affectionate are the emotions which they ought to excite in the breast of a Chriftian towards a Christian! If it fuggefted to a Jew powerful motives for right conduct towards his brother; how powerful are the motives which it urges upon us! There are three kinds, in particular, of fin, the guilt of which is brought into clearer light by the consideration that we all are brethren. The first is injuftice. Obferve the Apostle Paul diftinctly applying the confideration before us to fins of this description. To the Theffalonians he declares, This is the will of God, that no man go beyond, and defraud his brother in any matter; because that the Lord is the avenger of all fuck, as we also have forewarned you and teftified (b). Again, to the Corinthians he writes; Brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. Why do ye not rather take wrong? Why do ye not rather fuffer yourselves to be defrauded? Nay you do wrong and defraud; and that, your brethren (c). If a man plots iniquity against those persons with whom he is united by extraordinary ties; if he oppreffes and plunders those whom he is fpecially bound to (b) 1 Theff. iv. 6. (c) Cor. vi. 6-8. I 4 protect; protect; is not his fin highly aggravated? Such is our fin, if we plot iniquity against each other; if we opprefs or plunder each other; if we in any refpect defraud or wrong each other. each other. We all are brethren. Next, observe how this confideration bears upon fins of unkindness. To various offences of this class it is applied in Scripture. Thus St. Paul, after having decided in the affirmative a question warmly agitated in his days, whether it was lawful to eat meat which had been offered by the heathen in the temples of their idols, and was afterwards fold in the market for food; strongly warns the Corinthians against eating it, if they should perceive that by fuch a proceeding, though in itself lawful, they should be in danger of leading any perfon, who doubted on the fubject, to partake of the meat notwithstanding his fcruples. Take heed, faith the Apostle, left by any means this liberty of yours become a ftumbling-block to them that are weak. For if any man fee thee, which haft knowledge, fit at meat in the idol's temple; shall not the confcience of him that is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols? And through thy knowledge fhall the weak brother perish, for whom Chrift died. But when ye fo fin against the brethren, and wound their weak confcience, ye, He that ye fin against Chrift (d). Grudge not one against another, brethren, faith St. James, left ye be condemned. Behold the Judge ftandeth at the door Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, fpeaketh evil of the Law, and judgeth the Law (e). On the guilt of failing in any branch of love to a brother, St. John repeatedly dwells. He that faith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. In this the children of God are manifefted, and the children of the Devil: whofoever doeth not righteousness is not of God; neither he that loveth not his brother. loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whofoever bateth his brother is a murderer. If a man fay, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother, whom he bath feen; how can he love God, whom he hath not seen (ƒ)? If you were fimply to hear of a man conducting himself in a very unkind way towards fome other perfons; you would be fatisfied from that account alone, before you had inquired who the perfons were towards whom he acted thus, that he had committed a great fin. But how much greater would his fin appear to you, if you should learn that the objects of his unkind (e) James, iv. 11. v. 9. (d) 1 Cor. viii. 9-12. nefs nefs were no others than the fons of his own father and mother! Thus aggravated is our guilt in the fight of our Heavenly father and the Lord Jefus Chrift, when we commit an act of unkindness against one of our Christian brethren. Thirdly. We may notice how forcibly the confideration, that we all are brethren, expofes the grievous finfulness of that most prevailing fin, both among the rich and among the poor, Pride. So it is applied by Saint Paul: Why doft thou fet at nought thy brother? For we shall all ftand before the Judgement-feat of Chrift (g). It lies also at the root of the reproof which St. James addreffes to those who, while profeffing the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, had refpect of perfons; and even when affembled for religious worfhip, received the rich with flattering distinetions, and fhewed by their contemptuous treatment of any poor man who came into the place of worship, how little they felt towards him as towards a brother (b). If I did defpife, fays Job, the cause of my man-fervant, or of my maid-fervant, when they contended with me; what then shall I do when God rifeth up? And when He vifiteth, what shall I anfwer Him? Did not he that made me in the (g) Rom. xiv. 10. (b) James, ii. 1-4 womb womb, make him? And did not one fashion us in the womb (i)? No man, faith the Scripture, bateth his own flesh. Can any man rationally, can any man confiftently with natural feeling, despise his own flesh? Yet we are all members one of another; brethren by nature, brethren in Chrift, Whoever despiseth another, defpifeth his own flesh. Whoever displays pride under any shape towards a fellow Christian, displays it towards a brother for whom Chrift died. He fcorns a brother of his own; he fcorns a brother of the Lord Jefus. Let us now obferve in what manner the circumftance of our being brethren is employed in the Scriptures, to constrain us, after having ceased to do evil, to learn to do good; with what energy it preffes upon us the difpofitions which we are to cherish, and the conduct which we are to manifeft, one towards another. Here we may notice in the first place, that the name by which universally the apoftles addrefs Chriftians, is Brethren. When they mention perfons who are not Chriftians, their description is, they that are of the contrary part, they that are without (k), not within the pale of Christian brotherhood. To (k) Tit. ii. 8. (i) Job, xxxi. 13-15. J Cor. v. 12, 13. 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