I chiefly allude to: and the power or qualification to honour men thus will depend on

-1, What I call a Gift; because it is not to be directly acquired any more than tenderness or modesty, or any other native ornament of the inner man; though it may be lost, as well as these,-and in the same way too, which it is needless to mention. This qualification, I say, is as much a gift as the rain that descends in clouds to qualify the earth for honouring us with her increase, and can no more be commanded than one of them, namely, of the rain and the clouds: no wit, nor worth, however excellent, can command in others the power of esteeming it, though it may command the debt or obligation. Else there would never be so great a dearth and drought of this article as we find in some places: where there are not five, perhaps, who would have the grace to honour an angel, leave alone ten; and if they cannot honour an angel, or two, how in the name of decency and politeness are they to honour all men?

Therefore what "The sweet Psalmist of Israel" says pithily, as usual, in one of his last hymns of Jehovah, "With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself unsavoury;" (Sam. II. xxii. 27;) may be similarly said of all men, whom he created, With the honourable they will be generally honoured, but with the worthless they are sure to be despised. And this may give one

-2, The idea of another requisite to the qualification of honouring all men; being a Title to their esteem: which will imply,

-3, A third,—the Honouring of God, before alluded to. For no man can be an object of esteem to any creature who does not honour the Creator. To honour God and be worthy of honour are, therefore, with the gift before mentioned, three necessary conditions or ingredients in the qualification for honouring all men; and we cannot properly honour all men either without them.

2. Now let me endeavour to explain that particular sort of estimation which is indicated in the second clause of my text, "Love the brotherhood," similarly with the more general; as I before proposed: namely, 1, the Object; 2, the Matter; and 3, the Qualification for brotherly love, or Christian friendship. And

1, We need not consider the Object of this particular estimation to be universal, like the object of universal love or charity; which makes no exceptions,-not even of enemies. (Matt. v. 44.) On the contrary its objects are very select according to our enlightened apostle's view of society in his day; which may be a pattern for ours in the present. For St. Peter was not like a strong man armed and keeping his palace; (Luke xi. 21 ;) though he probably knew how to wield the carnal sword as well as the spiritual. (John xviii. 10.) He was no church-fixture; but went about in his Master's business, as his Master had gone about in his Father's: (Luke ii. 49:) and what information he could not gain by experience was supplied to him by report. He was at home in Jewry and Jerusalem,—not unacquainted with society in "Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,” (Pet. I. i. 1,) nor yet in Europe, latterly; as at Rome and elsewhere, and more especially among the Jewish converts who had wandered into those parts, as they were, and still are, wandering every where, and for the same purpose, by the ordering of divine Providence: consequently he was able to make out in his mind the idea of two very unequal parties or abstracts, a greater and a less; that, the generality as well of Jews as of gentiles, whom he loosely designates as "All men;" this, a selection from both classes; which he calls "the Brotherhood," and was afterward better known by the title of the Church,-consisting of Christian professors; who walked, as far as human frailty would permit, according to the letter and spirit of their profession; they, as he says in the beginning of his second epistle, "who have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteous

ness of God, and our Saviour, Jesus Christ." (Pet. II. i. 1.)

And what may they have been?-the true Church, I mean, at that time? Why, another abstract,-smaller indeed than that of all men, who are to be generally hoDoured, therefore in some respects more discernible than it is at present, but not entirely. Such a blessed brotherhood as this, a brotherhood knit together by an unity of sentiment in the same true principles of faith, and a corresponding practice in the righteousness of God taught and exemplified by "our Saviour, Jesus Christ," might have been more conspicuous at first in the cities of the gentiles from the open contradiction and contrast it there experienced, than it has been since in the cities of Christendom; where it finds so much more outward imitation, and secret hate. But not even in the first instance, when the Christian brotherhood was no larger than the present assembly, could its actual dimensious have been ascertained to a man by any other being, as it was by its Founder. "For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him." (John vi. 64.) No other man could ever know at any time what traitors may be seemingly united with him in this holy brotherhood; especially as the mystery of iniquity increases, (Thess. II. ii. 7,) and the secret persecution "by grievous wolves" entering in among them, and "not sparing the flock," (Acts xx. 29,) and the wretched state of society predicted by Micah the prophet and reiterated by the incarnate Word, "The good man is perished out of the earth and there is none upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net. That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire; so they wrap it up. The best of them is a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge. The day of thy watchmen, and thy visitation cometh: now shall

be their perplexity. Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. For the son dishonoureth the father; the daughter riseth up against her mother; the daughter-in-law, against her mother-in-law: a man's enemies are the men of his own house." (Micah vii. 2—6, and Matt. x. 21, 35, 36.) Well therefore might the prophet add, "Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation." (Micah vii. 7.) For in waiting upon him there is less chance of disappointment than in waiting upon any other object: his knowledge is more certain, his enjoyment more complete; as I have lately shewn. And it may also lessen the chance of disappointment in the worth of the brotherhood without materially detracting from the same, if we can take it with some reserve, and with some allowance; as every earthly blessing should be taken.

The way to look upon the brotherhood, the object that we are considering, according to reason and what I should take to have been the meaning of St. Peter is, as I said, in the light of a beautiful abstract entitled to our particular love and veneration, as all men are to our general honour and esteem; never supposing for all the villainy that one sees any Judas lurking in the brotherhood, like a snake in the grass, until he begins to shew himself; as one would not suppose any rogue among all men either, until his knavery began to appear. This I consider to be Gospel, and likewise the law of the land, from the little that I know of it, respecting the discrimination of such objects.

2, As for the Matter of fraternal regard, or the particular estimation in which this smaller abstract, the Christian brotherhood or church is to be held; some may think it a mere shadow-a greater abstract than its object - the most insubstantial feeling imaginable, if it be any thing like the abstract honouring of all men before defined. But in that they will certainly be mistaken: for Scripture

authorizes the unqualified love and veneration of a more abstract Object, whom "no man hath seen at any time,” (John i. 18;) and yet we are commanded to love him with all our heart and mind. (Deut. vi. 5.) And, to speak of more familiar objects; there is hardly the regard for any acquisition that we can wait on, or object that we can pursue, which would not both appear more abstract than those of the brotherhood; yet we doubt not such objects and their regard to be real. Is not honour an abstract? is not learning an abstract? is not power? are not favour and applause? We can cherish and revere all these, however remote our chance of meeting with them: as much therefore as we cherish and revere them all, so much ought we to cherish and revere the idea of such a brotherhood as that which is headed by Christ, the first born, (Rom. viii. 29,) and included with him in the relation of the Godhead; being all one with Christ in the same manner as he also is one with the Father, and they by him. (John xvii. 21.) We may keep a place for one of them in our heart, if we never live to see him. And

3, As this unity with the Father and the Son is necessary to the being of the brotherhood, so likewise to the Qualification for loving it as we ought. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's were righteous. (Says St. John.) "Marvel not, my brethren, (says he,) if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth

in death." (John I. iii. 12-14.) Our Saviour says of "that wicked one," "He was a murderer from the beginning;" and tells his persecutors, that the same was their father. (John viii. 44.) But if "the wicked one" be a father of murderers and persecutors, and have, as it appears, a pretty numerous family, still his sons are not brethren there is no brotherhood among the children of the