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

We must not model the Church of Christ according ⟨p. 34⟩to our private fancies: We are not the Lords of it, nor are we sit or worthy to dispose of it Look into the Scripture, and take it for the Rule, and see there of what manner of persons the Visible Church hath been constituted in all ages of the world till now. In the first Church in Adams family, a Cain, was the first born member, and so continued, till he was excommunicated for the murder of his brother. In a Church of eight persons who were saved out of all the world, the Father and Pastor was overtaken with gross drunkenness, and one of his sons was a cursed Ham. In a Church of six persons saved from the wickedness of Sodom, two of them (Lot's sons in law) perished in the flames among the unbelievers: a third was turned into a pillar of salt: the Father and Pastor was drunk two nights together, after the sight of such a terrible miracle, and after so strange a deliverance to himself: and committed incest twice in his drunkenness: The two that remained (his daughters) caused his drunkenness purposely and committed incest with him. In the Church in Abraham's family, there was an Ishmael: And in the Church in Isaacs family there was an Esau: and even Rebekah and Jacob guilty of deceitful equivocation: And Abraham and Isaac denied their wives to save themselves in their unbelief. In Jacob's family was a Simeon and Levi, who murdered multitudes under a pretence of Religion, and under the cover of false deceit: And almost all his sons moved with envy, sold their brother Joseph for a slave; and some were hardly kept from murdering him: And his daughter Dinah was defiled ⟨p. 35⟩by desiring to see the company and fashions of the world. In the Church of the Israelites in the Wilderness, after all the miracles which they had seen, and the mercies they had received, so great were their sins of unbelief and murmuring, and lust, and whoredoms, and idolatry, and disobedience, that but two of them that came out of Egypt, were permitted to enter the promised land: In the times of the Judges they so oft renewed their idolatry, besides all their other sins, that they spent a great part of all those ages in captivity for it.

We must not model the Church of Christ according ⟨p. 34⟩to our private fancies: We are not the Lords of it, nor are we sit or worthy to dispose of it Look into the Scripture, and take it for the Rule, and see there of what manner of persons the Visible Church hath been constituted in all ages of the world till now. In the first Church in Adams family, a Cain, was the first born member, and so continued, till he was excommunicated for the murder of his brother. In a Church of eight persons who were saved out of all the world, the Father and Pastor was overtaken with gross drunkenness, and one of his sons was a cursed Cham. In a Church of six persons saved from the wickedness of Sodom, two of them (Lot's sons in law) perished in the flames among the unbelievers: a third was turned into a pillar of salt: the Father and Pastor was drunk two nights together, after the sight of such a terrible miracle, and after so strange a deliverance to himself: and committed incest twice in his drunkenness: The two that remained (his daughters) caused his drunkenness purposely and committed incest with him. In the Church in Abrahams family, there was an Ishmael: And in the Church in Isaacs family there was an Esau: and even Rebeka and Iacob guilty of deceitful equivocation: And Abraham and Isaac denied their wives to save themselves in their unbelief. In Iacob's family was a Simeon and Levi, who murdered multitudes under a pretense of Religion, and under the cover of false deceit: And almost all his sons moved with envy, sold their brother Ioseph for a slave; and some were hardly kept from murdering him: And his daughter Dinah was defiled