The Ble /dnefs of the Peace - makers. 39 r carting them out of friendfhip or religious SE Rm. communion. Peace - makers will part with XIV. fome of their rights, rather than by rigidly infifting on them caufe difcord ; and conde- fcenfion in that cafe, though proud men may look upon it as defpicable, is really honour- able ; fuch condefcenfion as we read of in the hiftory of Abraham and Lot, Gen. xiii. when their herds and flocks greatly increafed, in which the riches of thofe times chiefly confifled, and debates began between their fervants about convenient pafturage, left the difference thould grow to any offenfive height, Abraham, in his great follicitude for peace, made this propofal to his nephew to preferve it, that the part of the land which they at prefent poffeffed, being too firait for them, he might have his choice, either to continue where he then was, or remove to a greater diflance in the uninhabited country; thus giving up a right which he himfelf might have claimed as being every way fuperior. But Rill it is to be remembered, that they are only private rights, and fuch as are abfolute- ly in our own power, which may and ought to be refigned ; the rights of confcience are inviolable, and not to be yielded up on any pretence whatever, not even for peace itfelf ; for indeed they are not properly our own Cc4. but
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