leave out the former which makes against them; thus carefully inserting the one, and craftily suppressing the other. Our blessed Lord in this passage was recommending to his disciples unanimity and peace: "I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven; for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them :" Here, then, he plainly shews himself more concerned for the unanimity of the supplicants, than for the number they should consist of: "If two of you (said he) shall agree:" whence we may observe that a mutual agreement was the foundation of all which followed, peace ushered in the promise, and the main design of this whole lesson was to instruct us in the duties of love and concord: But now with what tolerable propriety can he be said to perform his part of a mutual agreement, who disagrees with the body of Christ's church, and with the whole brotherhood thereunto belonging? and how can " two or three" be thought "gathered together in the name of Christ," who are apparently disjoined from Christ, and from his blessed gospel, and forsake the fountain head* from whence the streams of religious

* Our author could not mean any particular church, but the Church of Christ in general, which is the pillar and ground of truth. This the tenor of his argument most apparently supposes; and this his next following words as clearly confirm; otherwise, indeed, the fountain-head of truth, from whence, in fact, the streams of christian truth flowed out upon the world, was the Church of Jerusalem.

truth were spread throughout the world? Our blessed Lord then declares," Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them;" as if he had said, "I am "ever in the midst of such as are plain and open"hearted, peaceable and pious, and observers of

my law. These, though but two or three of "them, my gracious presence shall ever accompany." Just so his presence accompanied the three young men in the fiery furnace, and as they walked before him, in godly sincerity, and were all of one mind, he refreshed them in the midst of the flames with the comforts of his Spirit. The same gracious presence, for the same reason, accompanied his two apostles in prison: "He opened the prison doors" for them, and gave them their liberty, that they might deliver that word of his to the people, of which they were such faithful and true preachers. Wherefore when he lays it down for a rule, and saith: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them;" he who founded and formed the church, can with no justice be interpreted to mean the separation of any from it; but rather he must be understood as upbraiding the betrayers of their trust with their dissention, as recommending peace to his faithful servants; and as with this view, telling them that he would rather be in the midst of two or three agreeing in any thing they should ask of him, than with a far greater number

of disagreeing supplicants; that a prayer put up to him by a few in the unity of the spirit, and the bond of peace, would be more available than what should be offered by many with jarring affections and disunited hearts: When he was therefore prescribing a rule for prayer, he added the following as a requisite condition of its success : "When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any, that your Father also, which is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses :" In the like manner he discouraged any from "coming to the altar" with a contentious spirit, bade him "first be reconciled to his brother ;" and so returning with a peaceable disposition, he might "offer his gift" to God.

11. What prospect of peace can be entertained by such as prove themselves enemies to their brethren? If such should even suffer martyrdom for the name of Christ, they would not even with martyrdom expiate a crime of so black a dye. No sufferings can blot out the guilt of a sin so heinous, and so unpardonable, as that of schism. Moreover there can be no such thing as a martyr out of the church of Christ: and he can never attain to the kingdom of Christ, who deserts the church of Christ. Christ bequeathed us his peace at leaving us; directed us to live together in peace and unity; and never to violate its sacred bonds: So that he must never pretend to bear a proper testimony to

such a religion, no, not even by his death, who lives in variance and discord with his brethren. The apostle St. Paul hath intimated thus much to us, where he saith: "And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." Charity must for ever bear its part in the kingdom of Christ, and be conspicuous in the unity and mutual agreement of christian brethren. Variance and discord can never enter into the kingdom of heaven, nor attain the promises of Christ, who hath said, "This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you;" so that he can claim no manner of relation to, or interest in Christ, who hath betrayed and broken that law of love which Christ hath recommended. He, in short, who hath not charity, hath not God dwelling in him: It is the declaration of the apostle St. John, "That God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him." They can never therefore be interpreted to dwell with God, who know not how to live in peace and unity with his church; though they should be thrown into the fire, or be scorched in flames, or have their lives exposed to the fury of wild beasts; such a

death will never be interpreted as a crown of their faith and constancy, but rather as a punishment of their betraying it, and of their departure from it; it will not here be esteemed, as in other cases, an honourable end of a man, true to his religion, and firm to the interests of the gospel; but rather as the obstinate death of a man abandoned to despair, and bent upon his own destruction. Such a man may be put to death, but he can never be entitled to the crown of martyrdom.

12. A man may profess himself, if he will, a christian; as the devil hath sometimes put on the likeness of Christ. A practice of his which our blessed Lord foretold to us in these words: "For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many." Now as the devil is not really Christ, though he deceives many into a belief that he is so, by boldly assuming his name; so neither is he a christian, merely because he is called one, who adheres not with constancy to the truth of his Saviour's gospel. For to prophesy, and to cast out devils, and to perform mighty works and miracles, is an attainment as illustrious and magnificent as any besides; yet he who is found possessed of it, becomes not thence entitled to the kingdom of heaven, unless he be found walking moreover in the right way, in the paths of righteousness and truth. Our Lord hath already pronounced upon the case of such, and said of them: “Many will say to me in that day,