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 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 Presented by Mr Samuel Agnew of Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Agnew Coll. on Baptism, No. 
 
 5CS 
 
, ^ 
 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/essaysonchurchofOOma 
 
ESSAYS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 CHURCH OF GOD, 
 
 JOHN M. MASON, D. D. 
 
 .EDITED BY THE 
 REV. EBENEZER MASON 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 PUBLISHED FOR THE EDITOR BY 
 
 ROBERT CARTER, 58 CANAL STREET, 
 
 PITTSBURG :— THOMAS CARTER. 
 
 1843. 
 
*£V 
 
 0. ^ c : 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The following Essays originally appeared in a periodical, entitled the 
 " Christian Magazine," edited by the late Dr. Mason, in the year 1808 — 10, 
 and in 1832 were incorporated in an edition of his works. At their first pub- 
 lication they were much valued, and they have been ever since constantly 
 demanded by the religious public. Their re -publication in their present 
 form is in answer to repeated calls. The reasons, which rendered their pre- 
 paration needful, exist in resuscitated freshness at the present moment ; and 
 with some additional peculiarities. The community, for whose predecessors 
 they were written, encounter the same obstacles, are annoyed by the same 
 perplexities, and need the same direction and instruction, their fathers re- 
 ceived. The present edition of the essays has been published at a low price 
 in comparison with its style, that its circulation may be the more extensive. 
 
 It may not be improper to observe furthermore, that these Essays are not 
 controversial. They seek rather the establishment of truth, than the refu- 
 tation of error ; the confirmation of its friends, rather than the overthrow 
 of its enemies; the lucid exhibition of divine institution, rather than the un- 
 welcome labour of dispelling the mists of human inventions, and notions. 
 
 Their language may not be mistaken ; it is as plain as it is forcible, and 
 the arguments as cogent as direct. The doctrine of the nature of the Church 
 is presented in such a manner as to guard men from yielding themselves up 
 to the dominion of certain exclusive opinions, now urged under high and 
 somewhat imposing ecclesiastical sanctions ; — opinions, too, which if admit- 
 ted would invest forms of religion, of whatever kind they may be, with a life 
 inspiring vitality, and lead men into the delusions of superstition and deso- 
 lation of ruin. 
 
 The doctrine of the Unity and Visibility of the Church is most strikingly 
 presented. Overstepping all natural boundaries of space, and all artificial 
 ones of human creation, preserving a strict analogy with the divine arrange- 
 ments over men as social beings, it makes its direct and powerful appeal to 
 every christian heart ; it identifies him with the people of God in all ages, 
 and in all places ; concentrates their energies of prayer, and faith, and 
 hope — they move not isolated — forsaken — or despairing ; but every uplifted 
 hand nerves every other hand ; and every warm heart sends its purifying 
 savour over every other heart, — the mutual pledges of sustained conflict, 
 and certain success. The doctrine delivers from the dilemma of good and 
 honest men, the contracting notion of an perfectly pure Church, elect and 
 holy ; and the loose notion of a Church exposed to the " devouring of 
 every ravening beast and the pollution of every unclean bird." The Church 
 is suited to the nature of men, and is possessed of those inherent and es- 
 sential properties of government, of protection, rewards and punishments, 
 which every organized society requires. 
 
 Perhaps, the most important, and certainly the most interesting part of 
 the Essays, is to be found in the demonstration of the Oneness of the 
 Church under the Old and New Testament economies. In it, is discussed 
 with the peculiar force and luminousness of the author, the whole question 
 of the relation of the children of believers to the Church ; and their right 
 
VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and title to its ordinances. This discussion is carried on upon very dis- 
 tinct grounds, and rises far above any technicality and unworthy conceal- 
 ment. Every point of objection to the conclusions to which he is led by 
 his investigations is fairly met ; nor can those who may differ from him, 
 advance a single syllable of complaint, as to the spirit of his observation, 
 and it is not too much to say that the argument has never yet been over- 
 thrown, nor do we see how it can be set aside. Leaving, however, each 
 one to his honest differences, it would not be to the disadvantage of those 
 who agreeing theoretically and practically with the author upon the right 
 and duties of children, to study the line of scriptural argument presented 
 in these essays; and we shall confess ourselves disappointed, unless it pre- 
 vents many a perplexing doubt, or removes it, if already existing; unless it 
 imparts a propriety, a meaning, and a blessedness in the observance of the rite 
 of infant baptism, now too often observed out of custom, and without due 
 intelligence of its value and solemnity. Children also may learn that the 
 transaction on their account was no idle ceremony, but was connected 
 with their rights, which no parent might wilfully disregard, and is associated 
 with obligations correspondent to the blessings connected with the recog- 
 nition of those rights. In a word, this part of these Essays, extended to 
 considerable length, may be considered as a storehouse of exceedingly pre- 
 cious truths illustrative of divine care and regard for the perpetuity of the 
 Church through the medium of her own offspring. No one, we think, can 
 rise from their perusal without a conviction that parents and children are 
 alike included within Christ's visible Church, and under the sanction of 
 the covenant of grace. We are persuaded that a study of these Essays will 
 not only remove misty and uncertain views, but irradiate this relation with 
 light, and make it shine forth in peculiar glory, and give to infant baptism 
 a significancy, which shall deliver its observors from all approach to super- 
 stition on the one hand, or indifference or conformity to custom upon the 
 other. 
 
 The latter part of these Essays is less full than the former ; it was evi- 
 dently written under the pressure of existing engagements, and the desire 
 of giving at least an outline of important subjects upon the pages of his 
 periodical. It treats of the officers of the Church, their qualifications, 
 their duties, and the relations between them and the Church, over whom 
 they are set. Even at this day, many of the hints are capable of extended 
 application, and the history of the Church since, has confirmed the sound- 
 ness of the observations then made as with a prophet's ken. It may not be 
 unprofitable even now to turn the eye upon the true position of the Church. 
 Her ministry are not in possession of that moral power, which their num- 
 bers, acquirement, or diligence, would seem to justify, and occupy compara- 
 tively a lower position than their predecessors. The Churches themselves 
 exhibit a deportment indicative of their consciousness of this difficiency, 
 and which unhappily affects themselves in all the interlinkings of the social 
 frame-work, and by their easy divisions, separations, and multiplications, 
 have weakened their united power, withdrawn the hand of extended fel- 
 lowship, contracted the sphere, depressed the position, impaired the moral 
 power of her own ministry, and thus by a mutual re-action of the ministry 
 and the people, evils unchecked advance with accelerated power. 
 
 In casting the eye over the Churches of our land, with noble exceptions 
 indeed, we may easily discover principles of a political, sectional, social, 
 and personal nature, determining points of ecclesiastical propriety. All 
 cases, where the tendency to such a state is seen or felt, are to be regretted 
 as evidences of neglect or perversion, tending to shame or ruin. We aro 
 called to trace effects to causes, to avoid the scandal of the Church of God, 
 copying even in appearance the principles of worldly politics, as though she 
 was without precepts for her own government and protection ; or having 
 tried them found them unsuitable, or was incapable of beneficially em- 
 ploying them herself She should avoid reversing the declaration of her 
 
INTRODUCTION. VU 
 
 Head that she should be the "light of the world," for its guidance, and not 
 that she should follow the deceptive gleams of plausible and interested ex- 
 pediency to the complete extinguishment of her own brightness. 
 
 The writer of these Essays forseeing certain evils, which the revolution 
 of a few years have revealed, in a magnitude far beyond his anticipations, 
 desired to forwarn, and thus provide an antidote. To meet this desire, to 
 which every friend of the Church will respond, and which from various 
 directions has been responded to, we send forth again these Essays. Their 
 author, though removed, will again contribute to the maintenance of the 
 true dignity and honour of the Church. It is an self-evident truth, that, 
 with all the apparatus of efficient organization, and the promises of divine 
 presence to official and private fidelity, the Church, by her unity, her in- 
 stitutions, and her ministry — with the favour of her Head — may come forth 
 "clear as the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army of banners," 
 until all nations shall rejoice in the brightness of her glory. 
 
 EBENEZER MASON. 
 New York, 20th April, 1843. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 1. Of the term Church, v - - - - • - l 
 
 2. On the first Organization of the Church, 27 
 
 3. On the mode of perpetuating the Visible Church, - 47 
 
 4. Initiating Seal, 63 
 
 5. Infant Members, -...-..-85 
 
 6. Uses, 123 
 
 7. Results, 163 
 
 8. Officers, Ministry, uses, ------ 197 
 
 9. Ministry, Qualifications, ----- 219 
 10. do. do. 239 
 

 CHURCH OF GOD. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 It is our intention to lay before our readers in 
 a series of numbers, a detailed but succinct ac- 
 count of the Church of God, embracing the 
 chief questions concerning its nature, members, 
 officers, order, worship, and the points directly 
 connected with them. As we shall proceed upon 
 a regular plan, the reader is requested not to form 
 his judgment of the whole from an inspection of 
 a part ; and not to disjoin in his reflections those 
 parts, which precede from those which follow; 
 but to recur to the former as he meets with the 
 latter, that the series of thought may be preserved 
 unbroken in his mind ; and that he may not accuse 
 us hereafter with being superficial or negligent, 
 when the blame ought possibly to be attached to 
 his own memory. For having proved a point 
 once, we shall not repeat the proof afterwards, 
 unless for very particular reasons, and in a very 
 summary way. We begin with 
 
 Vol. IV. I 
 
2 Church of God. 
 
 An inquiry into the meaning of the term CHURCH. 
 
 A community which has subsisted for ages, 
 must always possess a number of usages and 
 terms peculiar to itself. And although their 
 origin may be remote, and their force unknown to 
 many of its members, they suggest general ideas 
 which serve the purposes of common conversation 
 and common life. The fact may appear extraor- 
 dinary, but it is nevertheless true ; for the pro- 
 portion of men in any society who analyze the 
 words and phrases which they have been accus- 
 tomed to utter ever since they were able to speak, 
 is comparatively small. The reader can bring 
 this matter to an easy test by interrogating himself 
 concerning expressions which are coeval with his 
 earliest recollection; and he will probably be 
 surprised to find that, in thousands of instances, 
 they have passed and repassed through his mind 
 without his attempting to arrest them long enough 
 to satisfy himself as to their appropriate sense. 
 This want of precision is accompanied with no 
 bad effect, till something occur to touch an insti- 
 tution, a privilege, or an observance, when the 
 inconvenience may be sensibly felt. A popular 
 notion is often overturned by the interpretation ol 
 a word; and the multitude are astonished either 
 at their own mistake, or at the effrontery of those 
 who charge them with committing it. 
 
 That which happens to all other durable com- 
 
No. I— The Term. 3 
 
 binations of men, must happen to the Christian 
 Society. We need go no further for an example 
 than its very name. " Church," " Christian 
 Church," " Church of God," are familiar to the 
 mouths of millions. They talk of " the Church" 
 upon all occasions, without suspecting that per- 
 haps they understand not what they say. They 
 possibly never asked what is the Church ? Possibly, 
 they may think it too plain to deserve an answer. 
 Possibly, also, the more they revolve it, the more 
 they may be puzzled. Try the experiment. Put 
 the question successively to several decent, intel- 
 ligent men, and their replies, various as their pre- 
 vious religious habits, will convince you that their 
 acquaintance with the subject is slight indeed. It 
 is therefore necessary to go to first principles. 
 
 The word " Church," derived from the Greek 
 xu£»axov, signifies " the house of the Lord ;" and 
 marks the property which he has in it. But the 
 original words which it is employed to translate, 
 signify a different thing. The Hebrew words 
 bnp (cahal) and my (gheda) in the Old Testa- 
 ment ; and the corresponding one lxxXij<r»a (ecclesia) 
 in the New, all signify an assembly, especially one 
 convened by invitation or appointment. That 
 this is their generic sense, no scholar will deny; 
 nor that their particular applications are ultimate- 
 ly resolvable into it. Hence it is evident, that from 
 the terms themselves nothing can be concluded 
 
4 Church of God. 
 
 as to the nature or extent of the assembly which 
 they denote. Whenever either of the two former 
 occurs in the Old Testament, or the other in the 
 New, you are sure of an assembly, but of nothing 
 more. What that assembly is, and whom it com- 
 prehends, you must learn from the connexion of the 
 term, and the subject of the writer. A few instances 
 will exemplify the remark. 
 
 In the Old Testament Sfip, (cahal) is applied 
 
 To the whole mass of the people, . Ex. xii. 6. 
 
 To a portion of the people, who came upon He- 
 zekiah's invitation to keep the passover. 
 
 2 Chron. xxx. 24. 
 
 To the army of Pharaoh. . . Ezek. xvii. 17. 
 
 To an indefinite multitude. . . Gen. xxviii. 3. 
 
 To the society of Simeon and Levi. xlix. 6. 
 
 So also TSiy, (gheda) is applied 
 
 To the whole nation of Israel. Ex. xvi. 22 ; 
 
 XXXV. 1. 
 
 To the particular company of Korah, Dathan, 
 and Abiram Numb. xvi. 16. 
 
 To the assembly of the just, as opposed to the 
 wicked. Psal. i. 5. 
 
 To the judicatory, before which crimes were 
 
 tried Numb. xxxv, 12. 24 ; 
 
 compared with Deut. xix. 12. 17. 18. 
 
 In like manner kxXijtfia, (ecclesid) rendered 
 " Church," is applied 
 
 To the whole body of the redeemed. 
 
 Ephes. v. 24. 27. 
 
No. I. — Visible Unity. 5 
 
 To the whole body of professing Christians. 
 
 1 Cor. xii. 28. 
 
 To local organizations of professing Christians, 
 whether more or less extensive ; as in the aposto- 
 lic salutations, and inscriptions of the epistles. 
 
 To a small association of Christians meeting to- 
 gether in a private house. Col. iv. 15. — Phil. i. 2. 
 
 To a civil assembly lawfully convened. 
 
 Act. xix. 39. 
 
 To a body of people irregularly convened. 
 
 Act. xix. 32. 
 
 This specimen is sufficient to show that no per- 
 son can ansAver the question, " what is the Church?" 
 without carefully examining the thing as well as 
 the name : nor safely expound either, without con- 
 sulting the original scriptures ; or putting himself 
 implicitly under the direction of one who is able 
 to do it for him. An attempt to discuss the con- 
 stitution and order of the church, without looking 
 much further and much deeper than the mere 
 term, as it occurs in our English Bibles, can never 
 be any better than childish prattle. 
 
 I have said that the term " Church" is applied 
 to the whole body of professing Christians ; and 
 my design is to prove that the scriptures teach the 
 doctrine of a Visible Church Catholic, composed of 
 all those throughout the world who profess the 
 true religion. 
 
 This great society is a " Church," because it is 
 
6 Church of God. 
 
 collected together by the authority of God in the 
 dispensation of the gospel, and solemnly set apart 
 from the world for sacred uses. 
 
 This church is " visible," as distinguished from 
 the " elect of God," who are known to him alone ; 
 and therefore cannot, as such, form a separate 
 society among men. 
 
 This visible church is " Catholic," that is, it 
 comprehends all those " throughout the world 
 that profess the true religion." 
 
 If then I am asked what 1 mean by the " Church ?" 
 I answer, that visible catholic society which I 
 have now defined ; which is the kingdom of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ upon earth, where he has de- 
 posited his truth, and instituted his ordinances. 
 
 The fact that he has founded such a church, I 
 thus demonstrate. 
 
 1. It is indisputable that such a church did for- 
 merly exist, and that by his own appointment. 
 
 The whole of the covenanted seed of Abraham 
 belonged to it. That this " seed" made up the 
 church of God under the law; that it embraced, 
 at least in some periods, thousands and ten thou- 
 sands within and without the land of Judea, and 
 among them multitudes who never were partakers 
 of saving grace, cannot be doubted. Every one 
 who had the token of God's covenant in his flesh, 
 whether regenerated or not, was reputed a mem- 
 ber of this church. The Jews were scattered, by 
 
No. I. — Visible Unity. 7 
 
 several dispersions, through distant lands ; yet 
 preserving the name of the God of their fathers, 
 and their profession of adherence to him, they 
 were never considered as cast out of his church. 
 On this ground it was, that on the day of pente- 
 cost, " there were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, 
 devout men, out of every nation under heaven"* 
 The old economy was subjected to local restric- 
 tions which rendered a universal dispensation im- 
 possible while they lasted, but still the " profes- 
 sors of the true religion," the worshippers of the 
 God of Israel, made up but one church. Reside 
 where they might, they all belonged to the H1H* 
 Sip, the congregation of the Lord. 
 
 If, then, there is no longer any public church 
 visible, what has become of it ? Who has annul- 
 led, destroyed, blotted it out ? Produce a single 
 declaration of its divine author that it should come 
 to an end. The disinheriting of the unhappy Jews 
 is nothing to the purpose, or rather supports the 
 contrary. Their being cast out of the visible 
 church, for they could not be cast out of any 
 other, implies the existence of that church, and 
 the privilege of connexion with her. The abo- 
 lition of those restrictions which were suited to a 
 preparatory state, fitted her for universality. But 
 that which fitted her for universality could in no 
 sense whatever be her annihilation. The Jews 
 * Act. ii. 5. 
 
8 Church of God. 
 
 were not cut off, till after the commencement and 
 establishment of the new dispensation, that is, till 
 after the Gentiles were taken in: therefore the 
 visible church, as an organized whole, subsisted 
 after the commencement of this dispensation, and 
 that among the Gentile Christians. And the ex- 
 cision of the Jews was no more an extermination 
 of the visible church, than the lopping off a dis- 
 eased branch is felling the whole tree. It is in- 
 cumbent on them who deny a visible catholic 
 church under the New Testament, to show at 
 what time, by what authority, and by what means, 
 so signal a constitution of God has been laid aside. 
 
 2. The Old Testament scriptures proceed on 
 the principle that the visible church state, co-ex- 
 tensive with the Redeemer's kingdom upon earth, 
 was not to cease at the introduction of the evan- 
 gelical dispensation. 
 
 There are numerous predictions concerning 
 the church, and numerous promises to her, in her 
 public capacity, which are unfulfilled at this hour, 
 and never can be fulfilled, if her visible unity be 
 not asserted. For example : " Esaias saith, there 
 shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to 
 reign over the Gentiles : in him shall the Gentiles 
 trust." Does any man suppose that the " reign" 
 of the Redeemer " over the Gentiles" is confined 
 to those whom his grace has subdued to the 
 " obedience of faith ?" And if not, that his king- 
 
No. L — Visible Unity. 9 
 
 dom, destitute of a distinctive mark, is broken 
 down into detached fragments, resembling not a 
 compact community, but a hord of petty demo- 
 cracies ? The very idea of a kingdom proves that 
 his church is one, that she is visible, and that 
 this visible unity is one of her essential attributes. 
 If you cut her up into ten thousand pieces, there 
 is no more a kingdom. If you strip her of visi- 
 ble form, you contract her within limits of which 
 Omniscience alone is the judge ; you withdraw 
 her from the eyes of men altogether ; and shut 
 her up in impenetrable secrecy. Where then is 
 her light ? Where her testimony ? Where the use 
 of those cautions, precepts, encouragements, 
 which are adapted to her state as visible, and have 
 no meaning in any other application ? 
 
 Thus, " I will extend peace to her like a river, 
 and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing 
 stream."* — " Kings shall be thy nursing-fathers, 
 and their queens thy nursing-mothers."t " The 
 Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the 
 brightness of thy rising — the abundance of the 
 sea shall be converted into thee ; the forces of 
 the Gentiles shall come unto thee."J — These are 
 but a very small sample of prophecies which run 
 in the same general strain : and two things are ob- 
 vious on the bare inspection of them. 
 
 First, that they contemplate the church as one ; 
 
 * Is. lxvi. 12. f Is- xlix. 23. % Is. lx. 3. 5. 
 
 Vol. IV. 2 
 
10 Church of God. 
 
 for she is introduced as a single person; and un- 
 der this idea are they addressed to her. 
 
 Second — That this unity is not ascribed to her 
 as composed of the elect alone. The Gentiles 
 who should flow into her were not all, nor are pre- 
 tended to have been, real Christians : that " light" 
 which was to shine upon the Gentiles, and the 
 " brightness" of that " rising" which was to at- 
 tract the "kings," must of necessity be external : 
 nor could kings be her " nursing-fathers," nor 
 their queens her " nursing-mothers," but as a pub- 
 lic society which they could distinguish. In any 
 other sense the prediction is palpably false. 
 
 Further : when he foretells the transition of the 
 dispensation of grace from the Jews to the Gen- 
 tiles, the prophet uses the same style. He repre- 
 sents the church not as subsisting in a vast mul- 
 titude of independent associations, but as a great 
 whole ; as possessing individual unity. He per- 
 sonifies it, as in the former instances : " Sing, O 
 barren, that thou didst not bear : break forth into 
 singing, and cry aloud, that thou didst not travail 
 with child ; for more are the children of the de- 
 solate, than the children of the married wife, saith 
 the Lord. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let 
 them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations ; 
 spare not ; lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy 
 stakes."* 
 
 * Is. xliv. 1. 2. 
 
No. L^-Visdb/e Unity. 1J 
 
 This is, unequivocally, a description of the 
 church as exhibited under an outward dispensa- 
 tion. The comparison between the " desolate" 
 and the " married wife," can have no place in a 
 question concerning the internal church, nor do the 
 other circumstances at all agree to her. 
 
 Indeed, whoever admits that there was, at any 
 time past, one visible church, and that promises 
 were made to her, of which some have had, others 
 are receiving, and others are yet to have, their ac- 
 complishment, must of course admit the continu- 
 ance of that church at present. For the fulfilling 
 a promise to an individual or a society, supposes 
 the existence of that individual or society. The 
 promises, for example, to Israel, could never have 
 been performed, had Israel perished. The adop- 
 tion of another family might have been accompa- 
 nied with other promises, or with the renewal of 
 the old ones : but, in no sense could they be ful- 
 filled to a race which was extinct before the time 
 of fulfilment came. The fact, then, that God is 
 now fulfilling, and to fulfil hereafter, promises given 
 to the visible church ages ago, establishes her per- 
 petuity and identity. She never has been destroy- 
 ed, or she could not at this day enjoy the accom- 
 plishment of ancient promise 
 
 3. The language of the New Testament implies, 
 that an external visible church state was not abo 
 lished with the law of Moses. 
 
12 Church of God. 
 
 The writers of the New Testament never go 
 about to prove that there is a catholic visible 
 church ; far less do they speak of it as originating 
 in the evangelical dispensation ; but they assume 
 its existence, as a point which no Christian in 
 their days ever thought of disputing. They argue 
 against schism, upon the principle that the visible 
 church is one, and they record ecclesiastical de- 
 liberations, and decisions by the apostles and el- 
 ders, which, upon any other principle, were down- 
 right usurpation of dominion over conscience. 
 This last particular, will be more fully handled 
 before we have done. Let us, in the mean time, 
 attend to some instances in which this doctrine of 
 the one visible church, is interwoven with the tex- 
 ture of their language. 
 
 " This is he that was with the church in the 
 wilderness." Acts vii. 38. Stephen refers to 
 Moses, and we know what church Moses was with. 
 No one, in his right mind, will undertake to say 
 that Moses was with the elect only. " Our fa- 
 thers," adds the martyr, " would not obey him." 
 Moses himself writes that these rebels were the 
 " people" — the « whole congregation" — " all the 
 children of Israel,"* and this was the " church" to 
 which Stephen refers. 
 
 " The Lord added to the church daily such as 
 should be saved." Acts ii. 47. " Saul made 
 
 * Ex. xxxii. Num. xiv. 
 
No. I. — Visible Unity, 13 
 
 havoc of the church" Ch. viii. 3. — " God hath set 
 some in the church ; first, apostles," &c. 1 Cor. 
 xii. 28. — " Gaius, the host of the whole church" 
 Rom. xvi. 23. — " Give none offence to the church 
 of God." 1 Cor. x. 32. — " I persecuted the church 
 of God." 1 Cor. xv. 9. 
 
 The list might easily be swelled ; but it is need- 
 less. Let us weigh the import of these passages. 
 The " church," to which the Lord daily added 
 such as should be saved, was not the body of the 
 elect, for no addition can be made to them ; nor 
 was it a single congregation, unless God had no 
 more people to be saved in Jerusalem, than, to- 
 gether with mere professors, were sufficient for 
 one pastoral charge. Nor is it to be imagined 
 either that Saul confined his persecution to one 
 congregation ; or that he was able to pick out the 
 elect, and persecute them. As little can it be sus- 
 pected, either that Gaius never entertained any 
 but the elect, or that his entertainments never 
 went beyond one congregation. Nor will a sober 
 man allege, that God hath set no officers but in 
 one congregation, or that they have no functions 
 toward any but his elect ; or that all whom he 
 hath set are themselves of the number ; nor yet, 
 that " offence" can never be given to any but to 
 the elect. The sin, to be committed at all, re- 
 quires both that the offending and offended, may 
 see and know each other. But the scripture is 
 
14 Church of God. 
 
 express: The Lord added to the church — Saul 
 persecuted the church — Gaius was the host of the 
 church — God hath set officers in the church — 
 Christians are not to offend the church. Now as 
 these and many similar phrases, are utterly inap- 
 plicable either to a single congregation, or to the 
 body of the redeemed, they must designate another 
 and different society, which can be no other than 
 what we have called the visible Church Catholic. 
 Too extensive for partial assemblies, too noto- 
 rious for any secret election of men, and yet a 
 church ; the church — it is general, external, and 
 but ONE. 
 
 In truth, the phraseology of the New Testament 
 on this subject, as on many others, is borrowed 
 directly from that of the Old. The expression 
 " church of God," is a literal translation into En- 
 glish of those Greek words which are themselves 
 a literal translation from the Hebrew. For every 
 scholar knows, that QTf'Kn or m?T Sip ; ixxkipfa 
 0£ov ; and " Church of God," signify in their re- 
 spective tongues, exactly the same thing. Con- 
 ceive, then, of an apostle's addressing himself to 
 Jews, as Paul did, in the Hebrew tongue. By 
 what phrase would he designate the church ? 
 Evidently by that which is used in the Hebrew 
 scriptures, and was familiar to his hearers. And 
 what sense could they put upon it ? Evidently that 
 which had long been settled, and no other, Would 
 
JNo. 1. — Visible Unity. 15 
 
 the Jews, then, have understood him as meaning 
 by " the church," either a section of their nation 
 no bigger than could be contained within the 
 walls of a synagogue ? or those favoured ones 
 whom God has predestined to life ? The thing is 
 impossible ! because he would use the current 
 phraseology of both their holy and their popular 
 language in a sense quite different from any which 
 had formerly been affixed to it. They would 
 understand him as discoursing of that great visible 
 society which God had publicly set apart for 
 himself. 
 
 Conceive again of the apostle as addressing 
 Gentiles on this subject, and speaking Greek. He 
 would evidently express himself in the terms which 
 he has used in his epistles. What htX^ia (ecclesid) 
 means, every Grecian could tell. But how was a 
 Heathen to understand the meaning of hzxkapia Osov 
 (ecclssia theou,) or the "church of God?" He 
 was perfectly ignorant of Christian doctrine, and 
 the structure of Christian congregations. Nor 
 could he form any correct notion of the thing in- 
 tended, without an explanation drawn from the 
 Old Testament scriptures. 
 
 The result stands thus : The apostle, when 
 preaching or writing to Jews or Gentiles, speaks 
 of the church of God in terms well known to the 
 one, and entirely new to the other. The alterna- 
 tive is obvious. Either he used these terms in 
 
1 6 Church of God, 
 
 their ascertained sense, or not. If the former, he 
 has recognized the visible unity of the Church 
 Catholic ; and so our position is proved. If the 
 latter, he deceived all his hearers ; all his corres- 
 pondents ; all who in every age adopt his letters 
 as a rule of faith. Undoubtedly, had he used the 
 terms " church" and " church of God" in a sense 
 unknown to Moses and the Fathers, he would not 
 have omitted to mention it ; that we might not be 
 led into errour. But the fact is, that there is not 
 throughout the New Testament any exposition 
 of these terms. They are employed as terms of 
 the most definite import ; as terms which no one 
 who chose to consult the earlier scriptures could 
 mistake. The law of interpretation to the primi- 
 tive Christians must, of course, be our law; and 
 the same issue returns upon us; the expression 
 " church of God," used without qualification, 
 means an external society comprehending all those 
 who profess the true religion. 
 
 If any one think that too much stress is laid 
 upon the coincidence between the phraseology of 
 the two Testaments, let him reflect, not only that 
 they relate to a common whole; but that the 
 same coincidence happens in other things. Thus, 
 " Christ," is but the English form of x^kjvos, which 
 is the literal translation of Jvpd, (Messiah) all 
 signifying " the anointed." When, therefore, the 
 Lord Jesus was proclaimed as the " Christ of 
 
No. I. — Visible Unity. 17 
 
 God," how could either Jew or Gentile understand 
 the preacher but by going back to the Old Tes- 
 tament? There the word was perfectly familiar, 
 although, in its sacred sense, utterly unknown to 
 the Heathen. And this explains why a profession 
 that " Jesus is the Christ," was deemed, in the 
 first age of the church, a sufficient criterion of 
 one's religion. No man could make it without 
 being instructed, from the scriptures of the Old 
 Testament, in the Redeemer's character and 
 work. The reason why many now suppose such 
 a profession extremely easy, is, that they do not 
 perceive its relation to truths previously revealed. 
 And this, too, is the reason why there is so much 
 blundering about the nature of the church. Peo- 
 ple imagine themselves at liberty to interpret the 
 word at their pleasure : whereas it is referrible to 
 the Old Testament as really as the word " Christ." 
 Neither the nature of the church, nor the office of 
 her head, is to be understood without an appeal 
 to the same scriptures. Consequently, that very 
 rule which expounds " the Christ of God," as sig- 
 nifying one who was qualified by the father's ap- 
 pointment, and by the measureless communication 
 of the divine Spirit, to be a Saviour for men ; will 
 oblige us to expound the " church of God," as 
 signifying that great visible society which pro- 
 fesses his name. 
 
 4. The account which the New Testament 
 
 Vol. IV. 3 
 
18 Church of God. 
 
 gives of the church, confirms the doctrine of her 
 visible unity. 
 
 One of the most common appellations by 
 which she is there distinguished, is, " the kingdom 
 of heaven." This can be but one : or else it 
 would not be a kingdom, and the kingdom, but 
 several. And this one must be visible, because 
 its ordinances are administered by visible agency. # 
 Nay it is only as visible that it admits of the ex- 
 ercise of any part of its government by men. 
 The church invisible, which eludes every human 
 sense and faculty, cannot be the object of human 
 functions. And to preclude mistake in this mat- 
 ter, our Lord informs us that his kingdom, while 
 in the world, shall, like other kingdoms, have false 
 as well as true subjects. That hypocrites shall so 
 intermingle with saints as to render their separa- 
 tion in the present life impossible by any means 
 which will not exterminate both. Such is the 
 manifest import of the parable of the " tares." 
 Mat. xiii. 24 — 30. 
 
 An attempt has, indeed, been made, to repel 
 this argument, by supposing the parable to repre- 
 sent, not the mixture of Christians with hypo- 
 crites in the church, but their mixture with wicked 
 men in civil Society. Let us see : 
 
 The parable is a likeness of " the kingdom of 
 heaven." A phrase which never signifies the 
 
 * Mat. xvi. 19. xxviii. 19, 20. John xx. 21—23. 
 
No. 1. — Visible Unity. 19 
 
 world at large, or civil society ; but the church of 
 God under the evangelical dispensation. There 
 was no need to teach the disciples, by a symboli- 
 cal lesson, that good men and bad are mingled to- 
 gether in civil society. This had been sufficiently 
 attested by the experience of all previous ages, 
 and was at that very moment evident to their 
 eyes. But considering the expectations which 
 they might be led to form from the introduction 
 of a spiritual economy, it was altogether needful 
 to apprise them that in her best estate, in her 
 noblest appearance as the kingdom of Heaven, 
 the church would be still imperfect, and injured 
 by unworthy members. Nor could the officers of 
 Christ, answering to the " servants of the house- 
 holder," ever entertain so wild an idea as that of 
 severing Christians from the society of other men ; 
 for were it even practicable, it would defeat one 
 of the high ends for which they live in the world ; 
 that of " letting their light shine before others ;" 
 and would gradually extirpate them from the 
 face of the earth. But it would be very natural 
 for the disciples to imagine that, with the keys of 
 the kingdom of Heaven in their hands, they 
 should endeavour to exclude every one whom 
 they had reason to suspect of insincerity. Many 
 are infected with such a notion to this day. No 
 rotten hearted professor shall pollute their com- 
 munion ! they will rest the right of admission 
 
20 Church of God. 
 
 upon the reality of conversion ! And some waste 
 their lives in pursuit of that chimera, a perfect 
 church ! Nor have either the admonitions of 
 Christ, nor the rough tuition of disappointment, 
 cured them of their folly. There was, therefore, 
 much cause for guarding his disciples against so 
 imposing an errour. And he has taught them 
 that there are no human means of effecting a 
 complete expulsion of the unconverted from his 
 church : that the attempt would destroy his own 
 people: and, therefore, that they must be left, 
 like the tares and the wheat, to " grow together 
 until the harvest." Then, that is, at " the end 
 of the world," he will " send forth his angels, 
 and they shall gather out of" — what ? Civil 
 society ? No, but out of " his kingdom, all things 
 that offend ; and them which do iniquity, and 
 shall cast them into a furnace of fire : there shall 
 be weeping and gnashing of teeth." — v. 41, 42. 
 
 To the same amount is the parable of the net, 
 in verses 47 — 50. " The kingdom of heaven is 
 like unto a net that was cast into the sea, and 
 gathered of every kind." Is this, too, a descrip- 
 tion of civil society ? It is evident, that " the sea," 
 with its swarms of fishes, represents the world 
 with its multitudes of men. Like a net cast into 
 the former, the kingdom of heaven introduced 
 among the latter, gathers a mixed assemblage 
 from the common mass. And as it is impossible, 
 
No. I.— Visible Unity. 21 
 
 while the net is in the waters, to divide the good 
 fish from the bad ; so it is impossible, while the 
 kingdom of heaven exists here among men, 
 to divide saints from hypocrites. The alterna- 
 tive is alike in the type, and the thing typified. 
 The net must be drawn " to shore," before the 
 fish can be distributed ; the kingdom of heaven 
 must close ; " the end of the world" must come, 
 before " the wicked can be severed from among 
 the just." Nothing can be clearer, than that man- 
 kind at large correspond, in the parable, with the 
 fish of the sea ; consequently, that the kingdom of 
 heaven, which, like a net thrown into the sea, 
 gathers a selection from among men, cannot pos- 
 sibly mean civil society. To make this out, it 
 should be proved that the net catches all the fish 
 wherever it is cast into the sea. 
 
 To crown this argument ; the kingdom of hea- 
 ven is likened unto " ten virgins, of whom five 
 were wise, and five were foolish."* This also 
 must mean " civil society," or the hypothesis we 
 are considering is ruined. But what man in his 
 senses will venture upon so extravagant an asser- 
 tion? All these virgins professed to belong to the 
 train of the bridegroom — Ml the members of civil 
 society make no such profession. It is wasting 
 words to press the point further. This notion of 
 the state of civil society being represented by the 
 
 * Mat. xxv. l. 
 
22 Church of God. 
 
 parable of the tares, &c. is a fable invented in or- 
 der to get rid of a troublesome truth : and adds 
 another to the numberless examples already given 
 by zeal without knowledge, of its being much 
 easier to contradict the scriptures, than to explain 
 them. The sum is, 
 
 That the kingdom of heaven cannot designate 
 the election of grace ; because no one belonging 
 to that will be " cast into the furnace of fire." — 
 We have proved that it cannot signify the state of 
 civil society, and it would be superlatively ridicu- 
 lous to confine it to a single congregation ; there- 
 fore, 
 
 It must mean the external Visible Church, which, 
 according to the conditions of description, can be 
 but ONE. 
 
 If we proceed a little further, we shall meet 
 with the same thing under a different form. The 
 apostle Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthian 
 Christians, chap. xii. treats at length, of the vari- 
 ous gifts which the Holy Spirit had bestowed 
 upon various individuals. He argues that these 
 gifts ought to be no ground of dissention, for these 
 two reasons : first, that they were all of the same 
 divine original ; and secondly, that they all contri- 
 buted to the common good, and most effectually 
 by retaining each its appropriate place. The 
 latter reason is illustrated by the analogy of the 
 human body; and winds up with declaring — 
 
No. I. — Visible Unity. 23 
 
 " Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in 
 particular." The question is, what are we to un- 
 derstand by the " body of Christ ?" 
 
 That it signifies a whole, is as plain as that 
 words signify any thing. Then, what whole? 
 Not the church at Corinth, far less a particular 
 congregation, unless the commission of the 
 apostles and the use of all spiritual gifts, extend 
 no further. 
 
 Not the church of the elect ; for there are no 
 " schisms" in that body, as such. A schism which 
 cannot be perceived is no schism ; and the mo- 
 ment you render it perceptible, you are in a visi- 
 ble church. Nor can it be affirmed, but at the 
 expense of all fact and consistency, that God hath 
 set no officers except in the church of his redeem- 
 ed. For, upon that supposition, no church officer 
 could ever exercise his office toward any non- 
 elected man; the pastoral relation could never 
 be fixed without knowing beforehand who are the 
 elected of God ; or else, no person, however blas- 
 phemous and abominable, could be kept out of a 
 church, because such " blasphemer and injurious" 
 may possibly be " a chosen vessel." These are 
 absurdities. 
 
 But a body, a church there is, in which " God 
 hath set, first, apostles ; secondarily, prophets ; 
 thirdly, teachers," &c. An individual congrega- 
 tion it is not. A partial coalescence of congre- 
 
24 Church of God. 
 
 gations it is not. The " church of the first-born 
 whose names are written in heaven," it is not : 
 and yet it is a church ; the church to which God 
 hath given his ordinances. There is no escape ; 
 it can be no other than what we have called the 
 Visible Church Catholic. 
 
 The reader has been more inattentive than it 
 would be fair to suspect of any who shall peruse 
 these sheets, if he has not remarked, that all the 
 means of salvation are external. The scriptures, 
 the sabbath, the solemn assembly, the sacraments, 
 the ministry ; in a word, the whole system of in- 
 stituted worship, is visible. Now, is it not a most 
 incredible thing, that the church and the ordi- 
 nances committed to her, should be of opposite 
 natures ? Or rather, that the ordinances should 
 have a solid, external existence, and the church 
 to which they are given, no such existence at all ! 
 A visible bible, visible ministry, visible worship, 
 visible sacraments, visible discipline, and no visi- 
 ble church ! Nothing but a phantom, a metaphysi- 
 cal idea, as the repository of God's truth and 
 institutions ! One fact in the history of revelation, 
 is enough to dispel these visions. It will not be 
 controverted that the scriptures are God's testi- 
 mony to his church. But more than one half of 
 this testimony was delivered to the Israelites in 
 their public covenanted character ; for " unto 
 them were committed the oracles of God." Unto 
 
No. I. — Visible Unity. 25 
 
 whom, then, have the subsequent scriptures been 
 committed ? " Unto the New Testament Church," 
 you will say. Agreed. But the question falls 
 back upon you, what is the New Testament 
 Church ? If she is not the very same great socie- 
 ty which God formerly erected for the praise of 
 his glory, and has caused to pass under a new 
 form of dispensation, three consequences follow : 
 
 1st, That the Old Testament is no part of the 
 trust deposited with her, and belongs not to the 
 rule of her faith. 
 
 2d. That God has divided his testimony between 
 two churches of the most different nature ; and of 
 which one has long been extinct. Therefore, 
 
 3d. That the whole scriptures, as the testimony 
 of God, never were, nor can be, committed to 
 any church whatever, unless in virtue of another 
 special revelation. 
 
 But if, on the contrary, these scriptures are the 
 testimony of God deposited with his church, then 
 it irresistibly follows, that she is now, and ever 
 has been, since her first organization, a public 
 visible society which God has appropriated to 
 himself; where his name is known, and his mer- 
 cies are vouchsafed. 
 
 And, indeed, the general principle of the church 
 
 visible is so inseparable from the Christian style 
 
 and doctrine, that its most strenuous opposers are 
 
 unconsciously admitting it every hour of their 
 Vol. IV. 4 
 
26 Church of God. 
 
 lives. They talk habitually of " the church ; the 
 faith of the church ; the worship of the church ; 
 the sufferings of the church; God's dealings 
 with his church," and a thousand things of like 
 import. Let them ask what they mean by such 
 expressions ? They will not say, " a particular 
 congregation ;" and if they say " the election of 
 grace," they will speedily contradict themselves, 
 and fact, and the word of God too. Their whole 
 language, as Christians, is accommodated to the 
 very thing, which, in form, they renounce. There 
 is no getting along without it. No ingenuity can 
 enable them to converse five minutes together 
 about the church of God, as existing on earth, 
 without the introduction of an idea different from 
 either of those which they affix to that term : 
 and this third idea, if they will be at the trouble to 
 analyze it, will turn out to be no other than that of 
 the Visible Church Catholic. 
 
 We have now developed our views of that 
 phrase, " the church," and assigned our reasons 
 for them : the reader will, therefore, recollect, 
 when he meets with it in the course of our dis- 
 quisitions, that we mean by it the aggregate body 
 of those who profess the true religion : all making 
 up but one Society, of which the Bible is the sta- 
 tute book ; Jesus Christ the head ; and a cove- 
 nant relation the uniting bond. 
 
27 
 
 CHURCH OF GOD. 
 
 No. II. 
 On its first Organization. 
 
 In the preceding number we have proved the 
 existence of a Visible Church Catholic ; and that 
 this is the thing intended by such spiritual phrases 
 as " the Church of God," " the house of God," 
 " the kingdom of heaven." But it does not more 
 certainly exist, than it exists in virtue of a divine 
 interposition. None but the living God could set 
 up, protect, and govern, his own kingdom. The 
 question is, when, and where, and how, so singu- 
 lar a society was instituted ? The question is of 
 moment, as being connected with interesting 
 views of the external economy of salvation. Let 
 us attempt to answer it. 
 
 We know by experience that the church of 
 God was in the world before us. So did our fa- 
 thers. So did the previous generation : and in 
 this manner the historical fact may be deduced 
 from the days of the apostles. The " Church," 
 
28 Church of God. 
 
 therefore, has not been created since their days. 
 Was it created then ? No : the apostles found it, 
 as we found it, older than themselves. Their 
 writings are full of its privileges, its ordinances, 
 and other peculiarities ; but contain not a single 
 hint of its originating with them. They uniform- 
 ly suppose its prior establishment, and speak of it 
 as having been long and familiarly understood. 
 Guided by the clue which they have put into our 
 hands, we go back to the books of the prophets, 
 and meet the same supposition there. We pro- 
 ceed, with similar success, through the Levitical 
 law, and the Sinai-covenant ; we pass the age of 
 Moses, and arrive at the Father of the faithful. 
 Here the clue runs out. No ingenuity can fol- 
 low it further. People of God there were ; pro- 
 mises of God there were ; gracious revelations, 
 and acceptable worship of God, there were : but 
 a Church of God, organized upon the principle 
 of visible unity, and standing in such relation 
 to him as it did in after ages ; such a Church, 
 before the vocation of Abram, there was not, 
 nor any thing which bore the semblance of it. 
 For its original organization ; for the germ of 
 that great system into which it has already 
 grown, and shall yet grow, we must look among 
 the transactions of that memorable period which 
 elapsed between the call of Abram in Ur of the 
 Chaldees, and the birth of his son Isaac. 
 
No. II. — Organization. 29 
 
 On the first of these occasions Jehovah gave 
 him a double promise : 
 
 1. A promise of a numerous progeny, and great 
 personal prosperity. / will make of thee a great 
 nation ; and I will bless thee, and make thy name 
 great, and tftou shalt be a blessing ; and I will bless 
 them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee. — 
 Gen. xii. 2, 3. 
 
 2. The promise of his being a medium of con- 
 veying extensive blessings to the world. In thee 
 shall all families of the earth be blessed. — v. 3. 
 
 All the subsequent communications which God 
 made to him are referrible to one of these two 
 promises. They were both called up at different 
 intervals, explained, expanded, and confirmed, 
 till each of them became the basis of an appro- 
 priate covenant. Let us briefly mark their pro- 
 gress. 
 
 1. The promise of a numerous progeny is re- 
 peated with an engagement to bestow upon them 
 the land of Canaan, ch. xii. 7. This promise 
 was stated and confirmed in the most precise 
 and ample terms, after Abram had separated from 
 Lot, ch. xiii. 14. 17. And finally, as he was 
 advancing in years, and the probability of its ac- 
 complishment was proportionably diminishing, 
 the Lord " came to him in a vision," and having 
 cheered him with this gracious assurance, / am 
 thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward, ch. xv. 1 , 
 
30 Church of God. 
 
 renewed the promise concerning his seed, as 
 that which should come forth out of his own 
 bowels and be multiplied as the stars of hea- 
 ven. The patriarch on this occasion so glorified 
 the divine veracity by his unshaken, unquestioning 
 faith, that the scripture saith, it ivas counted to him 
 for righteousness, verse 6. The renewed promise 
 concerning his progeny was immediately follow- 
 ed by a confirmation of the grant of Canaan ; 
 and a remarkable pledge that the grant should be 
 executed in due season. Having, as he had been 
 commanded, slain several animals, divided their 
 bodies, and placed the sections opposite to each 
 other, his senses were locked up to every other 
 object, and Jehovah disclosed to him a compre- 
 hensive view of evils to come upon his family be- 
 fore their possession of the promised land. But 
 their possession at the proper time was guaran- 
 teed by solemn compact. " A burning lamp," 
 the symbol of the divine presence, " passed be- 
 tween those pieces" of the slain animals, in token 
 of ratifying every stipulation belonging to the 
 promise in question. For in that same day, the 
 Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, " Unto 
 thy seed have I given this land," 8{c. v. 8 — 21. 
 
 Here is an end of all transactions for establish- 
 ing the first promise. It was sealed in the cove- 
 nant, and never again occurs by itself The end 
 of this covenant, too well defined to be mistaken, 
 
No. II. — Organization. 31 
 
 was to secure to Abram a numerous posterity, 
 and their inheritance in the land of. Canaan. 
 Further it went not. It does not so much as 
 mention the promise relating to the families of 
 the earth being blessed in him. And from the 
 minuteness with which every thing else is ad- 
 justed, it is evident that this last promise, not 
 even hinted at, was not intended to be comprised 
 in the covenant which secured the other. Let us 
 proceed then. 
 
 2. Fourteen years after the date of this co- 
 venant, Jehovah appeared again to Abram, and 
 made another covenant with him. The transac- 
 tion is thus recorded in the seventeenth chapter 
 of Genesis : And when Abram was ninety years old 
 and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto 
 him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and 
 be thou perfect And I will make my covenant be 
 tween me and thee ; and will multiply thee exceed 
 ingly. And Abram fell on his face : and God talk 
 ed with him, saying, As for me, behold my covenant 
 is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many 
 nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called 
 Abram ; but thy name shall be Abraham : for a fa- 
 ther of many nations have I made thee. And I will 
 make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make na- 
 tions of thee ; and kings shall come out of thee. 
 And I will establish my covenant between me and 
 thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, 
 
32 Church of God. 
 
 for an everlasting covenant ; to be a God unto thee, 
 
 AND TO THY SEED AFTER THEE. And I will give Unto 
 
 thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou 
 art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlast- 
 ing possession ; and I will be their God. And God 
 said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant 
 therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee, in their genera- 
 tions. This is my covenant which ye shall keep be- 
 tween me and you, and thy seed after thee ; Every 
 man-child among you shall be circumcised. And ye 
 shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin ; and it shall 
 be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you. And 
 he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among 
 you, every man-child in your generations ; he that is 
 born in the house, or bought with money of any 
 stranger, ivhich is not of thy seed. He that is born 
 in thy house and he that is bought with thy money, 
 must needs be circumcised : and my covenant shall be 
 in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the 
 uncircumcised man-child, whose flesh of his foreskin 
 is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his 
 people; he hath broken my covenant, ver. 1 — 14. 
 
 Our inquiry is into the nature and design of 
 this covenant. What was it ? 
 
 Not a covenant, either of works or grace, for 
 eternal life. For Abram had been " justified 
 by faith, without the works of the law," and had 
 been interested in the covenant of God's grace 
 
No. II. — Organization. 33 
 
 before this. His eternal life had been secured 
 many years. 
 
 Nor was it merely a personal or domestic co- 
 venant : that is, one which provided for the in- 
 dividual dignity of the patriarch, and the pros- 
 perous settlement of his children in the land of 
 Canaan. This, too, had been concluded long be- 
 fore, as has been shown. It recognizes, 6 indeed, 
 all that was included in the personal covenant, 
 which it might otherwise be supposed to super- 
 sede ; but it has features of its own so peculiar 
 and marked, that it cannot be considered in any 
 other light than that of a distinct engagement. 
 
 For, besides the solemnity with which it was 
 introduced, and which would hardly have prece- 
 ded a mere repetition of former grants, it contain- 
 ed new matter; it constituted new relations ; and 
 was affirmed in an extraordinary manner. 
 
 1st. It contained new matter — / will make thee a 
 father of many nations : which is much more than 
 can be interpreted of Abram's literal posterity; 
 and must be viewed as expounding the promise 
 and extending the privilege formerly assured to 
 him — In thee shall all families of the earth be bless- 
 ed. It was a great thing to be only an instru- 
 ment of blessing to all the families of the earth ; 
 but a much greater to be that instrument in such 
 a manner as to become what no other man, in the 
 
 sense of the covenant, ever did, or ever can be- 
 Vol. IV. 5 
 
34 Church of God. 
 
 come, " a father of many nations :" and more- 
 over, a personal pledge, also, of his new dignity 
 was conferred upon the patriarch, in that remark- 
 able alteration of his name from Abram to Abra- 
 ham; the former signifying high Father; and the 
 latter, high Father of a multitude. 
 
 2d. It constituted new relations — To be a God 
 unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. This cannot 
 be explained of Abraham's relation to God as the 
 God of his salvation ; for in that sense God was 
 his God long before; and whatever is the rela- 
 tion expressed, it grew out of the covenant now 
 made ; It embraced his seed too. Nor, with re- 
 spect to their eternal life, did God now engage to 
 be their God; for all that was adjusted in the cove- 
 nant of grace ; and the privilege could not reach 
 beyond those who were the actual partakers of 
 the same precious faith with Abraham. Where- 
 as, in the sense of this covenant, God was the God 
 of all Abraham's seed, without exception, under the 
 limitations which restricted the covenant opera- 
 tion first to Isaac, and afterwards to Jacob, inclu- 
 ding such as should choose their God, their faith, 
 and their society. For he was to be their God in 
 their generations : i. e. as soon as a new individual 
 of this seed was generated, he was within the 
 covenant; and according to the tenour of the 
 covenant, God was his God.* 
 
 * The expressions " thy God," " my God," " our God," and 
 that, so much and so properly in use among Christians, " our 
 
No. II. — Organization. 35 
 
 The foregoing retrospect has decided one 
 point, to wit, that the covenant with Abraham and 
 his seed, contemplated them not primarily nor immedi- 
 ately, as of the election of grace, but as an aggregate 
 which it severed from the bulk of mankind ; and pla- 
 ced in a social character under peculiar relations to the 
 most high God. To define precisely the nature 
 of this constitution, we must go a step further, 
 and ascertain who are meant by "the seed." 
 
