ESSAY VIII. 220 Secondly, Not only our sincerity towards God, but our cha- rity towards our fellow- christians is hereby put to the trial, and charity is the very liveryofthe disciples of Christ. Hereby shall all men know thatye aremy disciples ifyeloveone another; John xiii. 35. The Lord bath commanded all hissheep to wear this mark of distinction from the world, how different soever their lesser opinions are among themselves. Where I. behold the image of Christ myLord stamped in legible characters upon my neighbour, can I love hirn with warm affection, though he never frequents the same place of worship with me, though he wears a garment of another shape and colour, prays. in a set form of words which .I cannot perfectly approve, and subscribes a creed of different expressions, though the same in sense and meaning ? Can I receive this good man intomy very soul, who eatsnothing but herbs, and will not sit down at my table because flesh is eaten there ? Can I love him at myheart that loves Jesus the Lord, though he will not religiously observe the festival of his birth or ascension ? Or do these littleWords Christmas and Holy-Thursday set my heart at a distance from him, and make him forfeit all my charity ? Such queries as these tnay be a touchstone of our graces, and the test of true love to Christ and his saints. There seems to be something of this design in Our Lord Jesus Christ, when he ordered his servant Paul to write the fourteenth chapter to the Romans, where the apostle, though he gives a hint of his own opinion and liberty in the gospel, with regard tomeats and days, yet he doth not impose the same obser- vations and abstinences on other christians ; and though he was inspired, yet he leaves these things still indifferent, and calls them doubtful disputdtions. Now as the trial ofourfaith, through manifold temptations, is much snore precious than that of gold that perishes, so the trial of our love passing through the smoky fires of contention and dispute, and not mingling therewith, is discovered to be apure divine flame, andshall befound to praise, honour and gloryat the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen we love ; I Pet. i. 7, 8. Thirdly, Perhaps our Lord might leave some lesser points of religion more obscurely expressed in his word, because he de. signed to continue a ministry in his church to the end of the world, or till he came again. While other christians have their hours and thoughts engrossed by the cares of this life, and want leisure and skill and means to acquaint themselves with all the difficult and more abstruse parts of religion, it is the business of the menthat are honoured and employed in the sacredoffice to give themselves to reading, to search into the hidden things of God, and explain the more doubtful paragraphs of his word unto men. r3
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