The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety, Chapter 19
CHAP. XIX. The Conclusion drawn from all the Premises.
WE have hitherto examin'd the effects and originals of our contentions, and now the only remaining Enquiry is concerning the ways of redress. And that will exact no long disquisition: for as in diseases 'tis said, the knowing the cause is one half of the cure; so more especially is it here, where the remedies are meerly privative, and we are not to be healed by external applications, but only by substracting those Humors which feed the Malady: There will therefore need no other prescription than to advise the exterminating of all those Passions and Interests which have appear'd accessary to our quarrels, which though they are become the publick Epidemick disease, yet as the infection did, so must the cure arise from single persons: for as we look not a common Pestilence should cease without due care and manage both of the sick and sound: so neither can this Church plague ever abate, but by the cure, or fortifying its individual members.
LET every man therefore who has any way made himself a Party to these contests, seriously interrogate his own heart; what it is that has engag'd Him in them: if any of the sinister motives before rehearst, let him for a while shift the Scene, and instead of accusing others as Opposites to Truth, condemn himself as Enemy to Peace: remembring that how just or important soever the cause be, it is no so to him; whilest he serves his humors and designs under its covert. The Philosophers in their darker notions of Truth could yet discern, that she was not accessible to any who sought her not purely for her self, with sincere and single Intentions, and if she entertain no Pupils that are not so qualified, is it fit she should have Guardians and Champions of a quite distant Temper? No, he that undertakes the defence of Speculative Verity, must first possess himself of that practick Truth the Psalmist speaks of, Ps. 51. That in the inward parts, such a simplicity and integrity of Purpose, as may supplant all those indirect Aims, purge out every prejudice and passion, which may byass, and pervert him; and by that time he has done this, 'tis odds but he will find a new face of affairs, and discern that many of those things he so fiercely contended about, were either false or trivial; acquir'd their considerableness only from those magnifying perspectives of his own Lusts, through which he viewed them. However till he have thus denudated himself of all these encumbrances, he is utterly unqualified for these Agones; and how lawfully soever others may strive, 'tis sure he cannot, that does it upon so unlawful grounds, and therefore upon pain of losing much more than a corruptible crown must withdraw himself. As for those who can yet acquit themselves from having fomented our Distractions, I shall not forbid them to look with great complacency upon it, but rather by considering how valuable a piece of Innocency it is, engage and encourage themselves to preserve it; and to that purpose, jealously to examine the first overtures of a Temptation. When they find any proneness to immerce in Faction, any unwonted heat towards a Dissenter, to trace it to its fountain and original; nicely to observe whether it issue not from some of those envenom'd springs forementioned, and make as much hast to stop its currant, as they would to impede the most overwhelming inundation; for such 'twill infallibly prove to those who indulge to its course. But as a Turf will at first close the breach, which neglected becomes the inlet of a mighty Torrent: so had this early vigilance been us'd, it might with ease have prevented those Distempers, in private Beasts, from whence the general Confusion has sprung. As it is, might but these two things be obtain'd, would but the Guilty purge, and the Innocent guard themselves, we might yet hope to see an end of our Discords: not that I suppose it possible to extinguish all diversity of Opinions among men, who from their differing faculties, and other guiltless occurrents, may and will have their judgments severally dispos'd. But first, were all, who have upon the former culpable motives enter'd the lists, excluded, we should find They would amount to such a Number, that there would be few left to maintain the Combat. Nay, secondly, were it not for those conceal'd inducements, there would scarce be any Combat to maintain, those are the things that convey the sting and malignity into our Differences, without those we might dissent, but not fall out; and should no more be angry to see another opine contrary to us, than we are to see him of a differing stature, or complexion. In fine, let us pretend what we will, 'tis the Carnality within, that raises all the Combustions without: This is the great wheel to which the Clock owes its motion, while the pretext of Truth and Piety is but like the hand, set indeed more conspicuously, but directed wholly by the secret movings of the other. This, this alone is it which creates and continues our broils, and by a monstrous conjunction of Properties, is its self both flame and fuel: Nor can we doubt that from hence spring those railing accusations, we bring one against another, if we remember what St. Iude tells us that the Angel brought them not even against the Devil himself, he could calmly manage a dispute with the most execrable and provoking adversary, because his Angelick nature had none of that carnal leaven which ferments to the souring of ours, an evident Indication what it is that has rendred our arguings so invective, that divinity seems now an Artifice to elude law by daily patronizing those Libels, which would else be Obnoxious to civil Iustice.
