By proving the law at Sinai, and the Covenant of Circumcision with Abraham, were the very same with Adam's Covenant of Works, and that because the Gospel-covenant is absolute.
A friendly Preface to the Author of the Soleirrm Call, and the more discreet and charitable of the Party con- cerned with him in this Controversy.
▼ T HEN we open our Bibles, and read that text, 1 Cor. i. 10. we have cause to deal with it as Origen once did by another scrip- ture, even close the book and weep over it, in consideration of the weak and feeble influences such melting words, delivered with such a pathos, have upon the hearts of professors this day. " Now, I be- *' seech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that '' ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among '^ you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind, " and in the same judgment."
/ beseech you] He dips the nail in oil, that it may drive the easier. / beseech you, brethreii] A compellation breathing sweetness and affec- tion, and should drop from our lips into each others ears with the same effect that word once did upon the ears of Benhadad's servants, My brother Benhadad. Sirs, (said Moses to the striving Israelites) ye are brethren. O when shall the church become a true Philadelphia ?
I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ] or as you love Jesus Christ, ut quantumipsum amant tantumsiudeant con-
A FRIENDLY PREFACE TO THE AUTHOR. 819
cordice, saith Calvin ; Be as studious of concord as you are free in pro- fessing love to Christ.
That tJi£re be no divisions] or rents among you ; a 2;^/<r/xa^, schism, or rent in the church, is much the same, and altogether as dangerous as a 2ra<r/;, or sedition in the commonwealth, and harder to be cured. For as the Lord Verulam truly observes, Differences amongst perse- cuting enemies and the church, are like the strivings of the Egyptian with the Israelite, which Moses quickly ended by knocking down the Egyptian ; but dissensions in the church are like the striving of one Israelite with another; and all that Moses can do to quiet and part these, is only by fair and gentle words, and reiuinding them that they are brethren.
Great is the mischief of divisions among Christians ; and the less the grounds and causes are, the greater always is the sin and mischief of them. In the primitive church contentions grew fervent about meats lawful and unlawful, which did not profit, the meaning is, it greatly damnified them that were occupied therein, Heb. xiii. 9. Practical religion among them grew cold, as disputations about these trifles grew fervent.
The readiest way to cool such heats is, by discovering the trivial na- ture of the matter contended about ; as Demosthenes appeased the tumult among the people raised by a small occasion, by relating to them the story of a man that hired an ass to carry him a journey, but the sun shining fervent, he was forced to quit her back, and betake himself to her shadow ; the owner withstood him, alleging, that he had hired the body of the ass, but her shadow was not in the bargain ; and so the contention between them grew as hot as the sun. Many such trifles have raised great contentions in the world, witness the great contention betwixt the Eastern and Western church about keeping of Easter.
Other points there are of greater moment, about which good men contend, and yet these oftentimes are magnified much above their true intrinsical value. So I am sure it is in the controversy before us. Mr. Cary tells us, that these things will be found at length to be of highest concernment unto us, and must therefore be our most serious prac- tice, p. 243. If so, then the proper subject of baptism must be one of those that is of greatest weighty and the profession thereof the very Schibboleth to distinguish one person from another in matters of re- ligion. No wonder therefore the fires of contention are blown up to such a vehement heat, even in such an improper season ; much like the contentions among the 'Engiishjugitives at Frankfort, when their brethren were frying in the flames at Smithfield. Just so we must be scuffling, whilst thousands of our brethren are bleeding in Ireland. Had we a true sense of the quality of the subjects, or the unseasonable- ness of the time, it should certainly allay those heats among us. Did we see who stand by, and look with pleasure upon our follies, it would quickly allay our hearts. Tertullian tells the Christians of his
820 A FJIIENDLY PREFACE TO THE AUTltOE.
time, that they were Hke the Funarabulones, or men that walk upon hopes, the least tread awry might be their ruin, so narrowly did their enemies watch them.
Sirs, the peace, safety, and honour, of the dissenting interest are things of too great value to be hazarded amongst the hands of our common enemies. You may fancy they will neglect the advantage you give them ; but if they do, the devil will call them fools for it. Hr. Herle tells us of a king's fool, who wrote down the king himself in his table among his brother-fools, because he had trusted an Af- rican stranger with four thousand pounds to buy Barbary horses. The kingasked him how he would make him amends, if the stranger should come again .^ AVhy then (said he) I'll blot your name out of my table of fools, and write down the African in your stead. Think not our enemies are such fools to neglect the advantage we cast into their hands. It is a weighty note of Livy, Consilia non dant homines rehus^ sed res hominibus ; Men do not counsel things, but time and things counsel men. Methinks the postures of times and affairs give us better counsels than we seem to be governed by in such work as this. Divisions of forty years standing and more, about infants baptism, have eaten up the time, wasted the spirits, and alienated the hearts of English professors, divided them both in society and love ; by reason "vvhereof God's pleasant plant in this resembles the bramble, which taking root at both ends, by reason of the rencounters of the sap, com- monly withers in the middle. Your brethren, in their Narrative from their General- Assembly, make a sad and sensible complaint of withering in the power of godliness. And truly we as well as they may complain with the church, We do all fade as a leaf: The Lord help us to discern the true cause, whether it be not the misplacing of our zeal, our being cold where we should be fervent, and fervent hot where it should be cold ; and whether the eating up of so much time and study about baptizing of infants, have not kept us these forty years in the infancy of our graces ?