N00497:78
Blessed unions. An union with the son of God by faith. And, an union…
Blessed unions. An union with the son of God by faith. And, an union in the church of God by love, importunately pressed; in a discourse which makes divers offers, for those unions; together with a copy of those articles, where-upon a most happy union, has been lately made between those two eminent parties in England, which have now changed the names of Presbyterians, and Congregationals, for that of United Brethren. / By Cotton Mather ; [Six lines from Mead]
Boston: printed by B. Green for Samuel Phillips, 1692
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Let us now pursue and maintain a Blessed UNION with one another i• the Lord. 'Tis an Invaluable Jewel, a• UNION, which I am now fallen into the Commendation of; but, Quis Vitu• perat? I suppose there is not one of […] all, but what will readily subscribe to every C•ause of the Hundred and Thirty Third Psalm; and I could wish that those melodious Notes of Davids Harp might cause the Evil Spirits of Division •o depart from us. O that from this Da•, we might all agree to lay aside, All Expressions of a Groundless o• Boundless Displeasure against any of our Neighbours! and especially, that all Saints would concur •o give each other, The Right-hand of Fellowship, in those more Important Things wherein they are ind•ed U••n•mous, and walk together wherein they are Agreed; and that in the lesser things wherein their Apprehensions ⟨p. 51⟩are yet various, they may indulge one another, without all Unchristian Persecutions or Animosities, and not Revile one another as vile Schismatics, for every Modest Separation. God forbid, that opinionum Varietas, and opinantiam Unitas, must become Inconsistent! As for S •rife, no Ink of mine is Black enough to describe the Prodigious Abominations, the Abominable Consequences of it, All that ever the most Eloquent Ancients Thundered against Schism, you may apply to the Sin of Strife in the Churches of God; for indeed Schism is but That? Let me •dd, Never did the Almighty God use more Omnipotent Arguments to command and caution men against any sin, than he has to still all strife among his People; and shall we Quarrel after all? The Son of God is a Lamb; for us to Quarrel, is to be so unlike Him, that even the Pagan Emperor Severus, when he saw two Christians Engaged in a Scuffle, gave Order they should never be called Christians any more. Our Jesus, like Joseph with his Brethren,