BUT I presume there need no more be said to evince this, which has, I fear, the attestation of too many consciences, to be generally doubted; the greater difficulty will be, to perswade the depositing of those lusts, which though they are confestly the Boutefieus among us, have yet by I know not what Fascination so endear'd Themselves, that we tenaciously retain them in spight of all their appendent Mischiefs; nay, we cherish and foster them, and for that very purpose bring them under the covert of Religion. He that has but a puny vice, if he get it like Ioash conceal'd and shelter'd in the Sanctuary, 'twill not only live, but reign too. Put on a Port and Majesty, and appear venerable upon the pretence of that Piety, whose Essence and Being it evacuates and undermines.
INDEED sin never arrives at so luxuriant a growth, as when it roots in hallowed ground, which Satan so well knows, that he has ever been industrious to plant it in that soil. Thus we find he had introduced the most brutish crimes into the religion of the Gentiles, interwoven them into their Sacred Rites and Mysteries, till vertue and vice had changed names, and it became piety to be Wicked, and profaneness to be Innocent. And when that gross deceit became detected by Gospel light, when he could not in the same manner obtrude upon Christians, he yet found the way to do it more obliquely, and by starting these religious quarrels, gave at once employment and reputation to the most irreligious vices. For alas, what part of wild fury was there in the Heathen Bacchanals, which we have not seen Equall'd if not Exceeded by some intoxicated zealots? Or what cruelty in their most barbarous rites, which has not been matcht by the inhumanity of dissenting Christians? So that upon a just scanning, all our splendid pretence of Sanctity is but an emulation of Gentile Impurity under a better name; and while we damn Heathens for their Moral vertues, We are yet so stupid as to hope our selves to be saved by their worst vices.
AND now who that does enough consider can think he can enough bewail this sad state of affairs: That Christianity should thus out-run its self▪ and bring us round to Gentilism again, whilst her Professors ridiculously contend for the title of the best Christians, by such acts as denominate them none at all. Thus have we inverted the significancy of that Sacred Name, and made it serve only to upbraid the contrariety of our practice; so that that which was once the Index to point out all Moral and Divine vertues, does now on the contrary mark out that part of the World, where least of them reside. This, this alone is the prize we have acquir'd with so much sweat and blood, this the Triumph we have brought to our Religion, which indeed could never have sunk to such a despicableness by any Endeavours but our own; for so long as Christianity waged war only with foreign enemies she never mist to be victorious, but since that these intestine discords have turn'd her force against her self, Bella geri placuit nullos habitura triumphos, there is no possibility of success, the meer fight implies a defeat, and the swords of all Parties meet in her bowels. 'Twas a passionate expostulation that Iulia is said to have us'd with her two sons Antonine and Geta, whose animosities having prompted them to divide the Empire, which they were joyntly to have enjoyed, she askt them whether they would divide their Mother also; implying how much their discords had rackt and torn her. And sure our common Mother may make a yet sadder complaint of her Sons, by whose unkind dissentions she is so miserably mangled, that she may cry out with the Psalmist, My soul is among Lions, and I lye among the Children of men that are set on fire.
