2. Take more notice of their graces than of their infirmities. Is there no good thing found in them ? Rev. ii. 6, ' But this thou hast, tiiat thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans.' See also ver. 2 and 5. He beginneth and endeth with their commendation, though in the middle of the epistle he reproveth them for their decay ; he taketh more notice of what is right than what is wrong. We reflect upon the evil of every party, but do not consider the good.
3. Remember how open the enforcements to love and unity are, and how much the grounds of separation lie in the dark, and are in a doubtful case, but union is the safest part.
4. Think of God's love and forbearance towards us before we received the light of his truth, and were brought to the obedience of his will ; as God dealt wuth the Israelites, so with every one of us : Acts xiii. 18, ' He suffered their manners in the wilderness.' If we had been dealt with rigorously, we had been cut off from the number of God's people, had such stumbling-blocks and prejudices laid in our way, that we should never have been converted to God.
5. This forbearance cannot in reason be expected from others to ourselves, if we be not ready to repay it to others. There is no man which hath not infirmities of his own which call for forbearance, James iii. 2. In the general, every man is obliged to do as he would be done unto. Mat. vii. 12. So in particular, he is reproved when he had his own debt forgiven him, yet took his fellow-servant by the throat and showed him no mercy. Mat. xviii. 28. We have all our failings and mistakes ; usually God punisheth censures with censures,
7S A PKUSUASIVK TO UNITY, ETC. [PllIL. II f. 15.
:\Iat. vii. 1, iiijnilos witli injuries. Paul, tluit stoned Stephen, was himself stoned at Lystra. So he punisheth separations with separa- tions ; they arc endless, as circles in the water lje<;ct one another.
6. Consider how dangerous it is to reject any whom Christ will own for his. Will Christ admit him to heaven, and will you think him unfit for your communion here upon earth ? Despise not the weak brother, for God hath received him, Kom. xiv. 3. The Gentile believer must not des])ise the sci-upulous Jewish believer, and cast out of his communion the Gentile Christian ; if God hath admitted him into his family, shall we exclude him? So Mat. xviii. G, ' Whosoever shall olfend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were cast into the sea.' Now what greater offence than to cast them off from the privileges of the Christian church, either by public or private cen- sures which are causeless or unwarrantable, at least no way grounded on necessary things ?
7. As we must not on our part give offence or occasion the divisions, so we must not take offence when it is given by others ; for charity, as it provoketh not, so it 'is not easily provoked,' 1 Cor. xiii. 5. So likewise if a rent be made by others, we must do what we can to heal it. If an angry brother call us bastard, yet let us own him as a brother and a child of the family : for ' Blessed are the peacemakers,' Mat. V. 9. The world censureth us for compilers and daubers, but God counteth us his genuine and true children.
8. Our endeavours after unity among the professors of Christianity ought to be earnest and constant : Eph. iv. 3, * Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.' I add this partly because many make fair pretences of peace and union, which their practice contradicteth ; all cry out of the divisions, but every one keepeth them up ; and partly, because when it is endeavoured we shall find difficulties and disappointments, but we must not rest \x\ some careless endeavours, nor grow weary though we meet not with present success ; and partly because the instruments of so great a good are usually sacrificed to the wrath of both parties. We must be content to digest aftronts, reproaches, censures, and injuries, and love them that hate us: 2 Cor. xii. 15, ' Though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am beloved of you.'
NOT TO BE OFFENDED IN CHRIST, THE READY WAY TO BLESSEDNESS.
And blessed is he ivJiosoever slicdlnot he offended in me. — jMat. XI. 6,
These words are the conclusion of Christ's answer to John's disciples, who were sent from him in prison to inquire if Christ were the true Messiah, or they must look for another. This message was not sent for his own satisfaction, but theirs ; not his own, for he had before openly owned Christ as such, John i. 29, but theirs : they are offended in Christ out of respect to their master. For answer Christ referreth them to his works, whether they were not such as the pro- phets foretold were to be performed by the Messiah.
Two things he urgeth : —
First, His miracles.