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language of scripture, the wolf is made to dwell with the lamb, and the leopard to lie down with the kid.* Believers are said to "have purified their souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren ;" and, on that ground, are exhorted to love one another with a pure heart fervently, being born again of incorruptible seed, by the word of God, &c.+ Consequently the truth, when it is obeyed, tends directly, and is designed to produce brotherly love, and to expel whatever is adverse to it. To me it is evident, that the divisions of the church have been occasioned by departing from the holy scriptures; and that they can be healed only by a sincere return to them, or by the entire surrender of the mind to their authority, as the only infallible standard, to the exclusion of all others. "Let the word of the Lord be glorified." Let it possess that pre-eminent regard, and commanding influence, which its divine Author has assigned to it. And let the discordant opinions of fallible men, whether founders, or chief supporters of sects, melt before it as wax at the fire, and be thought nothing of in the comparison.

It has indeed been insinuated, that our religious discordances may arise from the obscurity and uncertainty of the scriptures, because all sects, however opposite to each other, pretend to find their peculiar tenets in them. And hence it has been thought advisable, that human authority should interpose, and provide a less exceptionable guide to truth and unity. And though this is no better than a sacrilegious defamation of the divine oracles, it has been acted on for a long course of

*Isa. xi. 6. 1 Pet. i. 22. 2 Thes. iii. 1.

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ages. The Bible has been suppressed, and the people forbidden to read it. And what have been the effects? Gross superstition, idolatry, atheism, with innumerable other evils, and a horror of darkness that might be felt, as ecclesiastical history informs us. Tell us not then of the obscurity of a book, which is all given by inspiration of God, and is a light shining in a dark place, and to which we are indebted for all the wisdom we can ever possess here that is most valuable, and worthy of the name. Let us hear no more of deficiencies, to be supplied by the skill of man,' in that word which we know is perfect, converting the soul; which is given to make the man of God perfect, having nothing froward, or perverse in it; and for which reasons we are charged under a tremendous curse, neither to add to it, nor take from it.* The obscurity and uncertainty, which give rise to our mutual dissensions, must be sought, not in the word of grace, but in the heart of man, by nature spiritually dark, and through grace enlightened only in part, and where the truth, on its entrance, has to encounter ignorance, pride, selfconceit, and an inveterate bias to sin and the world. It is certain, that those parts of scripture which are essential to salvation, or to faith and practice, are "all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge ;"+-that is, to those who are taught of God. They are made so plain, that persons of weak capacities, and such as were unable to read, and even young children have embraced them, and found it the joy of their heart to live and die under their influence. On the other hand the profound scholar, armed at all points * 2 Tim. iii. 16. 2 Pet. i. 19. Ps. xix. 7. Rev. xxii. 18. Prov. viii. 9.

with what the world calls learning, and confiding in his intellectual powers, meets with difficulties every where, learns nothing aright, and derives from the word of peace no satisfaction to his soul. And why? Because there is a vail upon his heart. The chief obstacle, I apprehend, is pride. He cannot understand the gospel because he cannot receive it as a little child. How just then will it be in the Father of spirits, if he shall see good, to leave him to that self-consequence which is his idol, and to the praise of men, which is the reward he covets! In making these remarks I have in view the solemn and affecting words with which Christ thanked his Father on a similar account: "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight."* How glorious and attractive is this representation of the divine sovereignty! How powerfully does it carry away our wills into the will of God, and constrain us to love, to tremble, and to adore!

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The maintenance of brotherly love is needful to our personal comfort, as well as to the general prosperity of the church. For "we know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother, abideth in death."+ This peculiar affection is an evidence, that we are born again, and have spiritual life; but the entire absence of it in any one proves him to be dead in sins. 'Tis important therefore to inquire, what is the real character of brotherly love, and who are the brethren? and especially as mistakes are both dangerous and com

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* Mat. xi. 25. 1 Joha iii. 14.

mon. To be attached to others because they are of your own party, and observe the same externals, and agree with you in speculative points of doctrine is far from being sufficient to prove, that you love the brethren. The apostle whom I just now quoted directs us to a better test: "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments."* For the love of God is the spring from which love to the brethren takes its rise; and keeping his commandments is the only sure evidence that we love him. All pretensions therefore to brotherly love without these are groundless and vain. If you wish to be farther acquainted with its true nature and properties, read the beautiful description of them by the Apostle Paul, who tells us, among other particulars, that "Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, seeketh not its own, is not easily provoked," &c. How natural it is to observe here, that as Christ called this a new commandment, so at the present day it still appears to be new ;-a thing unknown to, and unpracticed by the multitudes of nominal Christians, and by the bulk of professing believers!

To ascertain who are meant by the brethren, and your own claim to be accounted one of them, lay the stress where the scripture has laid it, not on any qualities, which are common to them, and to the unregenerate; but on those which are pecu- › liar to the saints. Three of these are emphatically specified by the Apostle Paul in three different places, and who, at the same time, pronounces the distinction in which the Jews chiefly gloried to be nothing, and of no avail without them; an

* 1 John v. 2. See 1 John iv, 20, and v. 3.

assertion, which may be safely made on many points of separation among ourselves. These essential parts of Christianity are, first, faith working by love; secondly, a new creature; thirdly, the keeping the commandments of God.* These are the work of the Spirit in the children of God, who have "their Father's name written in their foreheads." Receive them as your dear brethren in Christ; and count them the excellent of the earth, in whom, as to social intercourse, is all your delight Let your love to them overlook outward. distinctions, and cover all their faults.§ Sympathize with them in their trials, administer to their wants, and seek their comfort, as members of the same body, and united to the same Head. And be ready, so far as lieth in you, to partake with them, at the same table, of that one bread, which is provided for the nourishment of the whole body.

You may belong to different parties in the church without being of a party-spirit; or without glorying in that which rather calls for grief. And you are bound to love the brethren of other denominations as fervently as those of your own, because you are to love them for the Lord's sake, and on account of their bearing his image. Learn then to devise liberal things|| both at home and abroad, in your own society, and with regard to the church universal. As you are not to surrender your mind and conscience in bondage to any man, so you ought cheerfully to concede the same liberty to others which you claim for yourself. It is one of our natural rights, of which no man may deprive us; and when it is exercised with

* Gal. v. 6. and v1. 15. 1 Cor. vii. 19. + Rev. xiv. 1. Ps. xvi. 3.

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