4. He pleads the bowels of mercies: For bowels and mercies are not to be understood as signifying different things, but, by an usual hebraism, bowels of mercy, that is, the tenderest compassion, by which the bowels are struck and caused to yearn: And the general meaning to be sure is, if ye have learnt the compassion of christians. This implies, that it was intended that christians should be compassionate. If there are bowels in human nature, how much more tenderly must they move, when instructed by the holy discipline of the gospel? This the genius of our religion very evidently shows; as it gives us so many precepts of compassion, and as it gives us so bright. an example of it, in him whose whole history is the history of compassion and love. And need I name him to you? O Sirs, from whom can we learn this lesson if not from Jesus the Son of God, whose pity, whose pity for us, for our otherwise hopeless ruin, brought him down from his exalted glory, clothed him in these mean garments of mortal flesh, which we wear, and when it had made him a man, made him a sacrifice too, and triumphed over all the agony, and all the infamy of the cross, that it might raise us to life and glory? let us study this generous compassionate love in its various circumstances, till every stern and stubborn passion be subdued in our hearts, till we feel our souls melted into streams of love, and disposed to put on the Lord Jesus Christ; for Greater love has no man than this, that a man should lay down his life for his friend, and yet when We were enemies Christ died for us +.

But it is possible St. Paul might mean particularly to apply to their christian compassion for him, as if he had said ; “ If on the whole you pity the load of affliction under which I am lying for the gospel, and would not grieve me yet more than all my enemies can distress me; if you would rather comfort and support me under what I suffer from them, show it thus. Let Paul amidst all his labours and sorrows have this joy, that you love one another; that you are ready to every kind and friendly action, and shewa true christian magnanimity, as well as gentleness of mind, in looking higher than those things which are so often the causes of discord, to the great considerations which have so strong a tendency to unite us."

Such, my dear brethren, and friends, such are the arguments which St. Paul urges, and let us endeavour to retain a sense of them upon our hearts. Let me, as it were, adjure as many of you as hear me this day, by the consolations of Christ,

* John xv. 13.

† Rom. v. 8.

if they are sweet to you, by his offices, by his benefits, by all the representations which the scripture makes of him, by the endearing tenderness and delight of this most noble godlike affection of the human mind, by the love of that holy Spirit which unites us into one body, and is, as it were, the common soul of it, by all the compassions which as christians you ought to feel for each other, and we the ministers of Christ would add, if that may avail any thing, as surely it may, by all your compassions to us, if we may indeed pretend to any merit with you, for all that we do, or for all that we resign upon your account, for all our most affectionate care for your edification, working frequently by night as well as by day, attending us into every place, and every service public or private; an affection which I hope, and I trust in the Lord, would bear us cheerfully to bonds and imprisonments, or to death itself for your establishment in our common faith. If any of these considerations, if all of them united can have any weight, be unanimous, having your minds joined in the same love, and attending to the one thing; thus fulfil ye our joy, which is herein the joy of our common Lord too, and which will be your joy, amidst the various inconveniences inseparable from mortal life. Cultivate more

and more that lovely principle, which having ennobled as well as delighted your spirits, having rendered you the ornament of religion, and dear in the eyes of men, and of God, will prepare you for, and through the grace of the Redeemer, transmit you to the regions of everlasting love, and will there continue for ever to delight and adorn you, when faith and hope shall cease, and all our present causes of contention shall be long forgot. But I would hope you feel the force of these motives, and begin to be impatient for those advices for maintaining and promoting this blessed temper, which I gave

you reason

III. To expect at the conclusion of this discourse. And here as I intend rather to suggest some useful and comprehensive hints, than to expatiate upon them, I shall not range them under distinct heads, but offer them briefly as they rose in my mind.

It will be one step towards attaining this excellent temper, "earnestly to desire to attain it." And that we may, let us often reflect with ourselves how amiable and how excellent it is! What an ornament, and indeed, with all its meekness, and tenderness, what a defence to true christianity! Let us accustom ourselves to think, so far as our best information reaches, what the face of the christian church has in fact been

amidst all the mutual animosities that have reigned among its members; and, on the other hand, let us try to imagine what it would have been, if that pacific, gentle, beneficent temper which the gospel recommends had constantly, had generally been prevalent, and every angry, turbulent, malignant thought and passion, had been brought into sweet subjection to the laws of Christ. But who can make the computation, whether we consider its aspect on present or on future happiness? Who can calculate how widely christianity would have been spread, while the admiring world had been charmed by so bright a light, had been melted by so celestial a flame? Who can imagine what delights had sprung up in every breast, and how they had been multiplied by reflection from each? Above all, who can conceive how large a colony the regions of perfect love and blessedness would have received from the peopled earth: A colony increased by how many thousands and millions of those, who, filled with rancour and hatred, are now alas! gone down to final destruction, and feel an hell of malignant passions within, which will be matter of everlasting torment to themselves, and all their wretched companions.

