. To repel; to turn away. Even cut themselves off from all opportunities of proselyting others by averting them from their company.'—Venn. 3 Rabelais. Pantag. ii. 7.

4 Diverse. Different. Four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.'-Daniel vii. 3.

5 Cringe. A bow. Seldom used as a substantive.

'Far from me

Be fawning cringe, and false dissembling looks.'-Phillips.

'He is the new court-god, and well applyes

With sacrifice of knees, of crooks, and cringe.'-Ben Jonson.

6 Politics. Politicians. That which time severs and politics do for earthly advantages, we will do for spiritual.'—Bishop Hall.

7 Mortification. The subduing of sinful propensities. (Our modern use never occurs in Scripture, where the word always means 'to put to death.') 'You see no real mortification, or self-denial, or eminent charity in the common lives of Christians'-Lawe.

8 Import. To be of weight or consequence.

'What else more serious

Importeth thee to know-this bears.'-Shakespere.

behind me." Peace is not the matter, but following and party. Contrariwise, certain Laodiceans and lukewarm persons think they may accommodate2 points of religion by middle ways, and taking part of both, and witty3 reconcilements, as if they would make an arbitrement between God and man. Both these extremes are to be avoided; which will be done if the league of Christians, penned by our Saviour Himself, were in the two cross clauses thereof soundly and plainly expounded: 'He that is not with us is against us;' and again, 'He that is not against us is with us;' that is, if the points fundamental, and of substance in religion, were truly discerned and distinguished from points not merely of faith, but of opinion, order, or good intention. This is a thing may seem to many a matter trivial, and done already; but if it were done less partially, it would be embraced more generally.

Of this I may give only this advice, according to my small model. Men ought to take heed of rending God's Church by two kinds of controversies; the one is, when the matter of the point controverted is too small and light, nor worth the heat and strife about it, kindled only by contradiction; for, as it is noted by one of the fathers, Christ's coat indeed had no seam, but the Church's vesture was of divers colours; whereupon he saith, 'In veste varietas sit, scissura non sit," they be two things, unity, and uniformity; the other is, when the matter of the point controverted is great, but it is driven to an over-great subtilty and obscurity, so that it becometh a thing rather ingenious than substantial. A man that is of judgment and understanding shall sometimes hear ignorant men differ, and know well within himself that those which so differ mean one thing, and yet they themselves would never agree: and if it come so to pass in that

1 I Kings ix. 13.

2 Accommodate. To reconcile what seems inconsistent. Part know how to accommodate St. James and St. Paul better than some late reconcilers.'-Norris. 3 Witty. Ingenious; inventive.

'The deep-revolving witty Buckingham.'-Shakespere.

4 Arbitrement. Final decision; judgment.

"We of the offending side

Must keep aloof from strict arbitrements.—Shakespere.

5 Merely. Absolutely; purely; unreservedly, (from the Latin merus.) 'We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards.'-Shakespere.

• 'Let there be variety in the robe, but let there be no rent.'

distance of judgment which is between man and man, shall we not think that God above, that knows the heart, doth not discern that frail men, in some of their contradictions, intend the same thing and accepteth' of both? The nature of such controversies is excellently expressed by St. Paul, in the warning and precept that he giveth concerning the same, 'Devita profanas vocum novitates et oppositiones falsi nominis scientiæ.” Men create oppositions which are not, and put them into new terms so fixed; as whereas the meaning ought to govern the term, the term in effect governeth the meaning.

There be also two false peaces, or unities: the one, when the peace is grounded but upon an implicit ignorance; for all colours will agree in the dark: the other, when it is pieced up upon a direct admission of contraries in fundamental points; for truth and falsehood in such things are like the iron and clay in the toes of Nebuchadnezzar's image'-they may cleave but they will not incorporate.

5

Concerning the means of procuring unity, men must beware, that, in the procuring or muniting of religious unity, they do not dissolve and deface the laws of charity and of human society. There be two swords amongst Christians, the spiritual and the temporal, and both have their due office and place in the maintenance of religion; but we may not take up the third sword, which is Mahomet's sword, or like unto it—that is, to propagate religion by wars, or by sanguinary persecutions to force consciences—except it be in cases of overt scandal, blasphemy, or intermixture of practice against the state; much less to nourish seditions; to authorise conspiracies and rebellions; to put the sword into the people's hands, and the like, tending to the subversion of all government, which is the ordinance of God;

...

