Irenicum, to the lovers of truth and peace heart-divisions opened in the causes and…

Fifthly, they hinder the sweetness of Christian converse and §5communion: you know your communion with the Saints was wont to be far more sweet then now it is: ye were wont to have your hearts spring at the sight of one another: Ipse aspectus ⟨p. 192⟩boni viri delectat, says Seneca, The very sight of a good man delights, the sight of a godly man was wont to delight us otherwise then now it does: you look one upon another now sourly, with louring countenance, and withdraw from one another: your comforts were wont to be double, treble, seven fold, an hundred fold, according to that society of Saints you conversed withal; one godly man accounted it the joy of his heart, that he had any thing that he could communicate to another godly man, and the other had the like joy that he had any thing to communicate to him; thus comforts were multiplied; but now your comforts are single, Oh the sweetness, the suitableness there was wont to be in the spirits of Christians! Shall I say suitableness? it was a blessed oneness of heart: they did as it were exchange souls one with another every day; their souls did close clasp one with, and cleave one to another. Oh how did they love to open their hearts one to another! what delight was there in pouring forth their spirits one into another! What cheerfulness was there wont to be in their meeting! they eat their bread together with singleness of heart and joy, praising the Lord. There were no such merry meetings in the world, as the meetings of the Saints were wont to be: They parted one from another with their souls bound up one in another; their hearts warmed, enlarged, resolved, strengthened in Gods ways. But now they cannot meet together but they fall a jarring, contending one with another, and part with spirits estranged from, soured, and embittered one against another: their hearts weakened, and more unsettled in the things of God then before. Heretofore when they were absent one from another, yet the remembrance one of another was joyful; but these days seem to be gone. Where is there that opening of secrets one to another as formerly? every one is afraid of another. What sweet visits were there wont to be? what bearing one another's burdens? what heart-encouraging Letters? It was with the Saints as in Tertulli•ns time,¹ Christians called Brethren, and were ready to dye for one another: