to those promises, must depend upon his being a member of it; upon the same principle that those persons only who have been admitted members of a society, have any claim to the privileges of it.

Hence it becomes a matter of importance with every man, to be satisfied whether he really is a member of the Church of Christ; for should he not be such, the sincerity of his profession will not supply the deficiency of those privileges and blessings, of which, in that case, he may not be in a situation to partake.

The Lord, we read, at the first opening of the Apostolic commission," added daily to the Church such as should be saved." From whence we understand, that admission into the Church is no indifferent thing, but a privilege of an important kind. Let men reason, therefore, as they please upon this subject, the counsel of God still standeth sure. 66 Many," says Solomon, "are the devices of a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand."+ According to the general tenour of Scripture, from which alone any safe conclusion can be drawn in this matter, it appears, that the only appointed road to heaven lies through the Church of Christ upon earth. For the Church is the spouse of Christ, whose office it is to bring forth children unto God. And it is from the arms of this spiritual mother, that all the legitimate children of the Father are received. In conformity with which idea was the language of St. Augustine, where he + Prov. xix. 21.

* Acts ii. 47.

says, "He cannot have God for his Father, who hath not the Church for his Mother."

Was this well considered, it might be supposed, that where an event of such importance is at stake, no wise man would venture to make experiments. To enable the reader to form some, correct judgment upon this matter, it is my design to lay before him some plain thoughts on the following important heads:-1st, On the nature, design, and constitution of the Christian church. 2dly, On the sin of schism, or a wilful separation from it. 3dly, On the reasons commonly advanced to justify that separation. And 4thly, On the advantages attendant upon a conscientious communion with the church, together with the disadvantages consequent upon a separation from it. In discoursing upon these subjects, the object is, to enter into them so far only as may be deemed sufficient for the information of the parties to whom they are immediately addressed.

'The lips of the priest (we are told) should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the

Lord of Hosts." Every Christian, therefore, before he separates from the Church, instead of being governed by his own imagination, or that of some fellow-Christian, not better informed perhaps than himself upon the subject, should give himself an opportunity of knowing from the person whose office it is to inform him, whether the reasons advanced for his quitting the communion of the Church are stronger than

* Mal. ii. 7.

10

INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE.

those which are to be produced for his continuing in it. Whoever determines upon a separation from the Church, without having made this previous enquiry, cannot be said to do justice, either to himself or to his minister, and must be answerable for the consequence of his neglect.

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 some just and established notion with respect to what is right. An acquaintance, therefore, with the nature, design, and constitution of the Christian Church, becomes a necessary preparative to our forming a proper judgment upon the subsequent parts of our subject.

To trace the Church through its several progressive stages; from its original establishment in paradise, where the good news of a Saviour was first delivered to fallen man; through its infant condition, and days of contraction in the ark, when it was confined to one single family; to its subsequent 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 visit it; would lead into too wide a field. It is our

happiness, and to that part of the subject our present attention is confined, that we live in that stage of the Church, which may be considered as the completion of every former dispensation. 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 consists; has, as it were, put his finishing hand to the establishment of it, upon the plan best calculated to secure the purpose he had in view.

It is a matter, therefore, of importance, that we should be particular in our observations upon this point; because a deviation from Christ's plan, by an attempt to alter the constitution of his Church, may make it a very different thing from what it was designed to be; and though, in this case, a man may satisfy himself, by calling the creature of his own imagination the Church of Christ; it certainly does not follow that it really is such; and it may be the most dangerous piece of selfimposition thus to consider it.

To understand the nature and design of the Christian Church, we must consider the world at large as lying in wickedness, and consequently in a state of condemnation before God. Out of this wicked society, of which all are by nature born members, God has been pleased to call men into another society, very different from it; the object of which is to minister to their salvation, by so purifying them from the corruptions of a fallen world, that they may not be condemned with it. This society, sometimes called the Church