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DISCOURSE II.

On the Nature, Design, and Constitution of the CHRISTIAN CHURCH, considered as a visible Society.

BEFORE we can be qualified to determine what

is wrong, we must have acquired fome just and established notion with refpect to what is right. An acquaintance therefore with the nature, design, and conftitution of the Chriftian church, becomes a neceffary preparative to our forming a proper judgment upon the fubfequent parts of our fubject.

To trace the church through its several progreffive ftages; from its original establishment in paradise, where the good news of a Saviour was firft delivered to fallen man; through its infant condition; and days of contraction in the ark, when it was confined to one fingle family; to its fubfequent enlargement in the descendants of ABRAHAM; its wandering state in the wilderness; and its more complete settlement in the land of Canaan; down to that fulness of time, when our SAVIOUR came in the flesh to vifit it; would

lead into too wide a field. It is our happiness, and to that part of the fubject our prefent attention is confined, that we live in that stage of the church, which may be confidered as the completion of every former difpenfation. JESUS CHRIST, the head of the church, by purging it from the corruptions which it had contracted, and restoring its worship to that spiritual standard in which its perfection confifts; has, as it were, put his finishing hand to the establishment of it, upon the plan best calculated to secure the purpofe he had in view.

It is a matter therefore of importance, that we fhould be particular in our observations upon this point; because a deviation from CHRIST's plan, by an attempt to alter the conftiution of his church, may make it a very different thing from what it was defigned to be; and though, in this case, a man may fatisfy himself, by calling the creature of his own imagination the church of CHRIST, it certainly does not follow that it really is fuch; and it may be the most dangerous piece of felf-impofition thus to confider it.

To understand the nature and defign of the Christian church, we must confider the world at large as lying in wickednefs; and confequently in a state of condemnation before GOD. Out of this wicked

fociety, of which all are by nature born members, GOD has been pleased to call men into another fociety,

very different from it; the object of which is to minister to their falvation, by fo purifying them from the corruptions of a fallen world, that they may not be condemned with it. This fociety, fometimes called the Church of Christ, because CHRIST purchased it with his blood; fometimes his kingdom, because he is the king and governor of it; was fet up in oppofition to that kingdom of this world, which has Satan for its prince. Into this fociety, or kingdom, perfons are admitted by baptifm; which is the feal conveying to them an affurance of their future inheritance: by the regular application of which, they are fanctified or fet apart from the reft of the world, as the peculiar property of the Holy Spirit. Having then, in confequence of their being born anew of the Holy Spirit in baptifm, profeffedly withdrawn themselves from the service of the prince of this world, and entered into that of the living GOD; they become entitled to those privileges, which the King, into whose service they are entered, has purchased for his fubjects.

Whilst therefore those who, in their natural condition, are strangers from the covenant of promise;

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living without hope and without God in the world;"

thofe who have been translated from the world into the church, may thereby be confidered as delivered from the powers of darkness, and become heirs with CHRIST of an eternal kingdom.

The privileges to which the members of the church are entitled, namely, pardon of fin, and eternal life, having been purchased by JESUS CHRIST; the church must of neceffity be a fociety of his forming. For no man can take upon himself to form a church; in other words, to call men out of the world, and by incorporating them into a certain fociety, thereby to invest them with Gospel privileges; for this plain rea fon, because no man can enfure to the members of a fociety of his own framing those privileges which he has it not in his power to confer. Every thing, therefore, in this matter, must be done in the name, and by commiffion from CHRIST; because CHRIST is the fulfiller of that divine engagement, by which alone man is delivered from condemnation with the world, and placed in a state of acceptance with GOD.

Now nothing can be more obvious to common fense, than that no man can engage for what he is not in a condition to perform, unless particular circumstances authorise him so to do. On the other hand, an engagement entered into on the behalf of

another can be binding only upon the party, by virtue of a commission received for that purpose. The application of these two self-evident pofitions fufficiently point out the difference between those who have received a commiffion from the Head of the church, to adminifter the affairs of his fpiritual kingdom, and thofe who have not.

If it be admitted, then, that the church is a fociety; as fuch, it must be poffeffed of power neceffary to its own prefervation. It muft have its rules and orders; and confequently its governors, to carry those rules and orders into effect. Without fuch a provifion for order and government, no fociety can fubfist.

That such a power was left with the church by its Divine Founder, is to be proved from the commiffion, by which the governors of it received authority to admit members into the church, and to exclude them from it, according to the qualification or difqualifi cation of the respective parties. And that this power comprehended under it every exertion of authority neceffary to the regulation of the fociety committed to their management, we conclude (to avoid multiplying proof upon a fubject that fpeaks for itfelf) from St. PAUL'S charge to his difciples, that they fhould" obey them that had the rule over them, and

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