into the grounds of our conduct should imbitter our temper. The mist of passion obscures the splendour of truth, as much as fogs do the effulgence of the solar orb. Let us contend earnestly for right principles, but let it be in the exercise of right feelings. Let us hold the truth in love. Then do our sentiments appear to greatest advantage, and look like gems set in gold, when they are supported by a spirit of Christian charity.

"O divine love! the sweet harmony of souls! the music of angels! the joy of God's own heart; the very darling of his bosom! the source of true happiness! the pure quintessence of heaven! that which reconciles the jarring principles of the world, and makes them all chime together! that which melts men's hearts into one another! See how St. Paul describes it, and it cannot choose but enamour your affections towards it;-"Love envieth not, it is not puffed up, it doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." I may add, it is the best natured thing, the best complexioned thing in the world. Let us express this sweet harmonious affection in these jarring times; that so, if it be possible, we may tune the world into better music. Especially in matters of religion, let us strive with all meekness to instruct and convince one another. Let us endeavour to promote the gospel of peace, the dove-like gospel, with a dove-like spirit. This was the way by which the gospel at first was propagated in the world. "Christ did not cry nor lift up his voice in the streets; a bruised reed he did not break, and the smoking flax he did not quench; and yet he brought forth judgment unto victory." He whispered the

gospel to us from mount Sion, in a still voice; and yet the sound thereof went out quickly throughout all the earth. The gospel at first came down upon the world gently and softly, like the dew on Gideon's fleece; and yet it quickly penetrated through it; and, doubtless, this is still the most effectual way to promote it farther. Sweetness and ingenuity will more command men's minds, than passion, sourness, and severity; as the soft pillow sooner breaks the flint than the hardest marble. Let us "follow truth in love ;" and of the two, indeed, be contented rather to miss of the conveying a speculative truth, than to part with love. When we would convince men of any error by the strength of truth, let us withal pour the sweet balm of love upon their heads. Truth and love are two of the most powerful things in the world; and when they both go together, they cannot easily be withstood. The golden beams of truth, and the silken cords of love, twisted together, will draw men on with a sweet violence, whether they will or no.

"Let us take heed we do not sometimes call that zeal for God and his gospel, which is nothing else but our own tempestuous and stormy passion. True zeal is a sweet, heavenly, and gentle flame, which maketh us active for God, but always within the sphere of love. It never calls for fire from heaven to consume those that differ a little from us in their apprehensions. It is like that kind of lightning, (which the philosophers speak of,) that melts the sword within, but singeth not the scabbard: it strives to save the soul, but hurteth not the body. True zeal is a loving thing, and makes us always active to edification, and not to destruction. If we keep the fire of zeal within the chimney, in its own proper place, it never doth any hurt; it only warm

eth, quickeneth, and enliveneth us; but if once we let it break out, and catch hold of the thatch of our flesh, and kindle our corrupt nature, and set the house of our body on fire, it is no longer zeal, it is no heavenly fire, it is a most destructive and devouring thing. True zeal is an ignis lambens, a soft and gentle flame, that will not scorch one's hand; it is no predatory or voracious thing; but carnal and fleshly zeal is like the spirit of gunpowder set on fire, that tears and blows up all that stands before it. True zeal is like the vital heat in us, that we live upon, which we never feel to be angry or troublesome; but though it gently feed upon the radical oil within us, that sweet balsam of our natural moisture, yet it lives lovingly with it, and maintains that by which it is fed: but that other furious and distempered zeal, is nothing else but a fever in the soul.

To conclude, we may learn what kind of zeal it is, that we should make use of in promoting the gospel, by an emblem of God's own, given us in the Scripture, those fiery tongues, that upon the day of Pentecost sat upon the Apostles: which sure were harmless flames, for we cannot read that they did any hurt, or that they did so much as singe an hair of their heads."*

* Cudworth's Sermon before the House of Commons, 1647.

CHAPTER II.

ON THE NATURE AND DESIGN OF CHURCH

FELLOWSHIP.

"FOR want of clear information on this head, there is, both before and after admission, in the minds of many persons, a certain mystic obscurity hanging over the subject, which either repels them from seeking for admission, or fills them with disquiet. Christian churches have no mysteries, no adyta, no secrets.

It is a pernicious policy which would exalt plain duties into secret rites, and transform the simple institutions of the gospel into enigmas."* Nothing is more plain than the nature of Christian fellowship, yet nothing is less understood. I. Church fellowship is the exercise of the social principle in matters of religion, and in obedience to the authority of Christ.

Many persons seem to imagine that the only end and object of church fellowship, is the participation of the Lord's supper. Hence they attach no other idea to a church, than that of a company of Christians going together to the sacramental table; who having nothing to do with each other, till they arrive there, and whose reciprocal duties end with that ordinance. The observance of the Lord's supper, it is confessed, is one design and exercise of fellowship; but it is not the only one. Man is a social being, by which we mean that he instinctively seeks the company of his fellows; is capable of enjoying their society, and derives from their communion no small portion of his improvement and felicity.

* Eclectic Review, vol. 18, p. 325.

The aphorism of Solomon is as just as it is beautiful,-" As iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend." Social bliss was the finish of paradisiacal happiness; its influence has survived the shock of our apostasy, and will be felt amidst the felicities of the heavenly state. It is not matter of surprise, therefore, that the Lord Jesus should recognize the social principle in the arrangements of his wise and merciful economy. He might have left his people unconnected by any visible bond, or at best with no other guide to each other than the natural workings and affinities of the human bosom. Instead of this, however, he has by explicit authority grafted the duties of his religion upon the propensities of our social nature. The identifying law of Christ's kingdom is love to one another; and in order that this love may be more perfect in its exercise, we are united in visible communion. When, therefore, we join a Christian church, we enter a society of believers for the purpose of giving and receiving every suitable expression of mutual love. We then associate ourselves with those towards whom we are to cherish, in consequence of a common relationship, the kindest emotions. We are not only to worship with them in the same place, not only to sit with them at the same sacramental board, but we are to consider ourselves as one of their fellowship, to identify our best feelings with theirs, and in all things to consider ourselves members one of another. Our fellowship is not intended for, nor is it to be expressed by, any one exclusive act; but it is to extend itself to every possible way of having communion with each other. We are to rejoice together in the common salvation; and to bring forth together the fruits of a like precious faith. Dr. Watts has