 It cannot be the carnal descendants of Abra- 
 ham exclusively ; although it has a particular re- 
 spect to them, for, 
 
 (1.) Three large branches of that seed were ac- 
 tually shut out of the covenant, i. e. the children 
 of Ishmael, of Esau, and of Keturah. 
 
 covenant God," must always be interpreted according to the na- 
 ture of the covenant to which they refer. Common, but unwar- 
 ranted practice, has limited them to the covenant of grace ; -so that 
 a sarious man is apt to think he hears heresy, if they be ever ap- 
 plied to any thing else than the saving relation in which a believer 
 stands to God as his reconciled God in Christ Jesus. But this is 
 a mistake ; and lies at the foundation of many false and hurtful 
 opinions of the Christian Church and its privileges. The Jews 
 could, nationally, call God " their God :" They often did so, and 
 with right, when they were gross hypocrites in the article of their 
 personal religion. The Sinai-covenant constituted them the peo- 
 ple of Jehovah, and him their God, as really, but in a widely dif- 
 ferent sense, as he was the covenant God of Abraham, or of Paul, 
 for personal salvation. A due exposition of this matter involves 
 the whole doctrine of the visible church catholic, which is griev- 
 ously misunderstood by most professing Christians of all denomi- 
 nations. 
 
36 Church of God. 
 
 (2.) The covenant provided for the admission 
 of others, who never belonged to that seed. He 
 that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you ; 
 every man-child in your generations : he that is born 
 in the house or bought with money of any stranger, 
 which is not of thy seed. 
 
 This principle was acted upon under the con- 
 stitution which was superadded, by the ministry 
 of Moses, 430 years after. The stranger who 
 wished to keep the passover, was required first to 
 circumcise ali his males, and then he became as 
 one born in the land, i. e. he was to all intents and 
 purposes under the full operation of the covenant 
 established with Abraham and his seed. On the 
 other hand, the Edomite, who sprung from the loins 
 of Abraham, was put upon the same footing with 
 the Egyptian who descended from Ham : the chil- 
 dren of both were received in the fourth genera- 
 tion ; neither of them came in upon the plea of 
 consanguinity with Abraham : nor were they ad- 
 mitted into the commonwealth of Israel under the 
 idea of the children of Israel having Abraham for 
 their literal father, but formally and explicitly upon 
 the ground of their being " the congregation of the 
 Lord." Deut. xxiii. 8. # But, being once incor- 
 
 * HUT Snp " The church of Jehovah :" the very expression 
 which is translated again and again in the New Testament, 
 sxxXTjtfia dsou, "the church of God." The fact is, that all our Ian 
 guage in sacred things is borrowed from the Old Testament ; and 
 
No. II. — Organization, 37 
 
 porated with the natural seed, in that great con- 
 gregation, they, too, were viewed as of the cove- 
 nanted seed; and they transmitted their privilege 
 to their children in their generations. 
 
 (3.) By the covenant made with Abraham he 
 acquired the prerogative of being the "father of 
 many nations." This article is, of itself, a demon- 
 stration that the covenant was of a much wider 
 extent than all the literal descendants of Abraham 
 in the line of Jacob put together. They never did 
 make but one nation. There is a marked distinc- 
 tion between them and these " many nations ;" 
 who are evidently the same with " all the fami- 
 lies of the earth," that were to be blessed in Abra- 
 ham. The apostle Paul interprets the phrase by 
 another ; his being " the heir of the world ;" and 
 peremptorily denies its restriction to the literal 
 seed. Rom. iv. 13, 16, 17. 
 
 The argument is short. Abraham's seed com- 
 prehends all those to whom he is the father : but 
 he is the father of many nations ; therefore, these 
 many nations are to be accounted as his seed. 
 Again : the covenant was made with Abraham 
 and with his seed : therefore, the covenant embra- 
 
 cannot be understood without a reference to it; and those who 
 clamourously demand the origin of every thing Christian to be pro- 
 duced from the New Testament, show that they understand neither 
 the New Testament nor the Old, nor yet that very Christianity 
 about which they prate. Christianity is more, a great deal more, 
 than a few doctrines. 
 
38 Church of God. 
 
 ced these many nations who are included in his 
 seed. 
 
 3. This covenant was affirmed in an extraordi- 
 nary manner ; viz. by the rite of circumcision. 
 This, saith God, is my covenant which ye shall keep 
 between me and you, and thy seed after thee, every 
 man-child among you shall be circumcised. The 
 uses of this rite were two. 
 
 First. It certified to the seed of Abraham, by a 
 token in the flesh of their males, that the covenant 
 with their great progenitor was in force; that they 
 were under its full operation ; and entitled to all 
 the benefits immediately derived from it. But 
 circumcision had a further use ; for, 
 
 Secondly, The apostle Paul informs us that it 
 was a seal of the righteousness of the faith which 
 Abraham had, being yet uncircumcised, that he might 
 be the father of all them that believe, though they be not 
 circumcised ; that righteousness might be imputed 
 unto them also. Rom. iv. 11. In this connexion 
 it certified, 
 
 That Abraham was justified by faith . 
 
 That the doctrine and the privilege of the 
 " righteousness of faith," were to be perpetuated 
 among his seed by the operation of God's cove- 
 nant with him : 
 
 That the justification of a sinner is by faith 
 alone ; « righteousness" being « imputed" to all 
 them that believe," and to them only ; who by the 
 
No. II. — Organization. 39 
 
 5 
 
 very fact of their believing, become, in the highest 
 sense, children of Abraham, and are accordingly 
 blessed with him. 
 
 While, therefore, the sign of circumcision was. 
 in every circumcised person, a seal of God's co- 
 venant with Abraham and with his seed, it was 
 to all who walked in the faith of Abraham a seal 
 of their personal interest in that same righteous- 
 ness by which Abraham was justified. 
 
 From these general premises the conclusion is 
 direct and irrefragable, that the covenant with 
 Abraham was designed to assure the accomplish- 
 ment of the second great promise made to him 
 while he was yet in Ur of the Chaldees ; and that 
 the effect of it was to bring him and his family, 
 with all who should join them in a kindred profes- 
 sion, into a church estate, i. e. was a covenant ec- 
 clesiastical, by which Jehovah organized the visi- 
 ble church, as one distinct spiritual society; and 
 according to which all his after dealings with her 
 were to be regulated. Hitherto she had been 
 scattered, and existed in detached parts. Now it 
 was the gracious intention of God to reduce her 
 into a compact form that she might be prepared 
 for the good things to come. Since Abraham was 
 designated as the man from whom the MESSIAH 
 was to spring ; since he had signally glorified the 
 Lord's veracity, not staggering at his promise 
 through unbelief, he selected this his servant as 
 
40 Church of God. 
 
 the favoured man in whose family he would com- 
 mence the organization of that church in which 
 he designed to perpetuate the righteousness of 
 faith. With this church, as with a whole, com- 
 posed, in the first instance, of Abraham's family, 
 and to be increased afterwards by the addition of 
 all such as should own his faith, was the covenant 
 made. This is that covenant after which we are 
 inquiring. 
 
 II. This covenant has never been annulled. 
 The proof of the affirmative lies upon the affirm- 
 er. When ? Where ? and by whom was the act 
 for annulling it promulged ? The " vanishing 
 away" of the ceremonial law has nothing to do 
 with the Abrahamic covenant, but to illustrate, 
 confirm, and diffuse its blessings. The former 
 was a temporary constitution superadded for the 
 purpose of giving effect to some provisions of the 
 latter, and expired by its own limitation. The 
 apostle Paul refutes the notion that the introduc- 
 tion of the ceremonial law, could at all prejudice 
 the pre-existing covenant with Abraham : Gal. iii. 
 15 — 17. And if not its commencement, why its 
 termination ? And if the abolishing of the cere- 
 monial law does not infer the cessation of the 
 Abrahamic covenant, there is not a shadow of 
 either proof or presumption that it has ceased. 
 If there is, let it be produced. But not to rest 
 the matter here, we may observe, 
 
No. II. — Organization. 41 
 
 .5 
 
 1st. That the promise of Abraham's being a 
 father of many nations, who are, therefore, his 
 seed, never was, nor could be fulfilled, before the 
 Christian dispensation. The apostle Paul was 
 certainly of this mind ; for he proves the calling 
 of the Gentiles from Abraham's covenant ; and if 
 the calling of the Gentiles to be fellow-heirs in 
 the church of God with the literal descendants of 
 the patriarch, was grounded upon his covenant, 
 this, again, shows that they belong to that seed 
 with whom it was made ; and, consequently, that 
 it is in full force and virtue at this hour. The 
 apostle presses this point with great ardour ; and 
 places it before us in various lights. If ye be 
 Chris fs, says he, " then are ye Abraham } s seed, and 
 heirs according to the promise" What promise ? 
 Not simply the promise of eternal life in Christ. 
 There was no necessity of their being Abraham's 
 seed to inherit this promise — but manifestly, the 
 promise of Abraham's covenant to which they 
 were entitled in virtue of their being his seed : 
 i. e. the promise, / will be a God unto thee and to thy 
 seed after thee. If, then, they who are Christ's are 
 Abraham's seed ; and being so are heirs according 
 to the promise ; the covenant, containing the pro- 
 mise, is in full virtue, as they belong to the seed 
 with which it was made. 
 
 2d. If the Abrahamic covenant is no longer in 
 
 force, the church of God, as a visible public so- 
 Vol. IV. 6 
 
42 Church of God. 
 
 ciety, is not, in any sense, connected with him by 
 covenant relation. This may weigh light with 
 those who discard the doctrine of a visible Catho- 
 lic church ; but it draws much deeper than they 
 suspect. The whole administration of the cove- 
 nant of grace proceeds upon the principle that 
 there is such a church. All the ordinances 
 are given to it ; all the promises are made to it. 
 To the elect, as such, they are not, cannot be giv- 
 en. The application of them would be impossible 
 without a special revelation : and the whole ad- 
 ministration of the covenant of grace, by visible 
 means, would be at an end. Nor is a single in- 
 stance to be found, excepting in virtue of imme- 
 diate revelation, in which the Lord ever gave an 
 ordinance or a promise to particular churches. 
 They always receive their privileges in virtue of 
 their being parts of the church universal. Now 
 this church universal, which is the body of Christ, 
 the temple of his Spirit, the depository of his 
 grace, stands in no covenant relation to God, in 
 her public character, if the covenant with Abra- 
 ham is annulled. For if she does, then another 
 covenant has been made with her. But no such 
 covenant has been made. The new covenant 
 which the Lord promised to make with her at 
 the introduction of the evangelical dispensation, 
 was to supersede, not the Abrahamic, but the 
 Sinai-covenant. It is so far from setting aside, 
 
No. II. — Organization. 43 
 
 that it implies, and establishes the former ; for it 
 is promised to her as that church which was or- 
 ganized and perpetuated under Abraham's cove- 
 nant. If, therefore, that covenant is removed, and 
 no other has replaced it, the church, in her social 
 capacity, is further off from God than she was 
 under the law; and all the mercies to which, in 
 that capacity, she once had a claim, are swept 
 away. But this is impossible. Ln fact, the scrip- 
 tures uniformly suppose the existence of such 
 public federal relations: and abound with pro- 
 mises growing out of them. Thus speaks the 
 prophet — " The Redeemer shall come to Zion, 
 and unto them that turn from transgression in 
 Jacob, saith the Lord. As for me, this is my 
 covenant with them, saith the Lord : my Spirit that 
 is upon thee, and my words which I have put in 
 thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor 
 out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth 
 of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from hence- 
 forth and for ever." — Is. lix. 21, 22. 
 
 This is a prediction of New Testament times : 
 so the apostle applies it, Rom. xi. 26. And he ap- 
 plies it to the recovery of the Jews, which has not 
 yet happened. The covenant, therefore, is in 
 force, and it operates through the medium of Gen- 
 tile converts ; the Lord's Spirit has long ago de- 
 parted out of the mouth of the Jews. But the 
 promise was made to the church, in her covenanted 
 
44 Church of God. 
 
 character ; her members in constant succession 
 are the " seed" out of whose mouth the divine 
 Spirit shall not depart ; and when the Jews are 
 restored, they will be brought into this very cove- 
 nanted church, and be again recognized as a part 
 of the " seed." But why multiply words ? There 
 is no explaining the frequent recurrence of the 
 inspired writers to the covenant of Abraham, nor 
 any propriety in their reasoning, if it is not of per- 
 petual operation. 
 
 3d. In discussing the great question concerning 
 the rejection of the Jews, the vocation of the 
 Gentiles, and the future restoration of the former, 
 the apostle reasons upon principles which are 
 most false and impertinent, if the Abrahamic co- 
 venant has ceased. Rom. xi. 17 — 24. 
 
 He tells the Gentiles, that they were " a wild 
 olive tree ;" and that the Jews were the " good 
 olive tree" — This cannot refer to their natural 
 state as sinners before God ; for in this respect 
 there was " no difference" — nor to their state as 
 sinners saved by grace : for from this state there 
 is no excision ; it can refer to nothing but their 
 visible church estate ; i. e. to their public relation 
 to God as a covenanted society, What, then, was 
 this " good olive tree," from which the Jewish 
 branches were " broken off;" while the Gentiles 
 were " graffed in ?" Evidently the visible church 
 organized under the covenant made with Abra- 
 
No. II. — Organization. 45 
 
 ham. There was no other from which the Jews 
 could be cast off. The ceremonial law was su- 
 perseded. It was no excision at all to be cut off 
 from a church which did not exist ; nor could 
 the Gentiles be introduced into it. But what says 
 the apostle ? That the " olive tree" was cut down 
 or rooted up ? That it had withered trunk and 
 branch ? Or was no longer the care of the divine 
 planter ? Nothing like it ! He asserts the continu- 
 ance of the olive tree in life and vigour ; the exci- 
 sion of some worthless branches; and the insertion 
 of new ones in their stead. " Thou," says he, 
 addressing the Gentile, " partakest of the root 
 and fatness of the olive tree." Translate this into 
 less figurative language, and what is the import ? 
 That the church of God, his visible church, taken 
 into peculiar relations to himself by the Abra- 
 hamic covenant, subsists without injury through 
 the change of dispensation and of members. 
 Branches indeed may be out off, but the rooted 
 trunk stands firm, and other branches occupy the 
 places of those which are lopped away. The 
 Jews are cast out of the church, but the church 
 perished not with them. There was still left the 
 trunk of the olive tree ; there was still fatness in 
 its roots : it stands in the same fertile soil, the co- 
 venant of God : and the admission of the Gentiles 
 into the room of the excommunicated Jews, 
 makes them a part of that covenanted church ; 
 
46 Church of God. 
 
 as branches graffed into the olive tree and flourish- 
 ing in its fatness, are identified with the tree. It 
 is impossible for ideas conceived by the mind of 
 man, or uttered in his language, to assert more 
 peremptorily the continuance of the church under 
 that very covenant which was established with 
 Abraham and his seed. And this doctrine, un- 
 derstood before the apostleship of Paul, was 
 maintained by John the Baptist ; " Think not" 
 cried he to the multitudes who crowded around 
 him, " think not to say within yourselves, We have 
 •Abraham to our father : for verily I say unto you, that 
 God is able of these stones to raise up children unto 
 Abraham.'''' The hearers of the Baptist, like many 
 modern professors of Christianity, supposed that 
 the duration of the covenant with Abraham, and 
 of the prerogative of the Jews as God's peculiar 
 people, were the same. It is a mistake, replies 
 the second Elijah ; you may all be cast off; you 
 may all perish ; but the oath to Abraham shall not 
 be violated. God will be at no loss to provide 
 " seed" who shall be as much within his covenant 
 as yourself, even though he should create them 
 out of the stones of the earth. The threat was 
 vain : it was empty noise ; it was turning the 
 thunders of God into a scarecrow for children, if 
 the covenant with Abraham was not to survive 
 the law of peculiarity, and be replenished with 
 other seed than that which sprung from his loins 
 according to the flesh. 
 
47 
 
 CHURCH OF GOD. 
 
 No. III. 
 On the mode of perpetuating the Visible Church. 
 
 It has been shown, in the preceding number, 
 tnat the covenant with Abraham and his seed, 
 was an ecclesiastical covenant ; i. e. was made with 
 the visible church, and is of equal duration. We 
 proceed to another and very important part of our 
 inquiry. How were the covenant character and privi- 
 lege to be transmitted from one age to another, till the 
 consummation of all things ? Or, which is the same, 
 how was a succession of the " see J" to be preserved ? 
 
 This was to be accomplished in two ways. 
 
 1st. In all cases of original connexion with the 
 church ; that is, where the individual was without 
 the bond of the covenant, previous to his being of 
 adult age, he was to be admitted on his personal 
 faith in that religion which the covenant was in- 
 stituted to secure, This term of communion with 
 the people of God has never varied. It remains, 
 at the present hour, precisely what it was at the 
 
48 Church of God. 
 
 formation of the Abrahamic covenant. They who 
 do not enjoy, or have not embraced, the gospel, 
 are " without" They are " strangers," " foreign- 
 ers," " aliens," " afar off," and must continue 
 such till they come to the knowledge of the truth. 
 No Jewish or Pagan foot must cross the thresh- 
 old of the church, without " repentance toward 
 God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 About this there is no dispute. About the quali- 
 fications requisite in adults for their admission to 
 the privileges of the church, there is not the same 
 agreement. 
 
 Some think that a general profession of Chris- 
 tianity is all which she may exact ; alleging in sup- 
 port of their opinion, the example of the apostles, 
 who demanded, say they, nothing more than a 
 confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; 
 and therefore they conclude that nothing more 
 ought to be demanded now. 
 
 But it is not to be denied that this proposition 
 contains the substance of all the doctrines and 
 predictions of the Old Testament, concerning the 
 Redeemer's person and work. No man could 
 give it his intelligent assent, without a knowledge 
 of those doctrines and predictions ; nor repose 
 his hope upon their truth, without that divine faith 
 which receives the whole testimony of God, and 
 operates, with a purifying influence, upon the 
 heart and life. The scriptures refer the existence 
 
No. III. — Transmission. 49 
 
 of such a confession, when not hypocritical, to a 
 much higher cause, and attribute to the confession 
 itself much stronger effects, than are even thought 
 of by those who, at this day, would establish it as 
 the all-comprehending term of Christian fellow- 
 ship. " I give you to understand," says Paul, 
 1 Cor. xii. 3. " that no man can say that Jesus is 
 the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost" — And John 
 1, Ep. v. 1.5. " Whosoever belie veth that Jesus 
 is the Christ, is born of God." — " Who is he that 
 overcometh the world, but he that believeth that 
 Jesus is the Son of God." It is evident, upon the 
 very face of these passages, that nothing was fur- 
 ther from the mind and the practice of the Apos- 
 tles, than the recognizing as Christians and the 
 admitting into Christian fellowship, all or any who 
 barely assented to the general proposition, that 
 " Jesus is the Christ." Much less can such an 
 admission be justifiable now, when millions learn, 
 from mere habit, to repeat that proposition with- 
 out weighing its sense, or even comprehending its 
 terms. Christianity is not a thing of rote. And 
 there can be no doubt, that multitudes would flock 
 to the church, reiterating as often as you would 
 wish, their belief that " Jesus is the Christ ;" who 
 should, nevertheless, be found, upon a strict ex- 
 amination, to be either ignorant, or enemies, of 
 every truth comprehended in their own creed. 
 This cannot be. Christianity is not chargeable 
 
 Vol. IV. 7 
 
50 Church of God. 
 
 with the madness of cherishing in her own bosom, 
 and that designedly, the seeds of her own 
 destruction. 
 
 Some think that soundness in the doctrines of 
 revelation, without scrutiny into practical charac- 
 ter, or, at least, without solicitude on that point, 
 is sufficient to justify admission into the chilrch, 
 and to the enjoyment of her privileges. 
 
 This opinion is not more correct than the for- 
 mer. It strips the church of her responsibility on 
 the score of moral purity; annihilates her duties 
 with regard to the chief end of her creation ; viz. 
 that she might be the mother of a holy seed, of a 
 " peculiar people, zealous of good works ;" dis- 
 severs the connexion between faith in Christ and 
 conformity to his image; and acts, not indeed 
 upon the notion that provided a man's life be good, 
 his faith is a matter of indifference ; but upon its 
 converse, equally absurd and abominable, that a 
 right belief may dispense with the obligations of 
 holiness. 
 
 Some think, that doctrinal soundness combined 
 with fair morals, fixes the limit of our inquiries. 
 This opinion, though far preferable to the others, 
 labours, notwithstanding, under a material defect. 
 It shuts out investigation of the history of a man's 
 heart and conscience ; in other words, of his reli- 
 gious experience. This must certainly form a 
 part of his profession which is to be tried by the 
 
No. III. — Transmission. 51 
 
 rules of the written word. The gospel, if received 
 in truth, has revolutionized his soul. It has taught 
 him to hate sin, his own sin, and to abhor him- 
 self for it before God — It has taught him to re- 
 nounce dependence upon his own righteousness ; 
 abjuring it, in every form and degree, as the ground 
 of his acceptance with his judge ; to rest, with ab- 
 solute and exclusive reliance, upon the righteous- 
 ness of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and to live by faith 
 upon him as the Lord his strength. They who 
 have but slightly attended to facts, need not be 
 told that it is very possible, and very common, 
 to have a speculative orthodoxy and an unstained 
 reputation, with as complete an absence of the 
 whole of this spiritual efficacy of the gospel upon 
 the heart, as if no such thing were either men- 
 tioned in the bible or existed in our world. And 
 it would be strange indeed, if the church of God, 
 in admitting men to her distinguished privileges, 
 should never ask a question concerning the most 
 glorious and only saving effect of that very gos- 
 pel which her members are supposed to believe. 
 Some, in fine, think that religious experience is 
 the sole test of admission into the church. Pro- 
 vided a man can satisfy them of his conversion, 
 and they are not always hard to be satisfied ; if 
 he can relate a plausible story of his feelings; can 
 talk of his distress, and of his comfort ; and has 
 learnt to deal in joys and ecstacies, it is enough. 
 
52 Church of God. 
 
 How he came by his experience, he probably can- 
 not tell, and his spiritual guides often omit to ask. 
 And yet this is a point upon which often turns the 
 discrimination between true and false in religion; 
 between rational experience and fanaticism ; be- 
 tween the good influences of the Spirit of God, 
 and their counterfeits. It is lamentable that so 
 large a proportion of conversions, which are the 
 fruit of tumultuous meetings, and the theme of 
 newspaper praise, prove to be of this class. Dark 
 views, gross ignorance, and even flat contradic- 
 tions in the simplest truths of Christianity, are no 
 obstacle. Thousands go from sin to God ; from 
 nature to grace ; from condemnation to pardon ; 
 from despondency to rapture ; and when interro- 
 gated about the process by which this marvellous 
 transition was accomplished, have little or nothing 
 to say, but that they have felt so ! And, what is still 
 more astonishing, they have been " translated from 
 darkness to light," without being illuminated ! For 
 the uttering of incoherent exclamations, and the 
 chattering over a set of phrases, though accom- 
 panied with vehement passion, with shrieks and 
 fallings, and faintings, and fits, and trances, must 
 not pass for divine illumination, nor divine influ- 
 ence of any sort. When we consider the mecha- 
 nism of the human affections, and how rapidly 
 emotion is propagated, by sympathy, through 
 promiscuous crowds, we can explain all the phe 
 
No. III. — Transmission. 53 
 
 nomena which, in this matter, have lately attrac- 
 ted the public wonder, without recourse to super- 
 natural agency ; and must be convinced that no- 
 thing can be more precarious than the tenure by 
 which these sudden converts hold their profession. 
 And although many, to whom, therefore, these 
 remarks will not apply, disclaim that wild frenzy 
 which others have rashly mistaken for an effusion 
 of the divine Spirit, yet it is not easy to make mere 
 experience the rule of estimating Christian cha- 
 racter, and of admitting to Christian privilege ; 
 and at the same time keep clear of extravagances. 
 For let the imagination, freed from the restraint 
 of purified reason, be once excited ; let it be im- 
 pelled by a fervid but blind devotion, and it will 
 rush, with resistless impetuosity, into excesses fit 
 only to dishonour the Christian name, and to de- 
 solate the Christian church. — Wherever the un- 
 derstanding is dismissed from religion, nothing 
 but mischief can ensue ; and this is always done, 
 in a greater or less degree, where the exercises 
 of the heart are assumed as the basis of our judg- 
 ment without ascertaining their dependence upon 
 knowledge. 
 
 Upon the whole we may conclude, that an adult, 
 in order to his right reception into the Christian 
 church, 
 
 Must be acquainted with, at least, the leading 
 doctrines of revelation : 
 
54 Church of God. 
 
 Must be able to " give a reason of the hope that 
 is in him," by showing that these doctrines have 
 operated upon his experience : 
 
 Must make an open, unequivocal avowal of the 
 Redeemer's name : and, 
 
 Must be vigilant in the habitual discharge of 
 his religious and moral duty. 
 
 He, in whom these things meet, is a Christian, 
 and to be recognized as such by the Christian 
 church. 
 
 But now arises another question. Does the 
 church, in bringing an adult to the test of the fore- 
 going requisites, and pronouncing him worthy of 
 her communion, act upon the principle of her dis- 
 covering that he is a regenerated person; and 
 that he really is, in the sight of God, what he ap- 
 pears to be in the sight of men ? 
 
 By no means. The church, as conducted by a 
 system of instituted ordinances, which men admin- 
 ister, is altogether visible ; and it would be absurd 
 to make an invisible quality the criterion of visi- 
 ble communion. 
 
 Our Lord Jesus Christ, who fell into no mis- 
 takes, actually did admit an unconverted man, a 
 hypocrite, a traitor, a devil, into the number not 
 only of his disciples, but even of his apostles : 
 thereby instructing his church that the secret 
 state of the soul before God is not to be her rule 
 of judgment. He knew, from the beginning, who 
 
No. III. — Transmission. 55 
 
 should betray him \ and yet permitted the infidel 
 to mingle in his train \ to continue in his service, 
 to share the honours of his sincere followers ; and 
 never cast him off till he had proved his rotten- 
 ness by an overt act of treachery. All which 
 would have been impossible, had the reality of a 
 gracious condition been the ground of church 
 connexion. And it betrays something very dif- 
 ferent from modesty to set up a term of religious 
 fellowship which would convict the master himself 
 of corrupting his own church. 
 
