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are spoken of by the dissenters---Objection to the church,
as to the manner of her government, as being exclusive and
uncharitable---Objection refuted-..Consequences which would
ensue on throwing the church more open---In point of jus-
tice---Practicability---Meeting at the Feathers Tavern...
Proposed rejection of all tests---Consequences---Lastly, ob-
jection that the institutions of our church are not calculated
for the promotion of piety examined and answered...Form
of our ecclesiastical government excellent---Shewn in its
effects---Observations and caution addressed to the several
sorts of dissenters---To those particularly who complain of
our ministry as inefficient and unedifying---Conclusion, re-
commending to every man the reformation of himself. P. 365,

SERMON I.

LUKE xii. 51.

Suppose ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, nay, but rather division.

Of all the calamities under which the church of Christ has suffered, there is none which has produced such pernicious and lasting effects, as the dissentions by which in all ages it has been torn. Even the cruelties and oppressions, to which it was exposed at the beginning from the fury of its persecutors, may be said to have been harmless in comparison of these. Indeed, in many respects, it was found, that persecution rather increased than repressed the zeal of the first disciples. It seems to have' operated like that temporary pressure upon certain wellcompacted bodies, which always produces a powerful re-action. It was only when the principle of disorganization was at work on the

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body itself, when the fire raged within, that apprehension might be reasonably entertained of serious and essential danger.

Nor was this calamity more severe or deplorable, than it was unnatural and strange. We may collect this from the very words of our Saviour in the text. "Suppose ye," said he, "that I came to give peace on earth?" This was indeed what might well have been supposed. It was what had been proclaimed at his birth; it was what had been promised by all the prophets, who had spoken of his kingdom. The angels' song was, "On earth peace; good will towards men" The language of the holy men was still more strongly expressive of the strictest harmony, and the most abundant love. They declared that, in his day, "The "wolf should dwell with the lamb, and the "leopard should lie down with the kid, and "the calf, and the lion, and the young fatling together, and a little child should lead them." How could such representations be consistent with any degree of disunion or division?

In another point of view, also, this representation must have appeared quite inconsistent with the ideas, which the disciples had been justly led to entertain of their master's king

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dom. It was to be eternal. “Of the increase "of his government," it had been said, "there "shall be no end." And yet, how should it stand at all under such circumstances? They knew well, our blessed Lord himself had so argued, that, “ A kingdom divided against it"self is brought to desolation, and a house di❝vided against a house falleth.”†

Strange, however, and difficult to be reconciled as all these circumstances might appear, when they were first unfolded to the world, every year, as it has rolled on in the lapse of ages, has only more fully ascertained the reality of them, and borne a more decided testimony to the truth, and the infallibility of that divine Being, by whose mouth they were first made known. We find, moreover, that the strife and the contention which he foretold, take their date almost from the very establishment of the gospel; and indeed, this also was not obscurely intimated by our Saviour at the same time, and almost in the same breath. "I am come," said: he, "to send fire upon the earth; and what will "I if it be already kindled ?" Even while he was in the world, that spirit of ambition, and that love of distinction, which are the most fruitful causes of dissention, had manifested themselves among the disciples. Nay, it was

Isaiah ix. 7,

↑ Luke xi. 17. + Luke xii. 49.

only after repeated lessons of humility, and "through much tribulation," that the apostles were taught the genuine doctrines of meekness and of charity. Still more widely, and more fiercely did the evil spread itself, when he was withdrawn from the earth, and the preaching of the word had devolved upon those who, however entrusted with the most extraordi nary powers, could not pretend to be more than fallible men, nor could assume to speak with the authority and weight, which must exclusively helong to the only son of God. In propor-, tion too, as the kingdom of Christ became more extended, a wider field was opened for the adversary to carry his designs into execution, and to sow the tares among the wheat. So rapidly indeed, and so openly did the evil spread itself, that, far from having any dif-; ficulty in tracing its progress, we cannot but see that it forms a most prominent part of ec. clesiastical history. It is indeed, to the existence of that ambitious and contentious spirit, that we owe the greater part of the apostolical writings; which, at the same time that they contain the most profitable instructions, and much of information upon great points of faith, which had not perhaps before been so clearly revealed, do also in the strongest manner attest the er

* Acts xiv. 22.

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