No quarrels.

lutions, and vary, and fail; but the true temple of God shall endure for ever. Yet, while Providence hath ordained and settled so great a blessing as an establishment for religion among us; it seems to be the duty and the privilege of grace cheerfully to observe and support.it.

CHAP. VI.

ON QUARRELS AMONG CHRISTIANS.

It is not grace, which genders strife, but corruption. If therefore my brother's corruption be raised against me, shall I oppose my corruption to his, and so enter into wrath; or shall I not rather beg of God, that his grace in me may invite the grace that is in my brother, and that so we may settle the whole in peace? If we are real Christians, we must both desire only what is just and right, or we do not live like Christians; and if we both agree in desiring this as the end, how is it, that we differ violently about the means? If either have done, or desired, the wrong; the other, who may be more under the conduct of grace, should kindly and affectionately represent it; and, if he cannot be heard, should leave the matter to God, without raising the unholy and unhappy tumult of heat and resentment in his own mind. He, that can bear and forbear most, is certainly most like the Christian. It is misery and deadness to a real believer to walk and to war after the base fury and discord of

Mutual forbearance.

the flesh. When he deserves well of men, and patiently suffers evil from them, then he most follows his Master, and is most right in himself.

The apostle directs for believers, not the vengeance of the law, but Christian arbitration. Law is the last refuge, and can only be lawful, when right is not to be had by better

means.

If Christians who have a matter of difference, would graciously agree, to meet with each other in prayer, and to pray together kindly for each other before the throne of grace; surely, if they meant the attainment of that right and truth which they prayed for, they might soon find it out and settle it accordingly. But, it is the flesh which comes in and mars all. One cannot stoop, and the other will not. They are not so wise as Luther's two goats, that met upon a narrow plank over a deep water. They could not go back, and they dared not to fight. At length, one of them lay down, while the other went over him; and so peace and safety attended both. Why should not believers try this method? But, alas! while grace remains idle or neuter, the world jeers and triumphs; the devil is busy and tempts; good men mourn and lament; the weak are stumbled, and turned aside; and a long train of inquietudes and jealousies fill the breasts of those, who humbly hope to dwell with God and with each other throughout eternity. These things ought not so to be.

If my brother be in the wrong, how shall I show myself in the right? By wounding him more than he hath wounded himself? By doing wrong likewise, and rendering evil for evil?

Christian charity.

No; let me pray, that God would open his eyes, and not shut my heart; that he would give him more grace, and me more patience to meet what is not gracious in him; and, at the utmost, that I may not be a partaker with him of anger, or of those sins which may follow upon it.

Am I in the wrong? What then shall I do? Shall I persist in it, and make myself more in the wrong? This would not be gracious; this would be bringing misery by heaps upon myself. Rather let me go first to God and then to my brother, acknowledging my fault, or my error, to both. There is no shame in confessing our sins to God, nor any meanness in owning them to It is the mark of a noble and generous spirit in common life; and it is the wisdom, as well as the duty and privilege, of a much better life in the Christian.

men.

O thou love of the brethren, whither art thou fled? We profess to believe in the communion of saints; but where are the saints, who have this communion? We talk of the unity of God's church with respect to its members; but where are those members who live in this unity? O shame upon us, that we differ at all, that we differ on trifles, that we love to differ, that we urge and promote differences, and that the healing spirit is not more to be found amongst us! Lord, if thou wouldest differ with us at any time, as we are ready at all times to differ with others; O how should we stand before thee, or what could we answer for ourselves? Give, O give, more of thy grace, that we may be humble in our own hearts, true and just in our desires, mild to others, and deeply submissive to thee.

Unchristian marriages.

CHAP. VII.

ON THE MARRIAGES OF REAL CHRISTIANS, AND THEIR DUTIES IN THAT STATE.

IT is the voice of reason and religion, that piety must not be yoked with profaneness, nor the true believer with an infidel. When persons have broken through this rule, they have always done it to their own sad cost; as abundance of examples can testify.

Some have ventured upon this transgression from merely carnal motives, pretending at least to hope that they might be instruments of bringing the other side unto God. Many instances indeed occur, where both parties have married before they knew the grace of God, and have afterwards been called by it; but the example, perhaps, is not easily to be found, where a believer, acting directly against the rule of God for merely temporal ends, hath been blessed with the spiritual advantage of a partner's conversion, but on the contrary hath been vexed with trouble and mortification to the end of life. It may be expected, that God will be faithful to his own word, and that they, who wilfully violate his order, cannot do it with confidence in his blessing.

This blessing of God is all in all; and if we have not this, whatever we have beside, it is nothing, or worse than nothing.

When the marriage-contract is made graciously, and with grace; there is every reason to hope for success. The less water of earth, and the more

Christian marriages.

wine of heaven, there may be at the feast, so much the better.

After marriage, begins a life of care; and consequently the life of faith should be strengthened to bear it. It is a good way for married persons, not only to pray in the family, or privately, but together. Mutual prayers will improve mutual affections, and turn the very commonest blessings into spiritual mercies. If Christ dwell indeed in both their hearts, he will not only keep out disgust and variance, but subdue, or remove, the causes of them.

As this state requires much and strong grace to go through it properly towards God; so it demands a larger exercise of charity, forbearance, and kindness, than any other, that no duty fail between the first and dearest neighbours, the husband and wife. These are more exposed to solicitude, trouble, and a thousand affecting circumstances, than persons in the single state: They are yoked inseparably to meet them, and inseparably must bear them. Now, if grace be not the living and conquering principle in two persons thus circumstanced; there are so many imperfections in themselves, so many unavoidable mortifications from others, and so many evils on every side, that it will be impossible for them to live, in a due degree, as they ought, above the common disquietudes which overwhelm the world. But grace in the heart will double every temporal mercy, soften every temporal misery, and lead them on, with the truest union, towards the kingdom of heaven.

What a comfort is it to true Christians, truly married in grace as well as nature, to reflect, that as they are helpers of each other's faith and joy