1 Tim. i. 5. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith un- feigned.
THE Gospel of Christ is thought by many to be a source of evil : and certain it is, that evils have not unfrequently followed in its train. But we must dis- tinguish between two things, which are very often confounded ; namely, the cause of evil, and the occa- sion of evil. There is not any blessing which divine Providence has bestowed upon us, which may not be an occasion of evil, if it be not used in the man- ner, and for the ends for which it was intended. Our corporeal and mental faculties may be all abused, for the production of evil ; and all the fruits of the earth may be made subservient to the gratification of inor- dinate desire. This has happened in relation to the Gospel. Even in the primitive Churches, some, instead of delivering their divine message with the simplicity that became them, made it, in many in- stances, an occasion of promulgating their own vain and superstitious notions; thus administering to strife and contention, where they should have laboured only for the edification of souls in faith and love. St. Paul, in order to correct this, directed Timothy to protest against it, as an abuse of the Gospel ; and to make it appear, that the Gospel was in no respect
to be blamed for these evils ; since, in its own na- ture, it tended only to love : " The end of the com- mandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned."
From these words I shall take occasion to shew,
I. What is the true scope of the Gospel, as con- trasted with the use too often made of it —
The use too often made of it has been, to spread disputation and division —
[To such a degree did this evil obtain at Ephesus, that St. Paul, when going into Macedonia, was constrained to de- prive himself of the comfort of Timothy's society, in order that he, by abiding still at Ephesus, might charge the teachers to confine themselves to the great truths of the Gospel, instead of " giving heed to fables and endless genealogies," as they were wont to do ; " whereby they ministered to vain questions, rather than to godly edifying3." This lamentable evil pre- vailed also at Colosse ; and, more or less, in all the Churches. Jewish converts would insist upon some favourite observances of their law, which was now abrogated and annulled: and the Gentile converts strove to blend with the Gospel the notions of their philosophers: so that the Apostle was constrained to guard the people against both the one and the other ; bidding them to " beware, lest any man should spoil them through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after ChristV
In every subsequent age, the Church has been torn and rent with heresies of different kinds; so that, in fact, the history of the Church contains rather a record of successive contentions between different parties in it, than any account of practical and experimental piety. The smallest knowledge of ecclesiastical history will suffice to convince us of this deplorable fact.
And what is the state of things at this day ? Is there any thing like unity in the Church of Christ ? The seamless garb of our adorable Saviour is rent into a thousand pieces. On all the leading subjects of doctrine and of discipline, there is in the Church, not merely a diversity of sentiment, but a violent hostility ; whole Churches anathematizing each other, and in- dividuals ready to " bite and devour one another" as enemies to the public weal. Nor is this acrimony confined to those who differ on fundamental points, as Papists and Protestants : it obtains equally amongst those who are agreed in professing the reformed religion ; and sets at a distance from each other