AND now if amidst all our importunate pretences to Piety, there be indeed any such thing among us, methinks it should give us some relentings, make us sadly consider to what a deplorable condition we have brought that very religion on which we profess to hang all our hopes; and would God those who are the most nearly concerned in this Contemplation would pursue it to the utmost; let them on the one hand set the most glittering temptations to Discord, and on the other let them view the dismal effects of it, and then consider at how dear a rate they gratifie a few impotent Passions. Can any man without Horrour think that his thirst of Glory has brought dishonour to his Religion, and consequently to his God; that his curious enquiries into things secret, has help't to Evacuate the more useful things Revealed; or in short, that his pursuit of his various interests and appetites has destroyed what was so incomparably more valuable, the honour of the Gospel, the unity of the Church, and as many souls as have perisht by that scandal. 'Twas as infamous a Character of inhumanity as the very Poets could feign of Diomedes, that he fed his horses with mans flesh; but alas, that barbarity is here infinitely out-done, when Men nourish far worse bruits, their own unreasonable lusts, with those things that are most sacred. Certainly were the vastness of this guilt throughly weighed, 'twould make men sick of those petty wretched acquests they have thus purchased, make them fling back this price of blood, I say not with the same despair, but with as great remorse and detestation as Iudas did the silver pieces for which he sold his Master. 'Tis sure the crimes have too great an affinity, as in all other circumstances, so especially in this, that as the one was, so the other is most frequently the Guilt of an Apostle, I mean of those to whom Christ has committed the dispensing of that Gospel which they thus evacuate, and doubtless this is a consideration of great enhansement, as that which superadds treachery to all the other pestilent ingredients of the Crime; 'tis the falsifying the most important trust, for under words of that signification we find the office of the Ministry every where represented in Scripture, as Stewards, Ambassadors, Shepherds, and consequently the accounts of the sin must swell so much the higher. For a Steward to embezle those Goods he undertakes to manage; an Ambassador to betray his Prince for whom he should negotiate; a Shepherd to worry that Flock which he is set to guard, these are crimes that double their malignity from the quality of the Actors; and yet this is undeniably the Guilt of all those whose profession having devoted them to the Church, have impiously chang'd the Scene, and devoted the Church to them, serv'd all their mean degenerous ends upon her; and as Chyrurgeons are said sometimes to deal with profitable Patients, kept open, nay, widened her wounds for their own advantages.
IT has been the Priests Litany as ancient as Ioels time, Spare thy people O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach; but now alas, who shall prevail with them to do that themselves which they beg of God, to spare his people and his heritage; to prostitute them no more to their own sinister designs, nor by their vain and endless contentions, expose them as well to ruine as contempt. He were indeed a happy Orator that could in this effectually intercede with them, though One would think the wonder should lye on the other side, and the only strange thing be, that they should either need or resist such a solicitation, it being so much the concern of all that ought, as well upon the score of advantage as duty, to be dear to them; so that the Church may most aptly address to these her Sons in the same form St. Paul does to the Philippians when he conjures them to unity, Phil. 2. 1. If therefore there be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfil you my Ioy that you be like minded. And can it be possible for any who have tasted all or any of these, to think fit to wrangle them away; to exchange these divine irradiations, the Antepast and Emblem of Heaven, for those bitter dissentions, whose Alpha and Omega, their original and end are Hell, and do as lively represent as they certainly lead to the horrour and confusion of that land of Darkness.
BUT if some mens appetites be so depraved, that they find more Melody in discord, than in the harmony of the Angelick Quires, yet even these can discern Musick in a consort of Plaudites, and seldom miss to be affected with those Eulogies which are given themselves; and therefore though they disjoyn the Apostles motives, Phil. 4. 8. and will do nothing for vertue, yet they may be presum'd more considerate of Praise: And God knows, in a wrong sense they are too much so; and sure, as we have already observed by it, have made no small contributions to our discords: yet did they measure Glory by its right and proper standard, they would find they have all this while courted a shadow, and that the substance will never be acquir'd by being fomenters of publick Mischief; but the unhappiness of it is, that our Ecclesiastick as our Secular Duellists abuse themselves with false notions of Honor, novel Opinions and subtile Questions they think attest the pregnancy and acuteness of their Understandings, and give them reputation; but alas, how vain an imagination is this? Who admires the Sagacity of the Viper, that Eats her way through her mothers bowels? Or who reverences a man for the sharpness of that Sword wherewith he commits his Paricide? Nay, what more infamous brands have Records of all ages stuck upon any, than those who were Ingeniosissime nequam, & facundi malo publico, who us'd the best Parts to the worst Ends, and with the greatest cunning and artifice have contrived their mischiefs?
