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others; and even in cases, where they have a right to see, and where they have a power to see, his will, as it really is, shall shut their eyes, and go blindfold at the command of others; because those others are pleased to make themselves the sole judges of the will of their great Lord and Master.

To conclude; the church of Christ is the kingdom of Christ. He is king in his own kingdom. He is sole lawgiver to his subjects, and sole judge, in matters relating to salvation. His laws and sanctions are plainly fixed; and relate to the favour of God, and not at all to the rewards or penalties of this world. All his subjects are equally his subjects; and, as such, equally without authority to alter, to add to, or to interpret his laws so, as to claim the absolute submission of others to such interpretation. And all are his subjects, and in his kingdom, who are ruled and governed by him. Their faith was once delivered by him. The conditions of their happiness were once laid down by him. The nature of God's worship was once declared by him. And it is easy to judge, whether of the two is most becoming a subject of the kingdom of Christ, that is, a member of his church; to seek all these particulars in those plain and short declarations of their king and lawgiver himself; or to hunt after them through the infinite contradictions, the numberless perplexities, the endless disputes, of weak men, in several ages, till the enquirer himself is lost in the labyrinth, and

perhaps sits down in despair or infidelity. If Christ be our king, let us show ourselves subjects to him alone, in the great affair of conscience and eternal salvation; and, without fear of man's judgment, live and act as becomes those who wait for the appearance of an all-knowing and impartial Judge; even that King, whose kingdom is not of this world.

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DIVISIONS AMONG CHRISTIANS.

[THE following article is composed of the three first parts of two sermons, entitled, Two Sermons concerning the Divisions and Cruelties of which the Christian Religion has been made the Occasion. The text is from Matthew, x. 34. "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword." The parts of these discourses here selected, are printed in the exact language of the author, and contain all that he said on these heads, except one short paragraph, which reflects with undue severity on the Catholic Church, and is therefore omitted.]

I. I SHALL observe the truth of what is here predicted by our Lord; that the christian religion hath been made the occasion of much disturbance, of many sad divisions, hatreds, and persecutions in the world.

It is, indeed, a very moving and uneasy consideration, that, from the time of its first appearance to this very day, such an use hath been made of it, or

of something or other supposed to belong to it, as hath tempted some to think that the mischief it hath given rise to, in the world, is not countervailed by all the good it hath ever hitherto brought forth. And there needs but a very little knowledge in the history of former times, or the transactions of these later ages, to make one wish that there were much less reason to think so, than there appears to be.

What our Saviour chiefly had an eye to, in the text, was probably that persecution, and those instances of malice, which he saw it would occasion in the world at its first appearance; that hatred of christians it would produce in the breasts of unbelievers; and those storms of persecution, which the profession of it would raise against them. But, as he could not likewise be ignorant of those hatreds and animosities it would, in after ages, raise amongst christians themselves, against one another, to the disturbing and ruining their common peace and quiet; so, he did not, we may be sure, exclude these, but had an eye to them all, in the words of the text.

When christianity first appeared, and first was preached, the prejudices and passions of men ran high against it; as it was a contradiction to their received ways of worship, to their former and settled principles, to the dictates and practices of their forefathers, and to their own indulged lusts and evil habits. And so the very profession of it, much

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