[142] The true placing the bonds of unity importeth exceedingly. Which will be done if the points fundamental, and of substance in religion, were truly discerned and distinguished from points not merely of faith, but of opinion, order, or good intention. This is a thing that may seem to many a matter trivial, and done already; but if it were done less partially it would be embraced more generally. L. Bacon, Essay iii.
[143] James iii. 13-17.
[144] 1 Pet. ii. 5, 7, 9. Leg. Grotium de Imp. p. 230, 231.
[145] Leg. Grotium de Imp. p. 223, 226.
[146] But not denying her to be a church, unless she cast off some essential part; but so disowning her as in 2 Thess. iii.
[147] Where any church retaining the purity of doctrine doth require the owning of and conforming to any unlawful or suspected practice, men may lawfully deny conformity to and communion with that church in such things, without incurring the guilt of schism. Mr. Stillingfleet. Iren. p. 117.
[148] 1 Sam. xv. 22; Prov. xv. 8.
[149] 2 John x. 11; 2 Tim. iii. 5; Rom. xvi. 17; 1 Cor. v. 11.
[150] Matt. xiii. 41, 30; Jer. xv. 19; 1 Cor. xii. 23, 24.
[151] See Rom. xiv. throughout; Rom. xv. 12, 5-7; Eph. iv. 4-7; 1 Pet. iii. 6; 1 Cor. xii. throughout; Phil. iii. 15, 16; Acts ii. 1, 46; iv. 32; Rom. xii. 4, 5; Psal. cxxxiii; 1 Cor. viii; 1 Tim. i. 4; James iii.
[152] Peace containeth infinite blessings: it strengtheneth faith: it kindleth charity. The outward peace of the church distilleth into peace of conscience: and it turneth the writing and reading of controversies into treatises of mortification and devotion. Against procuring unity by sanguinary persecutions, see Lord Bacon, Essay iii. Surely there is no better way to stop the rising of new sects and schisms, than to reform abuses, to compound the smaller differences, to proceed mildly, and not with sanguinary persecutions, and rather to take off the principal authors by winning and advancing them, than to enrage them by violence and bitterness. Lord Bacon in his Essay lviii. _Ira hominis non implet justitiam Dei._ And it was a notable observation of a wise father, that those which held and persuaded pressure of consciences, were commonly interested therein themselves for their own ends. Id. Essay iii. p. 19.
[153] Concil. Tolet. 4. c. 16. 28. q. 1. Ca. Judæi qui--allow separation from a Jewish husband, if after admonition he will not be a christian: and so doth Acosta and his Concil. Limens. l. 6. c. 21, and other Jesuits, and allow the marrying of another: and sure the conjugal bond is faster than that of a pastor and his flock: may not a man then change his pastor when his soul is in apparent hazard?
[154] Eph. iv. 16; 1 Tim. i. 4; Rom. xv. 19; Acts ix. 31.
[155] Rom. xiv. 17; 1 Tim. i. 4.
[156] Rom. viii. 16; ix. 26; 1 John v. 2.
[157] Quicquid ad multitudinem vergit, antipathiam continet; et quanto magis multitudo augetur, tanto et antipathia: quicquid vero ad unitatem tendit, sympathiam habet; et quanti magis ad unitatem accedit, tanto pariori sympathia augetur. Paul Scaliger, Epist. Cath. lib. iii. p. 176.
[158] Eph. xiv. 13-16.
[159] Phil. i. 9; 1 Thess. iv. 9; Col. ii. 2; 1 Thess. iii. 12; Phil. ii. 12; Lev. xviii. 9; 1 Pet. i. 22; 1 Thess. v. 3; Rom. xii. 9, 10; 2 Tim. i. 7; Heb. x. 24; 1 Cor. xii. 31; Gal. v. 6, 13.
[160] 1 John iv. 7, 8; John xiii. 35; James iii. 15; 1 John iv. 16; Gal. v. 19-22; 2 Cor. xiii. 11; 1 Tim. vi. 11; Gal. v. 14; 1 Cor. xiii; Eph. iv. 2, 15, 16; Col. i. 4.
[161] See Mr. Stillingfleet, Iren. p. 119, 120. Bilson for christian subjection, p. 525.
[162] Dr. H. More saith, Myst. Redempt. p. 495. l. 10. c. 2. There is scarce any church in christendom at this day that doth not obtrude, not only falsehood, but such falsehoods that will appear to any free spirit pure contradictions and impossibilities; and that with the same gravity, authority, and importunity, that they do the holy oracles of God. Now the consequents of this must needs be sad; For what knowing and conscientious man, but will be driven off, if he cannot assert the truth, without open asserting of a gross lie? Id. p. 526. And as for opinions, though some may be better than other some, yet none should exclude from the fullest enjoyments of either private or public rights; supposing there be no venom of the persecutive spirit mingled with them; but every one that professeth the faith of Christ, and believeth the Scriptures in the historical sense, &c. See Hales of Schism, p. 8.
[163] In ecclesiis plus certaminum gignunt verba hominum quam Dei; magisque pugnatur fere de Apolline, Petro, et Paulo, quam de Christo: retine divina: relinque humana. Bucholcer.
[164] Poetæ nunquam perturbarunt respublicas: oratores non raro. Bucholtz.