BUT could we abstract from these pernicious effects, and suppose that this exercise of their Faculties were innocent, yet sure it would be too light and impertinent to become matter of praise. He that should spend all his Time in tying inextricable Knots, only to baffle the Industry of those that should attempt to unloose them, would sure be thought not much to have serv'd his generation. 'Tis one of the certainest Estimates we can make of a man, to measure him by the employments he chuses, if those be slight and trifling, they suggest the Person to have low thoughts; what an abasement of Majesty was it thought in Nero to become a Fidler and Stage-player; and Herodian tells us, that men hoped no longer for any thing princely from Commodus the Emperor, when he had once lifted himself among the Fencers, and instead of the magnificent styles of his Predecessors, derived from the conquests of great and populous Nations, assumed This, The vanquisher of a Thousand Gladiators: And certainly 'tis no less a descent and diminution for those who were design'd by God for the highest atchievements, the subduing the Kingdom of Satan, and pulling down his strong holds, to devote themselves to these so much ignobler contests, and account their conquests, not from the number of Souls won to God, but of Opposers worsted in Argument. Indeed, as we before observ'd, they have now rendred the Church a kind of Theatre, Disputes are managed with such Sleight and Sophistry, that at the best, the litigants do but set forth a shew of Fencers: 'Twere well if they did not sometimes play the Gladiators, by that wounding deadly sharpness they use, and 'twould be consider'd what a change is now made: In the Primitive times, none that own'd any relation to the Church were allowed to be spectators of those Games, now That is made the Stage, and her ablest Persons the Actors. But certainly 'tis very little to the reputation of those who have so unworthily debaucht both it and themselves; and therefore to all other disswasives we may add this of the Uncreditableness: For let men phancy what they please of the Glory acquir'd in these opportunities of shewing their parts, the best that can be said of them is, that they use Wit foolishly; A character whereof the one part devours the other, and leaves not so much as a mouthful of that popular air which these Camaelions gasp after. In a word, though vain-glory be a principle I shall commend to no man, yet in this case 'twere more tolerable if it would work the right way, put them upon what were really praise-worthy, and then sure 'twould encline them rather to close than widen the breaches of Sion. To inflict wounds on an unresisting Patient, is a thing that requires neither courage nor skill: Every man can do that who has but ill nature enough, but to cure them is an act at once of Art and Mercy, and entitles to the Praise of both; and therefore if any mans eagerness of Glory, have made him over-see the way to it, let him now at last recover his wandrings, and seek it in this one only proper Method.
BUT this is, I confess, a Topick of Perswasion fitter for Philosophers than Divines, and I wish I may have urg'd it impertinently; it being much less shame for me to have done so, than for them to need such an Argument. There is another more genuine and proper, derived from the nature of distributive Iustice, which requires a man to do his Utmost to repair the injuries he has done to any, this is so stated a rule, that all our Casuists justly press it in all cases of damage: But are there not many of them, who while they so eagerly assert that obligation in other mens cases, do as David did in the matter of the poor mans Lamb, severely sentence that injustice, whereof themselves are more highly Guilty. To every such I would speak in the words of Nathan, and say thou art the Man. Alas, shall every little trifle I purloin from my Neighbour have weight enough to sink me to the abysse, and shall thefts of the greatest magnitude, the robbing God of his honour, the Church not only of her Patrimony, but her Peace, and the World of those inestimable benefits, which from a uniform consonant Christianity were to have been transmitted to it? Shall these I say be so slight and inconsiderable, as not to hinder his ascent to the hill of the Lord? Shall the least violence I offer to the person of an Enemy oblige me to satisfaction, and shall he rend and tear the body of his Saviour (who willingly expos'd his natural body only in tenderness to that mystical one, which is thus violated) and shall this criminous barbarity exact no offers towards amends? Certainly no man can have partiality enough to think it, and if he do not, he is to remember himself indispensably engag'd to take the same course he prescribes to others, and with his utmost industry endeavour to repair the injury he has done.
