But no sooner was that sacred society, — o hpo; a-xotrTOKoii x'>p^^} — with their im- mediate successors, as Egesippus speaks in Eusebius, departed unto their rest with God, but that the church itself, which until then was preserved a pure and uncor- rupted virgin, began to be vexed with abiding contention, and otherwise to degene- rate from its primitive, original purity. From thenceforward, especially after the heat of bloody and fiery persecutions began to abate, far the greatest part of ecclesi- astical records consists in relations of the divisions, differences, schisms, and heresies
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that fell out amongst them who professed themselves the disciples of Christ. For those failings, errors, and mistakes, which were found in men of peaceable minds, the church, indeed, of those days extended her peace and unity, — if Justin Martyr and others may be believed, — to such as the seeming warmer zeal and really colder charity of the succeeding ages could not bear withal. But yet divisions and disputes were multiplied into such an excess, as that the Gentiles fetched advantage from them, not only to reproach all Christians withal, but to deter others from the pro- fession of Christianity. So Celsus, in his third book, deals with them ; for saith he,
' Afi^'ofiivoi f/kv oXlyoi ts. yiirccv, xu.) 'Iv ItppovotiV is -^rXn^o; Ss cr'jra.f'i.'^Tii avSii av Tij/,vo\irat Kcti ff^i^ovrai, Kai ffraiTii; i^ixs 'i^nv ixaffToi 9-iXouiri' xai v'tto <7r>.Yi^oui TTaXiv "hinrra.fyi.svot <rip«s auToui Ixiy^ovtriv' itos, us ilvtTv, 'in xoivuvouvrts, i'lyi xoivaivoviriv in, tou ovof^ccTos' ai rouTov fiivov lyxaraXicriTv ofias aiirx,iJvoiirai- — " At first, when there were but a few, they were of one mind, or agreed well enough ; but being increased, and the multitude of them scattered abroad, they were presently divided again and again ; and every one would have his own party or division ; and, as a divided multitude, opposed and reproved one another ; so that they had no communion among themselves but only in name, which for shame they retain." So doth he, for his purpose, as is the manner of men, invidiously exaggerate the differences that were in those early times amongst Christians; for he wrote about the days of Trajan the emperor. That others of them took the same course, is testified by Clemens, Stromat. lib. vii., Augustin. Lib. de Ovib. cap. xv., and sundry others of the ancient writers of the church. But that no just offence as to the truth, or any of the ways of Christ, might hence be taken, we are, as I said before, forewarned of all these things by the Lord himself and his apostles; as also of the use and necessity of such events and issues : whence Origen cries out, — Uuvu Ba.v//.atrias '» nauXos up'/ixUcci ^ot 'hoxil, — " Most admirable unto me seems the saying of Paul, — ' There must be heresies amongst you, that those who are approved may be manifest.' " Nor can any just exception be hence taken against the gospel itself; for it doth not belong unto the excellency or dignity of any thing to free itself from all opposition, but only to preserve itself from being prevailed against, and to remain victorious; as the sacred truths of Christ have done, and will do unto the end. Not a few, indeed, in these evil days wherein we live, the ends of the world, and the difficulties with which they are attended being come upon us, — persons ignorant of things past, and re- gardless of things to come, in bondage to their lusts and pleasures, — are ready to make use of the pretence of divisions and differences among Christians, to give up themselves unto atheism, and indulge to their pleasures like the beasts that perish : "Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we shall die." " Quid aliud inscribi pote- rat sepulchro bovis!" But, whatever they pretend to the contrary, it maybe easily evinced that it is their personal dislike of that holy obedience which the gospel requireth, not the diff'erences that are about the doctrines of it, which alienates their minds from the truth. They will not, some of them, forego all pliilosophical inquiries after the nature and causes of things here below ; they know well enough that there was never any agreement amongst the wisest and severest that at any time have been engaged in that disquisition, nor is it likely that ever there will be so. And herein they can countenance themselves with the difficulty, obscurity, and importance of the things inquired after. But as for the high and heavenly mysteries of the gospel, the least whereof is infinitely of more imj)ortance than any thing that the utmost reach and comprehension of human wisdom can attain unto, they may be neglected and despised because there are contentions about them !
" lUc nigi'ic succus loliginis, luce est
.I'li-ugo iiH'i-a."
Tlic truth is, this is so far from any real ground for any such conclusion, that it
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were utterly impossible that any man should believe the truth of Christian religion if he had not seen, or might not be informed, that such contention and differences had ensued in and about it ; for that they should do so is plainly and frequently foretold in those sacred oracles of it, whereof, if any one be found to fail, the vera- city and authority of the whole may justly be called into question. If, therefore, men Anil have a religion so absolutely facile and easy, that, without laying out of their rational abilities or exercising the faculties of their souls about it, without foregoing of their lusts and pleasures, without care of mistakes and miscarriages, they may be securely wrapped up in it, as it were, Avhether they will or no, I con- fess they must seek for some other where they can find it ; Christianity will yield them no relief. God hath not proposed an acquaintance with the blessed concern- ments of his glory, and of their own eternal condition, unto the sons of men, on any such terms as that they should not need, with all diligence, to employ and ex- ercise the faculties of their souls in the investigation of them, in the ii.se of the means by him appointed for that purpose, seeing this is the chicfest end for which he hath made us those souls. And as for them who in sincerity give up their minds and consciences unto his authority and guidance, he hath not left them without an infallible direction for such a discharge of their own duty as is suffi- cient to guide and lead them in the midst of all differences, divisions, and opposi- tions, unto rest with himself; and the difficulties which are cast upon any in their inquiring after truth, by the error and deviation of other men from it, are all sufficiently recompensed unto them by the excellency and sweetness which they find in the truth itself, when sought out with diligence, according to the mind of Chl'ist. And one said not amiss of old, E'/^oifn tov i'^rifi.iXas hiiovra ra,7s 'S.pi^ria.vKri^oZ u'tpiffitri (ro(fuTa.TO)/ 'XfKTria.vov yinffSai' — " I dare Say he is the wisest Christian who hath most diligently considered the various differences that are in and about Christian- ity," as being built in the knowledge of the truth upon the best and most stable foundations.