Mutual Edification, the Duty of Chr f ians. z S body, or in their private and perfonal capa- SERM, city, in both which refpets they receive edi- I. fication. The former has been already ex- `lam plain'd, it being only fingle perfons who are the fubje t of knowledge, of faith and virtue; but a general peace, that is, concord and har- mony, as the refult of prevailing love, be- longs to a fociety as fuck. This the apof ie evidently means in feveral paffages of his epi- flles on the fubjeil of edification, as * Edify one another, or edify yourfelves into one, fo that you maybe one body or fociety, beautiful, and ftrong by your union. And in the 14th chap- ter of this epiflle, and s 9th verfe ; Let us fol- low after the things that make for peace, and wherewith one may edi /3 another, or wherewith one may be edified to others, more firmly united in the bond of mutual affection and peace. Such is the intimacy of that relation which fubfifis between chriftians, by virtue of their adherence to Chrift, their common head and the center of their unity, that the fafety and profperity of every one is the fafety and profperity of the whole ; and the intereft of the whole, is the intereft of every part. Like the members of the natural body which have no interefis feparate from that of the ' [ Thef. v. i t, body
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=