AND O that we might see this so essential a piece of Iustice assum'd among us, that our impertinent strifes might be superseded, and all moulded into the one noble Emulation, who shall fastest unravel his own mischiefs, and promote that peace he has hitherto disturb'd. This indeed were worthy to be the united design of all learned men; and were it once so, who knows how prosperous it might be: For though some single attempts have miscarried, yet probably one great cause why they do so, was because they were single. When one Person comes with pacifick arguments to part an enraged multitude, let his Reasons be never so convincing, they are not like to be much adverted to; the only effect is, that he who design'd himself the common Friend, is taken as the common Enemy; but where many associate in such a design, and make a party for peace, their numbers give a considerableness to their proposal, and prepare for their success. And were there such a combination in order to the Churches Quiet, it were more than possible they might undermine the contrary attempts of Faction and Discord.
AND why should not every man be ambitious to make one in this so pious a confederacy, and resolve most studiously to endeavour the composing the Distractions of the Church, in which they may borrow something of instruction even from their past guilts, and copy out their own industry to this better purpose. This is sure; our disputes had never so multiplied, had there not been a great deal of unhappy diligence in nourishing the seeds of them: Every controverted Tenet has been heightned and improved, till it have spawn'd a numerous brood, so that those who at first differ'd, perhaps but in some few things, wrangle on, till at last they agree in fewer: Now were the like Industry applied the other way, it might sure do much to the changing the whole Scene. If men would as nicely observe the Principles of agreement between dissenting parties, and with as much Art and Care seek to dilate and spread them; why might not they as much overwhelm our Differences, as they have been overwhelmed by them? 'Tis sure that those Universal truths, to which all Parties assent, are, as the clearest for their Evidence, so the most important for their Consequence: And why should not these, if rightly managed, be a more enforcing motive to Unity, than the more singular opinions (perhaps phancies) of some men, can be to Discord? Certainly would but our Moses's try what this rod of God in their hand could do, they would find it able to devour all those of the Magicians. Would they like Benhadabs Ambassadors, catch hold of every amicable expression, any thing that looks towards Peace, and close in with it, they might probably see Effects, beyond what can at distance be expected. For sure Peace is not such a dry Tree, such a Sapless unfertile thing, but that it might fructifie and encrease as well as Discord, were there a just care taken to Cherish and nourish it.
INDEED this Design is the only Amulet which can render it safe to look into controversies, which are else apt to infuse a kind of acrimony, and venome into mens spirits; For we see many, whose curiosity at first brought them as unconcern'd spectators, do within a while engage with all earnestness in the contest: but those who study differences only with an aim of composing them, these have their thoughts determin'd and fixt, and so not left loose to the enticements of any Party. Aristotle says that on the Hill Olympus the Air is so subtil and piercing, that those who ascend thither, are forced to carry with them wet Spunges, by that moisture somewhat to allay that extreme tenuity which otherwise would be deadly; and sure they that deal in controversies, live in no less corrosive an Air, and therefore had need make the like provision, and carry with them this Pacifick purpose, as a lenitive and Emollient against the infectious sharpness they will there meet with.
AND now how blessed a thing were it, if we could once thus follow the things that make for Peace, that the numberless mutual enmities which are now among us, may all be reduced into one, that we may fight not against single Adversaries, but against War its self, and contend against nothing but contention. And sure our victory here were worth millions of those petty conquests wherewith men please themselves, and which acquire them so little of real advantage, that the same account which was given of Otho and Vitellius, that the war would swallow up the one, and the victory the other, is too applicable to our combatants, who are like to be equally unhappy in defeat or success▪ The Spartans had an Order that when any of their Generals had compassed his Design by policy or treaty, he should sacrifice an Oxe, but when by force and bloudshed, a Cock only: from the distant values of which oblations, Plutarch observes how much they preferr'd the Atchievements of calm and sober counsels, before those of strength and power: but sure the disparity is more eminent in the present instance, where if we fight we wound our Brethren, but if we unite we destroy our Enemy: baffle and circumvent Satans Master-stratagem, and not only worst but outwit him. Indeed this and this only is worth our Industry, whereas those little defeats we give Each other, are like those in a civil War, wherein the publick is still sure to be a Loser; upon which consideration the Romans allowed not their Captains to triumph for such Victories; and sure our Christianity is very ill bestowed on us, if it have made us so much worse natur'd, as to choose those ruinous Conquests at home, before the most glorious and profitable ones abroad.
