among other bretliren, Christ hath taken care to remove them all ; so that of all others, your quarrellings are most childish, yea sinful. Sometimes one child finds himself grieved at the partiality of his parents' affection more set on some others than himself; and this makes him envy them, and they despise him ; but there is no such fondling in God's family ; all are dear alike to Chi-ist, Eph. V. 2 : ' Walk in love, as Christ hath loved us, and hath given himself for us;' that is, for one as well as another. Christ in the church is like to the soul in the body ; he is totus in tvto, et tntus in (jitalihet 'parle. Every member in Christ hath whole Christ, — his whole heart and love, as if there were none besides himself to enjoy it. Again, among men, though the father shews not so much partiality in his affection, yet often great inequality in the distri- bution of his estate; though all are children, yet not all heirs, and this sows the seed of strife among them ; as Jacob found, by woful experience. But Christ hath made his v.ill so, that they are all provided for alike, called therefore the ' common salvation,' Jude 3, and ' the inheritance of the saints in light,' Col. i. 12, for the comnumity. All may enjoy their happiness without jostling with, or prejudicing one of another, as millions of people who look on the same sim, and at the same time, and none stand in another's light. Methinks that speech of Christ looks a little this way, John xvii. 22 : ' The glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one.' By glory tliere, I would under- stand heaven's glory, principally ; now saith Clu-ist, ' I have given it ; that is, in reversion, I have given it them; not this or that favourite, but them;' I have laid it out as the portion of all sincere believers : and why? ' that they may be one;' that all squabbles may be silenced, and none may envy another for what he hath above him, when he sees glory is his. It is true, indeed, some diflerence there is in a Christian's outward garb ; some poor, some rich ; and in common gifts also, some have more of them, some less. But are these tnnti of such weight to commence a war upon, among those that wait for the same heaven? If the father clothes all his children in the same cloth, it were sad to see them stab one another, because one hath a lace more than the other; nay, because one's lace is red, and the other's is green; for indeed the quarrel among Christians is, sometimes, not for having less gifts than another, but because not the same in kind, though anotlicr as good and useful, which possibly he wants whom we envy.
Secondly, Consider where you are, and among whom. Are you not in your enemies' quarters ; if you fall out, what do you but kindle a fire for them to wai'm their hands by ? Aha! so would we have it, say they. The sea of their rage will weaken this bank fast enough, you need not cut it for them. The lun'easonableness of the strife betwixt Abraham's herdsmen and Lot's is aggra- vated by the near neighbourhood of the heathens to them. Gen. xiii. 7 : ' And there was a strife between Abraham's herdsmen and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle. And the Canaanite and Perizzite dwelled in the land.' To fall out while these idolaters looked on, this would be a town-talk present!}', and put themselves and their religion both to shame. And, I pray, who have been in oiu- land, all the while the people of God have been scuffling? Those that have curiously observed every uncomely behaviour among them, and told all the world of it; such as have wit and malice enough to make use of it for their wicked purposes. They stand on tiptoes to be at work, only we are not yet quite laid up and dis- abled (by the soreness of those our wounds which we have given ourselves) from withstanding their fury. They hope it will come to that; and tlien they will cure us of oiu- own wounds, by giving one, if they can, that shall go deep enough to the heart of our life, gospel and all. O Christians, shall Herod and Pilate put you to sham.e? They clapped up a peace to strengthen their hands against Christ; and will not you unite against your common enemy? It is an ill time for mariners to be fighting, when an enemy is boring a hole at the bottom of their ship.
Thirdly, Consider the sad consequences of your contentions. First, You put a stop to the growth of grace. The body nuiy as well thrive in a fever, as the soul prosper when on a flame with strife and contention. No, first, this fire in the bones must be quenched, and brought into its natural temper; and so must this imkindly heat be slaked among Christians, before either can grow. I pray observe that place, Eph. iv. 15: 'But speaking the truth in love,' or being sincere in love, ' may grow up into him in all things.' The apostle is upon a
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