Works, Chapter 4 · Section 2
SECT. II.
2Motive. Wicked men joyn together.SEcondly, Consider, Wicked men joyn together to advance the Kingdom of Satan, and to provoke one another to lewdness and wickedness; and shall not Saints unite to exalt the interest of Christ, and to provoke one another to love and to good works? There is so much monstrous emnity in the hearts of carnal ones, against God and holiness, that when the tide of their own lusts, and the stream of their headstrong passions would carry them swiftly towards Hell, yet as if this were too little, they hoise up sail and help one another forward with the strong winds of provocation. They encourage themselves in an evil matter, they commune of laying wait privily, Psa. 64. 5. As Sampsons Foxes, they joyn tayl to tayl, with their firebrands to burn up the good Corn; As Simeon and Levi, they are brethren in iniquity, the instruments of cruelty are in their habitations; Shall they as Ananias and Saphira, agree together to tempt the Spi…it of the Lord? and shall not Saints agree together to please the Spirit of the Lord? Surely, if sinners have their Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us all have one purse; Saints may well …ave their, Come let us go up to the House of the Lord, Come let us walk in the light of the Lord, …sa. 2. 5. Come let us joyn our selves to the Lord, in a Covenant not to be forgotten.
It is confiderable, that though sinners differ never so much amongst themselves, yet they can unite against the Lord and his chosen. Herod and Pilate, before at odds, can comply as friends, and joyn together against the Lord Christ. As Dogs of differing colours, disagreeing bigness, and of several kinds, that sometimes for bones and scrap… fight and mangle and tear one another, can with one voice, and cry, and consent, pursue the poor innocent Hare; So the Kennel of Sathans Hell-hounds, though sometimes they quarrel among themselves, about the honours and riches of this world, and are ready to rent one another in peices, yet can, with open mouth, and full cry, all joyn to persecute the harmless Lambs of Christ.
We read of such different mettal, such a speckled rabble gathered together against Israel, that one would think the diversity of their Countries, Constitutions, Customes, Languages, Lusts, should have kept them from melting and running into one piece; Yet, Lo, they all unite against Gods people; They take crafty counsel against thy people; They consult against thy hidden ones; They have said, Come let us cut them off from being a Nation, that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance; For they have consulted together with one consent, they are confederate against thee. The Tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagarens, Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, the Philistines, and the Inhabitants of Tyre, Assur also is joyned with them, and they have holpen the Children of Lot, Psalm 83. 3, to 9.
Shall such a cursed crew agree together to pull down Sion, and not the blessed Company of Gods Children unite to build it up? O! how shameful is it, that Satans black Regiment, should with one consent watch for us, as the Dragon for the Man-child, to devour us; And as Herod for the Babes of Bethlehem, to destroy us; And that we should not watch over one another for our safety and defence! It may well be our grief, that the Children of this World, are wiser in their Generation then the Children of Light.
Tis true, the combination of wicked men is no true union: but rather a conspiracy against God, and against their own souls. Satan serving them, by drawing them into this league, and making them to be of one hellish heart, infinitely worse then Scyron and Procrustes, famous Robbers in Attica, served the poor Travellers, why by cutting short the taller, and stretching out the lesser, brought all to an even length with their bed of brass; Yet such a confederacy may well move us to pity such distracted ones, and doth too much reflect upon us for our dissentions.
Thirdly,3Motive. The backwardness of our own hearts. Consider the backwardness of our own hearts to any good, and the need we have of all helps to quicken them towards heaven. How averse are our souls to any thing that is spiritual! How many excuses, pretences, delays will they make! To sin man needs no Tutor; he can ride post to Hell without a spur; but how backward to do that work which he must do or be undone for ever! The stone is not more untoward to flye, nor lead to swim, then our carnal hearts to exercise any grace, or perform any duty incumbent on us: Our head-strong passions hurry us, our worldly interests byass us, and our desperately wicked hearts draw us from God and Heaven. If the wood be green, there is need of constant blowing, or the fire will go out; when the iron is so dull, it must go often to the Whetstone, or little work can be done with it. Its no wonder that the Spirit of God useth precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little, when man is like the wilde Asses colt, so blockish and dull to understand Gods way, and so backward and heavy to walk in it.
How much are we in the dark about the ways, and Word, and Truths of God! and how apt through mistakes to stumble and fall, calling evil good, and good evill! and do we not want their company who carry a light, a lanthorn with them? How often do we flatter our selves that we are rich in grace, and in the favour of God, when its little so, looking on our selves through the false spectacles of self-love? and doth it not behove us to be much in their society who will set before us a true looking-glass, wherein we may behold the native countenance of our souls without any fraud or falshood? We are full of doubts, and want counsel; and Physitians that are able themselves, will in their own cases ask advice of others. We are liable to many sorrows, and want comfort; and who can give it us better then those who fetch all their cordial waters out of Scripture? We are apt to slumber and nod, and neglect our spiritual watch; the flesh is drowsie, and the cares of the world fume up into our heads, and incline us to sleep; what then will become of us if we have none to jog and awaken us? It will go but ill with the new man, if whilst he hath so many enemies to hurt him, he hath never a friend to help him; Exhort one another daily, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, Heb. 3. 13.
I have somewhere read of a King, that having many servants, some wise, some indiscreet, some profitable, some unprofitable, was asked why he would keep those foolish unprofitable fellows. To which he answered, I need the other, and these need me, and so I will have them all about me. I am sure weak Christians need the strong; its ill for a tottering house to have no prop; and strong Christians may need the weak; That knife which is best mettal, may sometimes need a dull Whetstone; The smallest wheel, nay, pin in a Watch is necessary; and so each needing the other, there is great need they should hold together; While there is flesh and spirit combating within us, and the worse so potent and likely to conquer, we shall want all manner of Auxiliaries to relieve the better part.
