SERMON VII.

Seventh Beatitude.

5TH. CHAP. OF ST. MATTHEW, AND THE 9TH. VERSE.

"Blessed are the peace-makers: for they shall be called the children of God."

F there be any characteristic by which

IF

the Gospel is peculiarly distinguished, it is this that it is a dispensation of " peace." In these days of impiety and unbelief, we may perhaps be told that this position is unfounded. We may be told of the crimes and miseries with which the earth has been desolated, by men who have "held the truth in unrighteousness," or who have propagated error by persecution and violence. But are the perversions of the misguided and deprav

ed,

ed, to be attributed to that meek, and holy, and peaceable religion, which came out of the hands of its divine founder, as pure and perfect as the source from which it flowed? Is there a principle which the heart of man cannot corrupt? And when, in the ardent desire to gratify its depraved feelings, it seeks food for its malignity and hatred, even in the benign accents of Him, who died after having uttered a prayer for his murderers; does this prove any thing but the virulence of that disease, which can turn the most healthful aliments to poison?

While human nature remains in its present fallen and polluted state, it is vain to expect or to hope, that every nation, or every individual, which professes to be obedient to the law of Christ, shall drink so deep of its spirit, or be swayed so universally by its precepts, as to present a living picture of the glories of the blessedness of the Gospel. Still, though we seek in vain, among the general body of professing Christians, that entire conformity of heart and life to the re

ligion of the Bible, those "peaceable fruits of righteousness" which would make "the desert blossom like the rose," and give a foretaste of the joys of heaven, in the tranquillity and harmony of earth; still much has been done to ameliorate the condition of mankind, even by the external profession of Christianity. The true and genuine disciples of our blessed Lord have ever been " a peculiar people." They have been "as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done." If this were not the case, why would the gate of life be represented as strait, and the way narrow, and why would those who enter in be denominated few? While however the true witnesses of God are sparingly scattered, amidst the multitudes who "know not God, and obey not his Gospel ;" the "little leaven" has in some degree "leavened the whole lump." If we look into the history of the world, we shall find among the nations, which have been favoured with the public establishment and public preaching of Christianity, a tone of

morals

morals avowedly superior to that of those nations which were sunk in the grossness of idolatry, or influenced by any religion except that of the Gospel. Real Christianity, cordially received and implicitly obeyed, would have done much more; but even nominal Christianity has done much. For instance, (to confine ourselves to the subject which now demands our attention) the influence of the Gospel in promoting the cause of peace and tranquillity upon earth has been eminently conspicuous. It has not destroyed the seeds of contention and hatred, for they are found in those "lusts that war in our members," "from whence come wars and fightings among us." But the violence which it has not been able to destroy, it has softened. The real Christian, mourning as he does deeply and sincerely, that the will of that gracious Being, who seeks only the happiness of his creatures, should be so imperfectly performed upon earth, sees yet much for which to be thankful. He sees it in the comparatively merciful manner in which Christian

Christian warfare is carried on, in the principle upon which it acts of accomplishing its purpose with the least possible expence of human life and human happiness, in the feelings of honour which dignify the contest, of compassion towards the vanquished which ennoble its close. Compared with the sanguinary contests of other nations, the warfare of Christendom is peace. But it is not in the dissensions of Empires that the softening influence of Christianity is most felt. The great interests that convulse the earth, have but an indirect influence upon the individuals that compose it. Their felicity is constituted by the charities of domestic life: their misery by the dissensions which harass and disturb the tranquillity of their own homes. Here Christianity comes like some benevolent angel shedding from his wings the "blessing of peace." We know that the number of those is comparatively small, who have so experienced its transforming influence, that the description of the apostle may be truly applied to them.

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