II. THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT.

We come now to the unity of the Spirit (verse 3), which we are endeavouring to keep. This is the unity which the Holy Spirit works in the members of Christ. He draws them all to the cross as their centre, and while they behold the Divine Sufferer, He softens their hearts into streams of tender love, and fills them all with the same unquenchable desire to forsake all and follow Him. The whole inner man is revolutionized, the whole heart touched and conquered, and a sublime, overpowering, new affection has laid an arrest upon all the processes of the soul's evil conditions. There is unity of aim, there is unity of object, there is unity in self-sacrificing love.

"Were the whole realm of nature mine,

That were an offering far too small,
Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my heart, my life, my all!"

This unity of the Spirit is not, as some think, the unity of the Church, for that comes afterwards, under "the one body;" nor is it the unity of the person of the Holy Ghost. It is rather the oneness of heart and feeling which the Spirit works in all believers, whatever be their position, colour, or country. The Holy Ghost is the common Spirit of the Father and the Son, possessed by both, sent by both, and bearing witness to both (John xiv. 16, 26, xv. 26, xvi. 7,14). Thus the Father and the Son are one, for they possess a common spirit, and in the same manner many persons on earth may be one when they all possess the same spirit. This explains the solemn prayer of Christ (John xvii. 21), "That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they all may be one in us." We are to keep this unity in the bond of peace. Bengel

says:-"Vinculum, quo pax retinetur, est ipse amor.' "The bond of peace is love." It may be so; but many commentators take the bond of peace to be peace itself, as the means of preserving unity. We should imbibe a peaceful, conciliating spirit, and this will be the best means of promoting and extending unity. As much as in you lies, live peaceably with all men. Jesus is the Prince of Peace; His kingdom is a kingdom of righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. He came and preached peace; His life was the example of peace; His death was the seal of peace; He is our peace; His birth gave us the song of peace; on Olivet He gave us the legacy of peace; and His ascension to the right hand of God is the proof that peace is concluded between God and man. Avoid all divisions and sectarian feelings; keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The other view which makes love the bond of peace is clearer, and seems to be supported by Col. iii. 14, where love is said to be the bond of perfectness. It is no doubt allowable, however, with Luther, De Wette, Campbell, and others, to translate, "through the bond of peace," which has the great advantage of being unambiguous. On the whole, the two interpretations nearly meet, for the quiet, peaceable spirit which binds all together (Ovid. Met. i. 25, see Greenfield and Wetstein) is not very different from the charity which edifieth (1 Cor. viii. 1), or the love which covers a multitude of sins.

III. THERE IS ONE BODY.

Body is, no doubt, used here as the proper designation for the Church of Christ, which is as much one, spiritually, as the human body is naturally-the members are many, the Body one (Rom. xii. 5; see 1 Cor. x. 17, xii. 13, 27, Eph. i. 23, ii. 16, Col. ii. 17). So the

Church is compared to the vine, the bride, the temple, the garden, the house, &c., all denoting the various relations between Jesus and His Church, and all containing the great idea of unity. She requires the care of the Husbandman; He must plant, prune, and fructify all her various members, and hence the relation, "I am the vine, and ye are the branches." She is the bride, the second Eve for the second Adam, taken out of His bleeding side, and destined to share with Him the dominion of the new paradisiacal earth (Rev. v. 10, 2 Pet. iii. 13, Isa. lxv. 17, lxvi. 22, Rev. xxi. 1, 27). He has taken our nature, Sarx, flesh (John i. 14); Soma, a body (Heb. x. 5); flesh and blood (Heb. ii. 14); a soul (Acts ii. 27, Ps. xvi. 10); spirit, Pneuma (Luke xxiii. 46). All these show the reality of the Incarnation, and lay the foundation for the expressive symbol of His Church, "One Body." There is one body, the Church, which is the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. But you say, what is the unity of this Body? I answer, the Church throughout the whole world is one in its origin, from Jesus Christ and His Apostles; one in holding the true saving doctrines of grace; one in having regular ordinances and a Gospel ministry; one as to essential inward life, though very varied as to time, place, circumstances, and external form. Hence, we may draw the following conclusions-(1.) That the Church of Jesus Christ is not limited to any age or nation, nor necessarily defined by any system of ritualism, or external form of government. There may be, and always have been, different forms of organization in the various branches of the Church-some more, and others less, perfect-but · these varieties are not more than are, and may be, found in the members of the same body, while yet the whole is pervaded by the same life-the very same immortal, imperishable life, though often not in the same force

