oppofition to all worldly Party and Faction, SER M. to all Hatred, Contentioufnefs and Animo- XIII. fity, imperiousness and defire of impofing upon each other, teaches men with meeknefs and patience, with gentleness and kindnefs, in imitation of Chrift, to be follicitous for nothing elfe, to be earnestly bent upon no other Defign, comparatively fpeaking; but that of promoting univerfally the Knowledge of Truth, and the Practice of Righteoufnefs, for the general Benefit of Mankind.

THE Contrary to which Virtue or univerfal Love and Charity, or the proper Vice of Uncharitablenefs, is That Spirit of Violence, and Arbitrarinefs, That Love of imperioufhefs and Dominion, That prefumptuous Hating and ill-treating of each other, upon account of unavoidable Differences in opinion; things not effential to Religion; which our Saviour fo earneftly warns us againft, St Matt. vii. 1. Judge not, that ye be not judged; For with what judgment ye judge, ye fall be judged: And why beboldeft thou the Mote that is in thy Brother's Eye, but confidereft not the Beam that is in thine own Eye? St James in like

manner,

SER M. manner. ch. iv. 12. There is one law-giver, XIII. who is able to fave and to deftroy; Who art thou, that judgest another? And St Paul, Rom. xiv. 4. Who art thou that judgest another man's fervant? to his own master be Standeth or falleth. And, Why doft thou judge thy Brother, or, why dost thou fet at nought thy Brother? for we shall all ftand before the judgment-feat of Chrift, ver. 10. Let not him that eateth, defpife him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not, judge him that eateth, ver. 3. For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, (that is, is not Forms and Ceremonies,) but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, ver. 17. From the two laft-cited Verfes 'tis evident, that this Duty of Charity, or of not judging and cenfuring each other, is not to be understood as having place with regard to Inftances of plain wickedness; but with refpect either to fuch matters of Speculation, as are not in mens own Power; or to things indifferent in Practice, which are not of moral Obligation. For, all notorious wickednesses; fuch as are Atheism, and Prophaneness; Oppreffion, Injustice and Fraud, Rioting, and

Debau

Debauchery; are Sins which (as the Apo-S ER M. ftle expreffes it) go before unto Judgment: XIII. They are fuch things, for which we may and ought to judge ill of men, and to rebuke them sharply and feverely for them. But the proper Objects about which the Virtue of Charity is to be employed, are Things indifferent, concerning which God has given no plain Commandment ; or fuch Matters of Opinion, wherein fincere men may with equal regard to Truth and Virtue, follow their different judgments and confcience. Judging and censuring each other about things of This nature, is what the Scripture declares to be altogether Unchriftian. And the experience of all corrupt Ages has abundantly shown, that mens presumptuous reproaching each other upon account of fuch things as Thefe; has been the great Caufe of all the Schifms and Divifions, of all the contentions and animofities, which have over-run and in great measure measure destroyed the destroyed the Christian world. For the Sins of Schifm and Divifion among Chriftians, are of a much larger extent, and will be charged to the Account of More and of other kind VOL. III. U

of

SER M. of perfons, than carelefs and prefumptuous
XIII. men are apt to imagine. All imperiouf-

nefs and affectation of dominion, which
St Peter calls Lording it over the Heritage
of God; all peevishness and unreafonable-
nefs; all contentioufnefs, fiercenefs, and
animofity of Spirit; all ill Ufage of men,
and cafting names of Reproach upon each
other, on account of Matters either of
indifferent Practife or of fincere Opinion;
all Parties and Factions in Religion, or
Incroachments upon That Chriftian (and
virtuous, not licentious) Liberty where-
with our Lord has made his Difciples free,
Gal. y. 1: All these things are juftly
chargeable, with being each in their
proportion, the Caufes and fad
ons of irreconcileable Divifions among
Christians. From whence it plainly
appears, that not only particular Per-
fons, but even the greatest Bodies of men,
may be guilty of That Vice, which the
Apostle in the Text calls not having Cha-
rity, or not having That Chriftian Tem-
per and univerfal Love, without which
all other even the greatest appearances of
Goodness will profit men nothing. The

occafi

Church

Church of Rome, for Example, is a ftu-SER M. pendous Inftance of This: Who exclu- XIII. ding (as much as in them lies) from Christian Communion and from the Hopes of Salvation, all men who cannot embrace the Doctrines of Popes and Councils and other humane Inventions, as of like neceffity with the Gofpel itfelf; do, by the Greatest Schifm that ever was in the World, cut in funder (or rather cut themfelves off from) That Spouse or Body or Univerfal Church of Chrift, which can poffibly be but One, One Temple built upon the Foundation, and upon the DoEtrine, of Chrift and his Apostles only; and, though confifting of different parts, varying from each other in external Forms, as Members of the fame living Body differ in Shape from each other; yet all united in one Holy Band of Righteoufnefs and Charity.

II. HAVING thus at large explained What That Virtue is, which the Apostle in the Text calls Charity, and what its oppofite Vice; I proceed in the 2d place to confider the excellent Effect, which the general Practife of this Virtue would U 2have