 God has reserved to himself the prerogative of 
 exploring secret motives. " I, Jehovah, search the 
 heart. I try the reins." And it is a source of in- 
 effable consolation that none but himself can try 
 them. The obtrusion of the creature is complete- 
 ly barred out by his own unchangeable constitu- 
 tion. I bless him for it. I had rather perish than 
 have my heart searched by men or angels ; and I 
 put them all at defiance to declare what passes in 
 my breast any further than I myself inform them 
 by my own act. ■ Whoever, therefore, maintains 
 that the reality of conversion is the reason of ad- 
 mission to Christian privilege, lays down a rule 
 which never can be applied. There are none 
 who furnish more conclusive evidence of its nulli- 
 ty, than those who most warmly contend for it. 
 A single observation will put this in a strong light. 
 They who, without the aid of a revelation either 
 
56 Church of God. 
 
 from myself or my creator, can read my hidden 
 thoughts on one occasion, can read them on every 
 other. Therefore, if they can ascertain sincerity 
 in religion they can equally ascertain it in their 
 civil transactions ; and consequently would never 
 be imposed upon. But to such lengths they do 
 not pretend to go; that is, they proclaim the 
 falsity of their own doctrine, and the futility of 
 their own rule. How dare they who cannot de- 
 tect a perjury in the custom-house, or a lie in the 
 shop, represent themselves as able to detect hy- 
 pocrisy in religious profession ? It is foolish con- 
 ceit ; it is contemptible quackery. Take notice 
 how they use their own rule. They get a man to 
 recount his experience. If satisfied with that, 
 they set him down as converted. You see, that 
 for the facts on which they build their judgment, 
 they have only his own word ; and yet they talk 
 of ascertaining his state ! Two plain questions on 
 this head, and we shall leave them : 
 
 If their man should say nothing at all, how 
 would they find out his state ? 
 
 If he should happen to amuse them with a tale 
 of experience such as they approve, and he never 
 felt, where is their knowledge of his state ? 
 
 As for those who undertake to discern spirits, 
 without producing their authority from the father 
 of spirits, under his broad seal of miracles, no- 
 thing is so amazing about them as their effrontery. 
 
No. III. — Transmission 57 
 
 All sober men should eschew them as jugglers 
 and impostors. An astrologer who cast nativities 
 from the aspect of the planets; or a strolling 
 gipsey who predicts the history of life from the 
 palm of a child's hand, is as worthy of credence 
 as they. 
 
 The result is, that when, according to our best 
 judgment, we perceive those things which are the 
 known and regular effects of Christian principle, 
 we are to account their possessor a brother, and 
 to embrace him accordingly. In other words, a 
 credible profession of Christianity, is all that the 
 church may require in order to communion. She 
 may be deceived; her utmost caution may be, 
 and often has been, ineffectual to keep bad men 
 from her sanctuary. And this, too, without her 
 fault, as she is not omniscient. But she has no 
 right to suspect sincerity, to refuse privilege, or to 
 inflict censure, where she can put her finger 
 upon nothing repugnant to the love or the laws 
 of God. 
 
 It must of necessity be so. For the principle 
 now laid down is inseparable from human nature, 
 and pervades every form of human society. Ex- 
 amine them all, from the great commonwealth of 
 the nation down to the petty club, and you will 
 meet with no exception. When an alien becomes 
 a citizen, he takes an oath of allegiance to the 
 
 government. When one becomes a member of a 
 Vol. IV. 8 
 
 
58 Church of God. 
 
 literary, a mechanical, a benevolent, or any other 
 association, he accedes to its constitution and 
 rules. These are their professions respectively. 
 They may profess falsely : But that is nothing to 
 the society, so long as the falsehood is locked up 
 within their own breasts : They are accounted, 
 and rightly accounted, " good men and true," till 
 they forfeit their reputation and their immunities 
 by some criminal deed. Who doubts that indi- 
 viduals unfaithful in heart to their engagements, 
 are scattered through all these combinations? 
 Yet who would deem it better than madness to 
 decide on their external relations without a war- 
 rant from external acts ? What horrible confusion 
 would follow a departure from this maxim? No- 
 thing can be true which contradicts any of the 
 great analogies of God's works; nor can his 
 church be established by the operation of a prin- 
 ciple which, in every other case, would destroy all 
 confidence and intercourse among men. 
 
 A profession, then, of faith in Christ, and of 
 obedience to him, not discredited by other traits 
 of character, entitles an adult to the privileges of 
 his church. And this is the first way of securing 
 a succession of the covenanted seed, and of hand- 
 ing down their blessings to the end of time. 
 
 But the second and principal channel of convey- 
 ance is hereditary descent. The relations and bene- 
 fits of the covenant are the birthright of every 
 
No. III. — Transmission. 59 
 
 child born of parents who are themselves of " the 
 seed." " I will establish," says God, " my cove- 
 nant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, 
 in their generations, for an everlasting covenant." 
 The substance of which, to repeat a preceding 
 proposition, manifestly is, that as soon as a new 
 individual is generated from this seed, he is within 
 the covenant, and, according to its tenour, God is 
 his God. This is a characteristic of every public 
 covenant which God has made with man. Take, 
 for example, the covenants with Adam and with 
 Noah. Every human creature comes into being 
 under the full operation of both these covenants. 
 In virtue of the one, he is an " heir of wrath ;" 
 and in virtue of the other, an heir of promise to 
 the whole extent of the covenant-mercy. He has 
 the faithfulness of God pledged to him, as one of 
 Noah's covenanted seed, that the world shall not 
 be drowned by a second deluge ; nor visited by 
 another calamity to exterminate his race 
 
 Now, what imaginable reason can be assigned, 
 why, in the covenant with his visible church, the 
 uniform and consistent God should depart from 
 his known rule of dispensation, and violate all the 
 natural and moral analogies of his works and his 
 government? It cannot be. There is no such 
 violation ; there is no such departure. Nor is it 
 so much as pretended to have happened from 
 Abraham till John the Baptist, or perhaps the day 
 
60 Church of God. 
 
 of Pentecost. But what was in the ministry of 
 the Baptist? What in the ministry of Jesus 
 Christ ? What in the effusion of the Holy Spirit 
 at Pentecost, to destroy a radical principle of that 
 very church which John, and Jesus, and the Spirit 
 of Jesus, were sent to bless and perfect? The 
 notion is wild. And if, as has been already de- 
 monstrated, the covenant with Abraham and his 
 seed was a covenant with the visible church — if 
 this covenant has never been abrogated — if its re- 
 lations and privileges, with an exception in favour 
 of adults who desired to come in on the profession 
 of their faith, were to be propagated in the line of 
 natural generation, then, it follows, that the infant 
 seed of persons who are under this covenant, are 
 themselves parties to it ; are themselves members 
 of the church; and whatever privileges that infant 
 seed had, at any given period in the history of the 
 church, it must retain so long as the covenant is in 
 force. But the covenant is in force at this moment ; 
 therefore, at this moment, the covenant privileges 
 of the infant seed are in force. Visible member- 
 ship is one of those privileges ; therefore the in- 
 fant seed of church members are also members 
 of the church. 
 
 However men may corrupt and have corrupted 
 the ordinance of God, so as to reject the visible 
 means which he has appointed for perpetuating 
 his church, yet as they cannot overset his govern- 
 
No. III. — Transmission. 61 
 
 ment, they are compelled to see the principle here 
 contended for, operating, with irresistible force, 
 every hour before their eyes. For whether they 
 will, or whether they will not, the fact is, that the 
 church of God, with an exception before mention- 
 ed, ever has been, and is now, propagated by 
 hereditary descent. There is not, perhaps, in any 
 nation under heaven that has been once christian- 
 ized, and has not sinned away the gospel, a single 
 Christian who has not received his privileges as 
 an inheritance from his fathers. Let us then be- 
 ware how, in opposing infant church membership, 
 we fight against a principle which is wrought into 
 the essence of all God's constitutions respecting 
 
«v^*£»*<^ 
 
63 
 
 CHURCH OF GOD. 
 
 No. IV. 
 Initiating Seal. 
 
 On the " sign of circumcision" which God an- 
 nexed to his covenant with Abraham, as " a seal 
 of the righteousness of faith," some remarks have 
 already been made. In its immediate reference 
 to the Patriarch's seed, it certified that they be- 
 longed to the church of God, and were entitled 
 to all the privileges which she derived immediate- 
 ly from the covenant with their great progenitor. 
 A right to this seal, was the birthright of every 
 Hebrew ; and it was accordingly applied to him 
 when he was eight days old. That this right was 
 not peculiar to the literal, but was common to 
 the covenanted, seed, is clear from the case of 
 proselytes, who having cleaved to the God of 
 Abraham, were themselves circumcised, and im- 
 parted to their children all the prerogatives of a 
 native Hebrew. 
 
 On the supposition, then, that circumcision had 
 
64 Church of God. 
 
 not been laid aside, as the covenant, of which it 
 was the seal, has not, it would be at this hour 
 the duty of professing parents to circumcise their 
 infant sons; that is, to have an interest in God's 
 covenant certified to their seed, by applying the 
 seal of it to their male infants. Circumcision, 
 however, having been discontinued, the question 
 is, whether the seal which it conveyed has been 
 discontinued with it ? If so, then these two con- 
 sequences follow. 
 
 First, That there is no longer any initiatory 
 seal for adults, any more than for infants; because 
 an abolished seal can no more be applied to a 
 man than to a babe ; and thence, 
 
 Secondly, That the church of God is under the 
 operation of an unsealed covenant ; that is, that 
 God has withdrawn the sensible pledge of his co- 
 venant relation to her. If it be said that Baptism 
 is appointed to be the initiatory seal under the 
 New Testament dispensation, and is directed to 
 be applied to believing adults, the plea is true ; 
 but it concedes much more than suits the purpose 
 of many who urge it. 
 
 (1.) As a seal must certify something; as no 
 seal was ever ordained by God but as the seal of 
 his covenant ; and as no wise man will pretend 
 that every lawfully baptized adult, is undoubtedly 
 within the covenant of grace, it concedes that God 
 has a visible church in sealed covenant with himself, 
 
No. IV. — Initiating Seal. 65 
 
 distinct from that church which is composed of 
 the elect only. 
 
 (2.) As he has never made a new visible church ; 
 nor drawn back from his old engagements, this 
 plea concedes, that the church now in existence 
 is the very church organized by the Abrahamic 
 covenant ; and that covenant the very one which 
 is sealed to her by baptism. Then, 
 
 (3.) That baptism has come in the place of 
 circumcision ; and as adults are ordered to be 
 baptized, without a syllable of the exclusion of 
 infants, the application of circumcision must fur- 
 nish the rule for that of baptism. And conse- 
 quently, this same plea which is designed to pre- 
 clude infant baptism, turns out to be a demonstra- 
 tion of its divine right. Thus the point before us 
 would be completely settled. But to wave this ad- 
 vantage, and to put the subject in another light, 
 let us distinguish, in this matter of circumcision, 
 between the substance and form. The substance 
 of the ordinance, that which properly constituted 
 the seal, was the certification to the person seal- 
 ed, of his interest in God's covenant. The rite 
 of circumcision was no more than the form in 
 which the seal was applied. These two things 
 must not be confounded. For, on the one hand, 
 the rite may be, and was, and is yet, performed 
 without any sealing whatever. The sons of Ish- 
 
 mael were circumcised, but they belonged not to 
 Vol. IV. 9 
 
66 Church of God. 
 
 the covenanted seed, and therefore circumcision 
 sealed nothing to them. The Jews are circumci- 
 sed still, but being cut off from the olive-tree, be- 
 ing cast out of the church of God, and suspended 
 from the privileges of the covenanted seed, their 
 circumcision is nothing. On the other hand, the 
 seal had been the same, although administered by 
 a different rite. The amputation of a toe, the per- 
 foration of an ear, the sprinkling of blood, or the 
 anointing with oil, would have answered the pur- 
 pose as well as circumcision. The essence of the 
 seal lying not in the rite, but in the divine sanction 
 which is given by that rite to claims on God's co- 
 venant. Now as it is self-evident, that this sanc- 
 tion may be conveyed under any form which he 
 shall please to prescribe, it is a gross errour in 
 reasoning to conclude, that because the ancient 
 form is laid aside, therefore the seal and all things 
 certified by it are laid aside too. It would be 
 quite as accurate to infer, that because the form 
 of church polity is altered, therefore the church 
 no longer exists. If it be objected, that " how- 
 ever distinguishable the seal and the sealing rite 
 be from each other in theory, they are insepara- 
 ble in fact ; as the former cannot be applied to us 
 but through the medium of the latter ,• and there- 
 fore if this be abolished, the other is to us as if it 
 did not exist;" I -reply, that the objection con- 
 cludes equally against the existence of a church 
 
No. IV. — Initiating Seal 67 
 
 upon earth ; for it must appear in some visible 
 form, or else, to us, it is no church : and the argu- 
 ment is still good, that if the abolition of a partic- 
 ular form of sealing God's covenant, involves the 
 abolition of the seal itself, then the abolition of a 
 particular form of his church, involves the aboli- 
 tion of the church itself. The objection assumes 
 the very point in debate, viz. that the seal of the 
 covenant and a particular form of the sealing rite 
 are co-existent, and perish together. Whereas it 
 is contended, that the cessation of the latter does 
 by no means imply the cessation of the former; but 
 that the seal may remain the same, although the 
 rite be changed ; and may pass, in its full virtue 
 and efficacy, through successive forms of appli- 
 cation. In truth, it is a fundamental principle, 
 that forms of dispensation do not affect the substance 
 of the things dispensed. Otherwise, the covenant 
 of grace has been changed often. But iffve forms 
 of dispensation have not touched the substance 
 of the covenant of grace ; nor three forms of dis- 
 pensation, the substance of the covenant with 
 Abraham 5 why should the disuse of a particular 
 mode of sealing this latter, draw after it the de- 
 struction of the seal itself? and of all the relations 
 and benefits sealed ? The issue is, that circum- 
 cision may be laid aside without infringing upon 
 the covenant to which it was appended. It has been 
 laid aside, and the question is, What has been 
 
68 Church of God. 
 
 substituted in its place ? As none of the parties 
 to this controversy pretend that it has been suc- 
 ceeded by any other ordinance than baptism, the 
 only alternative is, either that nothing at all has 
 been substituted for it, or else that the substitute 
 is baptism. 
 
 If nothing — then while the covenant is in force, 
 and a covenant which must be sealed too, there 
 is no method of applying the seal. 
 
 If nothing — then a privilege has been taken 
 away from the church, and she has received no 
 compensation ; contrary to the whole tenour of 
 God's dealing with her, and to the positive decla- 
 rations of his word. 
 
 If nothing — then the apostle Peter led his hear- 
 ers astray, in assuring them that the " promise 
 was to them and their children," which, as Jews, 
 they could not understand of any other promise 
 than that made to Abraham ; nor in any other 
 sense, than as asserting the joint interest of their 
 infants, with themselves, in the covenant of God, 
 and, consequently, their right to the seal of that 
 interest. One of the most stubborn and rational 
 prejudices of the Jews against the Christian dis- 
 pensation, was the fear of losing the privileges to 
 which, as Abraham's seed, they had a covenant 
 claim; and which they, with better excuse than 
 Christians now, supposed to be inseparable from 
 the law of Moses. " You mistake the matter," 
 
No. IV. — Initiating Seal. 69 
 
 \5 
 
 cries Peter, full of the Holy Ghost, " there is no- 
 thing in the gospel of Jesus Christ, nor the new 
 economy which he has introduced, to destroy or 
 abridge the mercies held out and secured by the 
 covenant with Abraham. The Saviour is, him- 
 self, the chief blessing of that covenant. The 
 evangelical dispensation displays its provisions 
 in clearer light, and greater extent. The pro- 
 mise subsists in unabated virtue, and with in- 
 creased glory ; it is, at this moment, as much 
 as at any moment past, to you and to your children ; 
 but it is also to all them that are afar off, even as 
 many as the Lord your God shall call" How could 
 the words of Peter be interpreted by a Jew ? In 
 no other way than this, that neither the covenant 
 of Abraham, nor the seal of that covenant, nor 
 the interest of his infant seed in it was abrogated, 
 or to be abrogated, by the Christian dispensation. 
 How could they be interpreted by a Gentile ? In 
 no other way than this, that persons who " were 
 afar off," (the very phrase by which Paul describes 
 the Gentiles,) being called by the gospel, should 
 come into the full possession of all the benefits 
 which are contained in the covenant with Abraham; 
 that is, should enjoy, equally with the Jew, what- 
 ever, according to the nature of that covenant, is 
 comprehended in the declaration, I will be thy God, 
 and the God of thy seed; and equally with the Jew, 
 the pledge and seal of this his privilege. The 
 
70 Church of God. 
 
 Apostle speaks of a promise well-known and high- 
 ly prized. " The promise," Avithout any expla- 
 nation. " What promise ?" inquires the Gentile. 
 Ask your brother, the Jew, rejoins the Apostle ; 
 he understands me thoroughly. It is the promise 
 made to his father, Abraham ; that in his seed all 
 the nations of the earth shall be blessed. " True," 
 you will interrupt, " this is the Apostle's mean- 
 ing, and it says not a syllable of circumcision, nor 
 of its relation to baptism ; nor of infant church 
 membership." Yes, but is a promise in Abra- 
 ham's covenant : it depends upon the immuta- 
 bility of that covenant. For no engagement 
 whatever, can survive the covenant which gives it 
 birth and validity. And this very promise, the 
 Holy Ghost being judge, was to be so fulfilled, 
 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon 
 the Gentiles; which must mean that they and 
 their seed should be admitted to the privileges 
 granted to Abraham and his seed: so that the 
 children of professing Christians, not less than 
 themselves, should be within the covenant, and 
 entitled to its seal. Thus the Jews evidently un- 
 derstood the Apostle ; for among all their objec- 
 tions to the Christian system, they never objected 
 the exclusion of their infant seed from the church of 
 God. If, therefore, nothing has come in the place 
 of circumcision, the Apostle acted disingenuously 
 with his Jewish hearers ; and quieted their appre- 
 
No. IV. — Initiating Seal. 
 
 71 
 
 hension by a fraud upon their consciences. The 
 fraud extended to the Gentile converts ; for it re- 
 ferred them to the Jewish standard of interpreta- 
 tion ; and every one of the inspired penmen of 
 the New Testament is accessary to its influence, 
 as there is not a sentence in all their writings to 
 correct the errour; and the deception will not 
 end even with them — ******* t 
 
 But if these things cannot be maintained — If 
 there is no such mockery as a seal without a mode 
 of sealing, and the primitive form of circumcision 
 is abolished — If God has not stripped his church 
 of a privilege, without giving her an equivalent — 
 If the holy Apostle did not abuse the understand- 
 ing of his hearers, nor sport with their faith in his 
 veracity — then is baptism the substitute for cir- 
 cumcision. 
 
 But as this conclusion may be thought too 
 strong for the general argument preceding it, let 
 us submit it to a more direct proof, by inquiring 
 into the scriptural account of both circumcision 
 and baptism. And, First, let us .see how this ac- 
 count stands with regard to them separately. It 
 will be seen in the following contrast. 
 
 CIRCUMCISION, 
 
 1. Was an initiatory rite, 
 by which the circumcised 
 were owned as of the cove- 
 nanted seed, and of the peo- 
 ple of God. 
 
 BAPTISM, 
 1. Is an initiatory rite, by 
 which the baptized are num- 
 bered among the disciples of 
 Christ, and the members of 
 the church of God. 
 
72 
 
 Church of God. 
 
 2. Was a seal of the right- 
 eousness of faith. Rom. iv. 
 11. i. e. of the Justification of 
 a sinner through the right- 
 eousness of the surety em- 
 braced by faith. 
 
 3. Was an emblem and a 
 means of internal sanctity. 
 The Lord thy God ivill circum- 
 cise thine heart, and the heart 
 of thy seed, to love the Lord 
 thy God with all thine heart, 
 and with all thy soul, that 
 thou mayest live. Deut. xxx. 
 6. See also ch. x. 16. 
 
 2. The person is baptized 
 in the name of Jesus Christ 
 for the remission of sins, 
 (Act. ii. 38.) which is 
 through faith in his blood ; 
 so that God is just and the 
 justifier of him that believeth 
 in Jesus. 
 
 3. Is a sign and means of 
 our sanctification in virtue 
 of our communion with 
 Christ. — Buried ivith him by 
 baptism into death ; that like 
 as Christ was raised up from 
 the dead by the glory of the 
 Father, even so we also should 
 walk in newness of life. Rom. 
 vi. 4. See also 1 Pet. iii. 21. 
 
 The parallel is certainly striking : Circumcision 
 and baptism do both put a mark upon their sub- 
 jects, as belonging to that society which God hath 
 set apart for himself. They both signify and seal 
 that wondrous change in the state of a sinner, 
 whereby, being justified by faith, he passes from 
 condemnation into acceptance with God ; which 
 doctrines of pardon and acceptance are exhibited 
 in that society alone, which, under the name of 
 his church, God hath consecrated to himself, and 
 of which he hath appointed the circumcised and 
 baptized to be esteemed members. Both repre- 
 sent, and are means of obtaining, that real purity 
 which is effected by the spirit of Christ ; and is 
 
No. IV. — Initiating Seal 73 
 
 the characteristic of all those members of his 
 church who are justified by faith in his blood. 
 Such a coincidence cannot be casual. It bespeaks 
 design. And seeing that circumcision and bap- 
 tism do thus substantially answer the same ends, 
 and that the former has ceased, the only sound 
 conclusion is, that it has been succeeded by the 
 latter. Change of dispensation was a sufficient 
 reason why the form of sealing the covenant dis- 
 pensed should also be changed ; and the points of 
 difference between baptism and circumcision, as 
 covenant seals, are only such as were demanded 
 by the nature of the change : the former being 
 much better adapted to a more extensive and 
 spiritual dispensation than the latter. And this is 
 an additional consideration to show that the one 
 has been substituted in the room of the other. 
 
 Let us proceed in our inquiry by examining, 
 Secondly, into the scriptural manner of represent- 
 ing circumcision and baptism when they are spo- 
 ken of together ; or when baptism is mentioned in 
 connexion with the covenant of which circumci- 
 sion was the seal. — Take two examples. 
 
 1. The Apostle Peter, in his famous address to 
 which there has already been frequent reference, 
 assigns the perpetuity of Abraham's covenant, and 
 the validity of its promise, as a reason why his 
 Jewish hearers should be baptized. Repent, says 
 he, and be baptized every one of you, in the name of 
 
74 Church of God. 
 
 Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall 
 receive the gift of the Holy Ghost ; for the promise 
 is unto you and to your children. But how could 
 this promise, being still assured to them and to 
 their children, be a reason for their baptism in the 
 name of Jesus Christ, unless baptism were a seal 
 of that same promise as exhibited in the new eco- 
 nomy ? " Your circumcision sealed to you," says 
 the Apostle, " your interest in the covenant with 
 Abraham, as it was exhibited under the law: 
 baptism seals your interest in that covenant, as 
 it is exhibited in perfection under the Gospel. If 
 you refuse the Lord Jesus, and the initiating or- 
 dinance of his dispensation, you refuse the better 
 things which God has provided for you. If you 
 yield yourselves up to the Lord Jesus Christ, you 
 will have all that the promise contains in its ap- 
 plication to this better state of things, sealed unto 
 you ; therefore, repent and be baptized." In 
 this view, the argument is conclusive. In any 
 other, it is of no force at all. What persuasion to 
 baptism could there be in the consideration that 
 the promise was to them and their children, if 
 baptism had no relation to the promise ? and 
 what relation could it have unless as a seal, occu- 
 pying the same place with regard to the promise 
 under the new dispensation, which was occupied 
 by circumcision under the old ? Admitting this, 
 every thing is clear. Two initiatory rites of the 
 
No. IV. — Initiating Seal. 75 
 
 «D 
 
 same general import, cannot exist together. The 
 dispensation by Christ Jesus takes place of the 
 dispensation by Abraham, with all the additions 
 by Moses ; the form of sealing the covenant under 
 this, takes place of the form of sealing it under 
 those. The greater contains all that was con- 
 tained in the less, and supersedes it. Baptism 
 supplants circumcision. 
 
 2. In the epistle of Paul to the Colossians, is 
 the following passage. "In whom" viz. Christ, 
 " also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made 
 without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of 
 the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ ; buried 
 with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with 
 him, through the faith of the operation of God, who 
 hath raised him from the dead" Chap. ii. 11, 12. 
 
 This is a very extensive proposition, made up 
 of a number of subordinate ones which it is 
 necessary distinctly to weigh. 
 
 1st. Both circumcision and baptism are to be 
 viewed as signs of spiritual mercies. It is for this 
 reason alone, that they are or can be employed 
 as terms to convey the idea of such mercies. 
 
 2d. Circumcision was a sign of regeneration, 
 and of communion with Christ, as the fountain 
 of spiritual life. The apostle is treating of a be- 
 liever's completeness in Christ — of circumcision in 
 Christ. That his meaning might not be mistaken, 
 he explains himself of the inward grace, calling it, 
 
76 Church of God. 
 
 " the circumcision made without hands" and to cut 
 off all misconception, he explains his explanation, 
 declaring this " circumcision without hands," to 
 be, the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by 
 the circumcision of Christ. 
 
 3d. Baptism, too, is a sign of regeneration, and 
 of communion with Christ, as the fountain of spi- 
 ritual life. 
 
 In baptism, saith Paul, ye are "buried with 
 Christ" " ye are risen ivith him" through a di- 
 vine faith, " the faith of the operation of God." — 
 Whereas ye were " dead in sins, and the uncir- 
 cumcision of your flesh " (uncircumcision put for the 
 state of irregeneracy,) God hath quickened you to- 
 gether with Christ. 
 
 Collect now the result. A believer's sanctifl- 
 cation, in virtue of union with Christ, Paul de- 
 clares to be represented by both circumcision and 
 baptism ; for he expresses his doctrine by these 
 terms indifferently; and annexes to them both, 
 the same spiritual signification. He has, there- 
 fore, identified the two ordinances : and thus, by 
 demonstrating that they have one and the same 
 use and meaning, he has exhibited to our view 
 .the very same seal of God's covenant, under the 
 forms of circumcision and baptism respectively. 
 But as the same thing cannot subsist in different 
 forms at the same time : and as the first form, viz. 
 circumcision, is laid aside; it follows, that the 
 
No. IV. — Initiating Seal 11 
 
 seal of God's covenant is perpetuated under the 
 second form, viz. baptism ; and that it signifies 
 and seals in a manner suited to the evangelical 
 dispensation, whatever was previously signified 
 and sealed by the rite of circumcision. 
 
