6. Divisions among christians do greatly hinder the edification of the members of the church; while they are possessed with envyings and distaste of one another, they lose all the benefit of each other's gifts, and of that holy communion which they should have with one another.[154] And they are possessed with that zeal and wisdom, which James calleth earthly, sensual, and devilish, which corrupteth all their affections, and turneth their food to the nourishment of their disease, and maketh their very worshipping of God to become the increase of their sin. Where divisions and contentions are, the members that should grow up in humility, meekness, self-denial, holiness, and love, do grow in pride, and perverse disputings, and passionate strivings, and envious wranglings; the Spirit of God departeth from them, and an evil spirit of malice and vexation taketh place; though, in their passion, they know not what spirit they are of: whereas if they be of one mind, and live in peace, the God of love and peace will be with them. What lamentable instances of this calamity have we in many of the sectaries of this present time; especially in the people called quakers, that while they pretend to the greatest austerities, do grow up to such a measure of sour pride, and uncharitable contempt of others, and especially of all superiors, and hellish railing against the holiest ministers and people, as we have scarce known or ever read of.
7. These divisions fill the church with sin, even with sins of a most odious nature. They introduce a swarm of errors, while it becomes the mode for every one to have a doctrine of his own, and to have something to say in religion which may make him notable. "Of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them," Acts xx. 30. They cherish pride, and malice, and belying others, (the three great sins of the devil,) as naturally as dead flesh breedeth worms; they destroy impartial, christian love, as naturally as bleeding doth consume our vital heat and moisture. What wickedness is it that they will not cherish? In a word, |The Greek word is zeal.|the Scripture telleth us that "where envying and strife is, there is confusion, and every evil work." (And is not this a lamentable way of reformation of some imaginary or lesser evils?)
8. These divisions are the grief of honest spectators, and cause the sorrows of those that are guilty of them. They make all their duties uneasy to them, and turn their religion into a bitter, unpleasant, wrangling toil; like oxen in the yoke that strive against each other, when they should draw in order and equality. What a grievous life is it to husband and wife, or any in the family, if they live in discord? So is it to the members of the church. When once men take the kingdom of God to consist of meats, or drinks, or ceremonies, which consisteth in righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, and turn to strive about unedifying questions, they turn from all the sweetness of religion.[155]
9. Sects and divisions lead directly to apostasy from the faith. Nothing is more in the design of Satan, than to confound men so with variety of religions, that they may think there is no certainty in any; that so both the ignorant spectators may think all religion is but fancy and deceit, and the contenders themselves wheel about from sect to sect, till they come to the point where they first set out, and to be at last deliberately of no religion, who at first were of none for want of deliberation. And it is no small success that Satan hath had by this temptation.
10. The divisions of christians do oft proceed to shake states and kingdoms, having a lamentable influence upon the civil peace; and this stirreth up princes' jealousies against them, and to the use of those severities, which the suffering party takes for persecution; yea, and Turks, and all princes that are enemies to reformation and holiness, do justify themselves in their cruelest persecutions, when they see the divisions of christians, and the troubles of states that have followed thereupon. If christians, and protestants in special, did live in that unity, peace, and order as their Lord and Ruler requireth them to do, the consciences of persecutors would even worry and torment them, and make their lives a hell on earth, for their cruelty against so excellent a sort of men; but now when they see them all in confusions, and see the troubles that follow hereupon, and hear them reviling one another, they think they may destroy them as the troublers of the earth, and their consciences scarce accuse them for it.
The aggravations of schism.
IV. It is necessary also for your true understanding the malignity of this sin, that you take notice of the aggravations of it, especially as to us. 1. It is a sin against so many, and clear, and vehement words of the Holy Ghost, (which I have partly before recited,) that it is therefore utterly without excuse: whoredoms, and treasons, and perjury are not oftener forbidden in the gospel than this.
2. It is contrary to the design of Christ in our redemption; which was to reconcile us all to God, and unite and centre us all in him: "To gather together in one the children of God that are scattered abroad," John xi. 52. "To gather together in one all things in Christ," Eph. i. 10. "To make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace," Eph. ii. 15. And shall we join with Satan the divider and destroyer, against Christ the reconciler, in the very design of his redemption?
3. It is contrary to the design of the Spirit of grace, and contrary to the very nature of christianity itself. "By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit," 1 Cor. xii. 13. "As there is one body and one Spirit, so it is our charge to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," Eph. iv. 3, 4. The new nature of christians doth consist in love, and desireth the communion of saints as such; and therefore the command of this special love is called the new commandment, John xvii. 21; xiii. 34; xv. 12, 17. And they are said to be taught of God to love one another, 1 Thess. iv. 9. As self-preservation is the chief principle in the natural body, which causeth it to abhor the wounding or amputation of its members, and to avoid division as destruction, except when a gangrened member must be cut off, for the saving of the body; so it is also with the mystical body of Christ. He is senseless and graceless that abhorreth not church wounds.
4. These divisions are sins against the nearest bonds of our high relations to each other:[156] "We are brethren, and should there be any strife among us?" Gen. xiii. 8. "We are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus," Gal. iii. 26. We are the fellow-members of the body of Christ; and should we tear his body, and separate his members, and cut his flesh, and break his bones? Eph. v. 23, 30. "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body being many, are one body, so also is Christ," 1 Cor. xii. 12. "As we have many members in one body—so we being many are one body in Christ; and every one members one of another," Rom. xii. 4, 5. He that woundeth or dismembereth your own bodies, shall scarce be taken for your friend; and are you Christ's friends, when you dismember or wound his body?[157] Is it lovely to see the children or servants in your family together by the ears? Are civil wars for the safety of a kingdom? Or doth that tend to the honour of the children of God, which is the shame of common men? Or is that the safety of his kingdom, which is the ruin of all others? "We are all fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God," Eph. ii. 19. "We are God's building," 1 Cor. iii. 9. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God; and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy: for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are," 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17. Will he destroy the defilers, and will he love the dividers and destroyers? If it be so great a sin to go to law unnecessarily with our brethren, or to wrong them, 1 Cor. vi. 8, what is it to disown them, and cast them off? And if they that salute and love only their brethren, and not also their enemies, are not the children of God, Matt. v. 47, what are they that separate from and condemn even their brethren?