Fourthly,4Motive. The evil of neglecting Christian Communion. Consider The evil of neglecting Christian Communion; I know the Children of God must sometimes be solitary, there are some duties which cannot otherwise be performed, and some callings which cannot otherwise be followed; but as there are seasons for solitariness, so also for society; to forbear the society of Saints without a necessary cause, is a sin, and bringeth great disadvantage, both upon our selves and others.
1. Upon our selves, we lose those helps which God hath afforded for the edification of our souls. Fire laid abroad, q…ickly abateth, nay, goeth out, when if it be raked up together, it continueth and increaseth. I suppose the Spirit of God is so exact in registring the absence of Thomas from the Apostles company, when Christ vouchsafed them his personal and gracious presence, and the sad fit of unbelief which he fell into upon it, partly, as a warning to all Christians, that they lose not such seasons, as they love their immortal souls, Ioh. 20. 24, 25. But Thomas one of the twelve, was not there when Iesus came; The other Disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands, the print of the Nails, and put my fingers into the print of the Nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. Had Thomas been present when the Lord appeared, how strongly might he have withstood Satans assaults against his faith! His senses had been sufficient to have confuted the father of lies, and helpful to have quencht his fiery darts; but by his absence how dangerously was he shaken in that fundamental truth!
Satan hath a wonderful advantage of that person whom he meets (without any warrant from God) alone. If I travail alone between Sun and Sun, I have the Law for my protection, that if I be robbed, I may recover my loss of the Country; but if at other times, it is at my own peril. If I be alone at the call of my God, either when secret duties, or my particular calling require it, and my grand enemy set upon me, I may expect help from him whose work I am about; but if when he commandeth me to associate with his people, I needlesly wander from them, and any hurt befal me, I must thank my self, and look for no reparation at his hands. It is observable, that the house of Iobs Eldest Son, which was the grave wherein all his children were buried, stood alone; otherwise the wind from the Wilderness, could not have smote the four corners thereof. O tis dangerous to be solitary, when God requires thy company amongst his chosen.
There is a wo to him that is alone, such a man shall be sure to have Satan for his companion. He is ever ready to assault, when none is neer to assist. Eve was tempted with too much success when she was alone, without her Husband; Dinah gadding from her fathers house, was defiled; Ioseph was then assaulted, when the whole Family was gone, save the instrument of the assault; How soon are straglers snapt up, when those that march with the body of the Army are safe! Pyrates lye skulking to find a Vessel sailing alone, when those that sail in company are a convoy to each other; They who separate, are soon seduced. The Cormorant, or Sea-Eagle hath this property, that she will not seise upon the fish in the water, when they are in sholes, but when single she makes them her prey. Solitude is not more hurtful to the body then to the soul, and to nature then to grace. When David was an exile from the society of the Israelites, and wandred abroad, he fell into diffidence and distrust, nay, into hard and blasphemous thoughts of God; as if he had forgotten to be gracious, as if he himself had cleansed his heart in vain; He then said, in his haste, that all men (even Samuel who had anointed him to the Kingdom, and promised him from God, that he should be King) were lyars.
It is a disadvantage to others. When Saints do not meet together, their love cooleth, nay, contentions frequently follow, to the hardening of the wicked, and the discouraging of the weak. The Temple or body of Christ is not built up with blows and Schismes. The parts of the Temple were framed and squared in Lebanon; at the rearing of it up in Zion, there was no noise either of Axe or Hammer; Babel it self could not be built by divided tongues, muchless Sion by divided hearts. When Christians divide and separate, weak beginners know not what to do, whom to follow, but are ready to say with Cicero, when Caesar and Pompey were at odds; Quem fugiam scio, quem sequar nescio; I know whom to flie, but I know not whom to follow. O how dreadful are the consequents of such civil wars! Discord is not without cause described by the great Italian to be cloathed with a garment of divers colours, made up of patches, and they rent, cut, and torn, her lap f…ll of writs, citations, processes, and arrests, attended onelyonly wi…h Clarks, Scriveners, Atturneys and Lawyers; but she was followed with bitter clamours, and diswal howlings.
Melancthon perswading the Protestants in his time to peace, tells them a parabolical story of the Dogs and Wolves, who were meeting to fight one against another; The Wolves sent out their Scout to know the strength of their adversaries. The Scout returns, and tells the Wolves, that indeed the Dogs exceeded them in number, but they need not fear them; for he had observed, they were not like one another; Besides, they marched as if they were offended rather with themselves, then their enemies, grinning and snarling, yea, biting and tearing one another; therefore let us not be discouraged, but march on resolutely. Dissention amongst men, brings destruction on men. A Kingdom divided against it self, cannot stand. They who imbodied to…her, may be able to overcome thousands, divided and taken singly may be overthrown by a very few. The hardest Adamant, if once broken, flieth into such small dust, that its scarce discernable, and so cometh to nothing. The people of God have not seldom made themselves a prey to Persecutours, by their heart burnings and divisions; When the Town is once set on fire by the Granadoes shot in from them that besiege it, the enemies hope to take it with the more ease.
Naturalists tell us, that a Punice stone, cast into the waters, though it be never so big, whilst it remains entire, and the parts hold together, twill swim above the water, but break it once in peices, and every part sinks to the bottom. Truly, such often times is the state of the faithful. They, who holding together are safe, and as a bundle of st…ves, not to be bowed, when parted and taken singly are easily broken. It is the Shepherds observation, that when Sheep Butt one against another; its a sign of foul weather, and of an approaching storm; We have too much cause to fear that the Schismes and Conten…ions in the Church of God at this day, do portend some heavy judgement to hang over our heads.