 If we again inspect the Apostle's proposition, 
 we shall find, that he directs us to this conclusion, 
 as well by the structure of his phraseology, as by 
 the force of his argument. For, on the one hand, 
 by the indiscriminate use of the terms circumci- 
 sion and baptism, he appears to assume, as an in- 
 disputable fact, the substitution of the latter in 
 place of the former ; nor is it easy to conceive 
 why he should discourse in this allusive manner, 
 if the exchange were not perfectly understood 
 among Christians: and, on the other hand, his 
 language is so framed, as to assert that ex- 
 change. " Circumcised — in putting off the body 
 of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of 
 Christ ; buried with him in baptism." What can 
 the apostle intend, by the " circumcision of Christ ?" 
 Doubtless, not the literal rite, for this would de- 
 stroy at once the whole of his reasoning on the 
 article of sanctification, in the same way as it is 
 destroyed by those who interpret the phrase, 
 " buried with him in baptism," of submersion of 
 the body in the act of baptising. The apostle 
 cannot so trifle. By the " circumcision of Christ," 
 he means that righteousness of faith, that mortifi- 
 
78 Church of God. 
 
 cation of sin, that quickening influence, which 
 flow from Christ, and were signified by circumci- 
 sion. But that same righteousness of faith, and 
 mortification of sin, and quickening influence, are 
 also signified by baptism. But circumcision and 
 baptism are external signs, which the apostle re- 
 cognizes by specifying the things signified. In 
 his transition from the one to the other, that is, 
 from circumcision to baptism, as signifying, in 
 their respective places, the very same blessings, 
 he points to the transition which the church of 
 God has made in fact, from the use of the former 
 to the use of the latter. " With regard to the 
 things signified," saith he, " there is no difference. 
 The circumcision of Christ, and burial with him 
 in baptism, are expressions of similar import; 
 both declaring a believer's communion with him 
 in his covenant mercies. With regard to the out- 
 ward sign, fellowship with Christ in his death and 
 resurrection, is represented in baptism, as putting 
 off the body of " the sins of the flesh," was for- 
 merly represented in circumcision." If this be 
 just, the inference is plain. Baptism is the Chris- 
 tian circumcision; the sign of baptism is the 
 Christian form of sealing God's covenant, and, as 
 such, has taken place of circumcision. 
 
 In confirmation of what is here advanced, let 
 us look, for a moment, at the Apostle's account of 
 Abraham's circumcision; Rom. iv. 11, &c. He 
 
No. IV. — Initiating Seal. 79 
 
 received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the right- 
 eousness of the faith which he had, yet being uncir- 
 cumcised ; that he might be the father of all them 
 that believe, though they be not circumcised ; that 
 righteousness might be imputed unto them also. And 
 the father of circumcision to them who are not of the 
 circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of 
 that faith of our father Abraham, ivhich he had, being 
 yet uncircumcised. 
 
 Two great prerogatives are here ascribed to 
 Abraham : 
 
 1. That he should transmit, in the line of the 
 covenanted seed, the righteousness of faith to all 
 generations and nations, so as to be, in a sense 
 which belonged, and could belong, to no other 
 man, the Father of all them that believe. 
 
 2. That with the righteousness of faitn, he 
 should transmit the seal of God's covenant, by the 
 intervention of which it was to be perpetuated in 
 the world, and actually imputed to all believers. 
 For he was not only the father of all them that 
 believe, but " the father of circumcision" to them. 
 
 This cannot mean the things signified by cir- 
 cumcision; for the apostle includes them in the 
 first prerogative: and such an interpretation would 
 convert into mere tautology, two propositions 
 which are strongly distinguished from each other 
 in the text. Circumcision, says the apostle, was 
 a seal of the righteousness of the faith which Abra 
 
80 Church of God. 
 
 ham had before he was circumcised : and he is 
 the father of this circumcision to all them who 
 walk in the steps of his faith ; that is, he transmits 
 the sign and seal along with the thing signified ; 
 conveying the evidence of God's covenant, as far 
 and as wide as he conveys the blessing ministered 
 by it, so that in whatever sense he is the father 
 of them that believe, in the same sense is he the 
 father to them of the seal of that righteousness 
 which they embrace by faith: and further, the 
 benefits conferred through the medium of Abra- 
 ham's covenant, are asserted to be contemporary 
 with the seal; both descending together from 
 him to the last of the covenanted seed. The 
 Apostle himself applies the principle, in the most 
 positive terms, to the old and the new dispensa- 
 tion. 
 
 To the old dispensation — " The father of cir- 
 cumcision to them who are not of the circumcision 
 only," evidently those who, being his descendants, 
 or incorporated with them, were literally circum- 
 cised. They inherited the seal from their father 
 Abraham. This is not questioned. But the 
 Apostle extends the principle. 
 
 To the new dispensation — The " father of cir- 
 cumcision to them also who walk in the steps of 
 his faith." In what sense is Abraham the " father 
 of circumcision," as the Apostle maintains, to 
 them who never were literally circumcised, and 
 
No. IV. — Initiating Seal 81 
 
 whom he expressly distinguishes from the circum- 
 cision ? Manifestly in this sense, that they, being 
 accounted of Abraham's seed, by their admission 
 into the church of God, receive along with it, by 
 inheritance from the patriarch, the seal of that 
 covenant in which they are become interested. 
 But circumcision is abolished long ago : yet Abra- 
 ham is the father of circumcision to them at this 
 hour. There is no avoiding a direct contradic- 
 tion, but upon the principle, that though the out- 
 ward rite of circumcision be discontinued, yet the 
 substance of the ordinance, the seal of the cove- 
 nant abides ; is applied under another form, and 
 is as really inherited by the people of God 
 from their father Abraham in that form, as it was 
 inherited by them of old in the form of circum- 
 cision. But now, if this seal does not subsist in 
 the ordinance of baptism, it has no existence at 
 all ; and there is no possible sense in which Abra- 
 ham is to us the father of circumcision. There- 
 fore, baptism has succeeded to circumcision. 
 
 This reasoning draws after it, infallibly, the 
 church membership of infants, and their right to 
 baptism. For as there is no distinction between 
 the mode in which Abraham has handed down the 
 sealed privileges of God's covenant to those who 
 were, and those who were not, of the circumci- 
 sion ; and as they were made over to the former, 
 
 and their infant seed, they must also be made 
 Vol. IV. 11 
 
82 Church of God. 
 
 over to the latter and their infant seed. It is no 
 objection to the foregoing argument, that baptism 
 is administered to female infants, whereas only 
 males were circumcised : because the extension of 
 a privilege can never be pleaded as a proof of its 
 abrogation ; and the New Testament itself has po- 
 sitively annulled, in spiritual things, all pre-emi- 
 nence and inferiority arising from condition or 
 sex. 
 
 The only difficulty of any importance, under 
 which the doctrine of these pages can labour, is 
 the application of the seal of the righteousness of 
 faith to multitudes who never had and never will 
 have that righteousness ; consequently, that the 
 seal of God's covenant, who is the God of truth, 
 is, by his own appointment, very often affixed to 
 a lie. 
 
 The difficulty is precisely the same in refer- 
 ence to circumcision as to baptism. The form- 
 er was undoubtedly " a seal of the righteous- 
 ness of faith;" and as undoubtedly was often 
 applied to multitudes who never had that right- 
 eousness. Did the God of truth, therefore, cer- 
 tify a lie? Methinks so blasphemous a deduc- 
 tion, which is equally valid against his acknow- 
 ledged institution of infant circumcision, as against 
 his disputed institution of infant baptism, should 
 make sober men, who cannot escape from it, 
 suspect the soundness of their views. It is, more- 
 
No. IV. — Initiating Seal. 83 
 
 over, the same difficulty which occurs in the cele- 
 bration of the Lord's supper, and in the baptism 
 of adults ; unless we can be assured that all the 
 recipients are true converts. But, indeed, the diffi- 
 culty itself is created by erroneous notions of the 
 nature of God's church; by confounding visible 
 members with his elect — and his covenant to the 
 church, with his covenant of grace in Christ Jesus. 
 A proper application of this distinction will re- 
 move it, and demonstrate that the seal of God's cove- 
 nant, does, in every instance, certify absolute truth, 
 ivhether it be applied to a believer, or to an unbeliever ; 
 to the elect, or to the reprobate. 
 
85 
 
 CHURCH OF GOD. 
 
 No. V. 
 Infant members. 
 
 In our preceding numbers, we have given a 
 general view of the Church of God, as one great 
 visible society which he has taken into peculiar 
 relations to himself. We traced its origin, as an 
 organized whole, up to the Abrahamic covenant, of 
 which we explained the nature, and proved the 
 perpetuity. We also investigated the uses of its 
 initiating rite, viz. circumcision; which, we as- 
 signed reasons to show, has been exchanged, un- 
 der the evangelical dispensation, for the ordinance 
 of baptism : and we touched, in general terms, 
 upon the conclusion which our premises justify, 
 respecting the ecclesiastical condition and privi- 
 leges of infants born of believing parents. Ha- 
 ving avowed our pursuasion, that they are, in vir- 
 tue of their birth, members of the church of God, 
 and entitled, during their infancy, to baptism in 
 his name, we shall, in this number, state our con- 
 
86 Church of God. 
 
 elusion more fully, and shall strengthen it with 
 some auxiliary considerations. 
 
 The reader, on looking back to No. III. of this 
 series, will find the following paragraph. 
 
 " If, as has been already demonstrated, the co- 
 venant with Abraham and his seed was a cove- 
 nant with the visible church— if this covenant has 
 never been abrogated — if its relations and privi- 
 leges, with an exception in favour of adults who 
 desired to come in on the profession of their faith, 
 were to be propagated in the line of natural ge- 
 neration, then, it follows, that the infant seed of 
 persons who are under this covenant, are them- 
 selves parties to it ; are themselves members of 
 the church ; and whatever privileges that infant 
 seed had at any given period in the history of the 
 church, it must retain so long as the covenant is 
 in force. But the covenant is in force at this mo- 
 ment ; therefore, at this moment, the covenant 
 privileges of the infant seed are in force. Visible 
 membership is one of those privileges ; therefore 
 the infant seed of church members are also mem- 
 bers of the church." 
 
 This, then, is the ground on which we take our 
 stand in pleading the cause of the children whom 
 God has given us. We account them members 
 of his church, not because tradition has called 
 them so ; not because the practice of the church 
 has treated them as such ; but because he consti- 
 
No. V. — Infant members, 87 
 
 tuted them such by his own commandment and 
 covenant which he has never revoked until this 
 day. 
 
 To insist, therefore, that we shall produce, from 
 the New Testament, a precept directly instituting 
 the church membership of infants, is to make a 
 demand with which we are under no obligation 
 to comply. Such a precept was not necessary. 
 The relation we are inquiring into had been in- 
 stituted long before ; it had subsisted without one 
 moment's interruption for more than nineteen 
 centuries. During this great lapse of ages it had 
 enlisted on its side, in addition to its divine origi- 
 nal, the most irrefragable prejudices of antiquity, 
 the most confirmed national habit, and the fasti- 
 dious jealousy of prerogative. In this state of its 
 prevalence was the evangelical dispensation an- 
 nounced. If the same relation of infants to the 
 church was to continue under the New Testa- 
 ment form, nothing is more easy than to assign 
 the reason why it was not instituted anew. The 
 principle was undisputed ; it was acted upon as a 
 principle which the change of dispensation did 
 not touch ; and consequently, a new institution 
 was superfluous. The silence of the New Testa- 
 ment on this head, is altogether in favour of 
 those who maintain that the union of parents with 
 the church of God, includes their children also. 
 But on the supposition that this principle was to 
 
88 Church of God. 
 
 operate no longer ; that the common interest of 
 children with their parents in God's covenant was 
 to cease ; the silence of the New Testament is 
 one of the most inexplicable things which ever 
 tortured the ingenuity of man. If there is any 
 point of external privilege which ought to have 
 been settled with the most definite precision, one 
 would imagine that this is the point. But we are 
 taught to believe, that a constitution which is en- 
 grafted upon a principle that penetrates the es- 
 sence of human society ; which coincides with 
 the genius of every other divine constitution re- 
 specting man ; which is incorporated with his 
 animal, his intellectual, and his moral character ; 
 which is interwoven with every ligament and fibre 
 of his heart, shall be torn away ; and yet the 
 statute book of the kingdom in which this severity 
 originates, shall contain no warrant for executing 
 it, nor a syllable to soothe the anguish which it 
 has inflicted ! Is it thus that God deals with his 
 people ? Does this look like his wonted conde- 
 scension to their infirmities ? Does it bear the 
 character of that loving kindness and tender 
 mercy which belong to him who " knows their 
 frame, and remembers that they are dust ?" 
 
 When the economy of Moses was to be super- 
 seded by that of Jesus Christ, he prepared the way 
 in the most gradual and gentle manner; he showed 
 them from their own scriptures, that he had done 
 
No. V. — Infant members. 89 
 
 only what he had intended and predicted from the 
 beginning ; he set before their eyes a comparative 
 view of the two dispensations, to satisfy them that 
 they had lost nothing, but had gained much by the 
 exchange. When they were "dull of hearing," 
 he bore with their slowness ; when they were ex- 
 tremely unwilling to part with Moses, he stooped 
 to their infirmities ; and persevered in his lenity, 
 till the destruction of their city, their sacrifices, 
 their temple, their nation, left their further demur 
 ring without the shadow of an excuse. But when 
 he touched them in the point of most exquisite 
 sensibility — when he passed a sword through their 
 souls by cutting off their children, unable to dis 
 tinguish between good and evil, from all the in- 
 terest which they once had in his church, the 
 heavy mandate is preceded by no warning, is ac- 
 companied with no comfort ; is followed by no- 
 thing to replace the privation ; is not even sup- 
 ported by a single reason ! The thing is done in 
 the most summary manner, and the order is not 
 so much as entered into the rule of faith ! The 
 believing mother hears that the "son of her womb" 
 is shut out from the covenant of her God, but 
 hears not why ! Is this the ordinance of him who, 
 " as a father pitieth his children, so pities them 
 that fear him ?" It cannot be ! 
 
 Conceding, then, to the opposers of our chil- 
 dren's claim as members of the Christian church, 
 Vol. IV. 12 
 
90 Church of God. 
 
 all that they ask with regard to the silence of the 
 New Testament, that very concession works their 
 ruin. If their views are correct, it could not have 
 been thus silent. Out of their own mouths we 
 draw their conviction ; and cast them in the judg- 
 ment by the very evidence which they offer in 
 their vindication. 
 
 The case is now reversed. Instead of our pro- 
 ducing from the New Testament such a warrant 
 for the privileges of our infant seed, as they re- 
 quire, we turn the tables upon them ; and insist, 
 that they shall produce scriptural proof of God's 
 having annulled the constitution under which we as- 
 sert our right. Till they do this, our cause is in- 
 vincible. He once granted to his church the right 
 for which we contend ; and nothing but his own 
 act can take it away. We want to see the act of 
 abrogation ; we must see it in the New Testament ; 
 for there it is, if it is at all. Point it out, and we 
 have done. Till then we shall rejoice in the con- 
 solation of calling upon God as our God, and the 
 God of our seed. 
 
 2. We have before remarked, that the exclusion 
 of infants from the church of God, contradicts all 
 the analogies of his external dispensations to- 
 wards men.* 
 
 A correct reasoner will require the highest evi- 
 dence of which the case is susceptible, before he 
 
 * Christian Magazine, Vol. I. p. 58 — 61. 
 
No. V. — Infant members. 91 
 
 admits a doctrine involving such a consequence. 
 General principles are the great landmarks of truth. 
 They furnish tests by which to try the soundness 
 of those endless propositions which are generated 
 by the ceaseless activity of the human mind. One 
 of them, well understood and judiciously applied, 
 is a better preservative from errour, than a mil- 
 lion of those small arguments by which multitudes 
 regulate their opinion and their conduct. 
 
 If, indeed, it is the will of God that children 
 shall not be esteemed, during their infancy, as 
 members of the New Testament church ; and if 
 he has promulged his will in this matter by any 
 explicit statute, or by any act which necessarily 
 infers such an appointment, there is an end to all 
 our difficulties and disquisitions. " Thus saith 
 Jehovah," discharges, at once, every human in- 
 quiry. But seeing that, in every public constitu- 
 tion, he always identified parents with their chil- 
 dren ; and that in every other department of his 
 government this principle is conspicuous at the 
 present hour, an argument of the most imperious 
 sort thence arises in favour of our children's birth- 
 right as members of his church. For as his con- 
 stitutions of nature and of grace agree with the 
 most wonderful harmony ; and as this agreement 
 is the foundation of all those references to the for- 
 mer, by which the scriptures explain and illustrate 
 the latter, it is " passing strange," that he should 
 
92 Church of God. 
 
 introduce, into the heart of his church, a law 
 which is at complete variance with the whole sys- 
 tem of his creation and providence ! that he should 
 go out of his way to make an exception, not for, 
 but against, his own people : refusing to them, as 
 members of his church, the benefit of an ordi- 
 nance which in other societies erected by his au- 
 thority, he freely allows to mankind at large ; and 
 refusing it at the expense of resuming, without an 
 equivalent, the grant which he formerly conveyed 
 to them ! 
 
 The case is still stronger when we reflect that 
 the children of believing parents participate in all 
 the disasters of the external church. If she be cor- 
 rupted, the corruption infects them ; if she be per- 
 secuted, the persecution smites them ; if her mer- 
 cies be sinned away, the punishment of the sin 
 lights on them. Could they suffer more upon the 
 supposition of their being really members ? It 
 seems, then, that they are to share in all her af- 
 flictions, without sharing in her privileges : that 
 when evil overtakes her, they are to be treated as 
 citizens; but when her immunities are dispensed, 
 as aliens. So that the Lord our God suspends a 
 leading principle of his physical and moral order, 
 for the sake of barring the seed of his people from 
 privilege ; and permits it to take its full course for 
 the infliction of calamity ! This is more than in- 
 credible ! 
 
No. V. — Infant members. 93 
 
 3. If the children of believing parents are not 
 members of the church, before making a profes- 
 sion of their own faith, it follows, that from the 
 day of their birth to the day of their conversion, 
 they stand in no nearer relation to her than Pa- 
 gans or Jews. A right to instruct, to warn, to 
 entreat them, she certainly has ; and she has the 
 same right with regard to the Jew or the Pagan ; 
 but no authority over any of them. Her jurisdic- 
 diction being necessarily confined to her own sub- 
 jects ; having no power to "judge them that are 
 without ;" and the children of her members being 
 " without," she can take no cognizance of them 
 which she might not take of infant or adult heathen 
 who are within her reach. As it is their own act 
 upon which they are admitted into her number, 
 so it is that same act by which she acquires any 
 right of directing them. Their parents she can 
 enjoin to " bring them up in the nurture and ad- 
 monition of the Lord," because God has rendered 
 it a branch of parental duty ; and she ought to en- 
 force the observance of his law by all those spi- 
 ritual means which he has confided to her zeal. 
 But if parents be incapable of fulfilling their obli- 
 gations ; if they should happen to be separated 
 from their families ; to fail through negligence, or 
 be cut off by death : or if the children prove re- 
 fractory to parental admonition ; in none of these 
 cases can the church of God interpose any fur- 
 
94 Church of God. 
 
 ther than to perform an act of voluntary benevo- 
 lence. Authority is out of the question. For what 
 authority can she have over those who never 
 sought her fellowship ; to whom she has denied 
 her privileges; and whom she disowns as mem- 
 bers ? The same principle upon which she at- 
 tempts to control the children of her members, 
 would justify her in attempting to legislate for 
 others who are without her pale, extending her dis- 
 cipline to Jews, Turks, Pagans ; nay, to the whole 
 world lying in wickedness. If she may not do this, 
 the reason, and the only reason, is that they are 
 not her members ; which reason is equally valid 
 in the case of children who are not her members. 
 The alternative is plain ; either the church of God 
 must give up her care over youth who have not 
 made a profession of their faith ; or in order to 
 exercise it must commit an act of usurpation. 
 
 But how can a Christian be reconciled to either 
 part of the alternative ? How can he persuade 
 himself that children born of the people of God, 
 consecrated to his fear, and declared by his in- 
 spired apostle to be " holy," are no more mem- 
 bers of his church, than the savage who wanders 
 upon the banks of the Missouri ? How can he 
 persuade himself, that among the solemn trusts oi 
 the Christian church, that most important one of 
 superintending the youth, has been omitted? 
 That she has received no charge, possesses no 
 
No. V. — Infant members. 95 
 
 power, and is under no responsibility, on this sub- 
 ject, further than to stimulate the individual efforts 
 of parents, masters, or teachers ? If she has re- 
 ceived any other commandment; if, in her social 
 character, she is bound to provide for " training 
 up a child in the way in which he should go," 
 then the children to be so trained, must be treat- 
 ed as her members ; and are members in fact, for 
 God never vested her with authority over any 
 who are not. 
 
 To set this point in another light. God, in the 
 ordinary course of his providence, does actually 
 gather his " true worshippers" from the families 
 of his people ; and, for the most part, in the days 
 of their youth. He does it most conspicuously in 
 those churches which subject them, when young, 
 to the most exemplary inspection. He has, on 
 the other hand, frowned upon churches as they 
 became remiss in this particular ; his good Spirit 
 has departed from them ; and there are not a few 
 which, at this hour, may trace their declension 
 and the rapid approach of their desolation, to the 
 neglect of their youth. But to deny that children 
 are members of the church, is to deny both her 
 duty and her right to exercise any public authori- 
 ty over them ; and to deny it in opposition both 
 to the blessing and the curse of God ; is to smite 
 the Redeemer's kingdom in the heart of one of 
 its most precious interests, the youth ; and to do 
 
96 Church of God. 
 
 it much deeper and more effectual injury, than it 
 is likely to suffer from the assaults of open enemies. 
 
 These consequences appear to us inevitable. 
 Far from us be the thought of imputing them to 
 those who reject the church membership of in- 
 fants; or of asserting that they do in fact occur 
 as regularly as we might expect. For, on the 
 one hand, God does not permit Errour to mature 
 all the deadly fruits which she is capable of bear- 
 ing : and, on the other, the nature of human so- 
 ciety is not to be subverted by theory. Let men 
 profess what they please ; let them renounce, and 
 if they think fit, ridicule, our doctrine; it is never- 
 theless true, that they cannot get along in the re- 
 ligious any more than in the civil community, 
 without more or less considering children as 
 members. And it is their acting upon the very 
 principle which they represent as unscriptural and 
 absurd, that saves their churches from speedy 
 destruction. 
 
 4. From the date of the covenant with Abra- 
 ham, to the cessation of the Mosaic law, infants 
 were undoubtedly members of God's church. 
 The seal of his covenant was in their flesh ; and 
 it was deemed by every Hebrew a prerogative of 
 inestimable worth. " Uncircumcised," was the 
 most bitter and disdainful reproach which his 
 mouth could utter. He would sooner lay his 
 sons in the grave, than permit them go without 
 
No. V. — Infant members. 97 
 
 the token of their being Abraham's seed. On 
 these facts we found three inquiries. The first 
 relating to the privilege which God conferred 
 upon his people; the second to the effect which 
 the recalling of it produced on them ; and the 
 third to their state of feeling under the loss. 
 
 First. " The sign of circumcision, a seal of the 
 righteousness of faith," applied, by divine direc- 
 tion, to infant members of the church, was a high 
 privilege. 
 
 This cannot, with even a show of reason, be 
 disputed. That God should subject them to a 
 painful rite which was of no use — that the indeli- 
 ble certification of his being their God as he had 
 been the God of their fathers, should be coupled 
 with no benefit — that he should draw them into 
 covenant relations which were good for nothing 
 no man is sottish enough to pretend. Their con- 
 dition, therefore, as members of his church, and 
 the sacramental sign of it, was a real and an im- 
 portant privilege. 
 
 What has become of it ? 
 
 If infants are no longer members of his church, 
 it is taken away, and what has replaced it ? No- 
 thing, Nothing ! then God has put the children of 
 his people under the new dispensation, fur^er 
 from him than they were under the old. He has 
 inverted his method of providence toward his 
 
 church, which has uniformly been to bless her 
 Vol. IV. 13 
 
98 Church of God. 
 
 with progressive light and favour. The commu- 
 nication of his grace and truth always increasing, 
 never diminished. Each succeeding dispensation 
 comprehending the whole mass of benefits which 
 belonged to the preceding, and adding others of 
 its own. But in this solitary, instance the course 
 of his covenant is changed ! And whereas he had 
 formerly separated his people from the heathen 
 that knew him not ; had drawn around them a 
 line of covenant goodness ; had put their little ones 
 within the holy circle ; and had instructed them 
 to cherish the distinction as, in his sight, of great 
 price — yet now, when he is to enlarge their inhe- 
 ritance, and enrich their joys ; to fulfil the pro- 
 mise of those good things which " eye had not 
 seen, nor ear heard, neither had entered into the 
 heart of man," he begins with telling them that 
 though he will still be their God, he will no longer 
 be the God of their seed; that he has cast their 
 babes out of his church, over the line of his co- 
 venant, in among the " dogs." And all this, after 
 he had sworn that he would " not break his cove- 
 nant, nor alter the thing that had gone out of his 
 mouth:" and having done it, commissions his 
 apostle to declare, that " his gifts and his calling 
 are^without repentance ;" i. e. that a grant which 
 he has once made to his church, he never annuls ! 
 Believe it who can. # 
 
 * Rom. xi. 29. l^at the imchangeableness of God's gifts and 
 
No. V. — Infant members. 99 
 
 Let us, however, allow that we have miscon- 
 strued the divine covenant ; and that infants born 
 after the settlement of the new economy, had no 
 such claim as had the infant posterity of Abra- 
 ham. How did the arrangement affect the chil- 
 dren of those who were the first members of the 
 Christian church ? For example, those who were 
 added to her on the day of Pentecost ? This is our 
 
 Second Inquiry. 
 
