The Evils of Divisions: The Sin They Cause

Though there be sin in many things mentioned, yet we considered them in reference to our good that was hindered; but now let us consider what venom of sin there is in them. The number 2 hath been accounted accursed, because it was the first that parted from unity. The departure from that unity God would have, is a very cursed thing; for it hath much sin in it. That which St. Augustine says of original sin we may well apply to our divisions; — they are sin, the punishment of sin, the cause of sin, nothing but a heap of sin.

First, they are against the solemn charge and command of God, and of Jesus Christ, 1 John iii, 23: “This is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave us commandment.” It is not an arbitrary thing that we should love one another; but it is the command of God, and a great command joined to that of believing in his Son Jesus Christ. The one is as truly necessary to salvation as the other. Let men talk of faith, of believing on the Son of God, of trusting to free grace in Christ; yet if they have dividing, contending spirits, no love, no sweetness, no grace of union with the saints, their faith is a dead faith. And because God stands much upon this to have his people live together in love, at the beginning of the verse he says, “It is his commandment;” at the end of the verse he says, “He gave us commandment.” And it is also observable, that he says of the commandment of love, that “he gave us that commandment.” It is a gift, for it is a sweet commandment. We should not only submit to it, as being bound by the authority of it; but we should open our hearts to it, and embrace it joyfully as a gift of God. The commandment of love God gives us as a gift from his love. The excellency of these commandments are further amplified, verse 24:

“And lie that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him.” I do not think that you can find, in all the Scripture, any command of God in one verse and a piece of another, so inculcated and commended. Again, chap, iv, 21: “This commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God loveth his brother also.” If you think you have any command to love God, or to believe in Jesus Christ, know the same authority lays a command upon you, to love your brother also. John xv, 12: “This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you:” and verse 17: “These things I command you, that ye love one another.” Christ, you see, likewise makes a great matter of the saints loving one another. Surely the sin, then, must needs be great that breaks such a great commandment as this, upon which God the Father, and Jesus Christ his Son, lay so much weight.

Secondly. These unkind and unloving divisions are against the prayer of Jesus Christ; yea, against that prayer he made for us a little before he died. John xvii, 21, he prayed to his Father, that all who did believe, and should after believe on him, might be one as his Father is in him, and he is in his Father, and that they “may be one in the Father and him.” As if he should say, O Father, I am now going out of the world; and I foresee, when I am gone, even those whom thou hast given me, who are one in me and in thee, will meet with strong temptations to divide them one from another. But, O Father, I beseech thee, let thy fatherly care be over them, to keep their hearts together, that they may be united in the strongest union that is possible for creatures to be united in! O Father, let them be one, as thou and I am one! Would we not be loath to lose the benefit of that heavenly prayer of Christ for us in the seventeenth of John? Read it over; see what soul-ravishing excellency there is in it, seeing he hath expressly said he intended us who live now in it, as well as those disciples who then lived with him. Let us prize this prayer, as being more to us than ten thousand worlds. Luther writes a chiding letter to Melancthon. “By those sinful, distrustful fears, and carking thoughts of yours,” says he, “you do Irritas facere prceces nostras, you make void our prayers.” How great, then, is our divisions! By them we do what in us lies to make void, as concerning us, the prayer, that blessed prayer, of Jesus Christ.

Thirdly. Our divisions are very dishonourable to Jesus Christ, Were it that they darkened our names only, it were not so much; but that which darkens the glory of Jesus Christ, should go very near unto us. I have read of Alexander Severus, seeing two Christians contending one with another, commanded them that they should not presume to take the name of Christians upon themselves any longer; “For,” says he, “you dishonour your Master, Christ, whose disciples you profess to be. It is a dishonour to a general to have his army routed and run into confusion.” The devil seems to prevail against us in these our divisions, so as to rout us. John xvii, 21, 23, is a notable scripture to show the sinfulness of our divisions, in the dishonour they put upon Christ; and it may be as strong an argument against them as any I know in the book of God. Christ praying to the Father for the union of his saints, uses this argument, O Father, let this be granted, “that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” And again, ver. 23: “Let them be perfect in one, that the world may know that thou hast sent me.” If they be not united one to another in love and peace, but have a spirit of division ruling among them, what will the world think? Surely that thou didst not send me. That I who am their head, their teacher, and Lord, never came from thee; for thou art wisdom, holiness, and love; and if I had come from thee, then those who own me to be theirs, and whom I own to be mine, would hold forth in their conversations something of that spirit of holiness, wisdom, and love, there is in thee. But when the world does not see this in them, but the clean contrary, they will never believe that I came from thee. Those truths I came into the world to make known as from thee, O Father, will not be believed, but rather persecuted; if those who profess them, by their divisions one from another, and oppositions one against another, show forth a spirit of pride, folly, envy, and frowardness. Therefore, O Father, let them be, as thou and T am, one. If this petition be not granted, how shall I look the world in the face? I shall be contemned in the world. What, am I cut down from thee for such glorious ends as, indeed, those were for which I came into the world; and when I should come to attain those ends for which I came, shall there be such a carriage in those who do profess my name, that by it the world shall persuade themselves that thou didst never send me? O what a sore evil would this be! Surely any Christian heart must needs tremble at the least thought of having a hand in so great an evil as this is.

