386 The Ble /dnefs of the Peace - makers. S E R M. their profeffion, and having united them in the XIV. hope of a future bleffed immortality, and in the relation of children to God as their common Father, and having made them fellow members of one body, of which himfelf is the head, and given them his fpirit to inflruf and direst them, he enjoineth them to keep the unity of the fpirit in the bond of peace. St. Paul teacheth us, that peace is of the very efence of this ccleflial king- dom, the main privileges of its true fubjeds de- pending upon it, and it being their indifpenfable duty to preferve and promote it, Rom. xiv. 17. the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, (chrifiianity doth not confiíl in external obfer- vances which are often the fubjeáts of con- tention) but righteoufnefs, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghofl. And St. James, chap. iii. 17. giveth us this as the charafter of the wifdom from above, that true religion which our Saviour hath taught us from heaven, that it is firfl pure, then peaceable. Indeed chri- flianity itfelf, quite contrary to its true tendency and defign, hath been the occafion of great divifions and difcords in the world, which was foretold by its bleffed Author himfelf, Mat. x. 34. Think not that I am come to fend peace on earth. I came not to fend peace but a fword. For I am come to fit a man at variance with his father, and the daughter againji her mo- ther, and the daughter -in -law againji her mo- t. ther-
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