 The rule of God's proceeding against those 
 who should reject the Messiah, was laid down by 
 Moses ; and is thus quoted and explained by the 
 apostle Peter : " Moses truly said unto the Fathers, 
 a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, 
 of your brethren, like unto me-, him shall ye hear in all 
 things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall 
 come to pass, that every soul which will not hear 
 
 THAT PROPHET, SHALL BE DESTROYED FROM AMONG 
 THE PEOPLE. Act. ill. 22, 23. 
 
 calling refers to his church, we conclude from the whole scope of 
 the apostle's reasoning in the context ; part of which proves the 
 recovery of Israel to the mercies of their fathers ; and proves it 
 from the consideration, that it is God's gracious design to rein- 
 state them in their privileges ; that this design is to be accomplish- 
 ed in virtue of the " gifts and calling" to their fathers Abraham, 
 Isaac, and Jacob. And as they cannot be reinstated but by em- 
 bracing Christianity, these unchangeable "gifts and calling," must 
 be continued in the New Testament church. Infant membership 
 was, incontrovertibly, one of the gifts : therefore, if the children 
 of his people are not members of his church, God has broken his 
 covenant. 
 
100 Church of God. 
 
 The sin of which the Jews were warned by their 
 great law-giver, was their not obeying the voice 
 of his great successor; that is, the sin of reject- 
 ing the Messiah. The punishment denounced 
 against this sin, was " destruction from among the 
 people." Who were the people ? And what was 
 the destruction? 
 
 (1.) Who were the people? 
 
 Not the nation of the Jews. For, having com- 
 mitted the crime, they themselves fell under the 
 penalty. Their nation was to be destroyed $ 
 whereas, according to the prediction of Moses, 
 it was not the people that were to perish ; but the 
 disobedient who were to be destroyed from among 
 the people ; which implies the continuance of that 
 people in the divine protection. It is a people, 
 therefore, which was to survive the rejection of 
 the Jews, and be placed in such circumstances of 
 favour, as to render destruction from among them 
 a great and terrible judgment. 
 
 Not the people whom God " hath chosen in 
 Christ before the foundation of the world, that 
 they should be holy." For God never cast away 
 his people whom he foreknew* They who com- 
 mitted the crime before us, never belonged to his 
 people, and so could not be destroyed from among 
 them ; and they whom God had thus chosen did 
 
 * Rom. xi. 2. Aets xiii. 48. 
 
No. V. — Infant members. 101 
 
 not commit the crime. " As many as were ordain- 
 ed unto eternal life, believed." 
 
 Who then are " the people" from among whom 
 the sinners were to be destroyed ? If not the 
 Jewish people, if not the elected people of God, it 
 can be no other than that PEOPLE whom he 
 owns as his, and who are called by the collective 
 name of his church.*- 9 
 
 (2.) What was the " destruction ?" 
 
 Not temporal death : for God never ordained 
 this punishment for the sin of unbelief on his son. 
 
 Not an exclusion from the communion of the 
 Jewish nation ; for unbelief in Christ was to them 
 a recommendation instead of a disparagement ; 
 and to be severed from them entirely, was at least 
 as likely to prove a blessing as a curse. 
 
 In what, then, did the destruction consist ? Un- 
 
 * This passage furnishes an irrefragable proof of the unity and 
 perpetuity of the Visible Church. 
 
 For, 1. These rebels were a part of the people from among 
 whom they were to be destroyed : which people we have proved, 
 could be no other than the people or church of God. 
 
 2. The people or chuich from which they were to be destroyed, 
 was to remain a people, and the peculiar object of the divine re- 
 gard. This is true of no people but that which composes his 
 church. The Christian chuch is therefore the very same church 
 from which the Jews were cast out. 
 
 3. The term "people" cannot designate the church otherwise 
 than as a great WHOLE. The more we " search the scriptures," 
 the more does a "cloud of witnesses" thicken round us to testify 
 that " the Church of God is ONE." 
 
102 Church of God. 
 
 doubtedly, in having their name and place exter- 
 minated from among the people of God ; in being 
 cast out of his church, and exposed to that perdi- 
 tion which shall be the fate of all whom he dis- 
 owns. This must be the interpretation of the 
 threatening, because no other will comport with 
 either sense or fact. 
 
 % Let us now see how this bears upon the point 
 before us. 
 
 The unbelieving Jews were cut off, for their 
 unbelief, from the church of God ; and, surely, it 
 will not be accounted the least part of the ven- 
 geance, that their children shared their fate. 
 
 But the case of believing Jews was exactly the 
 reverse. If they who would not hear the divine 
 prophet were to be destroyed from among the 
 people ; it certainly follows, that they who would 
 and did hear him, should not be destroyed ; but 
 should retain their place and privileges. And if, 
 in the execution of the curse upon the disobedient, 
 their children also were cut off; then, God's own 
 act establishing the principle of judgment, the 
 children of those who were not disobedient, par- 
 ticipated in their blessing ; i. e. instead of being 
 destroyed from among the people, were num- 
 bered with them ; or, which is the same,- were, by 
 his own authority, reckoned members of his 
 church. 
 
 These infants, then, being in the church of God 
 
No. V. — Infant members. 103 
 
 already, the question is, by what authority were 
 they cast out? It would be an unheard of thing if 
 the faith of their parents in the " consolation of 
 Israel," should expel them. A singular way, in- 
 deed, of converting a Jew, to tell him that the 
 very fact of his being a believer in Christ would 
 excommunicate his children ! The issue is short. 
 Either the children of believing Jews were mem- 
 bers of the church under her Christian form, or 
 not. If not, then, in so far as their children were 
 concerned, God inflicted upon the faith of parents, 
 that very curse which he had threatened upon 
 their unbelief If otherwise, then at the very be- 
 ginning of the new dispensation, infants were 
 members of his church. We give our opponents, 
 their option. 
 
 We have yet to answer a 
 
 Third Inquiry, concerning the excision of in- 
 fants from the New Testament church : or, if you 
 prefer it, their non-admission to her privileges. 
 
 How must such a measure have operated upon 
 the feelings of a believing Jew ? 
 
 Tenacious, in a high degree, of their peculiari- 
 ties — regarding their relation to Abraham as 
 momentous to their individual happiness ; and as 
 the most prominent feature of their national glory 
 — knowing, too, that their children were compri- 
 sed with themselves in the covenant of God, it is 
 not possible that the Hebrews could have sub- 
 
104 Church of God. 
 
 mitted, without reluctance, to a constitution which 
 was to strip them of their favourite privilege; to 
 dissever their tenderest ties ; to blot the names of 
 their little ones out of the register of God's peo- 
 ple ; and treat them afterwards, from generation 
 to generation, as the little ones of the heathen 
 man and the publican ! On every other preroga- 
 tive, real or imaginary, their suspicion was awake, 
 their zeal inflammable, their passions intractable. 
 But toward this, their grand prerogative, they 
 evinced a tameness which required them to for- 
 get, at once, that they were men and that they 
 were Jews. Search the records of the New Tes- 
 tament from one end to the other, and you will 
 not find the trace of a remonstrance, an objec- 
 tion, or a difficulty on this subject, from the mouth 
 of either a believing or an unbelieving Israelite ! 
 The former never parted with a tittle of even the 
 Mosaic law, till the will of God was so clearly 
 demonstrated as to remove every doubt : the lat- 
 ter lay constantly in wait for matter of accusation 
 against the Christians. Nothing could have 
 prompted him to louder clamour, to fiercer resis- 
 tance, or to heavier charges, than an attempt to 
 overturn a fundamental principle of the covenant 
 with Abraham : nothing could have more startled 
 and distressed the meek and modest disciple. 
 Yet that attempt is made ; that fundamental prin- 
 ciple of the covenant with Abraham, is overturn- 
 
No. V. — Infant members. 105 
 
 ed ; and not a friend complains, nor a foe resents ! 
 What miracle of enchantment has so instantane- 
 ously relieved the conscience of the one, and 
 calmed the warmth of the other ? Where is that 
 wayward vanity, that captious criticism, that com- 
 bustible temperament, that insidious, implacable, 
 restless enmity, which by night and by day, in coun- 
 try and in town, haunted the steps of the apostles, 
 and treasured up actions, words, looks, for the 
 hour of convenient vengeance ? All gone ; dissi- 
 pated in a moment ! The proud and persecuting 
 Pharisee rages at the name of Jesus Christ; 
 fights for his traditions and his phylacteries ; and 
 utters not a syllable of dissent from a step which 
 completely annihilates the covenant with Abra- 
 ham ! that very covenant from which he pro- 
 fesses to derive his whole importance ! ! We 
 can believe a great deal, but not quite so much 
 as this. 
 
 Should it be alleged, that the Jews did proba- 
 bly oppose the exclusion of their infants from the 
 New Testament church, although the sacred wri- 
 ters have omitted to mention it : we reply, 
 
 That although many things have happened 
 
 which were never recorded ; and, therefore, that 
 
 the mere silence of an historian, is not, in itself, 
 
 conclusive against their existence ; yet no man 
 
 may assume, as proof, the existence of a fact 
 
 which is unsupported by either history or tradi- 
 Vol. IV. 14 
 
106 Church of God. 
 
 tion. On this ground, the plea which we have 
 stopped to notice is perfectly nugatory. 
 
 In the present case, however, the probabilities 
 look all the other way. We mean, that if the 
 Jews had made the opposition, which on the sup- 
 position we are combatting, it is inconceivable 
 they should not have made, it would have been 
 so interwoven with the origin, constitution, pro- 
 gress, and transactions of the primitive church, 
 as to have rendered an omission of it almost 
 impossible. 
 
 The question about circumcision and the obli- 
 gation on the Gentile converts to keep the law 
 of Moses, shook the churches to their centre; and 
 was not put at rest but by a formal decision of the 
 apostles and elders. Now as circumcision was 
 the seal of the Abrahamic covenant, which ex- 
 plicitly constituted infants members of the church, 
 is it to be imagined that so hot a controversy 
 should have been kindled about the ensealing rite, 
 and none at all about the privilege sealed ? or 
 that a record should have been carefully preserved 
 of the disputes and decision concerning the sign ; 
 and no record at all kept of the discussions con- 
 cerning the thing signified, which imparted to the 
 former all their interest and value ? 
 
 It is, therefore, utterly incredible that the resis- 
 tance of Jews to the Christian arrangement for 
 shutting out their children from the church of God, 
 
No. V. — Infant members. 107 
 
 should have passed unnoticed. But no notice of 
 any such resistance is in the New Testament. 
 The conclusion is, that no such resistance was 
 ever offered : and the conclusion from this again 
 is, that no cause for it existed ; that is, that the 
 infants of professing parents were considered as 
 holding, under the new economy, the same place 
 and relation which they held under the old. 
 
 Our conclusion acquires much force from the 
 nature of the controversy respecting circumcision. 
 The Judaizing teachers made the observance of 
 this rite, a term, not only of communion, but of 
 salvation. Except ye be circumcised, said they, and 
 keep the law of Moses, ye cannot he saved. Had 
 their doctrine prevailed, circumcision in the Chris- 
 tian church must have been regulated by the Mo- 
 saic law. But this law prescribed the circumci- 
 sion of infants. Now, under what pretext could 
 they urge a compliance with this ordinance, ac- 
 cording to the law of Moses, upon the Gentile 
 converts, unless it were an undisputed point that the 
 children of these converts were members of the 
 Christian church ? An exception was at hand. 
 " Whatever may be the duty of adults, there is no 
 reason to circumcise infants ; because, by the new 
 order of things, they do not belong to the Chris- 
 tian community, and have no concern with its 
 sealing ordinances." Yet no such exception was 
 ever taken. 
 
108 Church of God. 
 
 This one fact, under all its circumstances and 
 connexions,* is equivalent to a doctrinal declara- 
 tion of the apostles and elders at Jerusalem, that 
 the change of dispensation has not affected the 
 rights of infants born of believing parents ; and 
 that they are under the Christian, as really as they 
 were under the Mosaic, economy, members of the 
 church of God ; and as fully entitled to its initia- 
 ting ordinance. 
 
 5. The language of God's word, respecting chil- 
 dren, is in perfect accordance with the principle 
 of their being members of his church ; but is irre- 
 concileable with the contrary supposition. 
 
 Enumerating some of the benefits of the new 
 economy, he says, by the prophet Isaiah, that his 
 people " shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth 
 for " trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed 
 of the Lord, and their offspring with them^'f The 
 Redeemer, in the days of his flesh, was much dis- 
 pleased with an attempt of his disciples to keep 
 back infants from approaching him, and said, 
 u Suffer the little children to come unto me, and 
 forbid them not, for of such is the kingdon ofGod.^X 
 An expression which, we well know, signifies the 
 New Testament church. " The promise," said 
 Peter, after the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pen- 
 tecost, " The promise is to you, and to your chil- 
 dren.^ 
 
 * Compare Acts xxi. 21. % Mark x. 14. 
 
 f Is. lxv. 23. § Acts ii. 39. 
 
No. V. — Infant members. 109 
 
 These and similar expressions, with which the 
 word of God abounds, correspond much better to 
 that system which associates children with their 
 parents in his church, than with that which re- 
 jects them as no part of it. And we must have 
 very strong reasons to justify our embracing a sys- 
 tem which requires a language contrary to the 
 genius of the language which the Holy Spirit him- 
 self has selected. 
 
 6. Unless we greatly mistake, the apostle Paul 
 has twice decided the question before us in the 
 most unequivocal manner ; and decided it in our 
 favour. 
 
 One of his decisions is in the following words : 
 " The unbelieving husband is sanctified by the 
 wife ; and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by 
 the husband ; else were your children unclean, but 
 now are they holy." # 
 
 In what sense does a believing, sanctify an un- 
 believing, parent, so that their children are holy ? 
 Wherein does this holiness consist? Some have 
 been so galled by this assertion of the apostle, 
 that they have tried to fritter it down into a grave 
 declaration of the legitimacy of children born of 
 parents thus situated. As if faith in Christ were 
 necessary to the validity of espousals ! As if all 
 the marriages of the heathen were mere concubi- 
 
 * 1 Cor. vii. 14. 
 
110 Church of God. 
 
 nage ; and all their children the fruit of illicit 
 
 amours ! 
 
 The apostle certainly does not mean that one 
 parent communicates to another, or that either of 
 them communicates to their children, that inter- 
 nal conformity to the divine purity, which is com- 
 monly called " holiness" or salification. This is 
 contrary to reason, to scripture, and to daily ex- 
 perience. Yet he says that a believing parent 
 renders holy the unbelieving one; and that, in 
 consequence, their children are holy. What does 
 he mean ? 
 
 " Holy," as a term of established use and sig- 
 nification, was well understood by the Corinthian 
 Christians. It expresses the state of a person or \ 
 thing specially separated to the service of God ; 
 and in which, by reason of that separation, he ac- 
 quires a peculiar property. For this interpreta- 
 tion we have his own authority — when prohibiting 
 various pollutions, he thus addresses the people 
 of Israel ; Ye shall be holy unto me : for I the Lord 
 am holy ; and have severed you from other people, 
 that ye shoidd be mine. Lev. xx. 26. This " sever- 
 ing" was effected by his covenant with them. 
 They were " holy," because they belonged to his 
 church, which he had erected to put his name and 
 his glory there. 
 
 " Unclean," as contrasted with " holy," express 
 es the state of a person not separated to the ser- 
 
No. V. — Infant members. Ill 
 
 vice of God : in whom he has no peculiar interest, 
 and who is, therefore, " common ;" i. e. unappro- 
 priated to God. All who are conversant with the 
 scriptural phraseology know this representation 
 to be true. 
 
 What, then, does the apostle say ? He says that 
 if the unbelieving, were not sanctified by the be- 
 lieving, parent, their children would be " unclean ;'' 
 would be "common;" would have no peculiar 
 relation to God, nor any place in his church. But 
 since the believing, does sanctify the unbelieving, 
 parent, their children are the reverse of "un- 
 clean :" they are " holy ;" they are born under pe- 
 culiar relations to God; they are appropriated to 
 him ; they are members of his church ; and as 
 they undoubtedly have a right to the token of their 
 membership — to baptism. 
 
 Considering the nature of the scriptural style ; 
 and that " holy," and " unclean," or " common," 
 are the precise terms for such as were, and as 
 were not, respectively, within the external cove- 
 nant of God, we are unable to conceive how the 
 apostle could more formally and unequivocally 
 have declared the church membership of infants 
 born of a believing parent. The first of these 
 terms was, in his mouth, exactly what " a mem- 
 ber of the church" is in ours ; and could not 
 be otherwise understood by the primitive Chris- 
 tians. 
 
J 12 Church of God. 
 
 The only plausible difficulty which lies against 
 our view, is, that " According to the same 
 reasoning, an unbeliever, continuing in unbelief be- 
 comes a member of the church in consequence of 
 marriage with a believer. For the apostle does 
 not more positively affirm that the children are 
 " holy," than he affirms that the unbelieving hus- 
 band is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving 
 wife sanctified, or " made holy," by the husband. 
 Therefore, if holiness imparted by the parent to 
 the children, makes them members of the church, 
 the holiness imparted by one parent to the other, 
 makes him or her, a member of the church. This 
 will not be maintained. For it would be absurd 
 to imagine, that an infidel adult, living in open 
 hostility to the church of God, should be reckon- 
 ed among its members merely in virtue of union 
 to a believing husband or wife. Well then, if the 
 " sanctification," which an unbelieving wife de- 
 rives from her believing husband, does not make 
 her a member of the church, the " holiness" which 
 children derive from a believing parent, cannot 
 make them members of the church." 
 
 The objection is shrewd : but, like many other 
 shrewd things, more calculated to embarrass 
 an inquirer, than to assist him. Our answer is 
 short. 
 
 First, It makes the apostle talk nonsense. The 
 amount of it when stripped of its speciousness 
 
No. V. — Infant members. 113 
 
 and tried by the standard of common sense, being 
 neither more nor less than this, that all his dis- 
 course about the sanctification of husband and 
 wife, and the holiness of their children, means — 
 just nothing at all. For if it be not an internal 
 holiness, which we do not affirm ; nor an external 
 relative holiness, which the objection denies; 
 then a person is said by the apostle to be holy, 
 whose holiness is neither within him nor without 
 him ; neither in soul, nor spirit, nor body, nor 
 state, nor condition, nor any thing else : which, in 
 our apprehension, is as genuine nonsense as can 
 well be uttered. If those who differ from us feel 
 themselves wronged, we heg them to show in 
 ichat the holiness mentioned by the apostle consists. 
 
 Secondly. The objection takes for granted, that 
 the sanctification of the husband by his wife, or 
 of the wife by her husband, is precisely of the 
 same extent, and produces on its subject the same 
 effect, as the holiness which children inherit from 
 a believing parent. This is certainly erroneous. 
 
 (1.) The covenant of God never founded the 
 privilege of membership in his church upon the 
 mere fact of intermarriage with his people : but it 
 did expressly found that privilege upon the fact of 
 being born of them. 
 
 (2.) By a positive precept, adults were not to 
 
 be admitted into the church without a profession 
 
 of their faith. This is a special statute, limiting, 
 Vol. IV. \5 
 
114 Church of God. 
 
 in the case of adults, the general doctrine of mem- 
 bership. Consequently, the doctrine of Paul 
 must be explained by the restriction of that 
 statute. " Sanctify" her unbelieving husband the 
 believing wife does ; and so does the believing 
 husband his unbelieving wife; i. e. to a certain 
 length ; but not so far as to render the partner 
 thus sanctified, a member of the church — The 
 former cannot be doubted, for the apostle peremp- 
 torily asserts it — The latter cannot be admitted ; 
 for it would contravene the statute already quo- 
 ted. The membership of infants does not con- 
 travene it. And, therefore, although the holiness 
 which the apostle ascribes to infants involves their 
 membership ; it does not follow that the sancti- 
 fying influence over an unbelieving husband or 
 wife, which he ascribes to the believing wife or 
 husband, involves the church membership of the 
 party thus sanctified. 
 
 (3.) The very words of the text lead to the same 
 conclusion. They teach us, in the plainest man- 
 ner, that this sanctification regards the unbeliev- 
 ing parent not for his own sake, but as a medium 
 affecting the transmission of covenant privilege to 
 the children of a believer. 
 
 A simple, and we think, satisfactory account of 
 the matter, is this : 
 
 Among the early conversions to Christianity, it 
 often happened, that the gospel was believed by a 
 
No. V. — Infant members. 115 
 
 woman, and rejected by her husband; or believed 
 by a man, and rejected by his wife. One of the 
 invariable effects of Christianity being a tender 
 concern in parents for the welfare of their off- 
 spring ; a question was naturally suggested by 
 such a disparity of religious condition, as to the 
 light in which the children were to be viewed. 
 Considering the one parent, they were to be ac- 
 counted " holy ;" but considering the other, they 
 were to be accounted " unclean." Did the cha- 
 racter of the former place them ivithin the church 
 of God ; or the character of the latter without it ? 
 or did they belong partly to the church and partly 
 to the world, but wholly to neither ? The diffi- 
 culty was a real one ; and calculated to excite 
 much distress in the minds of parents who, like 
 the primitive Christians, did not treat the relation 
 of their little ones to the church of God, as a 
 slight and uninteresting affair. 
 
 Paul obviates it by telling his Corinthian friends, 
 that in this case where the argument for the chil- 
 dren appears to be perfectly balanced by the ar- 
 gument against them, God has graciously inclined 
 the scale in favour of his people : so that for the 
 purpose of conveying to their infants the privilege of 
 being within his covenant and church, the unbelieving 
 husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbe- 
 lieving wife by the husband. If it were not so, it 
 must be the reverse ; because it is impossible that 
 
116 Church of God. 
 
 a child should be born in two contrary moral 
 states : then, the believing husband being render- 
 ed " unclean" by his wife ; and the believing wife 
 " unclean" by her husband, their children would 
 also be " unclean,"- i. e. would be born, not in a 
 state of separation to God ; but in a state of sepa- 
 ration from him ; like those who are without the 
 bond of his covenant, and, not being appropriated 
 to him, are " common" or " unclean." But now, 
 saith the apostle, God has determined that the 
 parental influence shall go the other way. That 
 instead of the interest which a child has in his 
 covenant, by virtue of the faith of one parent, 
 being made void by the infidelity of the other ; 
 the very fact of being married to a believer, shall 
 so far control the effect of unbelief — shall so far 
 consecrate the infidel party, as that the children of 
 such a marriage shall be accounted of the cove- 
 nanted seed ; shall be members of the church — 
 Now, saith Pau 1 , they are HOLY. 
 
 The passage which we have explained, estab- 
 lishes the church membership of infants in ano- 
 ther form. For it assumes the principle that when 
 both parents are reputed believers, their children 
 belong to the church of God as a matter of course. 
 The whole difficulty proposed by the Corinthians 
 to Paul grows out of this principle. Had he 
 taught, or they understood, that no children, be 
 their parents believers or unbelievers, are to be 
 
No. V. — Infant members. 117 
 
 accounted members of the church, the difficulty 
 could not have existed. For if the faith of both 
 parents could not confer upon a child the privi- 
 lege of membership, the faith of only one of them 
 certainly could not. The point was decided. It 
 would have been mere impertinence to teaze the 
 apostle with queries which carried their own an- 
 swer along with them. But on the supposition 
 that when both parents were members, their chil- 
 dren, also, were members ; the difficulty is very 
 natural and serious. " I see," would a Corinthi- 
 an convert exclaim, " I see the children of my 
 Christian neighbours, owned as members of the 
 church of God ; and I see the children of others, 
 who are unbelievers, rejected with themselves. I 
 believe in Christ myself; but my husband, my 
 wife, believes not. " What is to become of my 
 children ? Are they to be admitted with myself? 
 or are they to be cast off with my partner ?" 
 
 " Let not your heart be troubled, 5 ' replies the 
 apostle : " God reckons them to the believing, 
 not to the unbelieving, parent. It is enough that 
 they are yours. The infidelity of your partner 
 shall never frustrate their interest in the covenant 
 of your God. They are 'holy' because you are so." 
 
 This decision put the subject at rest. And it 
 lets us know that one of the reasons, if not the 
 chief reason of the doubt, whether a married per- 
 son should continue, after conversion, in the con- 
 
118 Church of God. 
 
 jugal society of an infidel partner, arose from a 
 fear lest such continuance should exclude the 
 children from the church of God. Otherwise it 
 is hard to comprehend why the apostle should 
 dissuade them from separating, by such an argu- 
 ment as he has employed in the text And it is 
 utterly inconceivable how such a doubt could 
 have entered their minds, had not the member- 
 ship of infants, born of believing parents, been 
 undisputed, and esteemed a high privilege ; so 
 high a privilege, as that the apprehension of 
 losing it made conscientious parents at a stand 
 whether they ought not rather to break the ties 
 of wedlock, by withdrawing from an unbelieving 
 husband or wife. Thus, the origin of this diffi- 
 culty on the one hand, and the solution of it, on the 
 other, concur in establishing our doctrine, that, 
 by the appointment of God himself, the infants of 
 believing parents are born members of his church. 
 
 We shall close this number, already too long, 
 though but an outline, with another decision on 
 the same general question, from the pen of the 
 same apostle. 
 
 Treating of the future restoration of the Jews, 
 he says, They also, if they bide not still in unbelief 
 shall be g raffed in ; for God is able to graff them in 
 again. For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree 
 which is wild by nature ; and wert graffed, contrary 
 to nature, into a good olive tree ; how much more shall 
 
No. V. — Infant members. 119 
 
 these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into 
 their own olive tree. Rom. xi. 23, 24. 
 