'TWAS Abner's admonition to Ioab, when he was in a hot pursuit of the Israelites, 2 Sam. 2. 26. Shall the sword devour for ever? knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the later end? and sure 'tis more than time for our Leaders to make the same reflection, and as Ioab did there, call back the People from following their Brethren: Nay indeed, would they but attend, they might hear themselves called back; the great Captain of their Salvation sounding a retreat from these fatal skirmishes. Xenophon in the institution of Cyrus tells us of one Chrysanthus, who in the heat of battail had his hand lift up to strike an Enemy, but hearing in the very instant the Trumpet sound a retreat, stopt his blow. A great sobriety of courage so to shew more Zeal to the obeying his General, than the annoying his Enemy; and an Instance of much reproach to our Spiritual Combatants, who have shewed themselves so much worse disciplin'd, as in spight of daily repeated calls to Peace, still to pursue their Hostility: But sure such an insolence is so inconsistent with the pretence they make of fighting Gods Battails, that they must either reform the one, or disclaim the other.
AND now if after all that hath or can be said of the obligation, necessity, or advantages of Peace, we are put to the Psalmists Complaint, that there are still those that will make them ready to battail: if men are of so untreatable a Temper, that nothing can be obtain'd of them: what remains for those that are Peaceable and Faithful in Israel, but to bewail those Mischiefs they cannot redress? If the Church must perish, at least to give her Funeral rites, and if they cannot quench her flames, yet to bedew her ashes with their tears. 'Tis true, we cannot yet say she is quite dead; but though she breaths yet in a few pious peaceful Souls, yet like a Palsied person, she scarce moves a Limb, she wants vigor to actuate the generality of her professors, and remains rather a trunk than a body: and sure if there be truth in that Physick Aphorism, which sayes that diseases which cross the temper and constitution of the Patient are most dangerous; we may well conclude her desperate, there being nothing more repugning to the very Elements and Principles of her Being, than those contentions under which she now groans.
YET there is an omnipotent Power to whom no Difficulties are insuperable, an unerring Physician who makes the most hopeless Diseases, but the Triumph of his Art. O let us resort to him, and invite his Aids in the same pathetick form, wherewith he was solicited for Lazarus, Jo. 11. 3. Lord behold she whom thou lovest is sick: She for whose sake thou enduredst such contradiction of sinners against thy self, is now by the contradiction of her own Children, languishing and expiring: she for whom thou pouredst out thy bloud, lies weltring in her own, Lord save or she perisheth: Were such Petitions enforced and ingeminated by the daily breathing of humble devout hearts, who knows how prevalent they might be. In this sense also Heaven might suffer violence; nor is there any better countermine to all the outrages acted upon Earth than by making them thus reverberate in our cries and prayers.
AND perhaps this Consideration will draw us all, even the most peaceful of us into the guilt of a negative Accessariness to the present Mischiefs. There are divers that dislike our contentions, and blame the abettors; but yet with such Unconcern'dness and Indifferency, as that wherewith we commonly talk of the combustions of foreign States, wherein we rather express our Iudgment than our resentments, and do make it more our discourse than our concern. And even of those who have in some degree laid it to heart, who is there that has not been some way wanting in the ardency, or frequency of his intercessions? let every one seriously interrogate his own Heart, and I fear 'twill witness to him, that his own private concerns are much apter to excite his devotions. Let us remember with what passion and importunity we invoke God in our particular Exigents, and consider whether we are equally affected with those of the Church: Hast thou been like Hezekiah, sick unto death? and hast thou with him wept sore, and vehemently solicited a recovery? has thy estate been invaded by Oppression, thy fame by Slander and Detraction? and hast thou with loud and earnest cries, appealed to that God to whom vengeance belongs? or hast thou been in that condition which is proverbial for setting men to their prayers? hast thou like Ionas been in a storm, in minutely expectation of being swallowed up by the waves, if not the Whale; and in this Extasie of fear, when as thy soul was as the Psalmist speaks, even melted away because of the Trouble, hast cried unto the Lord, and even out-noys'd the billows in thy clamorous importunities for aid? Hast thou in all, or any of these estates been thus affected for thy self? then remember whether thy resentments have been proportionable for that which is much better than thy self: If the no less imminent and pressing dangers of the Church, have not as much awakened thy fervor, given as sharp and piercing an accent to thy Prayers, thou must needs confess, thou hast faln short, of what thou shouldest and mightest have done towards her rescue.
