charity hinders even our particular prayers and devotions.

This hindered the prayers and fastings of the people of old from finding acceptance, Is. Iviii. 3; the people ask the reason wherefore they fasted, and God did not see, nor take notice of them. He gives this reason, because they fasted for strife and debate, and hid their face from their own flesh. Again, Is. lix., the Lord saith, His hand was not shortened, that he could not save; nor his ear heavy, that he could not hear: but their sins had separated between their God and them. And among those many sins they stood chargeable with, this was none of the least, viz., that the way of peace they had not known. You see where peace was wanting, prayers were hindered, both under the Old and New Testament.

The sacrifice of the people in Is. lxv., that said, Stand farther off, I am holier than thou, was as smoke in the nostrils of the Lord. On the other hand, we read how acceptable those prayers were that were made with one accord,' Ac. iv. 24, compared with ver. 31. They prayed with one accord, and they were all of one heart and of one soul. And see the benefit of it; they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the Word with boldness:' which was the very thing they prayed for, as appears, ver. 29. And the apostle exhorts the husband to dwell with his wife, that their prayers might not be hindered. 1 Pe. iii. 7. We see, then, want of unity and peace, either in families or churches, is a hinderance of prayers.

(8.) It is a dishonour and disparagement to Christ that his family should be divided. When an army falls into mutiny and division, it reflects disparagement on him that hath the conduct of it. In like manner, the divisions of families are a dishonour to the heads and those that govern them. And if so, then how greatly do we dishonour our Lord and Governor, who gave his body to be broken, to keep his church from breaking, who prayed for their peace and unity, and left peace at his departing from them for a legacy, even a peace which the world could not bestow upon them.

(9.) Where there is peace and unity, there is a sympathy with each other; that which is the want of one will be the want of all,-Who is afflicted, saith the apostle, and I burn not? we should then remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being ourselves also of the body. He. xiii. 3. But where the body is broken, or men are not reckoned or esteemed of the body, no marvel we are so little affected with such as are afflicted. Where divisions are, that which is the joy of the one is the

* Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended,

and I burn not?'-ED.

grief of another; but where unity, and peace, and charity abounds, there we shall find Christians in mourning with them that mourn, and rejoicing with them that rejoice; then they will not envy the prosperity of others, nor secretly rejoice at the miseries or miscarriages of any.

Fourth, Last of all, I now come to give you twelve directions and motives for the obtaining peace and unity.

If ever we would live in peace and unity, we must pray for it. We are required to seek peace: of whom, then, can we seek it with expectation to find it, but of him who is a God of peace, and hath promised to bless his people with peace? It is God that hath promised to give his people one heart, and one way; yet for all these things he will be sought unto. O then let us seek peace, and pray for peace, because God shall prosper them that love it.

The peace of churches is that which the apostle prays for in all his epistles; in which his desire is, that grace and peace may be multiplied and increased among them.

1. They that would endeavour the peace of the churches, must be careful who they commit the care and oversight of the churches to; as, first, over and besides those qualifications that should be in all Christians, they that rule the church of God should be men of counsel and understanding; where there is an ignorant ministry, there is commonly an ignorant people,—according as it was of old, Like priest, like people.

How sad is it to see the church of God committed to the care of such that pretend to be teachers of others, that understand not what they say, or whereof they affirm. No marvel the peace of churches is broken, when their watchmen want skill to preserve their unity, which of all other things is as the church's walls; when they are divided, no wonder they crumble to atoms, if there is no skilful physician to heal them. It is sad when there is no balm in Gilead, and when there is no physician there. Hence it is, that the wounds of churches become incurable, like the wounds of God's people of old; either not healed at all, or else slightly healed, and to no purpose. May it not be said of many churches at this day, as God said of the church of Israel, that he sought for a man among them that should stand in the gap, and make up the breach, but he found none?

Remember what was said of old, Mal. ii. 7, The priest's lips should preserve knowledge; and the people should seek the law at his mouth.' But when this is wanting, the people will be stumbling and departing from God and one another; therefore God complains, Ho. iv. 6, that his people were

destroyed for want of knowledge; that is, for want of knowing guides; for if the light that is

in them that teach be darkness, how great is that darkness; and if the blind lead the blind, no marvel both fall into the ditch.

How many are there that take upon them to teach others, that had need be taught in the beginning of religion; that instead of multiplying knowledge, multiply words without knowledge; and instead of making known God's counsel, darken counsel by words without knowledge? The apostle speaks of some that did more than darken counsel, for they wrested the counsel of God. 2 Pe. iii. 16. In Paul's epistles, saith he, are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures unto their own destruction.' Some things in the Scripture are hard to be known, and they are made harder by such unlearned teachers as utter their own notions by words without knowledge.

