they should unite into one piece, and having inscribed on them severally the distinctive names of the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel, he was to join them in his hand before the people. To their inquiry, "Shew us what thou meanest by these," he was to answer: "Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, and put it with the stick of Judah, and THEY SHALL BE ONE IN MINE HAND.; they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all." They were to become one nation in respect not only of civil polity, but also of religious communion and privileges. For it is added, "I will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore :my tabernacle also shall be with them; yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people." This promise was fulfilled on the restoration from the captivity, when the inveterate schism between Judah and Israel was perfectly healed. Some interpreters regard it as a prediction of what was to happen in New Testament times; and we can scarcely doubt that the blessings promised, in all their extent, could only be enjoyed during this period: For it follows, "David (a name often given to Messiah by the prophets) my servant shall be King over them, and they shall all have one Shepherd;" and again, "My servant David shall be their prince for ever. But without resting on this, we mean to take the primary application of the passage as a foundation for the subsequent discourse. There is a wonderful analogy in the divine dispensa tions towards the Church at different periods. The duties, the temptations, the sins, the punishments, and the deliverances of the people of God in former times, are all instructive and admonitory. The Spirit of wisdom has selected for insertion in the inspired records, with more or less detail, those facts which were calculated to be most generally and permanently useful. In the New Testament the name of Babylon, and the language and imagery employed by the prophets in describing the power and the overthrow of that idolatrous and persecuting empire, are transferred to the reign and ruin of the Antichristian kingdom; and upon the same principle, are not we warranted to apply, for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and instruction in righteousness, the description of a contemporary mercy bestow, ed upon the Church of God, which was intimately connected with her internal and most vital interests? On a text of this kind there is a danger of tracing analogies that are more fanciful and ingenious than real and solid, and of rearing general principles on the basis of accidental circumstances. We shall endeavour to guard against this, by keeping in eye the analogy of faith, and the lights thrown on the subject of our text from other parts of Scripture. The subject of discourse is the divisions of the Church, and the remedy of this mournful malady. I propose not to treat it at large, but only to lay before you a few observations, which, through the blessing of the Divine Spirit, may be useful for establishing your faith, and directing your exercise. The subject is not only of great extent; it is also of very delicate discussion. When we are beside the waters of strife, O how needful the Perfect Illumination-the mystic Urim and Thummim which was upon Levi, whom God "proved at Massah, and strove with at the waters of Meribah!" May we have our ears attent to "the word behind us," the Daughter of a voice*, saying, "This is the way, when we turn to the right hand, and when we turn to the left;" and may you have wisdom to "consider what we say," and judge of your ownselves what is right." For the sake of order I shall arrange what I have to say under the following heads: to " I. Of the Unity of the Church. II. Of its Divisions. III. Of the Removal of these, and the Restoration of its violated Unity. I. I begin with the consideration of the Unity of the Church. For ages previous to the announcing of the oracle in our text, Judah and Israel had been divided into two nations in respect of civil concerns and of religious faith and practice; but God at first made them one. The Church of Christ has been divided for a still longer period, and to a still greater degree; but "from the beginning it was not so." Originally *The Jewish writers say, That God revealed his mind during the standing of the tabernacle by Urim and Thummim ; during the first temple by the Prophets; and during the second by Bath-kol, or the Daughter of a voice. This last, they suppose, is referred to in Isa. xxx. 21. it was one, and it ought still to be one, according to Divine will and institution. The Unity of the Church is implied in the most general view we can take of its nature, as a society instituted for religious purposes. True religion is essentially one, even as God, its object, is one. It, as its name imports, binds its professors to one another, as well as to the sole and common object of their supreme homage and service. It is indeed the great bond of human society in all its various and graduated relations; preserving the unity and peace of families, neighbourhoods, and nations, strengthening the subordinate ties by which they are connected, and preventing men from becoming a prey to each other, "as the fishes of the sea and as the creeping things that have no ruler." Hence, from the violation of the bonds of humanity, consanguinity, and mutual faith, so general among his countrymen, a prophet infers that they must have previously renounced the relation in which they stood to their Common Parent: "Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother by profaning the covenant of our fathers* ?" If such is the remote, and (if I may so call it) extrinsic influence of religion, what must its direct operation be within the pale of its own sacred enclosure? Consider the Church, again, in its more specific form, as a society consisting of men called out of the world lying in wickedness; and it will be still *Mal. ii. 10. more evident that oneness is its attribute. It is founded on supernatural revelation on the promise of a Saviour, and a divinely instituted worship. By their profession of faith in the former, and their observance of the latter, "the sons of God" were united in the patriarchal age. When an extensive system of ceremonial and sacrifical service, intended to prefigure the redemption to be procured by the seed of the woman" and "of Abraham,” as well as to preserve the knowledge of the one true God in the world, was superinduced on the original revelation; the nation of Israel was embodied into a Church or sacred confederation, to be a peculiar people unto God, a holy nation, a kingdom of priests. God delights to speak of that people, as well as of himself, in the singular number: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord.-Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name *." "I will say, It is my people, and they shall say, The Lord is my God +" The stranger who embraced the true religion, in "joining himself to the Lord," did at the same time "cleave to the house of Jacob," and "surname himself by the name of Israelt." "One law, and one manner, and one ordinance, shall be for you of the congregation, and also for the stranger that sojourneth with you; as ye are, so shall the stranger be before the Lords."-By the death of Christ, "the middle wall *Deut. vi. 4. x. 20. † Zech. xiii. 19. Isa. Ivi. 3. |