The true and only way of concord of all the Christian churches the desirableness…

§. 13. III. And to conclude, Paul spake by the Holy Ghost and by Divine authority himself, and his words recorded are part of Christs Law indited by the Spirit; and no man that cometh after him or to whom he wrote, had power to contradict or obliterate it. All this methinks should satisfy men of the meaning of so full a decision of an easy case about things indifferent, which it's strange that so many yet for nothing do oppose: And that the authority of an Apostle in Sacred Scripture, the peace of the Church, and the souls and peace of all dissenters and doubting persons, should seem so contemptible to them, as not to weigh down their humour and domineering will, in an unnecessary and indifferent thing? But it is the nature of sin, especially Pride, to be unreasonable and unpeaceable, and the troubler of the soul, the Church, the world.

§. 13. III. And to conclude, Paul spake by the Holy Ghost and by Divine authority himself, and his words recorded are part of Christs Law indited by the Spirit; and no man that cometh after him or to whom he wrote, had power to contradict or obliterate it. All this methinks should satisfie men of the meaning of so full a decision of an easie case about things indifferent, which it's strange that so many yet for nothing do oppose: And that the authority of an Apostle in Sacred Scripture, the peace of the Church, and the souls and peace of all dissenters and doubting persons, should seem so contemptible to them, as not to weigh down their humour and domineering will, in an unnecessary and indifferent thing? But it is the nature of sin, especially Pride, to be unreasonable and unpeaceable, and the troubler of the soul, the Church, the world.

§. 14. The same Apostle in the Epistles to the Corinthians, 1. c. 1. v. 10. &c. importuneth them to peace and unity, and sharply reprehendeth their divisions (1. c. 3.) He desireth them to be perfectly conjoined in the same mind, and in the same judgement. But what ⟨p. 153⟩are the terms and means of such a union? Is it that they all unite in Cephas (Peter) or in One Patriarch or Pope? Or that they adhere to men with greater estimation? No, but contrary. It is this that divided them, while one was for Paul, and another for Apollos, and another for Cephas: He calls them to unite in Christ alone, and not to think of men above that which is written, nor to be puffed up for one against another, nor to take any Pastors as the Lords of their faith, but as Ministers of Christ and stewards of his mysteries, given for their good, and helpers of their joy and edification: c. 3. & 4. He tells them that neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase: and he that planteth and he that watereth are one: c. 3. v. 7, 8, 9. And in case of eating things offered to Idols, as to so much as was lawful in it self, he chargeth them to deny their liberty when it will be a stumbling-block to the weak, and tells them that he will never eat flesh while the world standeth, if it make his brother to offend: c. 8. 13. Telling them that when they sin so against the brethren and wound their weak Conscience, they sin against Christ; v. 12. And he himself would labour for his bread, and not take a lawful and due maintenance from them, when he saw it would hinder his success, c. 9. and would rather dye, than any should make void this his glorying, v. 15. To the Jews he became as a Jew, to gain the Jews, and to the weak he became as weak to gain them, and was made all things to all men that he might by all means save some, v. 20, 21, 22, 23. His rule is, Give no offence to Jews, or Greeks or to the Church of God: even as I please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many that they may be saved, c. 10. v. 32, 33. Their divisions at the Communion he reproveth, ch. 11. not caused by ceremonious impositions, but