[3.] In his prayers, that which he reinforced again and again is unity and love. When he was about to die he foresaw the divisions of the church, and that Satan would by all means endeavour to sow strife ; corrupt nature putteth us on discords. He left some apostles, others believers, but all men ; wherefore he prays for the apostles, ' Let them be one ;' for believers, ' Let them be one.' Christ, that left unity as a charge in his last sermons, he would leave it as a legacy in his last prayers. But why was Christ so earnest in his prayers ?
326 SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. [SeR. XIX.
(1.) Because it is such an excellent blessing. Christ would not have been so earnest for it if it had not been so excellent. I would not digress into a commendation of concord and love: ixu ah omnibus laudaiur, a ixiucis servaiur ; all commend it, though few observe it ; yet a little will not be unnecessary. This is the strength and safety of the church : Col. iii. 14, ' And above all things put on charity, which is crwSeo-yLto? T?}? Te\etoT77T09, the bond of perfectness,' or a perfect bond, the cement of the church. The church is but one temple, where stones squared by grace are cemented with love, and inhabited by the same Spirit ; this keepeth them fast in the building. This is the beauty and safety of the church, the joining that runneth through all the squared stones. As the health of the outward body dependeth on the symmetry and proportion of the members, and the harmony and disposition of all the parts, so doth the welfare of the church upon the bond of love. Next to truth, there is not a greater blessing; aud Christ prayeth for the apostles, that they might be kept in the truth for this end, that they might be one in love. And as nothing is more profitable to the church, so nothing is more acceptable to God ; it pleaseth God exceedingly to see all that call him Father to love as brethren. Certainly there is not a greater grief to his spirit than to see us divided in opinion and affection, in our prayers and supplications. Certainly there is much in concord in praying, when all God's children do besiege heaven with uniform and joint supplications. Things stick in the birth, because we are not agreed what to ask. As reformation sticketh towards men, because we are not agreed what to hold forth to the world, so it sticketh as to God, because we are not agreed what to ask. When the Israelites would have God's help, it is said they came all as one man to ask his counsel : Judges xx. 1 , ' Then all the childi-en of Israel went out, and the congregation was gathered together as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, unto the Lord in Mizpeh.' Oh ! when shall it be so amongst us ? There is not only altar set up against altar, but prayer against prayer. We are first divided in practices and opinions, and then in prayers ; God's dear children and servants are divided in language ; we cannot in charity but judge them to be acted with the same spirit, inspired with the same breath, yet they yield a different sound. It is said of the primi- tive believers that * they continued, 6/xo6v/j,ahov, with one accord, in prayer and supplication,' Acts i. 14 ; and ' they were with one accord in one place' when the Holy Spirit descended on them, Acts ii. 1. And yet how seldom doth any public congregation meet with one mind in the same place ! as in an organ, when some pipes do make a sound, others keep silence : Mat. xviii. 19, 'If two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that tliey shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. God looks for an agreement and harmony in our requests, if we would speed with him.
(2.) Because Christ foresaw how much the church would need this blessing. Divisions will arise, an evil most unsuitable to Christianity, aud yet the evil genius that hath attended it ; partly through Satan's malice ; he cannot else hold the empire and title to the world ; he is not only prince of the power of the air, but the God of this world. God permitteth him in his righteous judgment not only to have a great
VeR. 11.] SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. 327
power over the elements, but to rule in the hearts of men. Now he could not keep his own, nor prevail against the church, were it not for divisions. As Cyrus in Herodotus, going to fight against Scythia, coming to a broad river, and not being able to pass over it, cut and divided it into divers arms and sluices, and so made it passable for all his army ; this is the devil's policy, he laboureth to divide us, and separate us into divers sects and factions, and so easily overcometh us. Christ knew that the envious man would sow tares. Partly through weakness and imperfection of knowledge, divers men may agree in one aim, and yet not in one way. The apostle saith (which indeed is the great canon and rule of charity, when it is rightly understood and applied), Phil. iii. 15, 16, ' Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded ; and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you : nevertheless whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.' I observe there, that among the godly, because of difference of light, especially in times of reformation, there will be difference of judgment, though they agree in the same aim. As when divers physicians are sent for to a sick person, some think that the best way to cure the sick person is to take away all the corrupt blood at once, others think it best to take it away by little and little ; here is a difference in judg- ment, but yet the aim is the same, all intend the good of the sick party : so it is in curing a sick church ; some are for taking away all, and beginning upon a new foundation, others for a regular reformation, to try all ways and all means of recovery ; this is a difference. Or rather thus : when a house is on fire, some are for pulling it down, others are for quenching it, and letting the building stand ; it requireth a present remedy, and in this hurlyburly the master's voice is not always heard. So it is in reformation of inveterate errors and customs that have crept into the church ; there is a difference of judgment about the cure, and God's voice in the confusion is not always heard. Partly through vile affections ; man's nature is very prone to discords, out of pride, worldly interests, desire of precedency, envy of one an- other's reputes, irregular zeal ; all these make us touchy. Some are of a salt and fiery humour, like flax and gunpowder, the least spark catcheth, and setteth them into a flame. Much experience hereof we have in these dogdays of the church, wherein every one is barking and biting at one another, whereby Christ is exceedingly dishonoured, and the cause of religion much disadvantaged. Therefore that there might be some sparks of love kept alive in the church, is Christ so earnest with the Father, ' Let them be one.'