Use. The only improvement I shall make of this point, shall be for,
1. Exhortation to unity.
% Directions for the maintaining of it.
The first use,Jbr exhortation.
Use 1. And first, having briefly discoursed of the nature, neces- sity, and desirableness of unity among all Christians, and especially of those in particular church-relation, I do in the bowels of Christ, and in the words of his apostle, Phil. ii. 1, 9. earnestly and humbly intreat all my brethi^n, " That if there be any consolation in " Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if '^ any bowels of mercy, fulfil ye my joy ; that ye be like-minded, " having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.""* He speaketh not as one doubting, but as one disputing when he saith If there he any consolation in Christ ; And it is as if he had said, i passionately and earnestly intreat you by all that comfort and joy you have found in your mutual communion from Christ and his ordinances, wherein you have comfortably walked together, by all that comfort resulting from the mutual exercises and fruits of Christian love ; by the unspeakable joys and delights the Spirit of God hath shed down upon you, v/hilst you v/alked in unity in the ways of your duty ; by all the bowels of compassion and mercy you have for yourselves, for your brethren, or for the poor carnal world, who are in hazard of being destroyed by our divisions ; or for me, your minister, whose joy and comfort is bound up in your unity and stability ; " That ye be like-minded, having the same " love, being of one accord, of one mind." What heart that hath one spark of the love of Christ in it, yields not to such an ex-
A sERirox ox r.osi'EL-uxiTy. 599
IiortaLion as this, enforced by " the consolation of Christ, comfort " of love, fellowship of the Spirit, and bowels of mercy ?'' More particularly, suffer ye this word of exhortation from the consider- ation of the following arguments or motives, what distanc-es soever you are at from one another.
Motive 1. Reflect upon the late long and continued troubles you liave been under, as the just rebukes of God for your former con- tentions and follies.
I need not tell you, you are but lately plucked as brands out of the burning, and that the smell of fire is yet upon you. The time lately was, when you got your bread with the peril of your lives ; when God handed it to you behind your enemies backs; when your eyes did not, could not behold your former teachers, except m corners or prisons, when your souls were sorrowful for the solemn assemblies, when you mournfully confessed before the Lord, that these were the just and deserved punishments for your wanton- ness, barrenness, and provoking animosities. These things were not only the matter of your humble confessions, but the reforma- tion of those evils was what you solemnly promised the Lord when he should again restore you to your liberty. What ! and is the rod no sooner off your backs but you will to the oJd ^^ ork again ? Read Ezra ix. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. and view the face of this sin in that glass. Have we been so many years in the furnace, and our dross not purged? Such sharp and long-continued afflictions produce no better effects ? It may be said of our troubles, as of the siege of Tyrus, Ezek. xxix. 18. " Every head v/as made bald, and every " shoulder peeled." Some of us went young men into persecu- tion and trouble, and are come forth old ; and, which is worst of all we bring our old corruptions forth with us. Either we did confess and bewail these sins in the days of our affliction, or we did not. If we did not, we were incorrigible, and defeated the design of the rod. If we did, our confessions and sorrow were either sin- cere or hypocritical : If sincere, certainly they would effectually caution us, that we return not again tp folly, Ezra ix. 13, 14. " After all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our " great trespass, seeing that thou, our God, hast punished us less " than our iniquities deserve ; and hast given us such a deliverance " as this ; should we again break thy commandment .^"
Motive 2. Consider the common, imminent danger that now threatens us, both from enemies upon our borders, and within our own bowels. The Canaanites are in the land, let there be no strife therefore betwixt brethren ; our natural, civil, and spiritual comforts are all shaking and trembling about us. If wanton chil- dren fall out and quarrel at a full table, our enemies stand ready to take away the cloth. They are not so far from us and out of sight,
600 A SF.HMON OX GOSPKL-UXIXr.
but GoJ can call them in a few hours to end the strife amongst ii-^ We act not only beneath the rules of religion, but of reason also. Brute creatures -will depose their antipathies in a common danger. Mr. Thomas Fuller, in his iJi6'/or?/o/'^/^^ worthies r)/*England, tells vis, That when the Severn sea overflowed the lower gounds of Somersetshire, it was observed, that dogs, and hares, and cats, and rats, sv.imming to the burroughs and hills to preserve their lives, stood quiet during the flood ; not offering the least injury one to anothei*. It is pity that sense should do more with beasts than rea- son and religion with men.
Motive t5. Reflect upon the scandal your divisions give to the world; how it hardens and prejudices them against religion and reformation. And thus the souls of men are eternally hazarded by the follies of professors : They are ready enough to take occa.- sions against religion, where none are given, and much more to im- prove them where occasions are given. " Woe unto the world " (saith Christ) because of oiFences; for it must needs be that of- ^' fences come ; but woe to that man by whom the offence " Cometh,'' Matth. xviii. 7. The woe is not only denounced against the taker, but the giver of the offence. It fixes such pre- judices in the hearts of carnal men, that some of them will never have good thoughts of religicm any more : but utterly distaste and nauseate those assemblies and ordinances from which their conver- sion might, with greatest probability be expected.