Fourthly. Divisions are sinful, because they grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Eph. iv, 30, 31: “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed to the day of redemption.” Surely there is no godly heart but will say,” O God, forbid that I should do anything to grieve the good Spirit of God. It is the Spirit that hath enlightened me, that revealed the great mysteries of God, of Christ, of eternal life, unto me. It is that Spirit that hath drawn my soul to Jesus Christ; that hath comforted it with those consolations that are more to me than ten thousand worlds: the Spirit that hath strengthened me, that helps me against temptations, that carries me through difficulties, that enables me to rejoice in tribulations: the Spirit that hath sealed me to the day of redemption: and now shall I be guilty of so great a sin as to grieve this blessed Spirit of the Lord? If I did but know wherein I have grieved it, it could not but make my soul to bleed within me, that I should have such a wretched heart to grieve this Holy Spirit, by whom my soul hath enjoyed so much good. I hope I should for ever hereafter take heed of that thing. I would rather suffer any grief in the world to mine own spirit, than be any occasion of grief to that blessed

Spirit of God.” But would you know what it is that hath grieved it, and what it is that is like to grieve it further? Mark what follows, verse 31: “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice.” And would you do that which may please the Holy Spirit? 0! God knows it would be the greatest joy in the world for me to do it. Then observe verse 32: “Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another; even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”

Fifthly. These divisions do grieve and offend our brethren. This should not be a light matter with us. Christ accounts it a great evil to offend one of his little ones. We may think it a little matter to give offence to some of God’s people who are poor and mean in the world; so long as we have the bravery of it, and the countenance of great men, no matter for them. But, friend, whatever slight thoughts thou hast of it, Christ thinks it a great matter. You may look upon them as under you; the times may favour you more than them: but if you shall give them cause to go to God, to make their moans to him of any ill usage they have had from you, and say, “Lord, thou knowest I was for peace to the uttermost I could, so far as I was able to see thy word for my guide; but these who heretofore were as brethren to me, now their spirits are estranged, their hearts are imbittered, their words and their carriage are very grievous, and all because I cannot come up to what their opinions, their ways are.” Certainly this would prove very ill to you, regard it as lightly as you will.

It may be when others carry themselves toward you otherwise than you expected, you vent yourselves against them in quarrelling, in giving ill language, in vilifying and scorning. Your strength runs out this way: but there are a generation of men, who being wronged, improve their strength in patient bearing, yea, in making their moan to God in the exercise of faith, in committing their cause to him. In Matt, xviii, 24-31, you have the story of the servant who had ten thousand talents forgiven him, who yet took his fellow-servant by the throat, who owed him a hundred pence, and put him into prison. The text says, “When his fellow-servants saw what was done, they were sorry, and came and told their lord what was done.” You do not hear them cry out of their fellow-servant, “O what a vile, base wretch, was he, who would deal thus with his fellow!” No; but they went and told their lord. It is not the way of Christians when they apprehend wrong, to give ill language, to seek to right themselves or others by bitter, provoking expressions; but their hearts being filled with grief, if they must needs vent it, if quiet debates with their brethren will not ease them, let them vent themselves in the pouring forth their complaints to the Lord.

Sixthly. There is much sin in our divisions; for they stir up much corruption on all sides, both in ourselves and others. As if you shake a glass of water that has dirt in the bottom, the dirt spreads itself all over, so doth the dirty stuff of our hearts. These divisions causing a commotion in them, those corruptions are now discovered, that neither ourselves nor others had thought had been in us. Do not say in your hearts, and it may be one to another, Who would have thought it possible that so much filthy stuff should lie so long in such men’s hearts undiscovered, which now appears since these unhappy divisions have been among us? James iii, 16: “Where there is envying and strife, there is confusion, and every evil work.” When snakes are cold, they lie still; but if the heat of fire comes to them, then they hiss, and put forth their stings. Thus men’s corruptions heat by the fire of contention that is kindled among us, till they begin to stir, to act, yea, to rise very high. The reason that some give of that prohibition of the apostle, (Ephes. iv,) “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath;” which also I find Chrysostom upon the place gives; is this, because when men’s wrath is stirred by contending, if it continue in the heat of it till night, as they lie upon their beds, their corruptions will be boiling: they will lie musing and plotting against those that contend with them; their thoughts in the night season will work up their corruptions to a great height. Have you not found it so, when the sun was gone down upon your wrath, you could hardly sleep that night? William the Conqueror, in his first year, commanded that every night, at eight o’clock, a bell should be rung, and that all people then should put out their fire, which they called the Curfew Bell. It were well if some were admonished every night to cover the fire of their passions. /

