us learn, from this declaration, to admire our Lord's readiness and anxiety to suffer for us-to place all our hope on his baptism of blood—and, after his example, cheerfully to submit to every affliction.

After this reference to himself, Jesus returns to what he had stated just before: "Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay, but rather division." According to Matt. x. 34, Christ said, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace on earth, but a sword." The gospel is certainly calculated to make peace between God and man, and between man and man. Its genius was thus described, by a multitude of the heavenly host, at the Redeemer's birth, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men." The Saviour is called "The Prince of peace;" and it is said, that "in his days there shall be abundance of peace, so long as the moon endureth." In so far as the gospel is really received so as to influence man according to his own nature, in so far has it already been productive of peace; and when it shall altogether direct the measures of the nations, peace shall be universal: "Men shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But, while this is its only direct tendency and effect, indirectly, as we have already noticed, it has been made the innocent occasion of much division and trouble. Its rejection by the Jews brought down, on that infatuated people, destruction by the Roman sword, as, no doubt, it often brings calamities on other nations: all these things, however, are to be imputed to the obstinacy and sinful passions of men. But more generally, our Lord here appears to be speaking of all the different kinds of opposition and contention, to which the gospel, in any sense, gives rise. So contrary are its heavenly principles to the errors of false religions, to the pride of philosophy falsely so called, to the maxims of the world, and to the corruptions of the unrenewed heart, that whenever it is brought into contact with them, a contest arises, and their united power is arrayed against it. Disputes, reproaches, and calumnies may be called the mild forms in which this enmity to the truth appears; and, when it can excite the secular arm, the power of civil rulers, it breaks out in the more violent forms of persecution, such as fines, imprisonment, scourging, tortures, murders, wars, and massacres. But, so far are even

the most crying of these evils from being any proof that the gospel is not of God, that they are one of the clear testimonies of its truth, inasmuch as they prove it to be diametrically opposed to the spirit of the world that lieth in wickedness, and were distinctly foretold by Christ himself. 66 If ye were of the world," said he, "the world would love his own but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." "Ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake." 66 They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. But these things have I told you, that, when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them." These predictions were awfully fulfilled in the heathen and Popish persecutions; but, do we not see a clear demonstration of the same spirit of opposition, in those less appalling divisions which occurred in a way more applicable to our own every day experience? Divisions, differences of opinion with regard to Christ and his doctrine, very early appeared. "There was much murmuring among the people concerning him; for, some said, He is a good man: others said, Nay, but he deceiveth the people." "So there was a division among the people because of him." And when Paul and Barnabas were preaching at Antiocht in Pisidia, the stir and divisions which arose were great. "When the Jews saw the multitudes," who crowded to hear the word, "they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming." When the Gentiles then heard the proclamation of the gospel, "they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord; and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed."- "But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city" (observe, in passing, how not only the profligate and the low, but those who are devout, in a certain way, and lay claim to the character of being religious, and those of higher stations, from whom better things might be expected, are too often opposed to the truth as it is in Jesus), "the Jews, stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men," the rulers," of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts." In like + Acts xiii. 45, 48.

* John vii. 12, 43.

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manner, when the same two preachers were in Iconium,* a great multitude, both of the Jews, and also of the Greeks, believed. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil affected against the brethren.""But the multitude of the city was divided; and part held with the Jews, and part with the apostles."

And so it is still universally, where the gospel makes any impression, however much circumstances may vary and limit the outward manifestations of these divisions and differences of opinion. Nor let it be thought that such stirrings are to be deprecated. There is evil, no doubt, in them, in so far as they are in opposition to the truth, and in so far as even the defence of the truth is conducted in an improper spirit; but still, there is hardly any state of things worse than a state of complete stillness and indifference. "When the

strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace:" where there is no concern about divine things, no good can be doing; where there is indifference to religion altogether, there can certainly be no theological disputes. It is something to get men made alive to the subject of religion, and it is chiefly by means of such discussion that error is dissipated, and the truth made to triumph. The wrath of men, however, worketh not the righteousness of God; and, therefore, though God may bring good out of evil, and cause the words to be fulfilled, "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain;" all violence ought to be studiously avoided by those who desire to promote the truth; and the excesses into which its enemies have fallen, cannot be contemplated but with horror.

