man), that the unity of the church is a unity of love and affection,
and not a bare uniformity of practice and opinion.

III. Having shewn you wherein this unity consists, I now come to
the third general thing propounded: and that is, to shew you the
fruits and benefits of unity and peace, together with the mischiefs
and inconveniences that attend those churches where unity and peace
are wanting.

1. Unity and peace is a duty well-pleasing to God, who is styled
the author of peace and not of confusion. In all the churches God's
Spirit rejoiceth in the unity of our spirits; but on the other hand,
where strife and divisions are, there the Spirit of God is grieved.
Hence it is that the apostle no sooner calls upon the Ephesians not
to grieve the Spirit of God, but he presently subjoins us a remedy
against that evil, that they put away bitterness and evil-speaking,
and be kind one to another, and tender-hearted, forgiving one
another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven them; Eph. iv.
30, 32.

2. As unity and peace is pleasing to God, and rejoiceth his Spirit,
so it rejoiceth the hearts and spirits of God's people. Unity and
peace brings heaven down upon earth among us: hence it is that the
apostle tells us, Rom. iv. 17, that "the kingdom of God is not meat
and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost."
Where unity and peace is, there is heaven upon earth; by this we
taste the first fruits of that blessed estate we shall one day live
in the fruition of; when we shall come "to the general assembly and
church of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven, and to
God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect;"