and fulness in all the members. Nor does this exclude corrupt Churches from the communion of the faithful. The Papacy, or the Romish Church, for example, is not unlike the body of Job, smitten by the devil with sore boils, from the sole of the foot unto the crown, and the manifest duty of the Pope and the Cardinals is, to take a potsherd and scrape themselves, and sit down among the ashes (Job ii. 7, 8); nor are the Churches of England, Scotland, and Germany without certain warts and wrinkles, which require to be rubbed off in the process of purification. There is life in all of them, and hence, true believers, saints, martyrs, and men in whom the apostolic ages might have gloried, have been found in them all. These scattered saints, and not the outward corporations, form the true Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ-founded upon the Rock of Ages, redeemed by the sacrifice of the cross, and full of the hopes of life and immortality. This is the congregation of faithful men, the Church of the Living God, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail, nor the counsels of the ungodly prosper. (2.) It is the duty of Christians to cherish the spirit of unity, and join together in the public exercises of religion (see the following Scriptures-Heb. x. 25, 1 Pet. iii. 8, Phil. ii. 2, i. 27, iii. 16, John xiii. 34, xvii. 20-22). We ought to look upon ourselves as members of the one glorious Church of God from the beginning-the Body of Christ-members of that immortal corporation, which is chartered against destruction by the promises of Jehovah. This is our safety and strength. We are not alone in our pilgrimage, but march on towards eternity, surrounded by all the great and good upon the earth, and preceded by prophets, apostles, and the glorious army of the martyrs. Hence the divisive, separating spirit, is a mark of the flesh (Jude 19), while being separated, and put out of the

synagogue for righteousness' sake, is a sign of blessing (Luke vi. 22). (3.) Hence, Schism is a great sin, and ought to be avoided by Christians. By schism, I mean voluntary separation from a true branch of the Church of Christ. In the New Testament, schism is never used in the ecclesiastical sense of separation from the Church, but of divisions and factions in it. In Matt. ix. 16 it is a rent, in all other places it is rendered division, except 1 Cor. xii. 25, where it might also be rendered division. Thus the Moderates and the Evangelicals in the Church of Scotland were schismatics; and in the English Church, the Calvinists, Arminians, and Papists; the Broad Church, the Low Church, the High Church, and the high and dry, are all the schismata of the Primitive Church. Schism has no necessary connexion with religious opinions. Any kind of division in the Church is schism. Heresy is used, in most cases, in the same sense; thus in 1 Cor. xi. 19, it is equivalent to schism in verse 18; in Gal. v. 20 it is reckoned among the works of the flesh; in 2 Pet. ii. 1 we have the only clear, distinct example in the New Testament of the word heresy being applied to false doctrines. They denied the Lord that bought them, and that is called a damnable heresy. It was this text, no doubt, which finally determined the ecclesiastical application of the word to its present ecclesiastical usage. Thus schism came to denote sects, and heresy, false doctrines, contrary to the common usage of both classical and New Testament Greek. The word heresies was the common name for the different philosophical sects, as the Stoics, the Epicureans, the Ionians, &c. (Epictet. ii. 19, Diodor. Sic. 2, 29). Just so, the Scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, the Christians (Acts xxviii. 22), were so many heresies in the Jewish Church. In the same way the different orders in the Popish apostacy,