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1. UNION AND CONCORD NOT TO BE
DESPAIRED OF.

"Some men having seen the Christian world so long in sects and contending parties, do think that there is no hope of unity and concord, and therefore that all should be left at liberty and others think that there is no hope but on terms so wide as shall take such as Christ receiveth not, nor would have us receive.

"To think that Church union is impossible, is to deny that there is any church, and consequently any Christ. To think that necessary concord in communion is impossible, is so great a disparagement to the church, as tempteth men, by villifying it, to doubt of Christianity: for if Christians cannot live in unity of faith, and love, and converse, what is their Christianity? And such despair of concord will make men suspend all endeavours to attain it: for despair useth no means.

"And to take into the church of Christ such as want the essentials, and as Christ would not have received, is to corrupt his church, and bring in confusion, and such as will dishonour him, and will be more hurtful in the church than they would be without: like rebels in a kingdom, or mutineers in an army, or enemies in a family: the nearer the worse.

2. THE SIN AND DANGER OF MAKING TOO MUCH NECESSARY TO CHURCH UNION AND COMMUNION.

"Additions to Christ's terms are very perilous as well as diminution: when men will deny either Church entrance or communion to any that Christ would have received, because they come not up to certain terms which they or such as they devise. And though they think that Christ giveth them power to do thus, or that reason or necessity justifieth them, their error will not make them guiltless: imputing their error to Christ untruly, is no small aggravation of

the sin.

"Nor is it a small fault to usurp a power proper to Christ: to make without any authority given them themselves lawgivers to his church by him: their ministry is another work.

themselves great enough, wise enough, "And it is dangerous pride to think and good enough, to come after Christ, and to amend his work, and do it better than he hath done.

"Much less when they hereby imply an accusation against him and his institutions, as if he had not done it well, but they must amend it, or all will be intolerable.

"And indeed man's work will be like man, weak, and faulty, and full of flaws, when God's work will be like God, the effect of all-sufficient power, wisdom, and love.

"And the merciful Lord and Saviour of the church, that came to take off heavy burdens and intolerable yokes, will not take it well to have men come after him, and as by his authority, to make his easy yoke more strait, and his light burden heavy, and to cast or keep out those that he hath redeemed, and doth receive, and to deal cruelly with those that he hath so dearly bought, and tenderly loveth.

"And indeed it is ofter for men's own interest and dominion, to keep

up their power and honour of superiority, that men thus use the servants of Christ, than truly to keep clear the church, and to keep out the pollutors.

"But when it is done by too much strictness, and as for church-purity, yet this also hath its aggravations: for men so far to forget themselves that they are servants and not lords, sinners that have need themselves of mercy, unfit to be too forward to cast the first stone, to seem more wise and holy than Christ, is but specious offending him.

"And as spiritual privileges excel temporal, so is it an aggravated tyranny to deprive Christ's servants of benefits so precious, and so dearly bought. As it was not with silver and gold that we were redeemed, so neither for the enjoying of silver and gold. Communion with Christ, his body and blood, and his saints in his ordinances, is a blessing so great, that he that robs such of it that have right to it, may answer it dearlier than if he had robbed them of their purses. O what then hath the Roman usurper done that hath oft interdicted whole kingdoms of Christians the use of holy privileges and duties!

"Little do many men, that cry up faith, and orthodoxness, and catholicism, and obedience, and cry down heresy, schism, error, and disobedience, believe how much guilt lieth on their souls, and without repentance how terrible it will prove, to be charged with the cruelties which they have used to good Christians, in reproaching them, and casting them out of the church, and destroying them as heretics and schismatics, that should have been loved and honoured as saints. But some men cannot see by the light of the fire, till they come so near it as to be burned.

