anathematize each other! Devote each other to the nethermost hell! What wrath, what contention, what malice, what bitterness, is every where found among them? Even where they agree in essentials, and only differ in opinions, or in the circumstantials of religion. Who _follows after_ only _the things that make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another_? O God! How long? Shall thy promise fail? Fear it not, ye little flock. Against hope believe in hope. It is your Father’s good pleasure, yet to renew the face of the earth. Surely all these things shall come to an end, and the inhabitants of the earth shall learn righteousness. _Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they know war any more. The mountain of the_ Lord’s _house shall be established on the top of the mountains_: and all the kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdom of our God. _They shall not_ then _hurt or destroy, in all his holy mountain_: but _they shall call their walls salvation and their gates praise_. They shall all be without spot or blemish, loving one another, even as _Christ_ hath loved us.――Be thou part of the first-fruits, if the harvest is not yet. Do thou love thy neighbour as thyself. The Lord God fill thy heart with such a love to every soul, that thou mayest be ready to lay down thy life for his sake! May thy soul continually overflow with love, swallowing up every unkind and unholy temper, ’till he calleth thee up into the region of love, there to reign with him for ever and ever! SERMON XXIII. UPON OUR LORD’S SERMON ON THE MOUNT. DISCOURSE III. MATT. v. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. _Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God. Blessed are the peace-makers; for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness-sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you._ I. 1. HOW excellent things are spoken of the love of our neighbour! It is _the fulfilling of the law, the end of the commandment_. Without this all we have, all we do, all we suffer, is of no value in the sight of God. But it is that love of our neighbour which springs from the love of God: otherwise itself is nothing worth. It behoves us therefore to examine well upon what foundation our love of our neighbour stands: whether it is really built upon the love of God? Whether _we_ do _love him, because he first loved us_? Whether we are _pure in heart_? For this is the foundation, which shall never be moved. _Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see_ God.