The cure of church-divisions, or, Directions for weak Christians to keep them from being…

And the root of the error lieth in Atheism, ⟨p. 30⟩Self-fishness, and Carnality. By the first, we neglect the Honouring of God, which should be our utmost aim, and to which all our own Honour should be purely referred, as a means: By the second, we Idolize our selves, and are sunk into, and centered in our selves, and seek that honour to our selves, which we should wholly refer to God alone. And by the third, we over-value Man and his esteem, and live upon the thoughts and breath of mortals, and seek the honour which is given by one to another more than the honour which is of God: Whereas we should make it our grand care and study, to be pleasing to our Maker, which is the highest honour, and lawful and necessary to be sought; and should be more indifferent as to the esteem and thoughts of man, as being no further regardable, than it conduceth to our divine and ultimate end.

And the root of the errour lyeth in Atheism, ⟨p. 30⟩Self-fishness, and Carnality. By the first, we neglect the Honouring of God, which should be our utmost aim, and to which all our own Honour should be purely referred, as a means: By the second, we Idolize our selves, and are sunk into, and centered in our selves, and seek that honour to our selves, which we should wholly refer to God alone. And by the third, we over-value Man and his esteem, and live upon the thoughts and breath of mortals, and seek the honour which is given by one to another more than the honour which is of God: Whereas we should make it our grand care and study, to be pleasing to our Maker, which is the highest honour, and lawful and necessary to be sought; and should be more indifferent as to the esteem and thoughts of man, as being no further regardable, than it conduceth to our divine and ultimate end.

And when Pride hath thus turned the eye of the soul, from God, to our selves, and to the Creature, it is a working sin, and will be always seeking to fetch in fuel for its self to feed on, and to find out ways to make our selves conspicuous and observed in the world: And to separate our selves into distinct societies, that the world may see we are above Communion with the colder duller sort of Christians, is one of the most notable means to this self-exalting end.