were excellent. O that this were not the practice of many who will at last meet at heaven; that they were not careful and skilful to collect all the weaknesses of others, and to pass over all those things that are excellent in them. The Corinthians did eye more the incestuous person's sin than his sorrow, which was like to have drowned him in sorrow,

Tell me, saints, is it not a more sweet, comfortable and and delightful thing, to look more upon one another's infirmities? Tell me, what pleasure, what delight, what comfort is there in looking upon the enemies, the wounds, the sores, the sickness, the diseases, the nakedness, of our friends? Now sin, you know, is the soul's enemy, the soul's wound, the soul's sore, the soul's sickness, the soul's disease, the soul's nakedness; and O what a heart has that man who loves thus to look! Grace is the choicest flower in a Christian's garden; it is the richest jewel in his crown; it is his princely robe; it is the top of royalty; and therefore must needs be the most pleasing, sweet, and delightful object for a gracious eye to be fixed upon. Sin is darkness, grace is light; sin is hell, grace is heaven; and what madness is it, to look more at darkness than at light, more at hell than at heaven!

Tell me, saints, does not God look more upon his people's graces, than upon their weaknesses? Surely he does. He looks more at David's and Asaph's uprightness, than upon their infirmities, though they were great and many. He eyes more Job's patience than his passion; Remember the patience of Job; not a word of his impatience. He that drew Alexander whilst he had a scar upon his face, drew him with his finger upon the scar. God puts his fingers upon his people's scars, that no blemish may appear. Ah, saints, that you would make it the top of your glory in this, to be like your heavenly Father! By so doing, much sin would be prevented, the designs of wicked men frustrated, Satan outwitted, wounds healed, many sad hearts cheered, and God more abundantly honoured.

Rem. 2. Solemnly consider that love and unity make most for your own safety and security. We shall be invincible, if we be inseparable. The world may frown upon

you, and plot against you, but they cannot hurt you. Unity is the best bond of safety in every church and commonwealth. And this did the Scythian king in Plutarch represent livelily to his eighty sons, who being ready to die, commanded a bundle of arrows fast bound together to be given to his sons to break; they all tried to break them, but being bound fast together, they could not, then he caused the band to be cut, and then they broke them with ease. He applied it thus, My sons, so long as you keep together, you will be invincible, but if the band of union be broken betwixt you, you will easily be broken in pieces.' Pliny writes of a stone in the island of Seyrus, that if it be whole, though a large and heavy one, it swims above water, but being broken, it sinks. So long as saints keep whole, nothing shall sink them; but if they break, they are in danger of sinking and drowning.

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Rem. 3. Dwell upon those commands of God, that require you to love one another. O when your hearts begin to rise against each other, charge'the commands of God upon your hearts, and say to your souls, 'O our souls, has not the eternal God commanded you to love them that love the Lord? And is it not life to obey, and death to rebel?' Therefore look that you fulfil the commands of the Lord, for his commands are not like those that are easily reversed, but they are like those of the Medes that cannot be changed. O be much in pondering upon these commands of God! A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another, John xiii. 34. It is called a new commandment, because it is renewed in the gospel, and set home by Christ's example; and because it is rare, choice, special, and remarkable above all others. This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. These things I command you, that ye love one another, John xv. 12, 17. Owe no man any thing, but to love one another; for he that loveth another, hath fulfilled the law. Rom. 13. 8. Let brotherly love continue, Heb. xiii. 1. Love one another, for love is of God, and every one that loveth, is born of God, and knoweth God, John iv. 7. See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently, 1 Pet. i. 22. Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another. Love as

brethren, be pitiful be courteous, 1 Pet. iii. 8. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment, 1 John iii. 11, 23. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another, 1 John iv. 11. O dwell much upon these precious commands, that your love may be inflamed one to another.

In the primitive times it was much taken notice of by the heathens, That in the depth of misery, when fathers and mothers forsook their children, Christians, otherwise strangers, stuck one to another, whose love of religion proved firmer than that of nature. O that there were more of that spirit among the Saints in these days! The world was once destroyed with water for the heat of lusts, and it is thought it will be again destroyed with fire for the coldness of love.