"Let us often think of the meekness and gentleness of Christ and of his apostles," particularly of St. Paul, and render familiar to our minds the many candid maxims, and principles, with which his writings abound. Let us remember, as he has admonished us, that The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost *. That as for some particular ritual observances, though the imposition of them must indeed be displeasing to God, yet the practice or the omission does not affect our share in his favour, if conscience be not violated. Neither if we eat are we the better, neither if we eat not are we the worse †. Let us remember the very same principle, and that a very good one, indeed the very best of all principles, the desire of pleasing God, may, to persons under different apprehensions, produce a quite different conduct. He that regards a day may regard it to the Lord, and as for him that regards not a day, it may be out of a conscientious regard to the Lord that he does not regard it‡. When we are tempted to make our own taste and relish the standard to which all our brethren should bow, let us remember that Christ pleased not himself; and, when we are ready on the one hand to Judge our brethren, or on the other hand to despise them, let us call up to our assistance that awful tribunal before which we are all in a

Rom. xiv. 17.

+1 Cor. viii. 8.

Rom. xiv. 6.

little time to appear §, that the account we have to give of ourselves to Christ may awe our spirits, and restrain us from that severity on our part, which might seem to challenge a severity on his, which the best of us could never be able to support under.

"If unkind thoughts against our brethren arise in our minds, let us suppress them," for by being vented they gain strength, and one injury is apt to beget another. If therefore we are obliged, as we sometimes may be, to plead the cause of truth and of liberty, though our antagonists may possibly give us great personal advantages against them, yet let us not be too ready to take or even to observe them, but let us rather shew a noble superiority to injurious usage, and learn to answer confidence and petulance, censoriousness and severity with calmness and gentleness, with reasonings indeed as strong as possible, but with a resolute guard upon our tempers; lest we become like those whom we blame, and condemn, in what is their folly, and will upon the whole be the disadvantage of their cause; for whatever little turn it may for the present serve, it will of course recoil upon them at last, and the more strongly when it seems to do it by its own natural spring, while we are too generous to urge it to the last extremity.

"Let those of us who appear under public characters, be very careful that we do not on any occasion passionately inveigh against our brethren, and especially in religious assemblies." Thus to abuse the sacred and important moments, which we spend immediately in the divine presence, thus to pervert the great design of christian ordinances, and make them the vehicle of such malignant passions, is equally affronting to God, and pernicious to men. It is calling the sheep of Christ together to be poisoned under a pretence of feeding them. Alas too inflammable are the passions of men in this degenerate state of nature, and too many are the unavoidable occasions of offence. It is not necessary that the ministers of Christ should abet their fury, and if I may be indulged in the expression, tear out some of the most important leaves of the book of God, to give fire to the fatal train.

It is always proper to be upon our guard here, and "it is never more necessary than when the petulance and bigotry of others has given the example and begun the attack." Nature will be roused on such provocation, and is ready to spring forward, and enter into the contention with a fierce delight: But

*Rom. xiv. 10, 12.

it will be our surest wisdom in all such cases, to Leave it off before it be meddled with*, remembering our relation to him who Endured the contradiction of sinners against himself†, and Being reviled, reviled not again, but in calm silence committed himself to him that judgeth righteously ‡.

Permit me to add, that "in proportion to the degree in which God has distinguished any from their brethren by peculiar abilities, or more eminent services, they should be so much the more careful to distinguish themselves by meekness and candour." As James expresses it, Whoso is a wise man, and endowed with distinguishing knowledge among you, let him especially illustrate his meekness of wisdom §. The lowest understanding, the meanest education, the most contemptible abilities, may suffice to give hard names, and to pronounce severe censures. A harsh anathema may be learnt by heart, and furiously repeated by one that could scarce read it, and, as was in truth the case in some ancient councils, may be signed by those that cannot write their names. But true catholicism of temper is a more liberal thing, it proceeds from more enlarged views, it argues a superior greatness of mind, and a riper knowledge of men and things. And the man who is blessed with such advantages should be so much the more solicitous, that he does not on any provocation add the weight of his example to so bad a cause as that of uncharitableness always is. He owes it to God and to the world, that such an influence be employed to the happy purposes of healing the wounds of the christian church, and of conciliating the affections of good and worthy men towards each other, till their united counsels can regulate its disorders, and restore to it a form more worthy of itself.

"All these precautions will be more easy to us, in proportion to the degree in which we labour with our own hearts, to subdue the inward workings of pride and vain-glory." And for this purpose let us often review the too voluminous history of our own miscarriages in conduct, and mistakes in judgment; and it will make us less confident in ourselves, less severe and overbearing in our treatment or censures of others. On the other hand, let us look upon the excellencies of our brethren rather than their defects, and, let it always be the joy of our hearts to dwell in our thoughts upon what is beautiful, rather than what is exceptionable; and to trace, especially in those whose advantages for them may seem to have been inferior to our own,

*Prov. xvii. 14. + Heb. xii, 3. VOL. III.

+1 Pet. ii, 23. M m

§ Jam. iii. 13.