In farther describing the divisions which the publication of the gospel would occasion, our Lord declares that they should arise between persons dwelling in the same house, and even between persons related to each other by the nearest and dearest ties. "" For, from henceforth, there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father: the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother: the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." We have a similar passage in the 10th chapter of Matthew. There Christ also says, "And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father * Acts xiv.

the child; and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.' In all this there is an obvious reference to the passage in Micah vii. 5, 6: "Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide; keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law: a man's enemies are the men of his own house." The enmity between the woman and her seed, and the serpent and his seed, has been working all the way down from the fall. There is, in all unrenewed persons, a natural dislike to real religion, and spiritual excellence. Believers cannot speak or act as if neglecters of salvation were in a safe state; on the contrary, they must and do desire their change: but this their very charity, their love to their souls, is construed into intolerable bigotry and uncharitableness; and their very piety and superiority to the world, conveying a reflection on the worldly, become, to such persons, the cause of uneasiness and disgust. Hence the dislike in question; and so powerful, inveterate, and deep-rooted is this dislike that the ties of friendship and blood cannot restrain it; it bursts asunder all the bonds of common humanity, and of natural affection. As soon as a family of human beings existed numerous enough to render a difference possible, there were found in it a believing Abel, and a wicked Cain: and we know the atrocious crime which Cain perpetrated because his own works were evil, and his brother's good. Ishmael's mocking Isaac led Paul to write what still holds true, "As then, he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now." twin brothers, the Lord said, "Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated." Eli was a man of God; but his sons were sons of Belial: whereas, Josiah was the eminently pious son of Amon, an uncommonly wicked man. David experienced much of the hatred of his friends. 66 Behold," said he, "my son who came forth of my bowels, seeketh my life: how much more now may this Benjamite do it? Let him alone, and let him curse." In his own person, and as a type of Christ, he said, “ Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, hath lifted up his heel against me." Job was heard to say, 66 My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me. All my inward friends abhorred me; and they whom I loved are turned against me." But, how awfully were the words before us fulfilled in

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many cases of persecution which afterwards befell the Christians, and to which, indeed, the words especially refer. The nearest relations, not even excepting brothers and sisters, parents and children, in many instances, betrayed each other to the heathen persecutors, and rejoiced and exulted over their Christian friends in their sufferings, because of what they accounted a mad superstition; or, they endeavoured, by rough treatment, or, what was still more trying, by the most urgent and affectionate entreaties, to prevail on them to deny Christ. Let one example suffice. In the persecution raised by the Roman emperor, Severus, in the year of our Lord 200, Vivia Perpetua was seized at Carthage, along with four young catechumens, and to these five a man named Satur voluntarily joined himself. Perpetua was a lady of quality; she had a father, a mother, and two brothers, one of whom was a catechumen: she was about twenty-two years of age, was married, and had an infant at her breast. While these confessors were in the hands of the persecutors, the father of Perpetua, himself a pagan, but full of affection for his favourite child, importuned her to fall from her faith. His entreaties were vain. Her pious constancy appeared to him an absurd obstinacy, and enraged him so much as to induce him to give her very rough treatment. When she was cast into prison, her concern for her infant was extreme; and for some time, her mind was oppressed with the misery she was bringing on her family: but, as it was for a good conscience, she, in the exercise of prayer, obtained composure, and her prison, which at first was peculiarly formidable and distressing to her, as she had hitherto experienced nothing but the delicacies of genteel life-her prison became to her like a palace. Her father, some time after, came to the prison, overwhelmed with sorrow, which, in all probability, was augmented by his reflecting on his own rough and angry behaviour to her at their last interview. But he attempted to subdue her fortitude by a different mode of attack. "Have pity, my daughter," said he, "on my grey hairs, have pity on your father, if I was ever worthy of that name: if I myself have brought you up to this age, if I have preferred you to your brethren, make me not a reproach to mankind;-have compassion on your son, too, who cannot survive you: lay aside your obstinacy, lest you destroy us all; for, if you perish, we must all of us shut our mouths in disgrace." The old man with much tenderness, then kissed her hands, threw himself at her feet, weeping