the church prevail, and grow to such a height as to produce an open rupture, and the formation of separate and opposing communions. Even those who live in the same place, and who had formerly "taken sweet counsel together, and walked to the house of God in company," no longer join in the same acts of public and social worship. Altar is reared against altar, as if they did not serve the same God. One house can no longer contain them. One name can no longer serve them; but they must be distinguished from one another, as well as from the world. This has hitherto been the state of the Christian Church almost in every age. In reviewing her history she appears not as one great army marshalled under the banner of "the Captain of Salvation," but as "the company of two armies," yea, often of many armies, with banners bearing different and opposite inscriptions, and engaged in hostilities with one another as well as with the common enemy of the church of the living God. Thus, in ancient times, not to mention various lesser sects, the church was divided into Greeks and Latins; in more modern times, protestants have been divided into Lutherans and Calvinists, and in our own land into Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Independents, with a great variety of other denominations, which it would be painful and impossible to enumerate.

While we survey these mournful facts, my brethren, we must not overlook the hand of God; and it is proper to advert to this before proceeding to inquire into the immediate and proper sources of

B

the evil. The Malignant Spirit could not sow the seeds of dissension and division, nor could they grow up and spread, without the permission of the Lord of the vineyard. He has wise and holy ends for permitting them; and among others we ought to be deeply affected with this, that he sends them as a punishment to a people called by his name. Do any ask, How comes it about that those who are joined by so many sacred bonds, should be so broken and divided in judgment and affection? The answer is: "The anger of the Lord hath divided them *." Yes; when they fall from their first love to the gospel, receive the grace of God in vain, do not bring forth fruit unto holiness under his ordinances, become conformed to the world, and have little more than a name to live-when they become vain of their numbers and their strength, and convert a holy union into a criminal combination, he permits the Demon of discord to enter among them, "confounds their language, that so they cannot understand one another's speech,"-" divides them in Jacob and scatters them in Israel." "It is in my desire, (says he) that I should chastise them, when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows+;" alluding to the practice of the husbandman who corrects a re fractory steer when caught in the situation described in the metaphor which is employed. The conduct of God toward his ancient people is described under a beautiful allegory in the prophe+ Hos. x. 10.

*Lam. iv. 16.

cies of Zechariah. prey to their possessors, and sold by their own pityless shepherds, he exclaimed "I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O ye poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one

When he saw his flock a

I called BEAUTY, and the other I called BANDS; and I fed the flock." But they requited him ungratefully; their soul abhorred him, and his soul loathed them. "Then said I, I will not feed you; that that dieth let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another. And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people." And a little after: "Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel *." The grand schism by which ten tribes were rent from the house of David was expressly denounced as a punishment for the sin of Solomon and his people in forsaking God +. And when the flame, instead of being extinguished, has fresh fuel added to it, and continues to spread and burn from age to age with increasing fury, it is a proof that God's "anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still," as it was when "Manasseh devoured Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh, and they together Judah ‡.'

2. Divisions in the church are owing to various causes. In permitting them God overrules the instrumentality of men who are actuat

* Zech. xi. 7-14. 1 Kings xi. 11. xii. 15. Isa. ix. 21.

ed by different motives and principles, for which they are entirely responsible. It is incumbent on all Christians to "endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." The violation of it must be traced to a sinful cause. When dissensions arise in the Church of God, and it is divided into parties, whatever the occasion or matter of variance be, there must be guilt somewhere. The rules of truth, peace, and holy fellowship, have been transgressed; and those who are justly chargeable with this cannot be blameless. Amid the keen contests and opposing pretensions of parties, it may often be difficult to determine where the blame lies; but it must attach to one side or another, and perhaps to both. It will not always attach to the minority, or those who may be forced to withdraw from the assemblies and external communion of particular churches: the major and prevailing party may be the real schismatics, though not the formal separatists. This, however, we know, that Scripture has affixed a mark of disapprobation on those who cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which we have received *."

The dissensions which prevail in the Church, like those which distract and break the peace of other societies, may be traced in general to the workings of human corruption. "Whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?" They spring from the ignorance, error,

unbelief, prejudice, pride, passion, selfishness, carnality, which are predominant in the minds of some of the members of the Church, and are but partially subdued and mortified in the minds of the best. To specify all the ways in which these principles operate to the disturbance of the peace of the Church is impracticable.

They lead to the adoption and patronage of errors, by which the purity of the faith and institutions of Christ is depraved. This in itself, as we have seen, loosens the scriptural bonds of union. But as the faithful consider themselves bound to resist every thing of this kind, the propagation of errors cannot fail to excite contention and strife in the bosom of the church. Some of these errors strike against the principal and leading articles of the faith, and are in their very natúre damnable and destructive to the souls of those who embrace them. Others consist of uncertain, vain, and unprofitable opinions, the offspring of an unsanctified fancy or of the love of novelty, calculated to unsettle the minds of the hearers, and inducing perverse disputings and endless questions. Others again strike more immediately against the unity and peace of the church-loose and extravagant notions respecting private judgment, conscience, and Christian liberty, by which these rights, invaluable when duly understood and regulated, are explained and stated in such a way as to convert all religion into a matter of individual belief and concern, to render union and co-operation among its professors impracticable or precarious, and to contradict the important