"These self-made or over-doing terms of church union and concord will prove the certainest engines of schism; and none are so heinous schismatics, as they that make unnecessary terms of union, and then call all schismatics that consent not to them. For, 1. These are the leaders of the disorder, when other sorts of schismatics usually are but followers. 2. These do it by law, which is of most extensive mischief, even to all that are subject to them,

when others do it but by local practice, extending but to those that are about them, or the particular assemblies which they gather. 3. These make the schism unavoidable, when private seducers may be resisted: for it is not in the power of good men to bring their judgments to the sentiments of every or any dictator, or yet to go contrary to their judg ments. Illicitum stat pro impossibili. 4. These aggravate the crime by pretending power from God, and fathering schism on so good a thing as government, and causing it as for unity itself. 5. They condemn themselves by crying down schism, while they unavoidably cause it.

"And this over-doing and making unnecessary terms, unavoidably involveth them in the guilt of persecution; and when they have begun it, they know not where to stop. Suppose they decree that none shall preach the Gospel, or assemble for holy communion in public worship, but those that subscribe, or swear, or promise, or profess, or do, somewhat accounted sinful by the persons commanded, and not necessary indeed, however esteemed by the imposer, (who yet perhaps calls it but indifferent.) It is certain that no honest Christian will do that which he judgeth to be sin: It is certain that other men's confident talk will not make all men of their minds, to take all for lawful which they take for such: what then will the imposers do? They will make strict laws to punish severely all that dis obey: for say they, Our commands must not be contemned, nor disobedience tolerated: so do the Papists as to the Trent oath, &c., so did Charles the Fifth, a while about the interim, and so many others. These laws then must be executed; the pastors must be cast out, the preach

*Or suppose they make a law that none shall have communion with them, or minister the truth among them, who will

not subscribe a human creed which the imposers themselves believe to be not wholly true, or express his belief in some man's writings, which the imposers believe to contain things inconsistent with each other and with truth, or that will not remain so many years unmarried, or that will not lay up for themselves treasures on earth by subscribing money to to publish cheap useful books and tracts. some worldly fund, or that will not refuse ED.

ers silenced; they still believe as Daniel did about praying, and the apostles about preaching, that God commandeth what men forbid, and it is a damnable sin to forsake their calling and duty, no less than sacrilege, and cruelty to souls, and deserting the church, and worship and cause of Christ: and the people will still believe that no man's prohibition can excuse them if they forsake God's public worship, and comply with sin. The prelates will say that all this is but error, wilfulness, and rebellion, and they can prove the contrary. Their words will not change the judgment of dissenters. The pastors and preachers then must be fined, imprisoned or banished for preaching, and the people for public worshipping God: when they are fined they will go on: when they are out of prison they will return to their work: nothing is left them to remedy it, but either perpetual imprisonment, banishment, or death. When that is done, more will still rise of the same mind, and continue the work that others were disabled to perform and the prelates that cause this will be taken by the suffering people for thorns and thistles, and grievous wolves that devour the flocks, and the military ministers of the devil: the indifferent common people knowing their neighbours to be conscionable men of upright lives, will become of the same minds, and look on the persecutors as the enemies of good men, and of public peace, that do all this by pride and domination; the ungodly rabble of drunkards, profane swearers, adulterers, and such like, for the part hating godliness and strict living, will cry up the prelates, and triumph over the sufferers. And thus the land will be divided; the prelates and other prosecutors, with the dirty malignant rabble of the licentious, will make one party, and these will call themselves orthodox and the church: the sufferers, and all that pity them, and like them better than the persecutors, will be the other party. The conjunction of the debauched and malignant rabble, with the prelates and their party, will increase sober men's dissatisfaction to them, and make *This is exactly the course with religious denominations so far as their power goes.

men take them for the patrons of impiety: and how sad a condition must such churches be in! to say nothing of the state concussions and diseases that usually follow. Whatever ignorant men may dream, these prognostics are most certain, as any man that can discern the effects in moral causes may see, and as history and sad experience prove to all men of reading, observation, and understanding.*