None are more bold and adventurous to take upon them to expound the dark mysteries and sayings of the prophets and revelations, and the 9th of the Romans,-which, I believe, contains some of those many things which, in Paul's epistles, Peter saith were hard to be understood.' I say, none are more forward to dig in these mines than those that can hardly give a sound reason for the first principles of religion; and such as are ignorant of many more weighty things that are easily to be seen in the face and superficies of the Scripture; nothing will serve these but swimming in the deeps, when they have not yet learned to wade through the shallows of the Scriptures. Like the Gnostics of old, who thought they knew all things, though they knew nothing as they ought to know. And as those Gnostics did of old, so do such teachers of late break the unity and peace of churches. How needful, then, is it, that if we desire the peace of churches, that we choose out men of knowledge, who may be able to keep them from being shattered and scattered with every wind of doctrine; and who may be able to convince and stop the mouths of gainsayers!

2. You must not only choose men of counsel; but if you would design the unity and peace of the churches, you must choose men of courage to govern them; for as there must be wisdom to bear with some, so there must be courage to correct others; as some must be instructed meekly, so others must be rebuked sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; there must be wisdom to rebuke some with long-suffering, and there must be courage to suppress and stop the mouths of others. The apostle tells Titus of some whose mouths must be stopped,' or else they would subvert whole houses.' Tit. i. 11. Where this courage hath been wanting, not only whole houses, but whole churches have been subverted. And Paul

tells the Galatians, that when he saw some endeavour to bring the churches into bondage, that he did not give place to them, 'no, not for an hour,' &c. Ga. ii. 5. If this course had been taken by the rulers of churches, their peace had not been so often invaded by unruly and vain talkers.

In choosing men to rule, if you would endeavour to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace thereby, be careful you choose men of peaceable dispositions. That which hath much annoyed the peace of churches, hath been the froward and perverse spirits of the rulers thereof. Solomon therefore adviseth, that with a furious man we should not go, lest we learn his ways, and get a snare to our souls.' Pr. xxii. 24, 25. And with the froward we learn frowardness. How do some men's words eat like a canker; who instead of lifting up their voices like a trumpet, to sound a parley for peace, have rather sounded an alarm to war and contention. If ever we would live in peace, let us reverence the feet of them that bring the glad tidings of it.

6

O how have some men made it their business to preach contentions, and upon their entertainment of every novel opinion, to preach separation! How hath God's Word been stretched and torn, to furnish these men with arguments to tear churches! Have not our ears heard those texts that saith, Come out from among them, and be separate,' &c.; and, 'Withdraw from every brother that walks disorderly?' I say, have we not heard these texts, that were written to prevent disorder, brought to countenance the greatest disorder that ever was in the church of God, even schism and division ? whereas one of these exhortations was written to the church of Corinth, to separate themselves from the idol's temple, and the idol's table, in which many of them lived in the participation of, notwithstanding their profession of the true God, as appears 2 Co. vi. 16, 17, compared with 1 Co. viii. 7, and 1 Co. x. 14, 20, 22 recites: and not for some few or more members, who shall make themselves both judges and parties, to make separation, when and as often as they please, from the whole congregation and church of God where they stood related; for by the same rule, and upon the same ground, may others start some new question among these new separatists, and become their own judges of the communicableness of them, and thereupon make another separation from these, till at last two be not left to walk together. And for that other text mentioned, 2 Th. iii. 6, where Paul exhorts the church of Thessalonica to withdraw themselves from every brother that walks disorderly, I cannot but wonder that any should bring this to justify their separation, or withdrawing from the communion of a true, though a disorderly, church. For,

(1.) Consider that this was not writ for a few

members to withdraw from the church, but for the church to withdraw from disorderly members.

(2.) Consider that if any offended members, upon pretence of error, either in doctrine or practice, should by this text become judges, as well as parties, of the grounds and lawfulness of their separation, then it will follow, that half a score notorious heretics, or scandalous livers, when they have walked so as they foresee the church are ready to deal with them, and withdraw from them, shall anticipate the church, and pretend somewhat against them, of which themselves must be judges, and so withdraw from the church, pretending either heresy or disorder; and so condemn the church, to prevent the disgrace of being condemned by the church. How needful, then, is it that men of peaceable dispositions, and not of froward and factious and dividing spirits, be chosen to rule the church of God, for fear lest the whole church be leavened and soured by them.

4. As there must be care used in choosing men to rule the church of God, so there must be a consideration had that there are many things darkly laid down in Scripture; this will temper our spirits, and make us live in peace and unity the more firmly in things in which we agree; this will help us to bear one another's burden, and so fulfil the law of Christ, inasmuch as all things necessary to salvation and church-communion are plainly laid down in Scripture. And where things are more darkly laid down, we should consider that God intended hereby to stir up our diligence, that thereby we might increase our knowledge, and not our divisions; for it may be said of all discoveries of truth we have made in the Scriptures, as it is said of the globe of the earth, that though men have made great searches, and thereupon great discoveries, yet there is still a terra incognita-an unknown land; so there is in the Scriptures; for after men have travelled over them, one age after another, yet still there is, as it were, a terra incog- | nita, an unknown tract to put us upon farther search and inquiry, and to keep us from censuring and falling out with those who have not yet made the same discoveries; that so we may say with the Psalmist, when we reflect upon our short apprehensions of the mind of God, that we have seen an end of all perfections, but God's commands are exceeding broad; and as one observes, speaking of the Scriptures, that there is a path in them leading to the mind of God, which lieth a great distance from the thoughts and apprehensions of men. And on the other hand, in many other places, God sits, as it were, on the superficies and the face of the letter, where he that runs may discern him speaking plainly, and no parable at all. How should the consideration of this induce us to a peaceable deportment towards those that differ.

