The Divine Life, Treatise 1 · Chapter 3
CHAP. III.
2. AS the Being of God should make this Impression on thee, so the Attributes that speak the perfection of that Being, must each one have their work; as his unity or indivisibility, his Immensity, and Eternity.
And first, the thought of Gods unity should contract and unite thy stragling affections, and call them home from multifarious vanity. It should possess thy mind with deep apprehensions of the excellency of holy Unity in the soul, and in the Church; and of the evil of Division, and misery of distracting multiplicity. The Lord our God is One God, 1 Cor. 8 6. Perfection hath unity and simplicity. We fell into Divisions and miserable distraction when we departed from God unto the Creature; For the Creatures are Many and of contrary qualities, dispositions, and affections; And the heart that is set on such an object, must needs be a Divided heart; And the heart that is Divided among so many and contrary or discordant objects, must needs he a distracted heart. The confusions of the world confound the heart that is set upon the world. He that maketh the world his God, hath so many Gods, and so discordant, that he will never please them all, and all of them together will never fully content and please him. And who would have a God that can neither please us, nor be pleased? He that maketh Himself his God, hath a compounded God (and now corrupted) of multifarious, and now of contrary desires, as hard to please as any without us. There is no Rest or Happiness but in Unity. And therefore none in our selves or any other creature; but in God the only center of the soul. The further from the Center, the further from Unity. It is only in God that differing minds can be well united. Therefore is the world so divided, because it is departed so far from God. Therefore have we so many minds and wayes, and such diversity of opinions, and contrariety of affections, because men forsake the Center of Unity. There's no Uniting in any worldly, carnal, self-devised principles, or practises. When Holiness brings these distracted, scatterd souls to God, in him they will be one. While they bark at Holiness, and cry up Unity, they shew themselves distracted men. For Holiness is the only way to Unity, because it is the closure of the soul with God. All countreys, and persons cannot meet in any one interest or Creature, but each hath a several interest of his own; But they might all meet in God. If the Pope were God and had his perfections, he would be fit for all the Church to Center in; But being man, and yet pretending to this Prerogative of God, he is the grand divider and distracter of the Church. The Proverb is too true; [So many men, so many minds] because that every man will be a God to himself, having a self mind, and self will, and all men will not yield to be one in God. God is the common interest of the Saints; and therefore all that are truly Saints, are truly united in him. And if all the Visible Church, and all the world, would heartily make him their Common Interest, we should quickly have a Common Unity and Peace, and the Temple of double faced Janus would be shut up. They that sincerely have One God, have also one Lord (and Saviour) one spirit, one faith, one Baptism (or holy Covenant with God) even because they have one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in them all. And therefore they must keep the nuity of the spirit in the bond of Peace, Eph. 4. 3, 4, 5, 6. Though yet they have different degrees of gifts▪ (vers. 7.) and therefore differences in opinion about abundance of inferiour things. The further we go from the trunk or stock, the more numerous and small we shall find the branches. They are one in God, that are divided in many doubtful controversies. The weakest therefore in the faith must be received into this Union and Communion of the Church; but not to doubtful disputations, Rom. 14. 1. As the antient Baptism, contained no more but our Engagement to God, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, so the antient Profession of saving faith, was of the same extent. God is sufficient for the Church to Unite in. A Union in other Articles of faith is so far necessary to the Unity of the Church, as it is necessary to prove our faith and Unity in God. and the sincerity of this antient simple belief in God the Father Son, and Spirit.
The Unity of God is the Attribute to be first handled and imprinted on the mind, even next unto his Essence; Deut. 6. 4. The Lord our God is one Lord. And the unity of the Church is its excellency and attribute, that's first and most to be esteemed and preserved next unto its Essence. If it be not a Church, it cannot be One Church; and if we be not Saints, we cannot be united Saints. If we be not Members, we cannot make One Body. But when once we have the Essence of Saints and of a Church, we must next be solicitous for its Unity; Nothing below an essential point of faith will allow…ns to depart from the Catholike Unity, love, and peace that is due to Saints; And because such essentials are never wanting in the Catholich Church, or any true member of it, therefore we are never allowed to divide from the Catholike Church, or any true and visible member. It is first necessary that the Church be a Church, that is, a People separated from the world to Christ; and that the Christian be a Christian in Covenant with the Lord. But the next point of Necessity is it that the Church be One, and Christians be One. And he that for the sake of lower points, how True soever, will break this holy bond of Unity shall find at last to his shame and sorrow, that he understood not the excellency or necessity of unity. The prayer of Christ for the perfection of his Saints is, [that they all may be One, as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me: And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be One, even as we are One: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in One, that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast lved me] Here it appeareth that the Unity of the Church or Saints is necessary, to convince the world of the truth of Christianity, and of the Love of God to his people, and necessary to the glory and perfection of the Saints. The nearer any Churches, or members are to the divine perfections, and the more strictly conformable to the mind of God, the more they are One, and replenished with Catholick Love to all Saints, and desirous of Unity and Communion with them. It is a most lamentable delusion of some Christians that think their ascending to higher degrees of Holiness, doth partly consist in their withdrawing from the Catholike Church, or from the Communion of most of the Saints on Earth, upon the account of some smaller differing opinions; And they think that they should become more loose, and leave their strictness, if they should hold a Catholike Communion, and leave their state of separation, and division! Is there any strictness amiable or desirable, except a strict Conformity to God? Surely a strict way of sin and wickedness is not desirable to a Saint. And is not God One, and his Church One, and hath he not commanded all his servants to be One, and is not Love the new and great commandment▪ by which they must be known to all men to be his Disciples? Which then is the stricter servant of the Lord? he that Loveth much, or he that Loveth little? he that Loveth all Christians, or he that Loveth but a few, with the special Love? He that Loveth a Christian as a Christian; or he that Loveth him but as one of his party or opinion? He that is One in the Catholike Body; Or he that disowneth Communion with the far greatest part of the body? Will you say that Christ was loose, and Pharises strict, because Christ eat and drank with Publicans and Sinners, and the Pharises condemned him for it? It was Christ that was stricter in holiness then they; for he abounded more in Love and Good works; but they were stricter then he in a proud, self-conceeted morosity and separation. Certainly he that is highest in Love, is highest in Grace, and not he that confineth his Love to few. Was it not the weak Christian that was the stricter, in point of meats and drinks and dayes? Rom. 14. & 15. But the stronger that were censured by them, did more strictly keep the commandment of God.
Christian Reader, let the Unity of God have this effect upon thy soul, 1. To draw thee from the distracting multitude of Creatures, and make thee long to be all in God. That thy soul may be still working toward him, till thou …nd nothing but God alone within thee. In the multitude of thy thoughts within thee, let his comforts delight thy soul, Psal. 94. 19. The multitude distracteth thee; Retire into Unity that thy soul may be composed, quieted, and delighted.
2. And let it make thee long for the Unity of the Saints, and endeavour it to the utmost of thy power, that the Church in Unity may be more like the Head.
3. And let it cause thee to admire the Happiness of the Saints, that are freeed from the bondage of the distracting Creature, and have but One to Love, and Fear, and Trust, and Serve, and Seek, and Know; One thing is needful, which should be chosen, but its many that we are troubled about, Luk. 11. 42.