"And in pastors of the church this will be a double crime and shame; because, 1. It is their office to gather and edify Christ's flock, and not to scatter and afflict them. 2. Because they should most imitate Christ in tender bowels, gentleness, and long-suffering, bearing the lambs in their arms, and not breaking the bruised reed, nor quenching the smoking flax: nurses or mothers used not to kill their children for crying, nor to turn them out of doors because they are unclean, nor to cut their throats to make them swallow bigger morsels, instead of cutting their meat: much less to cast them off for obeying their father 3. Because it is supposed that they best know the will of Christ, and should be best acquainted with the ways of peace. And therefore should understand Rom. xiv and xv. 'Him that is weak in the faith receive; but not to doubtful disputations.' The kingdom of God is not meats and drinks, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost: and he that in these things serveth Christ, is acceptable to God, and approved of men; that is, of wise and good men, but not of proud persecutors, Rom. xiv. 17, 18. Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God.' Rom. xv. 7. If the people were schismatical, and inclined to fall in pieces, the guides and builders should solder and cement them, and as pillars and bases in the church, which is the house of the living God, (as Timothy is called), should bear them up that they fall not by divi

sion.

"In a word, whoever will impartially read church history, especially of the councils and popes, shall find that the self-conceited usurpation of proud prelates, imposing unnecessary

* And the history of all sects proves the same though on a smaller scale.

devices of their own (professions or practices) on the churches, and this with proud and fierce impatience toward dissenters, and usurping a legislation which Christ never gave them, hath been the great cause of much of the hatred, schisms, persecutions, wars, rebellions against emperors and kings, false excommunications, interdicts, and the disgrace of Christianity, weakening of the church, and hindering the conversion of Jews and infidels, and been a chief granado, thunderbolt, or wild-fire, by which satan hath so much prospered in storming of the church."

VARIETIES.

THE following extract from Finney, shows that human nature is the same on the other side of the Atlantic as on this:

"The most violent opposition that I have ever seen manifested to any persons in my life, has been manifested by members of the church, and even by some ministers of the Gospel, towards those who, I believe, were among the most holy persons I ever knew. I have been shocked, and wounded beyond expression, at the almost fiendish opposition to such persons, that I have witness ed,"-Finney on Sanctification.

J. WESLEY.

THE late John Wesley once travelled in a stage coach with a young officer, who swore and uttered curses upon himself in almost every sentence, Mr. W. asked him if he had read the Common Prayer-book; for if he had, he might remember that collect beginning, "O God, who art ever more ready to hear than we are to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve."

The young gentleman, who had contracted a very common, but dispicably vulgar and sinful habit, had the good sense to make the application, and behave accordingly.

JOHN BROWN.

THE late John Brown, of Hadding ton, once passing the Frith of Forth, between Leith and Kinghorn, had for a fellow-passenger a Highland nobleman. Mr B. observed with grief, that he frequently took the name of God in vain; but suspecting that to reprove him in the pre

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sence of the other passengers might tend only to irritate him, he forebore saying any thing till he reached the opposite shore. After landing, Mr. B. observing the nobleman walking alone, stepped up to him and said, "Sir, I was sorry to hear you swearing while on our passage. You know it is written, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."" The nobleman, taking off his hat, and bowing to Mr. B. made the following reply:-"Sir, I return you thanks for the reproof you have now given me, and shall endeavour to attend to it in future: but," added he, "had you said this to me while in the boat, I believe I should have run you through with my sword."

S. WESLEY.

SAMUEL Wesley, rector of Epworth, and father of the celebrated John Wesley, once went into a coffee-house in London, for some relemen in a box at the other end of freshment. There were several genthe room, one of whom, an officer of the guards, swore dreadfully. The rector saw that he could not speak to him without much difficulty: he therefore desired the waiter to give him a glass of water. When it was brought, he said aloud, "Carry it to yon gentleman in the red coat, and desire him to wash his mouth after his oaths." The officer rose up in a fury; but the gentlemen in the box laid hold of him, one of them crying out, "Nay, colonel, you gave the first offence; you see the gentleman is a clergyman; you know it is an affront to swear in his presence.' The officer was thus restrained, and Mr. Wesley departed.

