MODERATION AXD UNITY OF PROTESTANT PRINCIPLES. 315
must be imposed on all others, or else he cries to his nearest rela- tions,—
" Lupis et agnis quanta sortito obtigit Tecum mihi discordia est;"
we may look for peace, moderation, and unity, when we are here no more, and not sooner. So that, —
III. If those theological determinations that make up at this day amongst some men the greatest part of those assertions, positions, or propositions, which are called articles of faith or truth, — which are not delivered in the words that the Spirit of God teacheth, but in terms of art, and in answer unto rules and notions which the world might haply, without any great disadvantage, [have] been unacquainted withal unto this day had not Aristotle found them out or stumbled on them, — might be eliminated fi'om the city of God and communion of Christians, and left for men to exercise their wits about who have nothing else to do, and the doctrine of truth which is according unto godliness left unto that noble, heavenly, spiritual, generous ampli- tude, wherein it was delivered in the Scripture and believed in the first churches, innumerable causes of strife and contentions would be taken away : but, " feri'i video mea gaudia ventis," small hopes have I to see any such impression and consent to befall the minds of con- cerned men; and yet, I must confess, I have not one jot more of the reuniting the disciples of Christ in love and concord. But most men that profess any thing of divinity have learned it as an art or human science, out of the road, compass, and track whereof they know no- thing of the mind of God; nay, many scarce know the things in themselves, and as they are to be believed, which they are passing skilful in as they are expressed in their arbitrary terms of art, which none almost understand but themselves. And is it likely that such men, who are not a, few in the world, will let go their skill and know- ledge, and with them their reputation and advantage, and sacrifice them all to the peace and agreement that we are seeking after? Some leara their divinity out of the late and modern schools, both in the Eeformed and Papal church ; in both which a science is pro- posed under that name, consisting in a farrago of credible proposi- tions, asserted in terms suited unto that philosophy that is variously predominant in them. What a kind of tlieology this hath produced in the Papacy, Agricola, Erasmus, Vives, Jansenius, with innumerable other learned men of your own, have sufficiently declared. And that it hath any better success in the Reformed churches, many things, which I shall not now instance in, give me cause to doubt. Some boast themselves to learn their divinity from the fathers, and say they depart not from their sense and idiom of expression in what they believe and profess. But we find by experience that, what for
GIG A VINDICATIOX OF THE ANIMADVERSIONS ON FIAT LUX.
want of wisdom and judgment in themselves, what for sucli reasons taicen from the writings wliicli they make their oracles, which I shall not insist upon, much of the divinity of some of these men consists in that which, to avoid provocation, I shall not express. Whilst men are thus pre-engaged, it will he very hard to prevail with them to think that the greatest part of their divinity is such that Christian religion, either as to the matter, or at least as to that mode wherein alone they have imbibed it, is little or not at all concerned in : nor will it be easy to persuade them that it is a mystery laid up in the Scripture, and all true divinity a wisdom in the knowledge of that mystery, and skill to live unto God accordingly ; without which, as I said before, we shall have no peace or agreement in this world. " Nobis curiositate opus non est post Jesum Christum, nee inquisi- tione post evangelium," says Tertullian; — " Curiosity after the doc- trine of Christ, and philosophical inc[uisitions" (in religion) " after the gospel, belong not unto us/' As we are, —
IV. It were well if Christians would but seriously consider what and hoiv many things they are wherein their present apprehensions of the mind and will of God do centre and agree, — I mean as to the substance of them, their nature and importance, and how far they will lead men in the ways of pleasing God, and coming to the enjoy- ment of him. Were not an endeavour to this purpose impeded by many men's importunate cries of "All or none," "As good nothing at all as not every thing," and that in this or that way, mode, or fashion, it might not a little conduce to the peace of Christendom. And I must acknowledge unto you that I think it is prejudice, carnal in- terest, love of power, and present enjoyments, with other secular advantages, joined with pride, self-will, and contempt of others, that keep the professors of Christianity from conspiring to improve this consideration. But, God help us, we are all for parties, and our own exact being in the right, and therein the only church of Christ in the earth, — at least, that others are so only so far as they agree with us, we being ourselves the rule and standard of all gospel church state, laying weight upon what we differ from others in, for the most part exceedingly above what it doth deserve. Were " the same mind in us that was in Christ Jesus," the same frame of spirit that was in his blessed apostles, we should be willing to try the effects of his love and care towards all that profess his name, by a sedate consideration, at least, how far he hath instructed them in the knowledge of his will, and what effects this learning of him may produce. And to tell you truly, I do not think there is a more horrid monster in the earth than that opinion is, which, in the great diversity that there is among Christians in the world, includes happiness and salvation within the limits and precincts of any party of them, as though