[141] 1 John ii. 12-14; Heb. v. 11-13; Matt. xvii. 2; xiii. 31; Rom. xiv. 1, 2, 21; xv. 1; 1 Cor. viii. 7, 10, 12; ix. 22; Acts xx. 35; Luke i. 6; Phil. ii. 15; Gal. ii. 9, 11, 13, 14; 1 Thess. v. 4; 1 Cor. iii. 1, 4, 5; Eph. iv. 11, 12,13; Rom. xiv.; xv.; Col. ii. 18, 22; Phil. ii. 20, 21; 1 Cor. xii. 22, 24; 1 Sam. ii. 30; Matt. xxiii. 11; Luke xxii. 26; Matt. xx. 23; Luke xx. 30; Matt. xix. 30; xx. 16. [142] The true placing the bonds of unity importeth exceedingly. Which will be done if the points fundamental, and of substance in religion, were truly discerned and distinguished from points not merely of faith, but of opinion, order, or good intention. This is a thing that may seem to many a matter trivial, and done already; but if it were done less partially it would be embraced more generally. L. Bacon, Essay iii. [143] James iii. 13-17. [144] 1 Pet. ii. 5, 7, 9. Leg. Grotium de Imp. p. 230, 231. [145] Leg. Grotium de Imp. p. 223, 226. [146] But not denying her to be a church, unless she cast off some essential part; but so disowning her as in 2 Thess. iii. [147] Where any church retaining the purity of doctrine doth require the owning of and conforming to any unlawful or suspected practice, men may lawfully deny conformity to and communion with that church in such things, without incurring the guilt of schism. Mr. Stillingfleet. Iren. p. 117. [148] 1 Sam. xv. 22; Prov. xv. 8. [149] 2 John x. 11; 2 Tim. iii. 5; Rom. xvi. 17; 1 Cor. v. 11. [150] Matt. xiii. 41, 30; Jer. xv. 19; 1 Cor. xii. 23, 24. [151] See Rom. xiv. throughout; Rom. xv. 12, 5-7; Eph. iv. 4-7; 1 Pet. iii. 6; 1 Cor. xii. throughout; Phil. iii. 15, 16; Acts ii. 1, 46; iv. 32; Rom. xii. 4, 5; Psal. cxxxiii; 1 Cor. viii; 1 Tim. i. 4; James iii. [152] Peace containeth infinite blessings: it strengtheneth faith: it kindleth charity. The outward peace of the church distilleth into peace of conscience: and it turneth the writing and reading of controversies into treatises of mortification and devotion. Against procuring unity by sanguinary persecutions, see Lord Bacon, Essay iii. Surely there is no better way to stop the rising of new sects and schisms, than to reform abuses, to compound the smaller differences, to proceed mildly, and not with sanguinary persecutions, and rather to take off the principal authors by winning and advancing them, than to enrage them by violence and bitterness. Lord Bacon in his Essay lviii. _Ira hominis non implet justitiam Dei._ And it was a notable observation of a wise father, that those which held and persuaded pressure of consciences, were commonly interested therein themselves for their own ends. Id. Essay iii. p. 19.