We stir up likewise the corruptions of others, in these our divisions. Do you not see those / distempers, formerly mentioned, working and breaking forth in your brethren, when you provoke them in your contending with them? O pity, pity thy brother, if thou canst not pity thyself! Does it not grieve thee that thy brother should bring sin upon himself? Were it not better for thee to suffer, than for thy brother to sin? It is an evil thing to be an occasion of grief to our brethren. “The Lord does not willingly grieve the children of men;” but to be an occasion of sin to them is much worse. When did you ever meet with your brethren, and had your spirits put into any heat, but after your parting, when you began to be cool, you then saw cause to grieve for unbeseeming words, carriage, and breakings forth of passion, that there was either in you or them. Sometimes in a froward debate there is more sin committed in one hour than there is otherwise in a whole twelvemonth, between those who live lovingly and sweetly together. Yea, sometimes such corruptions are stirred by differences and divisions that are incompatible to a saint; namely, the rejoicing in the evil of other men, yea, of godly men. David said his zeal had even consumed him, because his enemies had forgotten God’s word. But some men’s zeal doth even consume them, because their friends do remember God’s word. The more inoffensively they walk, the more are they troubled. It were endless to mention the uncharitableness, wrong, malice, injustice, oppression, cruelty, with the abundance of other sins, that are caused by our divisions. Seventhly. Yet further, as they stir up sin, so they harden in sin, as fire hardens the clay into brick. Thus are men’s hearts hardened in evil by our divisions; men who heretofore had tender spirits, whose hearts were ready to relent upon any brotherly admonition; but now they are stiff, they stand out sturdily, yea, behave themselves scornfully. O this fire of contention hath baked their lusts, hath hardened their hearts! Ezek. xi. God promises to give his people one heart, which should be a heart of flesh. While the hearts of the saints are united, they are tender; but when they divide, they grow hard. Hence is the reason why brethren being fallen out, it is so hard to convince either of them of any ill carriage. They are angry, and they think they do well to be angry, and all because their hearts are hardened. Jonah was in a pettish mood, and his heart was hardened with it. Let God himself come now to convince him, he stands it out, he will by no means acknowledge himself faulty: — no, what he does he will justify, he does well to be angry. Eighthly. There is much sin in them, for they are means to keep off others from God’s ways. If this be their religion, say they, for men to quarrel one with another, we will have none of it. Carnal-hearted men are apt to charge religion with all the miscarriages of the professors of it You know what Saint Paul says, 1 Cor. xiv: “If men speak with strange tongues, and there comes in one unlearned, will they not be to him as barbarians; will they not say they are mad?” Thus when the men of the world look upon those who profess religion, and see their carriage, their ways strange, and divided among themselves, will they not think them even as mad people? “I charge you,” says the church, (Cant, iii, 5,) “by the roes and by the hinds, that you stir not up my beloved till he please.” This by some is interpreted thus, The roes and hinds are shy and fearful creatures, and by them are signified such as are observers of the ways of the church, and ready to take offence at anything they see amiss in them: therefore I charge you, say those who are faithful, that you do nothing that may make any disturbance

in the church, whereby such as are observers of your ways shall be offended. If they see miscarriages in you, they will fly off. And of all miscarriages, there are none more offensive to the lookers on than wranglings and contendings. When they see this, they will conclude, surely this is not the way of Christ.

They are a very ill improvement of our zeal and courage. Zeal and courage have such an excellency in them, that it is a thousand pities they should have no other improvement, than to raise and maintain quarrels and divisions. The Lord hath use for every man’s zeal and courage. Keserve them for him, for some notable work that God hath for thee to do, and do not spend them about that from whence comes no good. If soldiers lying near their enemies, having no store of powder, should spend what they have in making squibs and fire-works, would they not be condemned of folly, if not of treachery, by all? Those who have the most zeal and courage, have little enough to serve their turn for the service that God requires of them: and must this be spent in unworthy babblings, wranglings, and quarrellings? That man’s body is in an ill condition that has a sore to which the humours have recourse to feed it, leaving the supply of the parts of the body that are to be nourished and maintained by them: the sore is fed, but the other parts grow lank and feeble. Thus it is with many men’s spirits; they are distempered: and then what abilities they have, are drawn away to feed those distempers. What account can be given to God of such a use of them as this?

