dissolution of every community where it enters, has in this instance had no such effect; nay, that it has even produced consequences that were beneficial; not the least considerable of which has been the preservation of the holy Scriptures in their integrity; while the jealousy akt of the different sects, watching over each other, has made any material falsification or interpolation almost impossible.

pies of the op have be admire the

Still, however greatly we may wisdom and the power of God, which can thus bring good out of evil: however firmly we may be persuaded that the existence of schism, far from operating as an excuse for rejecting the gospel, does in reality furnish the strongest arguments against infidelity, we must not suffer ourselves to be deluded into an idea, that it is a matter indifferent in itself, or not an evil of the greatest magnitude. Still less must we imagine, that it is an act against the commission of which we have no need to be guarded; or which, when committed, requires not to be deplored and repented of. We must regard it as, what in truth it is, what it has always in the church, until very late years, been taken to be, a very grievous sin. It is one, of which every congregation, as well as every individual, looked upon themselves as particularly concerned to stand clear. Whenever, therefore, a separation took place in any church, or community of

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Christians, great anxiety was shown by every one of the parties to account for their conduct; w and to shew that the guilt, which was universally allowed to follow the act, did not belong to them and to their friends, but to those of the other side. It was wisely reasoned that, alhem though our Saviour had foretold consequences which would follow from his doctrine, this did in no degree operate as a recommendation or approbation of them; that his having declared, that "he was not come to give peace upon "earth, but rather division," would no way. excuse the individuals, by whose means peace should be driven away, and division brought in. It was remembered, that in the very same breath with which he had at another time declared that, "It must needs be that offences should come," he had added, "Woe to that man by whom the offence cometh."

If we required any arguments to shew, what indeed our reason might of itself point out to us, the great utility, as well as loveliness of union, our blessed Lord has not left us to seek. The repeated and forcible exhortations tending to that effect, which he delivered in his several discourses to his disciples; and more especially in those which immediately preceded his crucifixion, speak but too evidently what was the

* Matthew xviii. 7.

66

end of his doctrine, and what were the means
by which he intended that it should be ad-
vanced. He prayed to the Father, that the dis-
ciples "might be one, even as the Father and he
were one *;" than which it is impossible to de-
vise any terms more expressive of the com-
pletest union in every respect, in thought and
in word, as well as in deed. And that this
unity of the church was intended to produce
great and powerful effects even upon those that
were without, we are not left merely to infer;
for he goes on almost immediately after to re-
peat his
prayer for the apostles, in order, as he
says, addressing himself to the Father, "That
they all may be one, as thou Father art
"in me, and I in thee; that they may also be
"one with us, that the world may believe that en
"thou hast sent me t." The union of Chris-
tians with one another was, you see, to be an
evidence of the divine mission of their great
teacher and master. Again, he says, the more
to enforce it, "I in them, and thou in me;
"that they may be made perfect in one, and
"that the world may know that thou hast sent
me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved

แ

met" It is impossible to consider these, among other passages, without being satisfied that they relate, not merely to the preserva

tion of charity in general, but to that particu-
lar conformity in religious sentiment, in points
of faith and modes of worship, which must have
subsisted between Christ and his disciples dur-
ing his continuance upon earth. They were
his flock, and he the one shepherd. There was
no hint of their separating into different and in-
dependent companies; of any liberty to choose
separate paths for themselves. All our Lord's
words pointed to the strictest obedience, to the
closest adherence to one uniform rule. "Ye are
my friends, if ye keep whatsoever I have com-
manded you." "If ye keep my commandments,
ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept
my father's commandments, and abide in his
"love*." Will it now be said, that the man who
first separated himself from the church, who,
upon pretences more or less frivolous, declared
himself independent of his brethren, did "abide"
in that "love," and "keep those command-
ments?" Surely not. Must we not rather believe
that, when our blessed Lord particularly prayed
that his disciples should remain united, in order
that the world might believe, that God had sent
him, he had in view that very scandal, which our
divisions and our contentions have excited; and
of which, as I have before mentioned, the ad-
versaries of our faith have so amply availed
themselves; and that he was shewing a par-

John xv. 14. 10.

they depart

Calvin acknowlione that they

and what alone? Thing or

ticular anxiety, that so great a stumbling block should not exist?

To some of my audience I shall, probably, appear as having spent some time, and a great many words, very unnecessarily, in proving that which is so plain, as not to be open to controversy. To others, however, I may appear to have been faulty for a reason almost directly opposite. I shall be thought to have been laying a great deal of stress upon what is, in fact, of no consequence; upon what they conceive to be not even a fair subject for any question × Many there are who will be surprised, and who will revolt at any argument which tends to shew, that it is not left to the arbitrary will or caprice of any man to worship God after that mode which is most agreeable to his imagination. They will look upon it as a novelty to be told (what yet is the old and true doctrine) that to that sound part of Christ's church, which is established in the country where he was born, or where the providence of God has fixed him, he is bound to adhere; that to all its ordinances in indifferent matters, all those rules, which it has directed to be observed, for the purpose of edification, it is his duty to conform; that he who separates from such a particular church, does it at his peril; that he is committing an act, for which he must be seriously

and deeply accountable at the day of judgment;