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13S
CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP,
DERM.Iz;
settled and peaceful church
;
some
are
peevish, because
the
church
will
not
consent
to
let
them
have
their
own
will,
or because others
will
not
obey their assumed
pow-
er.
Some
affect to make divisions
upon every
little
occasion, out
of
unreasonable pretences
of purity
and
order, where scripture
gives
no
plain rule. Whatever
varnish
may
colour over such practices
in this
world,
yet
such humorous and unreasonable disturbers of
the
peace
shall receive no
thanks
from our
Lord Jesus
in
the great
day,
whether
they
be
pastors or
people.
Reflection
IV. "
When
we
behold a society
ofchris-
tians
flourishing in holiness and
honourably maintaining
the beauty of
this
sacred
fellowship,
let
us
take
occasion
to raise our thoughts
to the heavenly world, to the
church
of
the
first-born,
who
are
assembled on high," where
everlasting
beauty, order, peace,
and
holiness
are main-
tained
in the presence
of Jesus our
common Lord. And
"
when
we
meet
with
little
inconveniences, uneasiness,
and contest
in
any church
of Christ
on
earth,
let
us
point
our
thoughts and our hopes
still
upward to
that
divine
fellowship
of
the
saints, and the spirits
of
the
just
made
perfect, where
contention
and
disorder
have no place."
There
the glories and the graces
of
the Redeemer,
who
is
the head
of
the church, are
diffused over
all the
hap-
py assembly
:
They adore
and love
their
God, and their
Saviour
with
supreme
fervency,
and they
love one
an-
other
with
pure
affection
;
their hearts
and
souls
are
one,
and
they rejoice
in
the love
of God, and
in
the presence
of
the Lamb
for
ever.
,