They make very much against the cause of Christ now in hand, the great work of reformation. Had we joined hand in hand together, and set ourselves to serve the Lord with one shoulder, what abundance of service might have been done! how high might the honour of Christ been advanced among us before this day! But while one draws one way, another another; one seeks to set up, and another labours to pull down; how can the work go on? You will say, that is true indeed, things would go on apace, if those who differ from others would give up their judgments and practices to them, to believe what they believe, and to do what they do. But how can this be? You would not have them give up their judgments or practices to them, till they know them to be right; and how can that be, until they, by discussing, praying, reading, and meditating, find that out? I answer, If some men had certainly found out the right, and other men knew certainly that they had done so, then the work were at an end.

These our dissentions are against a great part of the covenant of grace which God hath made with his people in Christ, and those many promises of so much peace that there is to be in the times of the gospel. We by these do that which tends to make void the covenant; we do, as it were, say Christ is not come in the flesh. 1 John iv, 3: “Every spirit that confesseth not that Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God; and this is that spirit of antichrist.” Many men talk much of antichrist; but such as profess the gospel, and yet are of unpeaceable, snarling, contending spirits, they have the spirit of antichrist; and they do not confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. It is an argument the Jews have against Christ; say they, If he were come, then that prophecy, Isaiah xi, 6, would be fulfilled: “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the cow and the bear shall feed together,” &c. But this is not so. They also bring many other places where peace is prophesied of, as Isaiah ix, 7: “Of the increase of his government and peace shall be no end.” Those who seek for this government, should seek for his peace also.

By our divisions we cross that end that God aimed at, in the variety of his administrations in the gifts and graces of men. That this was not Christ’s end in dispensing gifts and graces in a different way, that there might be fuel administered to contentions and quarrels, but rather to exercise love, we spake to before.

THE CUEES OF DIVISIONS.

What gracious heart is not cut asunder with grief for those sore and fearful evils that there are in, and come from, our divisions; and is not even the second time cut asunder with careful thoughts in itself what may be done to heal them?

Matt, vi, 25, Christ forbids that carking care that cuts our hearts, when it is in matters concerning ourselves, yea, for our lives. “Take no thought for your life;’ so it is in your books: but the word signifies, Do not take such thought as should cut your hearts asunder: so v, 28. Why do you divide your hearts? But though this charge of Christ be doubled and doubled again, against our careful, dividing, cutting thoughts about ourselves; yet for the uniting the hearts of the saints together, for the good of the church, this heart-cutting care is not only allowed, but required. 1 Cor. xii, 25: “That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.” The words are, “That the members may care the same thing one for another;” and that with dividing, cutting care, that there might be no schism in the body. The word that is here for care, is the same that in the former places in the sixth of Matthew is forbidden.

The expressions of my thoughtful cares about this work are the subject of this time. When I set myself about it, my heart doth even ache within me, at the apprehension of the difficulty of it. There are some diseases that are called opprobria medicorum, the disgraces of physicians; because they know not what to say or do to them: or if they do anything, it is to little purpose. If there be any soul disease that is opprobrium theologorum, the disgrace of divines, it is this of contention and division. How little has all that they have studied, and endeavoured to do, prevailed with the hearts of men! What shall we do? Shall we but join in this one thing, to sit down together, and mourn one over another, till we have dissolved our hearts into tears, and see if we can thus get them to run one into another? O that it might be, what sorrow soever it costs us!

We read (Judges ii, 1-5) that the Lord sent an angel from Gilgal to the men of Israel, who told them how graciously he had dealt with them; yet they had, contrary to the command of God, made a league with the inhabitants of the land, for which the Lord threatened they should be as thorns in their sides. When the angel spake these words to the children of Israel, the people lift up their voice and wept. And they called the name of that place, Bochim, a place of tears. Their sin was too much joining, joining in league where God would not have them: those whom they joined with, God told them should be thorns in their sides. Upon this they wept, and that so sore that the place received its name from their weeping. But O that the Lord would send his angel, yea, his Spirit, to us, to convince us of our evil, that we to this day have not joined in sure league one with another; but are thorns in the sides of one another; and that after so many mercies: yea, that we are so false one to another, though the Lord hath never broke covenant with us, which was the heart-breaking argument the angel used, ver. 1. Yea, the Lord hath done abundantly for us beyond our hopes, desires, and thoughts; and that after all this there should be nothing but breaches and divisions among us; that we should be not only thorns, but spears and swords, in one another’s sides, piercing to one another’s heart! Are we the children of Israel? Let our hearts then break, and melt, and mourn, and bleed, and resolve that nothing shall comfort them, but peace with our God, and peace one with another.