VOL. II.

6. If we would live in peace, let us remember our relations to God-as children to a father, and to each other as brethren. Will not the thoughts that we have one Father quiet us, and the thoughts that we are brethren unite us? It was this that made Abraham propose terms of peace to Lot, Ge. xiii. Let there be no strife,' saith he, 'between us, for we are brethren.' And we read of Moses, in Ac. vii. 26, using this argument to reconcile those that strove together, and to set them at one again : Sirs,' saith he, 'ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?' A deep sense of this relation, that we are brethren, would keep us from dividing.

7. If we would preserve peace, let us mind the gifts, and graces, and virtues that are in each other; let these be more in our eye than their failings and imperfections. When the apostle exhorted the Philippians to peace, as a means hereunto, that so the peace of God might rule in their hearts, he tells them, ch. iv. 8, that if there were any virtue, or any praise, they should think of these things. While we are always talking and blazoning the faults of one another, and spreading their infirmities, no marvel we are so little in peace and charity; for as charity covereth a multitude of sins, so malice covereth a multitude of virtues, and makes us deal by one another as the heathen persecutors dealt with Christians, viz., put them in bears' skins, that they might the more readily become a prey to those dogs that were designed to devour them.

8. If we would keep unity and peace, let us lay aside provoking and dividing language, and forgive those that use them. Remember that old saying, Evil words corrupt good manners. When men think to carry all afore them, with speaking uncharitably and disgracefully of their brethren or their opinions, may not such be answered as Job answered his unfriendly visitants, Job vi. 25, How forcible are right words! But what doth your arguing reprove?' How healing are words fitly spoken! A word in season, how good is it! If we would seek peace, let us clothe all our treaties for peace with acceptable words; and where one word may better accommodate than another, let

5 с

MR.

In the list of Bunyan's works published by Chas. Doe, at the end of the Heavenly Footman,' March 1690, it stands No. 44. He professes to give the title-page, word for word, as it was first printed, It is, ⚫ Mr. John Bunyan's last sermon, at London, preached at Mr. Gamman's meeting-house, near Whitechapel, August 19th, 1688, upon John i. 13: showing a resemblance between a natural and a spiritual birth; and how every man and woman may try themselves, and know whether they are born again or not.' Published 1689,

appears to have been preached only two days before his fatal illness, and twelve days before his decease, which took place August 31st, 1688. The disease which terminated his invaluable life, was brought on by a journey to Reading on horseback, undertaken with the benevolent design of reconciling an offended father to his son. Having accomplished his object, he rode to London; on his way home, through a heavy rain, the effects of which appeared soon after this, his last sermon was preached. He bore, with most exemplary patience and resignation, the fever which invaded his body; and, at a distance from his wife and family, in the house of his friend Mr. Strudwick, at Snow Hill, his pilgrimage was ended, and he fell asleep in perfect peace, to awake amidst the harmonies and glory of the celestial city.

GEO. OFFOR.

" WHICH WERE BORN, NOT OF BLOOD, NOR OF THE WILL OF THE FLESH, NOR OF THE WILL OF MAN, BUT OF GOD.'-JOHN I. 13.

THE words have a dependence on what goes before, and therefore I must direct you to them for the right understanding of it. You have it thus: He came unto his own, and his own received him not; but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh but of God.'

In the words before, you have two things. First, Some of his own rejecting him, when he offered himself to them. Second, Others of his own receiving him, and making him welcome; those that reject him, he also passes by; but those that receive him, he gives them power to become the sons of God.

those that receive him, they have God to their Father; they receive the doctrine of Christ with a vehement desire.

[TO EXPLAIN THE TEXT.]

FIRST, I will show you what he means by blood. They that believe are born to it, as an heir is to an inheritance-they are born of God, not of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God; not of blood, that is, not by generation, not born to the kingdom of heaven by the flesh, not because I am the son of a godly man or woman— -that is meant by blood; Ac. xvii. 26: He hath made of one blood all nations.' But when he says here, not of blood,' he rejects all carnal privileges they did boast of: they boasted they were Abraham's seed; no, no, says he, it is not of blood; think not to say you have Abraham to your father; you must be born of God, if you go to the kingdom of heaven.

SECOND, Nor of the will of the flesh.' What must we understand by that?

It is taken for those vehement inclinations that are in man, to all manner of looseness, fulfilling the desires of the flesh: that must not be understood