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as prefigurative of CHRIST, must be eat in one house. "In one house shall ye eat it, saith the LORD: ye shall not send its flesh abroad from the house." The flesh of CHRIST, the LORD's Sacrament, cannot be sent out of doors: and believers have no other home, but the Church only. This home, this hostelry of love, the HOLY SPIRIT designates and expresses in the Psalms, saying, "GOD who maketh men to dwell with one mind in an house." In the house of God, in the Church of CHRIST, men live together with one mind, in concord and simplicity continuing.

Therefore, likewise the HOLY SPIRIT descended in the form of a dove a simple and joyous animal, not mischievous in its nature, nor dangerous from the use either of its beak or talons; recognising in its affections one single home; each pair nurturing together their common offspring; consorting in their flight when they wander abroad, passing their lives in mutual intercourse; indicating by the gesture of their bills the peacefulness of their union, and every way fulfilling the law of love. The same singleness of mind ought to be seen in the Church, and the same intercourse of affection be maintained; our love of the brotherhood ought to have its pattern in the doves; our mildness and gentleness to be copied from lambs and sheep. Has the spirit of a Christian aught to do with the fierceness of the wolf, or the rage of the dog, the deadly poison of serpents, and the untamed ferocity of wild beasts? We should rejoice that such foes are shut out from the Church, lest they waste the doves and the sheep of CHRIST, by their cruel and poisonous contagion. There can be no amalgamation, no co-union of bitter with sweet, of darkness with light, of fair weather with foul, of war with peace, of plenty with dearth, of drought with fountains, of calm with storm.

7.

Schism an evidence of presumption and

perverseness.

Let it not be thought, that those are good men who withdraw from the Church. The wind never carries away the wheat, nor

do storms overthrow the tree which has a solid root to rest on. It is the empty straw that the tempest tosses, it is the sapless tree that the blast of wind overthrows. It is men like these, that the Apostle John points out with a reproach," they went forth from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, surely they would have remained with us." Hence, often have heresies arisen, and hence do rise, while the perverse spirit puts a period to peace, and perfidy and discord exclude unity. But the LORD permits and suffers these things to be done, maintaining the continuance of individual free-will, that while the heart and spirit are weighed in the balance of truth, the perfect faith of them that are approved may be distinguished and ascertained. The HOLY SPIRIT forewarns us by the Apostle, and says, "it is needful also, that heresies should be, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you." Thus are the faithful approved, and thus the faithless detected: so that even before the day of judgment the souls of the righteous are separated from the unrighteous, the wheat distinguished from the chaff.

These are they who take upon them, GoD not willing, to preside over their rash companions, establish themselves in authority without any lawful ordination, and assume the name of Bishop, when no man gives them a Bishoprick. These the HOLY SPIRIT marks out in the Psalms, as sitting in the seat of the noxious; a plague and infection of the faith, deceiving with the serpent's mouth, wise to corrupt truth, breathing out poison unto death with pestilential tongues; whose words eat like a canker; whose writings pour out a deadly poison into every breast and heart. Against these the LORD cries out, and reins back and recalls His wandering people, saying, "Hearken not unto the words of the prophets, which prophesy falsely, for the vision of their heart maketh them vain. They speak, but not from the mouth of the LORD; they say to those who cast away the word of God, there shall be peace unto you; and to all that walk in their own pleasures, every one who walketh in the error of his own heart, evil shall not come upon him. I have not spoken unto them, and they have of their own selves prophesied; if they had stood in me, and had heard my words, and had taught my people, I

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would have converted them from their evil thoughts." These same persons the LORD again designates and denotes, saying, They have deserted Me, the fountain of living water, and have made for themselves broken cisterns, which cannot hold water." There can be but one true Baptism; and yet they think they can baptize. They desert the fountain of life, yet hold out the gift of a living and health-giving water. Men are not cleansed by them, but rather are made filthy: their sins are not wiped away, but verily are heaped up. They are born, not the sons of GOD, but sons of Satan: they are gendered of perfidy, they have lost the gift of faith, they cannot arrive unto the reward of peace, for they have destroyed the peace of the LORD by discord and fury.

8.

