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

How long Lord, must thy Church and Cause, be in the hands of unexperienced furious fools, who know not what Holiness ⟨image 12⟩or Healing is, but think that victory over mens Bodies, must be the cure of their Souls, and that hurting them is the way to win their Love! or that a Church is constituted of Bodies alone while Souls are absent, or no parts! who will make themselves the Rulers of thy Flock in despite of thee and of thy Cause and Servants, without thy call or approbation, and think that the work of a Soldier, is the work of a Father and a Physician! whose cures are all by amputation; and whose piety consisteth in flying from each other, and esteeming and using their Brethren as their foes; who scatter thy flocks on all the mountains, when Christ hath prayed that they may all be one!

Perhaps, Reader, thou art one of them that thinketh, that the settlement and happiness of the Church, must be won like a game at foot-ball; and therefore scruplest not to toss it in the dirt, and tumultuously to strive with and strike up the heels of all that are against thee, (so that peaceable passengers cannot safely come near your game or pass the streets.) But when you have got the Ball, have you done the work? Are you still so ignorant as not to know, how uncertain still you are to keep it, and that one spurn can take it from you? And ⟨image 13⟩[…] ⟨image 13⟩[…] ⟨image 14⟩suppose you could secure all your conquests, are the Churches healed ever the more? Mens hearts must be conquered before this healing work is done. And therefore the Apostle saith that we are more than Conquerors, when we are killed all the day long and accounted as Sheep to the slaughter, Rom. 8. 34, 35. that is, it is more gain and honour to our selves, to suffer in faith and patience by our enemies, than to conquer them in the field; And it is more profitable also unto them, and tendeth to a more desirable conquest of them: Because when Conquerors do but exasperate them; and if we hurt their bodies, we harden them the more against our cause, and against the means of their own Salvation, our patient Martyrdom and suffering by them, may end at last to open their eyes, and turn their hearts, and save their souls, by showing them the Truth, the Goodness and the Power of Christ, and of his Word and Spirit. This is the meaning of being more than Conquerors. The Irish are conquered by us, but not converted: The Scots and English were conquered by Cromwell, but their hearts were not conquered, nor their Religion changed by him. They that think that if they could get and keep the upper ground, and have Dissenters bodies and