AND if this Inquisition be impartially made, who among us can plead not guilty? and therefore in reflections upon our past omissions, we are in justice oblig'd to redouble our Zeal, to say over again our Tepid heartless prayers, and inflame them with a Cole from the Altar; an earnest affectionate Concern for all that is holy, such as may prompt us to cry, and that mightily to God: We see the Ninevites could do it when there was no visible approach of danger, but meerly upon the presage of a stranger Prophet, backt with the consciousness of their own Guilt: I fear we more than equal them in the later Motive, I am sure we far exceed them as to the former. The miseries we are to deprecate being not only under denunciation and threat, but actually upon us, though withall so improvable, that after all the black Catalogue our Experience brings in; our Fears meet us with the bottomless Prophetick menace, Esay 5. 25. for all this his Anger is not turn'd away, but his hand is stretched out still. 'Tis the usual Oeconomy of divine Justice to make our Crimes our Punishment, and to give us up to those ills, which were at first, our own depraved choice: and God knows we have too much reason to fear this may be our case: That we who have so perversly violated all the bands of Unity, wantonly wrangled our selves out of all inclinations to Peace, should never be able to resume them; that all those gentle breathings of Grace, by which exasperated Passions are to be cool'd and tempered, should be withdrawn, and we finally be given up to be dissipated by those Whirl-winds our selves have rais'd: That Christianity which we have made the stale and Property to our irregular appetites, us'd only as figleaves to hide our shame, should wither and shrink into nothing; and that we who could not agree in what manner to retain it, should at last too well agree to renounce it.
THIS alas, as it is the fearfullest, so is it the probablest Issue of our wild Contentions, such as nothing but the miraculous Effluxes of divine Clemency can avert. O let us with all the groans and tears, so deplor'd a Condition exacts, address thither, importune the father of Mercies to pity us, who know not how to pity our selves, and that though we have cast off all bowels, yet that we may find them all concenter'd in him: that he will heal our wounds; and which of all others is the most desperate, our unwillingness to be healed: that the Spirit of Peace may overshadow us, and impress on us the dove-like qualities of Meekness and Gentleness: that he would rescue our Religion from our Profanation not by taking it from Us, but by conforming us to It: Finally that he would do for us, not only above what we can ask or think, but beyond what we would wish or chuse, and not suffer us to acquire the Miseries we so eagerly pursue.
THIS divine interposition alone is it that can possibly secure us, and indeed the suit amounts to no less, than that he will force upon us the Blessing we resist, and do us good against our wills, which is so bold a request, that they had need be more than ordinary Favourites that shall prefer it. Those hands must be very pure, that are lift up in such an intercession: and therefore all that undertake it are obliged to qualifie themselves for it, by purging out not only the levain of Malice and Strife, but all other filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit: without This, we can never approve our selves to intercede in earnest; for what can be more ridiculous than to deprecate the ruine of Christianity by the contentions of other men; when our selves contrive it by some other vice of our own? This is not to desire it should live, but that none but we should kill it. 'Twill therefore concern those who wish the Peace of the Church, to examine whether they do as much project for her Purity; otherwise 'tis a mockery to pretend such a jealous tenderness for her. We have seen there are more waies than one, by which Christian practice may be evacuated, and it matters little from whence that Wind blows that ship-wracks our Piety. Yet 'tis not to be denied that of all those tempestuous blasts, this of our contentions is the roughest and most fatal. 'Tis indeed not a single gust, but an encounter and struggling of several contrary winds; and God knows no poetical description can out-doe the horror of the storms they have rais'd; yet for ought I discern, there is nothing that is less vulgarly accused, which I must account to the Reader, as the cause why I have detain'd him so long upon this Head; and given it a length so unproportionable to the preceding parts of this Discourse.