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Some years after, being again in London, and walking in St. James's Park, a gentleman joined him, who, after some conversation, inquired if he recollected having seen him before. Mr Wesley replied in the negative. The gentleman then called to his remembrance the scene at the coffeehouse; and added, "Since that time, sir, I thank God, I have feared an oath and as I have a perfect recollection of you, I rejoiced at seeing you, and could not refrain from expressing my gratitude to God and you." "A word spoken in season> how good it is!"

THE IMITATION OF THE DIVINE bring us to spend our lives, and em

GOODNESS.

PART SECOND.

"Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful."-LUKE vi. 36.

WE would now call your attention to some of those considerations which ought to stimulate us to imitate the Goodness of God.

1. We would observe, in the first place, that to resemble God, to bear his image, and to imitate his goodness, was the end for which we were created. Man was made in God's image at first, and it was God's intention, so far as we can learn his mind from the Sacred Scriptures, that man should be a visible reflector of his glory, a living, moving exemplification of his unseen, unbounded, and eternal love. It is only so far, therefore, as we bear on our souls the image of God's love, and imitate in our lives his goodness to his creatures, that the end of our creation is answered. If we live not under the influence of love, we frustrate the great end of our existence, and so far bring to nought the wise and gracious purposes of our Great Creator. "Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father which is in

Heaven is merciful."

2. Again, to restore us to the image of God, and so to fit us for imitating his goodness, is the design of the whole religion of Christ, and of the whole plan of redemption. Hence those who have experienced the salvation of the Gospel, are spoken of as having been renewed in righteousness and true holiness after the image of God, and as hav ing been "created anew by Christ Jesus unto good works."* And they are accordingly exhorted to "Be followers [or imitators] of God as dear children; and to walk in love as Christ also hath loved them, and given himself for them, an sacrifice to God, offering and a for a sweet smelling savour."+ The precepts which Christ inculcated, the parables which he spoke, the doctrines which he taught, and the example which he exhibited, all tend to this one object, to destroy our natural selfishness, to fill us with love to God and love to man, and to

*Col. iii. 9, 10. Eph. iv. 24. Eph. ii. 10. + Eph. v. 1, 2.

ploy our powers, in doing good. The object and tendency of the doctrines of the Gospel are exhibited by the Apostle in one of his Epistles to the Corinthians. Comparing the revelations of the Gospel to a glass, he says, "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are change into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord."

The end for which the Redeemer suffered and died, the end for which he instituted his church,and shed down upon it the powerful influences of the Holy Spirit,-the end for which he gave Apostles, and Prophets, and Evangelists, and Pastors, and Teach-ers, was to make men partakers of the Divine Nature, and to bring them to live in the exercise of unfellow-men. It is only therefore so ceasing and unbounded love to their far as we are thus filled with love, for the good of mankind, that the and brought thus to live and labour end of redemption is answered in us. It is only so far as we are delivered from our natural selfishness, and inspired with the benevolence of our Heavenly Father, that we are truly redeemed. The work of redemption is but very imperfectly understood by many. Great numbers speak of the work of redemption as if it consisted in little else than in procuring from hell; and they look at Christ pardon for sin, and preserving us

as little more than the world's

High Priest, whose chief and almost
self as a propitiation, to procure
only object was, by offering him-
for man the pardon of his sins. The
light in which the New Testament
represents Christ and his work is
Christ is placed be-
fore us in the New Testament as the
very different.
Teacher, the Ruler, and the Reno-
vator of mankind, as well as their
Even his sufferings
High Priest.
and death were intended to have an
influence upon
man's nature, as well
spoken of, not only as being a sa-
as upon his condition; and his blood
crifice to God, but as washing and
its earthliness and selfishness, and
cleansing the soul, as freeing it from
lence of the Divine nature.
imparting the purity and benevo-
Christ

is

2 Cor. iii. 18.

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