give no advantage to their adversaries by intestine divisions. The object, I say, which he desired to promote, was unity of sentiment and affection —
This appears to be the true scope and import of his words : " Being joined together in love, be united also in sentiment: and being joined together in sentiment, be united also in love, so as to have one soul penetrating the whole body*." An unity in these respects is, it is true, very difficult to be attained —
[Considering how the human mind is constituted, it is scarcely to be expected men should be perfectly agreed upon any point; and least of all upon religion, where the subjects themselves are so deep and mysterious, and where so great a scope for difference of sentiment is afforded by the terms in which the truth is revealed. There is not unfrequently in appearance an opposition between the things that are revealed: (I say in appearance ; for it is not possible that there should be any real contrariety in things which have been delivered by inspiration of God :) and it may be expected that different persons will lean to different sides, according to the weight which the different positions appear to have in the general scale of truth. Besides, the deep things of God are discerned only by means of a spiritual perception imparted to us by the Spirit of God: and of course they will be more or less justly viewed, according to the measure of grace that has been given to us, and according as our visual organs have been purified from the films that obscure or distort the truth.
Of course, an unity of affection must be considerably im- peded by these circumstances: for we naturally agree best with those whose sentiments we approve : and if there be any great diversity of sentiment on important topics, we are apt to feel a proportionable alienation of heart from the person in whom it exists.]
But though a perfect union in these respects is difficult, it is, as far as is necessary for all practical purposes, certainly attainable —
[We are expressly taught, that it should, and may, exist
in the different members of Christ's mystical bodyb
The way to attain it is, to confine ourselves to the funda- mentals of religion ; and to make them the bonds of union ; whilst the less evident or less important truths are left as
a See the original, which consists rather of two parts than of four, and should be construed accordingly. 0 1 Cor. i. 10.