530 BAXTER'S FAREWELL SERMON. accepted. Besides the illegality, there are two things that cause me to be against it. 1. That men should make a mere dividing engine, and pretend it a means of unity we all knew, at that time, when it was impos- ed, that a great part, if not the greatest, of church' and kingdom were of another mind; and that as learned and worthy men were for . prelacy,, as most the world had (such as Usher, Morton, Hall, Davenant, Brownrig, &c.) And to make our terms ofunion to be such, as should exclude so many, and such men, was but to imitate those church dividers and persecutors, who, in many coun- tries and ages, bave still made their own impositions the engines of division, by pretense of union. And it seemeth' to accuse Christ, as ifhe had not sufficientlymade us termsof concord, but we must devise our own forms as necessary thereto. 2. And it was an imposing on the providenceof God, to tie our- selves by vows to that as unchangeable, which we knew not but God might after change, as ifwe had been themasters of his prov- idence. No man then knew but that God might so alter many circumstances, as might make some things sins, that were then, taken for duty ; and some things to be duty, which then passed for sin. And when such changes come, we that should have been content with God's obligations, do find ourselves insnared in our own rash vows. And I wish that it teach no other men the way of dividing impositions, either to cutthe knot, or to be even with the Cov- enanters. IX. I greatly rejoice, that family religion is so conscionably kept up among you, that your children and apprentices seem' to promise us a hopeful continuation ofpiety among you X. 'And I thank God, that so great a number of persons, em- inent for holiness, temperance, humility and charity are safely got to heaven already, since I first came among you, and, being escap- ed from the temptations and troubles of this present evil world, have left you the remembrance of their most imitable examples. And having all this comfort in you, as to what is past, I shall once more leave you some of my counsels and requests, for the time to come, which I earnestly entreat younot to neglect. I. Spend most of your studies in confirming your beliefof the truth of the gospel, the immortality of the soul, and the life to come, and in exercising that belief, and laying up your treasure in heaven ; and see that you content not yourselves in talking of heaven, and speaking for it; but that your hopes, your hearts,and your conversation be there ; and that you live for it, as worldlings do for the flesh. II. Flatter not yourselves with the hopes of long life on earth,
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