 That the olive tree signifies, and can signify no- 
 thing else than the visible church with the privi- 
 leges dispensed in it, we abundantly proved in our 
 second number.*- The Jews never did belong, 
 nationally, to any but the external church; and 
 from no other could they be cut off. But, saith 
 Paul, these Jews, " the natural branches," have 
 been " broken off," and thou the Gentile, " graffed 
 in." Graffed into what? The same tree from 
 which the others were cut away. Then, not only 
 is there a visible church ; but it is the very same 
 from which the Jews have been excommunicated. 
 Or else the apostle has asserted a falsehood. For 
 if the New Testament church be not the same, 
 in substance, with the church to which the Jews 
 belonged, it is not true that the Gentiles have 
 been " graffed into the olive tree," from which the 
 Jews have been broken off; but a new tree has 
 been planted : a flat and formal contradiction to 
 the word of God ! which says, that the old tree 
 stands, and that other branches are graffed in. 
 Well, then, the Gentiles occupy in the church the 
 place which the Jews did before their expulsion. 
 The new branch with its buds is transferred to the 
 good olive tree, and grows in its fatness. What- 
 ever privileges, therefore, the Jews had formerly, 
 
 * 45—47. 
 
120 Church of God, 
 
 as members of the church of God, all these, at least, 
 their Gentile successors enjoy. But the member- 
 ship of their infants was one of these privileges ; 
 a principle one. Therefore, the children of Gen- 
 tile believers are members of the Christian church. 
 
 Turn, now, the argument. The Jews are to be 
 restored. These, the " natural branches," shall 
 be " graffed in again" — shall be " graffed into their 
 own olive tree:' AGAIN ! Into their OWN olive 
 tree ! Then their oivn tree is preserved. But 
 mark, the Gentile branches are not to be cut off. 
 So then, the Jews and Gentiles will belong to one 
 church ; will be branches of the same olive tree. 
 But they are to be graffed into their own tree, 
 says Paul. The consequence returns irresistibly 
 upon us. The church of God under both dispen- 
 sations is one and the same. Or else the apostle 
 has told another falsehood. For if it be not the 
 same, as the Jews are to come into the Christian 
 church, they will not be graffed into their own 
 olive tree, but into another. 
 
 But the Jews, before their excision, were with 
 their children, members of the church. If, then, 
 they be reinstated ; or as the apostle expresses it, 
 graffed in again, their children also must be mem- 
 bers of the church, or else God will break his pro- 
 mise, and the Holy Spirit of truth, deceive their 
 hope. The restored Jews, however, can derive 
 their privileges only through the medium of the 
 
No. V. — Infant members. 121 
 
 New Testament church. The membership of 
 their infants is one of the privileges to be so de- 
 rived ; therefore, the infants of believing parents are 
 members of the New Testament church. — Which was 
 to be demonstrated. 
 
 i 
 
 Vol. IV. 16 
 
123 
 
 CHURCH OF GOD, 
 
 No. VI. 
 Uses. 
 
 Believing that the preceding numbers contain 
 a true and scriptural account of the visible 
 church in general, we think it proper, before in- 
 quiring into its particular provisions, to point out 
 some of the ends which it is calculated to answer, 
 and some of the consequences which result from 
 our doctrine. 
 
 Let us briefly recapitulate. 
 
 Adults who make a credible profession of their 
 faith, are to be admitted as members.* 
 
 Children of believing parents, that is, of visible 
 Christians, are members in virtue of their birth.t 
 So that the Catholic church consists of all them 
 who, throughout the world, profess the true reli- 
 gion ; and of their children. 
 
 This great community, which is but one, has 
 
 * What a credible profession is, see No. III. p. 48—58. 
 f For the proof of this, see our last No. p. 85—121. 
 
124 Church of God. 
 
 special external covenant relations to the Most 
 High God ; the fundamental principle of which is, 
 a dispensation of grace through a Redeemer; and, 
 as an effect of these relations, enjoys special pri- 
 vileges in which her members have a right to par- 
 ticipate according to their circumstances. 
 
 From the very nature of the case, it must and 
 does happen, that many of these members are 
 Christians only in name : such as never have 
 been, and never shall be, vitally united to Christ, 
 but shall die in their iniquity. Yet if their un- 
 soundness be not detected ; if by no outward 
 act they reproach that worthy name by which 
 they are called, their right, even to sacramental 
 privilege, is as firm and full as the right of a be- 
 liever who shall hold the highest place among the 
 saved. The reason, which has been illustrated 
 already, is, that Christian ordinances are admin- 
 istered by men ; and the secret state of the soul 
 before God is not, and cannot be, their rule of 
 judgment. In this case, appearances and realities 
 are, to them, the same ; because they have no 
 means of forming an opinion of realities but from 
 appearances : and, therefore, officers in the house 
 of God may, with the most perfect good con- 
 science and fidelity, give the seals of his covenant 
 to such as shall turn out to be sons and daugh- 
 ters of perdition. If it were riot so, not one 
 among all the ministers of the gospel since the 
 
No. VI.— Uses. 125 
 
 ascension of our Lord Jesus, could escape being 
 arraigned for treason at his bar. For not one of 
 them would dare to affirm, that he had not, in a 
 single instance, given the sacramental sign to an 
 unbeliever. 
 
 Seeing, then, that false professors and true ; the 
 sincere and the hypocritical; elected men and 
 reprobates, are mingled together in the external 
 church ; and that there are no human means of 
 separating the " chaff which shall be burnt up 
 with unquenchable fire," from the " wheat which 
 shall be gathered into the garner" of God, what 
 purpose does such a constitution serve? Does 
 not the idea that such a strange commixture 
 should be a church of God shock the mind ? Is 
 it not unfriendly to piety ? And would it not be 
 much better if saints alone were to be admitted 
 within her pale, to the utter and absolute exclu- 
 sion of hypocrites and reprobates ? 
 
 Doubtless many think so. For men are apt to 
 conceit that they can mend the works of God. 
 And such multitudes of expriments have been 
 made, in this way, upon his church, that if he had 
 not been her keeper she would have perished 
 ages ago. When he shall employ us to set up a 
 church, it will be soon enough to display our skill, 
 In the mean time, let us thankfully submit to his 
 appointments; and humbly inquire whether we 
 cannot discover in that very constitution which 
 
126 Church of God. 
 
 has been described, something not unworthy of his 
 wisdom and his goodness too. 
 
 There is a strong analogy between the king- 
 dom of heaven in the heart, in the world, and in 
 the church. Not one of them is free from evil : 
 nor is designed to be so in the present state. 
 The world teems with sin ; it is full of plagues 
 and curses : but it is still God*s world ; the sub- 
 ject of his government, and the theatre of his 
 grace. The renewed heart is infested with de- 
 pravity. Sin dwells in them who bear most of 
 their Saviour's image, enjoy the largest share of 
 his communion, and approach the nearest to his 
 perfection. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive 
 ourselves, and the truth is not in us.* But this " sin 
 that dwelleth in them," does not hinder them from 
 being in soul and body, the temples of the Holy 
 Ghost."\ It would be quite as reasonable to main- 
 tain, that a Christian cannot be a child of God 
 because there is a law in his members warring against 
 the law of his mind :% or that the world is not 
 God's world because the tumult of those that rise up 
 against him increaseth continually ;|| as to maintain 
 that a church composed partly of converts and 
 partly of the unconverted, is not for that reason, 
 a true nor a scriptural church. The neighbour- 
 hood and conflict of good and evil in this life is 
 
 * 1 John i. 8. % Rom. vii. 23. 
 
 f 1 Cor. vi. 19. || Ps. lxxiv. 23. 
 
No. VI.— Uses. 127 
 
 one of those depths which nothing but folly at- 
 tempts to fathom ; yet while the mystery is un- 
 searchable, the doctrine is clear, and the fact no- 
 torious. Whoever, then, shall deny that God has 
 so constituted his church here as to include con- 
 cealed enemies in the midst of real friends ; and 
 has left no method of drawing, with certainty, the 
 line of practical discrimination ; must go further, 
 and deny that he has so constituted his world as 
 to admit the introduction of sin, and has left no 
 method of expelling it : or has so constituted the 
 plan of salvation, as to allow corrupt affections 
 to reside in the hallowed breast, and has left no 
 method of extirpating them. The objection is 
 precisely the same in the three cases. He who can 
 answer it in one, can answer it in all ; and he who 
 cannot answer it in all, can answer it in none. 
 
 On the other hand, whoever can find it con- 
 sistent with the divine perfection, that wicked men 
 should be in the world ; and wicked propensities 
 in the soul of a believer, and yet the world be ac- 
 knowledged by God as his world, and the believer 
 as his child ; will find it equally consistent with 
 his perfection that servants of sin as well as ser- 
 vants of righteousness should belong to the church, 
 and yet she be owned of him as his church. 
 
 Nor will this reasoning operate, in the smallest 
 degree, against her sacredness as holy to the 
 Lord ; nor impair our obligation to promote her 
 
128 Church of God. 
 
 purity; nor afford the slightest countenance to 
 careless admission into her communion, or the 
 relaxation of her discipline toward the scandalous. 
 For although God will glorify himself by bringing 
 good out of evil, it is damnable in us to " do evil 
 that good may come."* And although he, in that 
 sovereignty which " giveth no account of any of 
 his matters," has permitted and overrules the sin 
 of the creature for purposes worthy of himself; 
 yet we are not seated in the throne of sovereign- 
 ty ; we are under law ; and the law of our duty is 
 plain, so that " he may run who readeth," that we 
 are to resist, even unto blood, striving against sin.'] 
 It no more follows that his church is not to thrust 
 from her embrace the known servants of sin, be- 
 cause her vigilance may be eluded and her efforts 
 defeated ; than it follows that believers may in- 
 dulge themselves in the commission of sin, be- 
 cause all their exertions will be insufficient to de- 
 stroy it while they are in the body ; or than it 
 follows, that crimes are to stalk unquestioned 
 through the earth, because they cannot be entire- 
 ly cut off. The more closely this analogy is 
 pressed, the more exactly will it be found to hold. 
 And hence arises the general reason why the 
 church of God, according to our principles, is 
 well and wisely constituted — It is precisely adapt- 
 
 * Rom. iii. 8. f Heb. xii. 8. 
 
No. VI.— Uses. 129 
 
 ed to the state of our world, and to the course of 
 his own dispensations. 
 
 The analogy which we have now pointed out 
 might convince the intelligent Christian, and 
 silence the modest one. To the former it offers 
 a decisive character of truth ; and the latter 
 will ask no better argument for the goodness 
 of a constitution, than it is a constitution of God. 
 But we need not rest the matter here. Without 
 prying into the reservations of his wisdom, we 
 may perceive some valuable ends to be answered 
 by the mixed state of his church. 
 
 1. It reduces the quantity of actual sin. 
 
 We cannot too deeply deplore the fact that 
 
 many " have a name to live and are dead." They 
 
 are numbered with the people of God. Their 
 
 reputation among their fellow professors is pure. 
 
 Yet they have not " passed from death unto life." 
 
 A terrible condition, no doubt ; and a preparation 
 
 for a terrible doom. But let us consider what 
 
 would be the effect if all those sins should be 
 
 disclosed in this world which shall be disclosed 
 
 when the " secrets of all hearts shall be made 
 
 manifest." Or, if this be too strong; what would 
 
 be the effect, should those corruptions which are 
 
 not subdued by divine grace, be set free from the 
 
 restraints supplied through the external church. 
 
 Could you unmask the hypocrite, and throw him 
 
 at once out of your fellowship, and confidence, ail 
 Vol. IV. 17 
 
130 Church of God. 
 
 the motives and influence which serve to curb his 
 lusts, and limit their mischief, would cease to 
 operate ; and that fountain of iniquity which is 
 now shut up in darkness would break out into 
 open day, and pour its poisonous streams in every 
 direction. It is impossible to conjecture how far 
 the law of God's house, and liberal intercourse 
 with his people, frustrate the worst designs of hell 
 by shackling the depravity of its servants. Some, 
 perhaps, may contend that it were better to see 
 every bad man in his own colours, that we might 
 completely " purge out the old leaven." Their 
 zeal is not according to knowledge — They inad- 
 vertently reproach the wisdom of God, who does 
 not permit such a discovery to be made. And 
 what would they have ? Would it be better that 
 an enemy to God should give scope to his enmity, 
 and spread infection and death all around him, 
 than that the repression of it should tie up his 
 hands, and render him comparatively harmless ? 
 Would it be better that he should blaspheme the 
 name of God, than that he should treat it with 
 external reverence ? Better, to set before his 
 children or companions an example of hideous 
 profligacy, than an example of decorum ! to teach 
 them to swear, steal, lie, profane the sabbath, 
 deride their bible, mock the ordinances of reli- 
 gion, than to inculcate upon them lessons of truth, 
 of probity, of respect to the name, the day, the 
 
No. VI.— Cm*. 131 
 
 word, and the worship of God ! Go a step further, 
 and say that it would be better to lay aside all 
 the control of civil government, and let loose the 
 myriads of rogues and traitors whom the com- 
 munity unwittingly cherishes in her bosom, than 
 to keep them under the salutary awe of the tribu- 
 nals of Justice, of the dungeon and the halter. 
 
 Besides, men who only profess religion, while 
 they are strangers to its power, have much more 
 extensive connexions with those who profess 
 none, than real Christians can or ought to have. 
 There is not that mutual repugnance which ren- 
 ders society reserved and suspicious ; and thus 
 they become a medium of transmitting the moral 
 influence of the gospel to thousands and tens of 
 thousands who yield no intentional obedience to 
 its authority. Real Christians act directly upon 
 professed ones ; and these, again, upon men who 
 make no profession at all ; and thus, through an 
 infinite number of channels unnoticed and un- 
 known, Christianity streams its influence over hu- 
 man Society ; gives a tone to public opinion, and 
 a purity to public and individual manners, which 
 are derivable from no other source. The very 
 infidel is by this means instructed in all the truth 
 he knows. He has an impulse given to his facul- 
 ties ; a check to his passions 5 and a rein to his 
 actions, of which he is unconscious. But if you 
 could turn out of the church all who are not heirs 
 
132 Church of God. 
 
 according to the promise of eternal life, you would, 
 in a great measure, defeat the benign influence of 
 the gospel upon the civil community j because 
 you would destroy many points of their contract, 
 and remove thousands altogether from its sphere 
 of action ; or, which is the same thing, contract 
 the sphere so as to leave out thousands who are 
 now within it. Admitting, then, without scruple, 
 the just cause of grief which is afforded by the 
 Canaanite's being in the house of the Lord, we 
 are consoled with observing how he brings good 
 out of evil. Satan thrusts himself and his accom- 
 plices into the assembly of the saints ; and God 
 converts the intrusion into a chain for them both. 
 Thus the visible church, composed of believers 
 and hypocrites, effects, by this very principle, an 
 incalculable diminution of the actual sin which 
 would otherwise be in the world. 
 
 2. It diminishes the misery of human life. 
 
 This is a direct consequence of prevented sin. 
 For in proportion as the laws of God are violated, 
 is the aggregate suffering of the community in- 
 creased : and in proportion as they are respected, 
 is its character amiable, and its condition pros- 
 perous. Who can doubt, even for a moment, that 
 the abandonment of all nominal Christians to the 
 unsanctified propensities of their nature, would 
 multiply crimes and accelerate individual and pub- 
 lic ruin ? And who can doubt, that the check im- 
 
No. VI.— Uses. 133 
 
 posed on these propensities by an outward pro- 
 fession of the cross of Christ, averts calamity 
 which would otherwise be both certain and se- 
 vere ? Let us not overlook the immense difference 
 between temporal and eternal good; and between 
 the means by which they are respectively pro- 
 cured. The religion which will not save a soul 
 from hell, may yet save a nation from destruction. 
 It is only upon gross transgression, freely and ob- 
 stinately committed, that God inflicts those evils 
 which he calls " his judgments." There may be 
 much secret impiety; much smothered opposition 
 to his government, but it must break out ; must 
 become flagrant ; must resist the milder correc- 
 tives, before he " arise to shake terribly the earth." 
 It is for no small provocation that he " bathes his 
 sword in heaven ;" nor is it easy for a people to 
 " fill their cup." He may visit ; he may chastise; 
 always, however, for open sin. But the cry for 
 vengeance must be loud and long before he re- 
 sign a land to desolation, and mark it so irrever- 
 sibly for his curse, that though JVoah, Daniel, and 
 Job were in it, they should deliver neither son nor 
 daughter ; but merely their own souls by their right- 
 eousness ; # and though Moses and Samuel stood be- 
 fore him, his mind could not be toward it.\ We are 
 not unaccustomed to the clamour which some, 
 who know not what they say, nor whereof they affirm, 
 * Ezek. xiv. f Jerem. xv. 
 
134 Church of God. 
 
 and yet desire to be teachers of the law, raise against 
 this doctrine, as calculated to feed the pride of 
 self-righteousness ; to spread Arminianism ; to 
 disparage the grace and merit of Christ; and 
 other things of the same sort. But there is a pride 
 which needs mortification as much as any other, 
 although it escapes their notice; and that is, the 
 pride of conceited ignorance. Little as we in- 
 cline to flatter vanity, we shall not attack it upon 
 principles which would prostrate along with it the 
 righteousness of God, and cover the pages of his 
 blessed word with contradictions and lies. We 
 hold it to be a maxim almost self-evident, that 
 abounding and impudent wickedness will bring 
 more wrath, and therefore more misery, upon a 
 land, than wickedness shut up in the bosom, or 
 driven, by the commanding aspect of truth, into 
 secret corners. If our citizens, who are perpetu- 
 ally praising Christianity, and perpetually insult- 
 ing it, were to yield a decent deference to its au- 
 thority — if our magistrates, instead of sacrificing 
 their allegiance to God, whose ministers they are,* 
 on the altar of a wretched and fickle popularity, 
 were to become a more steady and uniform " ter- 
 rour to evil doers, "the storm which blackens over 
 our trembling country would be dissipated ; and 
 the smiling skies invite every man to resume his 
 seat " under his vine and under his fig-tree." 
 
 * Rom. xiii. 
 
No. VI.— Uses. 135 
 
 The preventing of sin, then, being a prevention 
 of misery, the world owes much of its freedom 
 from misery to the influence of the visible church, 
 constituted as it is, in restraining sin — more, much 
 more, than it would owe to such a constitution as 
 would exclude all nominal Christians ; the num- 
 ber of them who are reconciled to God by the 
 death of his son, remaining the same. We say 
 the number of unconverted remaining the same. 
 For it cannot be doubted, that as two real Chris- 
 tians are better and more useful than one real and 
 one apparent Christian; so the two latter are much 
 better and more useful than one real Christian, 
 and one openly wicked man. And as, for the 
 same reason, it would be infinitely more desirable, 
 that the whole world should be in the church, and 
 the whole church converted, than that there should 
 be a mixture of clean and unclean in her commu- 
 nion ; so it is infinitely more desirable, and more 
 conducive to peace and happiness, that while this 
 purity is unattainable, the appearance of godli- 
 ness in those who have none, should encourage 
 the hearts and strengthen the hands of those who 
 have it ; and thus hypocrisy concur with sin- 
 cerity in causing " iniquity, as ashamed, to hide 
 her head." 
 
 There is another view of this point which 
 comes home to the heart. To that question 
 " Why must believers die ?" The following an- 
 
136 Church of God. 
 
 swer among others, has been returned. If be- 
 lievers were exempted from the common mortali- 
 ty ; if, like Enoch and Elijah, they should go to 
 heaven without " putting off their tabernacle," 
 then Death would reveal the secrets of the eter- 
 nal world It would be known by the very man- 
 ner of his departing hence, whether an individual 
 was saved or lost. What anguish, what horrour, 
 what distraction, would fill the souls and the fa- 
 milies of God's dear children; to be assured, by 
 the simple fact of a friend or kinsman's dying, that 
 he was gone to hell ! But would not the very 
 same effect be produced, were all unbelievers 
 shut out of the church ? The mere circumstance 
 of their exclusion would prove their unbelief ; and 
 their death in unbelief, would prove that they had 
 perished. The tender mercies of God relieve his 
 people from an intolerable load of suffering, by 
 subjecting them, in common with others, to the 
 decree of death. And that constitution of his 
 visible church, which, by admitting members 
 upon external evidence, admits hypocrites as well 
 as the sincere, is a necessary counterpart, to the 
 law of death. Visible departure from the world, 
 whether into his church or into eternity, lies 
 through an entrance which God has so construct- 
 ed, that any farther than a judgment may be 
 formed from external evidence, he alone " know- 
 eth them that are his." Both are provisions of 
 
 
No. VI.— Uses. 137 
 
 one gracious system. They, therefore, who 
 would so model the Christian church as to keep 
 or to expel from her communion, all ungodly men 
 who do not show themselves to be such by their 
 ungodly principles or deeds, are labouring to de- 
 feat the mercy displayed in the death of a be- 
 liever, and to wring his heart with agony during 
 the whole period of his life. Eternal thanks to 
 the divine compassions ! They cannot succeed. 
 The counsel of the Lord is against them ; and 
 " the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand." 
 
 3. The mixed character of the church contri- 
 butes directly to her prosperity. It does so, 
 
 By extending her resources : 
 
 By increasing her numbers : 
 
 By affording protection. 
 
 First, The resources of the church, we mean 
 her outward resources, are extended by her pre- 
 sent constitution. These, in general, are pecuniary 
 aid, and the aid of talents. 
 
 It is evident, that all those means by which the 
 gospel is supported and propagated, are not fur- 
 nished by real Christians ; and equally evident 
 that the whole supply is very scanty. If you should 
 deduct the part which comes from the pockets of 
 unconverted men, the balance would not preserve 
 Christianity from being starved out of the world. 
 Indeed, from the wretched provision which is 
 
 commonly made for her maintenance, one might 
 
 Vol. IV. 18 
 
138 Church of God. 
 
 conclude, with little offence against charity, that 
 the great majority of professed Christians, are not 
 unwilling to try how far this experiment of starv- 
 ing may prove successful. That is their sin, and 
 it shall be their punishment. Let them think of 
 it in those moments when they recollect that they 
 are as accountable for the use of their property, 
 as for the use of their liberty : and that there is 
 to be a day of reckoning, in which no robbers 
 shall appear to less advantage, or be treated with 
 less indulgence, than those, who in this life, have 
 « robbed God."* 
 
 But small as the encouragement is for any, who 
 by following another honest calling, can procure 
 a tolerable livelihood, and lay up even a little for 
 their families, to devote themselves to the re- 
 ligious welfare of society, it would be much 
 smaller were none to be accounted Christians 
 here, who shall not be accounted such hereafter. 
 Go, with the power of detecting hypocrisy ; cast 
 out of the church, all whose fellowship is not 
 " with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ." 
 And your next step must be to nail up the doors 
 of our places of worship. We are in the habit of 
 praying that the Lord, who has declared that 
 " the silver is his, and the gold is his," would in- 
 fluence the hearts of the opulent to bring their 
 offerings into his courts : We thank him, when, 
 
 * Mai. iii. 8, 9. 
 
No. VI.— Uses. 139 
 
 in a manner somewhat uncommon, he hears our 
 prayers, and sends the bounty ; and yet we over- 
 look the daily occurrence of this very thing which 
 is the object of our petitions and of our grati- 
 tude ! He has incorporated the principle in the 
 frame of his visible church, and it operates with 
 regular, though silent, efficacy. But if all who 
 appear to be Christians, and are not, were ex- 
 cluded, the effect must be to diminish, in a most 
 distressing degree, the actual pecuniary resources 
 of the church. For men who are marked as ene- 
 mies, will never lend her the same aid as men 
 who are supposed to be friends. And thus the 
 absolute purification of the church upon earth, 
 would overthrow the plan which the wisdom of 
 God has devised, to cause his very foes to assess 
 their own purses in carrying on that dispensation 
 of grace which, at heart, they do not love; and 
 which, if left to themselves, they would resist 
 with all their might. 
 
 The same reason applies to talent. 
 
 Revelation is never more completely robed in 
 light, than when she is brought fairly and fully to 
 the bar of evidence. The attacks of infidels 
 have furnished her friends with both opportunities 
 and incitements to dispel the mist by which she 
 has been occasionally or partially obscured ; and 
 she has gone forth " fair as the moon, clear as the 
 sun, and terrible as an army with banners." 
 
140 Church of God. 
 
 What is true of Christianity in general, is equal 
 ly true of its peculiar doctrines. The more rigid- 
 ly they are examined, the more worthy do they 
 appear of God; the more perfectly adapted to the 
 condition of man; the more consistent with each 
 other, with the lights of pure philosophy, and the 
 discoveries of real science. 
 
 But these results which have shed, and are 
 shedding, their lustre upon the evangelical sys- 
 tem, combine the researches of the ablest men 
 in the most* literary periods of the world. There 
 is no department of human knowledge which God 
 has not laid under tribute to his word. Linguists, 
 mathematicians, astronomers, botanists, mineral- 
 ogists ; chymistry, physiology, and medicine ; the 
 antiquarian, the traveller, the natural, civil, and 
 ecclesiastical historian; commerce, agriculture, 
 mechanics, and the fine arts — are all to be found 
 waiting at the temple of God, opening their trea- 
 sures, and presenting their gifts. Whoever has 
 the least acquaintance with things older than 
 himself, and without the petty circle of his per- 
 sonal agency, knows that the mass of all valuable 
 learning, since the introduction of Christianity, 
 ever has been, and is yet, in the hands of professed 
 Christians. They have employed it in her de- 
 fence, to an extent and with an effect of which 
 thousands, who are now reaping the benefits of 
 their eflforts, can have no possible conception. 
 