1 Accept of. To approve; receive favourably. I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, peradventure he will accept of me.'-Gen. xxxii. 2 'Avoid profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called.' -1 Tim. vi. 20.

3 As. That (denoting consequence). 'The mariners were so conquered by the storm as they thought it best with stricken sails to yield to be governed by it.'-Sidney. 4 Daniel ii. 33.

5 Muniting. The defending, fortifying. By protracting of tyme, King Henry might fortify and munite all dangerous places and passages.'-Hall. All that fight against her and her munitions.'-Jeremiah xxix. 7.

'The arm our soldier,

Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter,

With other muniments and petty helps.'—Shakespere.

for this is but to dash the first table against the second; and so to consider men as Christians, as we forget that they are men. Lucretius the poet, when he beheld the act of Agamemnon, that could endure the sacrificing of his own daughter, exclaimed ::

'Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum.'2

What would he have said, if he had known of the massacre in France, or the powder treason of England? He would have been seven times more epicure3 and atheist than he was; for as the temporal sword is to be drawn with great circumspection in cases of religion, so it is a thing monstrous to put it into the hands of the common people; let that be left to the anabaptists and other furies. It was great blasphemy when the devil said, 'I will ascend and be like the Highest; but it is greater blasphemy to personate God, and bring him in saying, 'I will descend and be like the prince of darkness:' and what is it better, to make the cause of religion to descend to the cruel and execrable actions of murdering princes, butchery of people, and subversion of states and governments? Surely this is to bring down the Holy Ghost, instead of the likeness of a dove, in the shape of a vulture or raven; and to set out of the bark of a Christian church, a flag of a bark of pirates and assassins: therefore it is most necessary that the Church, by doctrine and decree, princes by their sword, and all learning, both christian and moral, as by their mercury rod to damn and send to hell for ever, those facts and opinions tending to the support of the same, as hath been already in good part done. Surely in councils concerning religion, that counsel of the Apostle should be prefixed, 'Ira hominis non implet justitiam Dei ;" and it was a notable observation of a wise father, and no less ingenuously confessed, that those which held and persuaded' pressure of consciences, were commonly interested therein themselves for their own ends.

1 As. That. See page 23.

2 So many evils could religion induce.'—Lucret. i. 95.

3 Epicure. Epicurean; a follower of Epicurus. 'Here he describeth the fury of the Epicures, which is the highest and deepest mischief of all; even to contempne the very God.' 4 Isaiah xiv. 14.

5 The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.'-James i. 20. 6 Persuade. To inculcate. To children afraid of vain images, we persuade confidence by making them handle and look near such things.'-Bishop Taylor.

ANNOTATIONS.

'It is a happy thing when Religion is well contained within the true bond of unity."

It is, therefore, very important to have a clear notion of the nature of the christian unity spoken of in the Scriptures, and to understand in what this 'true bond of unity' consists, so often alluded to and earnestly dwelt on by our Sacred Writers. The unity they speak of does not mean agreement in doctrine. nor yet concord and mutual good will; though these are strongly insisted on by the Apostles. Nor, again, does it mean that all Christians belong, or ought to belong, to some one society on earth. This is what the Apostles never aimed at, and what never was actually the state of things, from the time that the christian religion extended beyond the city of Jerusalem. The Church is undoubtedly one, and so is the human race one; but not as a society or community, for, as such, it is only one when considered as to its future existence. The teaching of Scripture clearly is, that believers on earth are part of a great society (church or congregation), of which the Head is in heaven, and of which many of the members only 'live unto God,' or exist in his counsels, some having long since departed, and some being not yet born. The universal Church of Christ may therefore be said to be ONE in reference to HIM, its supreme Head in heaven; but it is not one community on earth. And even so the human race is one in respect of the One Creator and Governor; but this does not make it one family or one state. And though all men are bound to live in. peace, and to be kindly disposed towards every fellow creature, and all bound to agree in thinking and doing whatever is right, yet they are not at all bound to live under one single government, extending over the whole world. Nor, again, are all nations bound to have the same form of government, regal or republican, &c. That is a matter left to their discretion. But all are bound to do their best to promote the great objects for which all government is instituted,-good order, justice, and public prosperity.

1 Great part of what follows is extracted from a Charge of some years back. See Bishop Hinds's History of the Origin of Christianity.