Rem. 4. Dwell more upon those choice and sweet things wherein you agree, than upon those things wherein you differ. O did you but thus, how would sinful hearts be abated, and your love raised, and your spirits sweetened one to another! You agree in most, you differ but in few. You agree in the greatest and weightiest, as concerning God, Christ, the Spirit, the scripture; you differ only in those points that have been long disputable amongst men of the greatest piety and parts. You agree to own the scripture, to hold to Christ the Head, and to walk according to the laws of the new creature. Shall Herod and Pilate agree? Shall Turks and Pagans agree? Shall bears and lions, tygers and wolves, yea, shall a legion of Devils agree in one body? And shall not saints agree, who differ only in such things as have least of the heart of God in them, and that shall never hinder their meeting in heaven.

Rem. 5. Solemnly consider that God delights to be styled the God of Peace; and Christ to be styled the Prince of Peace, and King of Salem, that is King of Peace; and the Spirit is a Spirit of Peace. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. O why then should not the saints be children of peace? Certainly men of froward, unquiet, fiery spirits, cannot have that sweet evidence of their interest in the God of peace, and in the Prince of peace, and in the

Spirit of peace, as those precious souls have, that follow after the things which make for love and peace. The very name of peace is sweet and comfortable; the fruit and effect thereof pleasant and profitable, more to be desired than innumerable triumphs; it is a blessing that ushers in a multitude of other blessings.

The ancients were wont to paint peace in the form of a woman, with a horn of plenty in her hand. Ah, peace and love among the saints is that which will secure them and their mercies at home; yea, it will multiply their mercy, it will engage the God of mercy to crown them with the choicest mercies: and it is that which will render them most terrible, invincible and successful abroad. Love and peace among the Saints is that which puts the counsels of their enemies to a stand, and renders all their enterprizes abortive; it is that which does most weaken their hands, wound their hopes, and kill their hearts,

Rem. 6. Make more care and conscience of keeping up your peace with God. O Christians, I am afraid that your

remissness herein is that which has occasioned much of that sourness, bitterness, and divisions that are among you. Ah, you have not, as you should, kept up your peace with God, and therefore it is that you do so dreadfully break the peace among yourselves. The Lord has promised, That when a man's ways please him, he will make his enemies to be at peace with him. Ah, how much more then would God make the children of peace to keep the peace among themselves, if their ways did but please him! All creatures are at his beck and check. Laban followed Jacob with one troop, Esau met him with another, both with hostile intentions; but Jacob's ways pleasing the Lord, God by his mighty power so works, that Laban leaves him with a kiss, and Esau meets him with a kiss; he has an oath of one, tears of the other, peace with both. If we make it our business to keep our league with God, God will make it his work and his glory to maintain our peace with men; but if men make light of keeping up their peace with God, it is just with God to leave them with a spirit of pride, envy, passion, contention, division, and confusion; to leave them to bite and devour one another, till they be consumed one of another.

Rem. 7. Dwell much upon that near relation and union that is between you. This consideration had a sweet inAluence upon Abraham's heart. And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdsmen and thy herdsmen; for we be brethren, Gen. xiii. 8. That is a sweet word in the psalmist, Behold, how good and how pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! Psal. cxxxiii. 1. It is not, good and not pleasant, or pleasant and not good, but good and pleasant. There are some things that are good and not pleasant, as patience and discipline; and there are some things that are pleasant but not good, as carnal pleasures, voluptuousness; and there are some things that are neither good nor pleasant, as malice, envy, worldly sorrow; and there are some things that are both good and pleasant, as piety, charity, peace, and union among brethren; and O that we could see more of this among those that shall one day meet in their Father's kingdom and never part! And as they are brethren, so they are all fellow-members. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular, 1 Cor. xii. 27; and again, We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones, Ephes. v. 30. Shall the members of the natural body be serviceable and useful to one another; and shall the members of this spiritnal body cut and destroy one another? Is it against the law of nature for the natural members to cut and slash one another: and is it not much more against the law of nature and of grace, for the members of Christ's glorious body to do so? and as you are all fellow-members, so you are fellow-soldiers under the same Captain of salvation, the Lord Jesus, fighting against the world, the flesh, and the devil. And as you are all fellow-soldiers, so you are all fellow-sufferers under the same enemies, the devil, and the world. And as you are all fellowsufferers, so are you fellow-travellers towards the land of Canaan, the new Jerusalem that is above. Here we

have no continuing City, but we seek one to come. The heirs of heaven are strangers on earth. And as you are fellow-travellers, so are you all fellow-heirs of the same crown and inheritance.

Rem. 8. Dwell upon the miseries of discord. Dissolu