us not, as some do, call the different practices of our brethren will-worship, and their different opinions doctrines of devils, and the doctrine of Balaam, who taught fornication, &c., unless we can plainly, and in expressness of terms, prove it so; such language as this hath strangely divided our spirits, and hardened our hearts one towards another.

9. If we would live in peace, let us make the best constructions of one another's words and actions. Charity judgeth the best, and it thinks no evil; if words and actions may be construed to a good sense, let us never put a bad construction upon them. How much hath the peace of Christians been broken by an uncharitable interpretation of words and actions? As some lay to the charge of others that which they never said, so, by straining men's words, others lay to their charge that they never thought.

10. Be willing to hear and learn, and obey those that God by his providence hath set over you; this is a great means to preserve the unity and peace of churches. But when men, yea, and sometimes women, shall usurp authority, and think themselves wiser than their teachers, no wonder if these people run into contentions and parties, when any shall say they are not free to hear those whom the church thinks fit to speak to them. This is the first step to schism, and is usually attended, if not timely prevented, with a sinful separation.

11. If you would keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, be mindful that the God whom you serve is a God of peace, and your Saviour is a Prince of peace, and that his ways are ways of pleasantness, and all his paths are peace; and that Christ was sent into the world to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet in the way of peace.

12. Consider the oneness of spirit that is among the enemies of religion; though they differ about other things, yet to persecute religion, and extirpate religion out of the earth, here they will agree: the devils in the air, and the devils in the earth, all the devils in hell, and in the world, make one at this turn. Shall the devil's kingdom be united, and shall Christ's be divided? Shall the devils make one shoulder to drive on the design of damning men, and shall not Christians unite to carry on the great design of saving of them? Shall the Papists agree and unite to carry on their interest, notwithstanding the multitudes of orders, degrees, and differences, that are among them, and shall not those that call themselves reformed churches unite to carry on the common interest of Christ in the world, notwithstanding some petty and disputable differences that are among them? Quarrels about religion, as one observes, were sins not named among the Gentiles. What a shame is it, then, for Christians to abound in them, especially considering the nature of the Christian religion, and what large provisions the author of it hath made to keep the professors of it in peace; insomuch, as one well observes, it is next to a miracle that ever any, especially the professors of it, should fall out about it.

13. Consider and remember that the Judge stands at the door; let this moderate our spirits, that the Lord is at hand. What a sad account will they have to make when he comes, that shall be found to smite their fellow-servants, and to make the way to his kingdom more narrow than ever he made it? Let me close all in the words of that great apostle (2 Cor 13:11): 'Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.'

POSTSCRIPT.

Reader, I thought good to advertise thee that I have delivered this to thy hand in the same order and method in which it was preached, and almost in the same words, without any diminishings or considerable enlargings, unless it be in the thirteen last particulars, upon some of which I have made some enlargements, which I could not then do for want of time; but the substance of every one of them was then laid down in the same particular order as here thou hast them: and now I have done, I make no other account, to use the words of a moderate man upon the like occasion, but it will fall out with me, as doth commonly with him that parts a fray, both parties may perhaps drive at me for wishing them no worse than peace. My ambition of the public tranquility of the church of God, I hope, will carry me through these hazards. Let both beat me, so their quarrels may cease; I shall rejoice in those blows and scars I shall take for the church's safety.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] 'Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn not?'--Ed.

***

MR. BUNYAN'S LAST SERMON:

Preached August 19TH, 1688

[ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR]

This sermon, although very short, is peculiarly interesting: how it was preserved we are not told; but it bears strong marks of having been published from notes taken by one of the hearers. There is no proof that any memorandum or notes of this sermon was found in the autograph of the preacher.

In the list of Bunyan's works published by Chas. Doe, at the end of the 'Heavenly Footman,' March 1690, it stands No. 44. He professes to give the title-page, word for word, as it was first printed, It is, 'Mr. John Bunyan's last sermon, at London, preached at Mr. Gamman's meeting-house, near Whitechapel, August 19th, 1688, upon John 1:13: showing a resemblance between a natural and a spiritual birth; and how every man and woman may try themselves, and know whether they are born again or not.' Published 1689, in about one sheet in 12mo. From this it appears to have been preached only two days before his fatal illness, and twelve days before his decease, which took place August 31st, 1688. The disease which terminated his invaluable life, was brought on by a journey to Reading on horseback, undertaken with the benevolent design of reconciling an offended father to his son. Having accomplished his object, he rode to London; on his way home, through a heavy rain, the effects of which appeared soon after this, his last sermon was preached. He bore, with most exemplary patience and resignation, the fever which invaded his body; and, at a distance from his wife and family, in the house of his friend Mr. Strudwick, at Snow Hill, his pilgrimage was ended, and he fell asleep in perfect peace, to awake amidst the harmonies and glory of the celestial city.

GEO. OFFOR.

Mr. Bunyan's Last Sermon

'Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.'--John 1:13

The words have a dependance on what goes before, and therefore I must direct you to them for the right understanding of it. You have it thus: 'He came unto his own, and his own received him not; but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh--but of God.'

In the words before, you have two things. First, Some of his own rejecting him, when he offered himself to them. Second, Others of his own receiving him, and making him welcome; those that reject him, he also passes by; but those that receive him, he gives them power to become the sons of God.

Now, lest any one should look upon it as good luck or fortune, says he, they 'were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.' They that did not receive him, they were only born of flesh and blood; but those that receive him, they have God to their Father; they receive the doctrine of Christ with a vehement desire.

[TO EXPLAIN THE TEXT.]

FIRST, I will show you what he means by blood. They that believe are born to it, as an heir is to an inheritance--they are born of God, not of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God; not of blood, that is, not by generation, not born to the kingdom of heaven by the flesh, not because I am the son of a godly man or woman--that is meant by blood (Acts 17:26); He 'hath made of one blood all nations.' But when he says here, 'not of blood,' he rejects all carnal privileges they did boast of: they boasted they were Abraham's seed; no, no says he, it is not of blood; think not to say you have Abraham to your father; you must be born of God, if you go to the kingdom of heaven.

SECOND, 'Nor of the will of the flesh.' What must we understand by that?

It is taken for those vehement inclinations that are in man, to all manner of looseness, fulfilling the desires of the flesh: that must not be understood here; men are not made the children of God by fulfilling their lustful desires. It must be understood here in the best sense: there is not only in carnal men a will to be vile, but there is in them a will to be saved also; a will to go to heaven also. But this it will not do; it will not privilege a man in the things of the kingdom of God: natural desires after the things of another world, they are not an argument to prove a man shall go to heaven whenever he dies. I am not a free-willer, I do abhor it; yet there is not the wickedest man but he desires, some time or other, to be saved; he will read some time or other, or, it may be, pray, but this will not do: 'It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.' There is willing and running, and yet to no purpose (Rom 9:16). Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, have not obtained it (v 30). Here, I do not understand, as if the apostle had denied a virtuous course of life to be the way to heaven; but that a man without grace, though he have natural gifts, yet he shall not obtain privilege to go to heaven, and be the son of God. Though a man without grace may have a will to be saved, yet he cannot have that will God's way. Nature, it cannot know any thing but the things of nature--the things of God knows no man but by the Spirit of God; unless the Spirit of God be in you, it will leave you on this side the gates of heaven. 'Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.' It may be, some may have a will, a desire that Ishmael may be saved; know this, it will not save thy child. If it was our will, I would