Conventicles have no claim to Christ's promised favours.

Let no man deceive himself by a mistaken interpretation of the LORD's words," wheresoever two or three are gathered together in My name, I am with them." Those who corrupt and falsely interpret the Scriptures, state the latter part of the passage, and omit the former: they attend to one part, and the other they artfully suppress. As themselves are separated from the Church, so do they sunder the purport of a passage which should be undivided. For the LORD, in urging His disciples to maintain unanimity and peace, saith, "I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth, touching any thing which ye shall ask, it shall be given you by My FATHER which is in heaven. For wheresoever two or three shall be gathered together in My name, I am with them." Showing that a value is put, not on the number of those who pray, but on their unanimity; "If," He saith, "two of you on earth shall agree together." Unanimity is put first: a peaceful agreement is the previous premise; He faithfully and firmly teaches, that we must agree together. Yet how can any individual be said to agree with another, when he does not agree with the great body and

general brotherhood of the Church? How can two or three be gathered together in CHRIST's name, when they are beyond question separated from CHRIST, and from His Gospel? We do not leave them, but they leave us and inasmuch as heresies and schisms are naturally gendered of persons forming for themselves separate places of meeting, they are therefore deserters from the source and origin of truth. But the LORD speaks of His Church, and says, in reference to those who are in the Church, that if they be of one mind, if, in the words of His mandate and lesson, but two or three of them gather together and offer up the prayer of one heart, two or three though they be, they will be enabled to receive from the Divine Majesty whatever they pray for. "Wherever two or three are gathered together in My name, I," saith He, "am with them,"-that is, with the single-hearted and peaceful, those who fear GoD, and keep His commandments. With them, He says that He is, though they be but two or three. So was He, with the three children in the burning fiery furnace: and because they had a single heart for GoD, and stood in concord together, He poured breezy dews over them, enveloped as they were by the surrounding flames. So also with the two Apostles who were shut in prison, because they were of one mind and one spirit, He was present: and drawing back the bolts of their cell, led them again into the market-place of the city, that they might make known to the multitude, that word which they faithfully preached. When therefore, He lays it down in His commandment, and says, "when two or three are gathered together in My name, I am with them." He divides not men from the Church, Himself its Author and Maker, but reproaching the faithless with their discord, and in expressive terms commending peace to the faithful, He shows that He is more present with two or three that pray with one heart than with many persons not agreeing together and that more may be gained by the united request of a few, than from the prayers of many where discord is among them. It is hence that when He gave rules for prayer He added, "when ye stand and pray, forgive whatever ye have against another, that your FATHER also who is in heaven may forgive you your sins." And any who comes with a quarrel to

the sacrifice, He calls back from the altar, and tells him first to agree with his brother, and then return in peace, and present his oblation to God; for neither had GoD respect unto Cain's sacrifice; for he could not have GoD at peace with him, who through envy and discord was not at peace with his brother.

9.

Schism is not expiated by Martyrdom.

What prospect then of peace have they, who are foes to the brethren? What sacrifice do they think they celebrate, when they become rivals of the priesthood? When gathered together beyond the pale of the Church, do they still believe that CHRIST is in the midst of them? Though men like these were killed in the profession of their faith, not even by their blood would their spot be washed out. The offence of discord is a weighty offence; it includes no expiation, and is absolved by no sufferings. He cannot be a Martyr, who is not in the Church; he cannot attain unto the kingdom who leaveth her to whom the kingdom shall be given. CHRIST gave us peace. He told us to be of one heart and one mind: He directed that the alliance of affection and endearment should be preserved unbroken and inviolate; so that those who do not maintain the love of brethren, can lay no claim to the honours of martyrdom. The Apostle Paul supports this position by the language he has used: "and though I have faith so that I can remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing; and though I give all my goods to feed the poor, and though 1 give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity is of lofty spirit, charity is kind, charity envieth not, charity acteth not amiss, is not puffed up, is not angered, thinketh no evil, is content with all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things; charity never faileth." Charity," he saith, never faileth." For it will continue to reign for ever, presenting an eternal centre of union to the brotherhood that circles around it. Into the kingdom of Heaven discord can never enter. It meets with no reward from

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