No. VI.— Uses. 141 
 
 Yet, certainly, among those who have thus forti- 
 fied the citadel of truth, many were believers in 
 name only, and never tasted the salvation to the 
 influence of which they contributed. " How much 
 better," you will exclaim, " had they loved the 
 Redeemer not in name only, but in deed and in 
 truth [" How much better indeed ! But how 
 much worse, we rejoin, had they sided with his 
 open enemies, and levelled against his word, all 
 that artillery which they employed for it. And 
 that such would have been the consequence 
 had none been admitted into his church, who 
 were not partakers of his grace, is as evident, 
 as that a cause, left to its own operation, will 
 produce its proper effect. We are well appri- 
 sed of the contempt which some men affect 
 to heap upon human learning. And we are 
 equally well apprised that in this their hostility 
 their ignorance and vain glory have at least as 
 large a share as their spirituality of mind. Nor 
 are we regardless of the mischief which " unsanc- 
 tified learning" has done in the church of God ; 
 and of the jealousy with which, on that account, 
 many serious people look upon learned men. But 
 why ? Shall we never distinguish between use and 
 abuse ? Learning is good in itself. The evil lies 
 not in its nature, but in its application. Because 
 some have prostituted their learning to per- 
 vert the truth and institutions of our Lord Jesus 
 
142 Church of God. 
 
 Christ, shall we not accept the aid of the same 
 weapon, rightfully used, to vindicate them ? Shall 
 we commit them to the illiterate and the stupid, 
 in expectation of miracles to elicit wisdom from 
 the mouth of folly ? and bribe letters and genius 
 to enlist themselves in the service of the devil ? 
 The very same objection strikes at wealth, at 
 strength; at every power, moral and physical, 
 which God has seen fit to create. Because 
 " unsanctified" opulence has spread corruption 
 through Christian communities, is it desirable that 
 all Christians be beggars ? Because strong men, 
 if they be of quarrelsome temper, may keep a 
 whole neighbourhood under the terrours of assault 
 and battery, would it therefore be desirable that 
 all Christians should be pigmies ? It is the nature 
 of every thing to work harm when misdirected, in 
 exact proportion to its power of working good 
 when directed well. This is a law of God's own 
 enacting : and is one of the means by which he 
 makes sin to punish itself. Therefore, to reject 
 a potent agency because its perversion will in- 
 volve calamity proportioned to its vigour, is the 
 very rectified spirit of absurdity. Carry your prin- 
 ciple through ; and tell your maker that he did a 
 foolish thing in creating angels, because such of 
 them as, by their fall, have become devils, can do 
 infinitely more mischief than if they had been 
 men ! No — Let us put away these childish 
 
No. VI.— Uses. 143 
 
 things. If unconverted men get into the church 
 under the cloak of a credible profession ; if they 
 remain there undetected ; if they bring their 
 wealth and their talent to the support of the Chris- 
 tian cause, let us accept the boon with all thank- 
 fulness. It is so much of the arm of iniquity 
 palsied ; nay, more, it is so much clear gain from 
 the interests of hell to the comforter of the church 
 of God. If the gospel is to be maintained, or a 
 starving disciple to be fed, it will make no diffe- 
 rence in the market whether the dollar was given 
 by a hypocrite or a believer. And if the bible be 
 happily illustrated ; or its adversaries victoriously 
 encountered, the truth is still the same, whether 
 the talent which demonstrates it be connected 
 with the spirit of faith or the heart of unbelief. 
 The excess of these two benefits over and above 
 what could be performed by Christians alone, is 
 the advantage, in point of resource, which the 
 church derives from her present constitution, over 
 and above that which she would enjoy were none 
 to enter into her communion but true converts. 
 
 The second way in which the mixed character 
 of the visible church contributes directly to her 
 prosperity, is by increasing her numbers. 
 
 The gospel is the great means of turning men 
 from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan 
 unto God. For this purpose it is necessary that 
 they and it should meet. How shall they call on 
 
144 Church of God. 
 
 him in whom they have not believed? And how shall 
 they believe in him of whom they have not heard? 
 And how shall they hear without a preacher?* What- 
 ever brings sinners within the reach of the means 
 of salvation, and places them under the " joyful 
 sound," puts them into the way in which alone 
 they have a right to expect the pardoning and the 
 renewing mercy of their God. Let it, then, be 
 considered, how many members of the external 
 church have remained for years in their habit of 
 decent but unprofitable attendance upon the pub- 
 lic worship of God, and have at last been arrest- 
 ed by his grace, and made heirs according to the 
 hope of eternal life. " Their number," it may be 
 objected, " is smaller than we suppose; and forms 
 too inconsiderable a portion of the saved to have 
 any weight in the argument." 
 
 We believe this, upon the whole, to be true. It 
 was long ago observed, and the observation ought 
 to sink down into the hearts of both the old and 
 young professor, that where the gospel is enjoyed 
 in its purity, it is the ordinary method of provi- 
 dence to call sinners into the fellowship of Jesus 
 Christ in the days of their youth. Among those 
 who have enjoyed from their childhood the benefit 
 of religious instruction, of holy example, of sound 
 and faithful ministrations, the instances of conver- 
 sion after middle life, are, for the most part, ex- 
 *Rom. x. 14. 
 
No. VI.— Uses. 145 
 
 tremely rare. Let the aged Christian run over, 
 in his mind, such of these instances as have come 
 within his own knowledge, and we shall be much 
 deceived if his list be not very short. Yet small 
 as is their relative number, their amount, abso- 
 lutely taken, is not contemptible. But had a 
 power of judging the state of the soul before God, 
 from other than external evidence, been the rule 
 of admission into his church, who can doubt that 
 the rejection of these members would have 
 banished the most of them from his sanctuary al- 
 together, and left them to perish in their iniquity. 
 It is vain to reply that " the Lord knoweth them that 
 are his, and will take care that none of them be 
 lost." He does know them : he will take care that 
 none of them be lost; but he will reveal his 
 knowledge and exercise his care, by the interven- 
 tion of means : and the admission of members 
 into his church upon external evidence only, ap- 
 pears, from the nature of the thing, and is proved 
 by the event, to be one of his means. 
 
 The operation, however, of this cause of her in- 
 crease, is not confined to the persons of late con- 
 verts : nor would our argument be much affected, 
 were they still fewer, or were there none at all. 
 Thousands, who have the form of godliness without 
 the power, and who die as they live, in the gall of 
 bitterness and the bond of iniquity, are heads of fa- 
 milies. By their authority and example, children, 
 
 Vol. IV. !9 
 
146 Church of God. 
 
 apprentices, servants, who, otherwise, would rove 
 unrestrained like the wild asses colt, are kept from 
 much gross and open wickedness : they learn to 
 respect the sabbath day ; they come under Chris- 
 tian instruction ; they attend the institutions of 
 public worship ; to multitudes of them God blesses 
 his own ordinances for their eternal life. And 
 thus, while the parent or the master dies in his 
 sin, the child, the apprentice, or the servant, led 
 by his own hand to the religious precept and the 
 house of prayer, becomes an heir of God, and a fel- 
 low heir with Christ in glory. Nay, individuals 
 without families, are often the unconscious instru- 
 ments of salvation to others. No human being is 
 so poor as not to have an acquaintance. We 
 know it to be a principle in human nature, that 
 men love to draw their friends into connexions 
 with which they themselves are pleased. It is a 
 necessary effect of man's social character ; and is 
 no where more regular and extensive than in his 
 religious associations. Many causes beside, and 
 without, conversion from sin to God, render men 
 zealous in promoting the credit and prosperity- of 
 their respective churches. The prejudice of birth, 
 the force of habit, the preference of judgment, at- 
 tachment to a particular minister or circle of 
 friends, engage much warm and active patronage 
 to ecclesiastical bodies. One companion brings 
 another ; that one a third ; and thus, by a most 
 
No. VL—Uses. 147 
 
 complicated system of individual action and re- 
 action, great multitudes are assembled in the 
 house of God, who otherwise would never cross 
 its threshold. Sometimes a person, induced by 
 the persuasion of another to hear a certain 
 preacher, or occupy a seat in a certain church, 
 has been awakened to a sense of eternal things ; 
 has been " translated into the kingdom of God's 
 dear Son ;" and sealed up by the holy spirit of 
 promise, unto the day of redemption," when his 
 persuader has remained unmoved, or even thrown 
 away his profession, and turned an open repro- 
 bate. 
 
 Withdraw, then, all the families of nominal 
 Christians, and all their acquaintances whom they 
 allure to the public ordinances — withdraw the ac- 
 quaintances of single men and women, especially 
 those in younger life, and after you have made 
 the deduction, look at your places of worship ! 
 Whole rows of seats which were filled with 
 persons of decent, respectful, and even serious 
 deportment, are empty. The greater part of those 
 from whom converts were to be drawn to replace 
 dying believers, and perpetuate the knowledge of 
 Jesus and the resurrection, is gone. The church 
 has lost one of her chief holds upon the world : 
 she has closed up a wide door of her own access 
 to unbelievers ; and has actually banished them, 
 by hundreds, from the mercy-seat. 
 
148 Church of God. 
 
 There is an exception to this reasoning too ob- 
 vious and plausible to pass unnoticed. 
 
 " Facts appear to be against us. Who com- 
 posed the audiences of the apostles ? Who flock- 
 ed to the sound of the evangelical trumpet, at the 
 blessed reformation from popery ? What is, at 
 this day, the most successful method of crowding 
 the churches, even with those who do not so much 
 as profess t6 be religious ? Is it not the plain and 
 undisguised declaration of that very gospel which, 
 it is said, the people will not hear without the help 
 of hypocrites to bring them. If you want to emp- 
 ty a place of worship, court your Christians in 
 name only ; let nothing be done to shock their 
 prejudices or alarm their pride. If you want to 
 fill a place of worship, know nothing in your minis- 
 trations but Jesus Christ, and him crucified.' 1 ' 1 
 
 A mistake is never so imposing as when it mis- 
 applies undoubted truths. We admit all the facts 
 here stated, but cannot see how they .invalidate 
 our reasoning. Bepause they have occurred in 
 the history of the church, so conducted as not to 
 exclude the secret deceiver. Her character has 
 always been mixed. The pretensions of some 
 men to purify her in such a manner as to admit 
 only genuine converts, are vanity and wind. They 
 never did, they never can, it is impossible, in the 
 nature of things, they ever should, act upon other 
 than external evidence, if they act upon evidence 
 
No. VI. — Uses. 149 
 
 at all. Could a method be devised of distinguish- 
 ing the real from the apparent Christian, not only 
 would it cease to be the Lord's prerogative " to 
 know them that are his;" but the whole com- 
 plexion and character of his church would be al- 
 tered. She would be another church altogether from 
 what he has made her. And since he has adapted 
 the tenour of his providence, and the influences of 
 his grace, to her actual constitution, it is idle to 
 imagine that the course of events which is con- 
 nected with her present constitution, would attend 
 her under a constitution essentially different. The 
 church, framed as some good men would have 
 her, not only never existed, but, for aught they 
 can show, would be utterly unfit for this world of 
 ours ; and would utterly fail of accomplishing her 
 ends. Nor can they assign any tolerable reason 
 for a belief that of all the effects which now flow 
 from the dispensation of the gospel, a single one 
 would be produced upon a change of the system. 
 
 An advantage, therefore, and not a small one, 
 of the mixed condition of the church is, that it 
 collects within her pale, and introduces to her or- 
 dinances, multitudes who otherwise would remain 
 "without," but, now, "shall be heirs of salvation." 
 
 A third benefit directly arising from the mixed 
 condition of the church, is protection. 
 
 In times of affliction, the witnesses for truth are 
 often more, and in the times of prosperity fewer, 
 
150 Church of God. 
 
 than they are supposed to be. Could the line be 
 accurately drawn between sound and unsound 
 professors, the former would frequently find them- 
 selves in a very small minority. Such a disclo- 
 sure would not only dispirit their minds and re- 
 press their exertions, but subject them to taunt, 
 to insult, and to oppression. We must bear in 
 remembrance that the " world which lieth in wick- 
 edness," never wants the inclination to persecute 
 them who are " chosen out of it." The computed 
 number of Christians serves to check that inclina- 
 tion ; and it is often checked so effectually that 
 its existence is denied ; and Christians themselves 
 are half persuaded, that the world is less hostile 
 to them and their master than in the days of 
 primitive peril. But could they be distinctively 
 pointed out, this erring charity of theirs would 
 get its rebuke in their ruin. The fire would feed 
 upon their flesh, and scaffolds stream with their 
 blood, at the instance, and by the agency, of many 
 who now treat them with civility and respect. Set 
 them up as a mark, by exposing their weakness, 
 and nothing short of a perpetual miracle would 
 hinder " the men of the earth" from exterminating 
 them at a stroke, and, with them, the church of 
 the living God. 
 
 But as the case stands, his overruling provi 
 dence uses the nominal, for a shield to the real, 
 Christian. Apparent believers occupy a middle 
 
No. VI.— Uses. 151 
 
 ground between the church of the redeemed and 
 the world which knows not God. Belonging in 
 pretence to the one, and in fact to the other, they 
 interpose a medium between the two, which often 
 prevents a destructive contact. 
 
 The malice of the persecutor sleeps, and his 
 arm is idle, from the difficulty of selecting his vic- 
 tim and pointing his blow. Were he to strike at 
 random, he would smite those whom he wishes 
 to spare, and miss those whom he wishes to smite. 
 Thus there is a secret, and silent, but real and ef- 
 fective, alliance between unconverted men in the 
 church and out of it, which the controlling hand 
 of God makes to subserve the safety and comfort 
 of his own people. 
 
 Such are some of the ends, " holy, just, and 
 good," which we, circumscribed as is our know- 
 ledge of the ways of God, can perceive to be ac- 
 complished by the mixed condition of his church. 
 That there are no others most worthy of his wis- 
 dom, though infinitely above the reach of ours, no- 
 thing but inebriating folly will dare to pronounce. 
 What ultimate relations his church may have to 
 his universal kingdom, it were impertinent, if 
 not profane, so much as to conjecture. Suffice it 
 that while every step of our progress enjoins so- 
 briety of thought ; restrains the indiscretion of 
 zeal; and rebukes the spirit of intrusive igno- 
 
152 Church of God. 
 
 ranee ; enough is discovered to remove the mo- 
 dest scruple, and satisfy the reverential inquiry. 
 
 In a preceding part of this discussion, we con- 
 tracted an engagement which we shall here fulfil. 
 
 To our doctrine which unequivocally admits that 
 the visible church is so constituted as to contain 
 a mixture of good men and bad, without any 
 means of distinguishing, precisely, the one from 
 the other ;. and which maintains that the infants of 
 parents, or a parent, professing godliness, are, by 
 the fact of their birth, members of the church, and 
 intitled to the sacramental seal of their relation, 
 it is objected, that " we debase and prostitute the 
 sacraments; that we necessarily give the seal of 
 spiritual blessings to multitudes who have not and 
 never shall have, " any inheritance in the king- 
 dom of Christ and of God" — that by such an ap- 
 plication we not only put a seal to a blank, which 
 is mere mockery ; but call upon the God of Truth 
 to certify a lie, which is yet worse than mockery — 
 that it is peculiarly absurd to administer to infants 
 an ordinance coupled by the scriptures with faith 
 in Christ, which infants are confessedly incapable 
 of exercising." 
 
 This is specious, and well calculated to gain the 
 popular ear. In reasoning, as in other things, it 
 is commonly much easier to get into a difficulty 
 than to get out of it. Objections to any fixed 
 order are always at hand, because its operation 
 
No. VI.— Uses. 153 
 
 is always felt: but answers to those objections 
 are not so ready, because the reasons of the order 
 cease to be observed, as time is always removing 
 them further from our knowledge. On this ac- 
 count it frequently requires more sense and search 
 to refute one cavil, than to propose twenty. From 
 the same cause minds which feel the force of the 
 cavil, are, in thousands of instances, unable to 
 comprehend the refutation, even though it* be 
 mathematically correct. Hence shrewd, but petty 
 sophism, and warm but cloudy declamation, 
 against the visible church, make a quick impres- 
 sion, and exert a lasting influence, upon the weak, 
 the illiterate, and the vain; while the reply to them 
 can hardly hope to succeed, except among those 
 who are capable of thinking; and among whom 
 their progress is small, their proselytes few, and 
 their dominion tottering. 
 
 In the present case there appears to have been, 
 and to be, a peculiar infatuation. It has been 
 demonstrated over and over, that the common, 
 which are the strongest, objections to the doc- 
 trine of a visible church catholic, in so far at least, 
 as it embraces the administration of the sacra- 
 ments, apply with equal force to the system of 
 their advocates ; to an appointment unquestion- 
 ably divine ; and to the scriptural declarations 
 concerning eternal life. 
 
 1. To the system of their advocates. 
 
 Vol. IV. 20 
 
154 Church of God. 
 
 For if the baptising of infants who possibly may 
 not, and, in many instances, certainly do not, prove 
 to be true Christians, is chargeable with nullity 
 and mockery ; then the baptising of adults who 
 possibly may not, and, in many instances, certain- 
 ly do not, prove to be true Christians, is equally a 
 nullity and a mockery : And therefore, unless we 
 can know who shall be the heirs of salvation, and 
 restrict the sacraments accordingly, their adminis- 
 tration must always be involved in the charge of 
 nullity and mockery. The opponents of infant 
 baptism are so pinched by this retortion of their 
 argument, that they endeavour to disembarrass 
 themselves by adopting the reality of Christian ex- 
 perience, that is, the discovery of a man's gracious 
 state, as their principle of admission to sacramen- 
 tal privilege. The subterfuge will not avail them. 
 They must found their discovery either on special 
 revelation, or upon other evidence. To the for- 
 mer they cannot pretend ; and the latter they 
 must derive from one of two sources : either the 
 fruits of grace in a man's life, which must be cer- 
 tified by others, and are external evidence ; or the 
 account which he himself gives of his own con- 
 version. This to himself is internal, but the mo- 
 ment he mentions it to others, it becomes testimony, 
 and like the former, it is external evidence. 
 
 Is, then, the judgment of his examiners liable to 
 mistake ? If not, how did they become infallible ? 
 
No. VI.— Uses. ib5 
 
 And, as the reality of a gracious state is the rea- 
 son of their admitting a man into their com- 
 munion, it must for ever remain a sufficient rea- 
 son for retaining him: for those with whom we 
 now contend, hold the doctrine of the perseve- 
 rance of the saints. How, then, can they ever 
 justify the exclusion of any of their members ? 
 For as the possession of grace is the ground of 
 his admission, nothing but the want of it can be a 
 ground of his expulsion. Thus, in every case of 
 excommunication, they stand self-convicted of 
 having mistaken a man's character either when 
 they took him in, or when they cast him out. 
 From this alternative they have no escape but an 
 acknowledgment that they were either faithless in 
 the first instance, or tyrannical in the second. In 
 so far, therefore, as they have ever had their com- 
 munion, members, who, when " weighed in the 
 balances, were found wanting," it is impossible 
 not to perceive that they are in very same pre- 
 dicament with those whom they reproach as lax 
 and carnal, that in the same proportion their own 
 sacraments are nullities and mockeries; and that 
 their blow at the advocates of the one visible 
 church, recoils, with all its force, upon their own 
 heads. 
 
 2. Their objections to our doctrine, are equally 
 conclusive against an appointment unquestionably 
 divine : we mean the ordinance of circumcision. 
 
156 Church of God. 
 
 We must repeat, that as circumcision is ex- 
 pressly declared to be a " seal of the righteousness 
 of faith;" and as it was applied by God's own 
 commandment to infants eight days old, if the 
 baptism of infants who know nothing of believing 
 in Christ, is nullity and mockery ; an absurd and 
 foolish ceremony : then, the circumcision of in- 
 fants who knew nothing of that righteousness of 
 faith which it sealed, was also a nullity and a 
 mockery ; was also an absurd and foolish cere- 
 mony ; and the divine commandment which en- 
 joined it, a foolish and an absurd commandment. 
 
 3. These same objections are applicable to the 
 scriptural doctrine of eternal life. " He that be- 
 lieveth and is baptized, shall be saved" quotes 
 the Anabaptist. We continue the quotation : 
 " But he that believeth not, shall be damned.* 
 
 His argument is this : 
 Faith is required in order to baptism : 
 But infants cannot exercise faith : 
 Therefore, infants cannot be baptised. 
 
 We turn his argument thus : 
 Faith is required in order to salvation : 
 But infants cannot exercise faith : 
 Therefore, infants cannot be saved. 
 
 And so this famous syllogism begins with shut- 
 
 * Mark xvi. 16. 
 
No. VL—Uses. 157 
 
 ting out our children from the church of God ; 
 and ends with consigning all of them who die in 
 infancy to the damnation of hell ! # 
 
 We are quite weary and almost ashamed of 
 repeating answers so trite as those which we are 
 compelled to repeat, against still more trite ob- 
 jections; but it is of importance to show that the 
 heaviest stroke which the enemies of our doc- 
 trine level at us, is leveled, with equal strength, 
 at themselves, their bible, and their God. 
 
 These remarks belong to that sort of argument 
 which is called argumerdum ad hominem : that is, 
 an argument drawn from a man's own principles 
 against himself. Its use is, not so much to prove 
 the truth, as to disprove errour : not to show that 
 our own cause is good ; but that our adversary's 
 reasoning is bad; by showing that his weapon can- 
 not pierce us but at the expense of transfixing 
 himself: so that if he prevail against us, he will, 
 
 * We do not say that the opposers of infant baptism hold such 
 an opinion. Their most distinguished writers disown and repel 
 it. But we say, tbat it necessarily results from their requiring 
 faith, in all cases, as a qualification for baptism. They do not 
 follow out their own position. They stop short at the point which 
 suits their system. We take it up where they leave it, and con- 
 duct it to its direct and inevitable conclusion. Therefore, though 
 we do not charge the men with maintaining that those who die in 
 infancy, perish ; yet we charge this consequence upon their ar- 
 gument : For it certainly proves this, or it proves nothing at all. 
 
158 Church of God. 
 
 in the moment of his victory, meet his own death 
 on the point of his own sword. 
 
 We owe our readers more. We owe a deci- 
 sion on the merits of the case. Which we shall 
 attempt by pointing out the true use of the sacra- 
 mental seal. 
 
 We observed, in an early part of the discussion, 
 that the difficulty which produces objections like 
 those we have been exposing, is created by erro- 
 neous notions of the church of God ; by confound- 
 ing visible members with his elect ; and his cove- 
 nant to the church with his covenant of grace in 
 Christ Jesus ; and that a proper application of 
 this distinction will remove the difficulty. # 
 
 The sacramental seal has appropriate relations 
 to these covenants respectively , and thus we dis- 
 tinguish them. 
 
 1. It has visible relations to the visible church. 
 Particularly, 
 
 (1.) It certifies, that the covenant of her God 
 to her abides, and secures to her the perpetual 
 enjoyment of her covenanted privileges. 
 
 (2.) It certifies, that the righteousness of faith 
 and the salvation connected with it, are dispensed 
 in the church ; and that there, and there* alone, 
 they are to be expected and sought. 
 
 (3.) It certifies, that the church is under the 
 consecration of the redeemer's blood ; has an un- 
 No. IV. p. 83. 
 
No. VI.— Uses, 159 
 
 ceasing interest in his mediation ; and access in 
 her public character, and in the acts of direct wor- 
 ship, to "the holiest of all." 
 
 (4.) It certifies, that the covenanted seed shall 
 never be extinct ; but that " a seed shall serve 
 the Lord Jesus, and shall be accounted to him 
 for a generation, so long as the sun and the moon 
 endure." 
 
 (5.) It certifies that in the ordinary course of 
 his providence, God will cause his saving mercy 
 to run in the channel of his people's families. 
 
 (6.) It certifies, that the individual sealed is 
 himself a link in the great chain for transmitting 
 down, from generation to generation, the know- 
 ledge and execution of God's plan of grace. 
 
 (7.) It certifies, that the individual sealed has 
 a right to the prayers, the instruction, the protec- 
 tion, and the discipline of the house of God. 
 
 (8.) In the baptism of infants, it certifies, that 
 even they need the purification of that blood 
 " which cleanses from all sin ;" and that it can be 
 applied to them for their salvation. So that infant 
 baptism is a visible testimony, incorporated with 
 the ordinances of God's worship, both to the guilt 
 and depravity of our nature independently on ac- 
 tual transgression, and to the only remedy through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. If you reject it, you throw 
 away the only ordinance which directly asserts the 
 principle upon which the whole fabric of redemp- 
 
] 60 Church of God. 
 
 tion is built, viz. that we are by nature children of 
 wrath. 
 
 These are great and important uses of the sa- 
 cramental seal ; intimately connected with the 
 faith, hope, and consolation of the church ; and 
 yet distinct and separate from an individual's 
 interest in the salvation of God. Whatever shall 
 become of him, they are grand, and solemn, and 
 tender truths to which he is the instrument of per- 
 petuating a testimony. Should he afterwards be 
 a reproach, instead of an ornament, to the gos- 
 pel ; should he be " abominable, and disobedient, 
 and to every good work reprobate," he shall 
 perish indeed ; but his perdition shall not affect 
 the testimony given in his person, by the sacra- 
 mental seal, to those blessed truths and privileges 
 which we have enumerated. That testimony, 
 that sealed testimony, is absolute ; it is perfect- 
 ly independent upon his spiritual state ; and is 
 precisely the same, whether he be " appointed 
 to wrath, or to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
 2. The sacramental seal has a special relation 
 to the church invisible, and to the spiritual mer- 
 cies of the covenant of grace. 
 
 Union with Christ ; acceptance in his merits ; 
 participation of his Spirit ; the fellowship of his 
 death, of the power of his resurrection, of his ever- 
 lasting love, and an interest in all the blessings of 
 

 No. VI.— Uses. 161 
 
 his purchase, the sacraments do certainly repre- 
 sent and seal. These glorious objects always 
 have been, and still are, in the most lively and af- 
 fecting manner, exhibited to, and perceived by, the 
 faith of believers; and their personal interest 
 therein is at times certified to their consciences 
 by " that holy spirit of promise whereby they are 
 sealed to the day of redemption." But all this is 
 peculiar to the household of faith. It presupposes 
 their interest in Christ ; it is over and above the 
 general uses which we just now specified ; and is 
 a secret between the omniscient God and the 
 happy recipient. 
 
 The reader now sees, that the attestation of the 
 sacramental seal is to be limited and extended by 
 the state of the receiver. If he be only a member 
 of the visible church, and merely within the bond 
 of the external covenant, it certifies in him and to 
 him whatever appertains to him in that relation, 
 and nothing more. But if he be a member of the 
 church invisible also, and interested in the saving 
 benefits of the covenant of grace ; it goes further, 
 and certifies whatever appertains to him in that 
 relation. 
 
 With the help of this obvious distinction we re- 
 move difficulties which are otherwise extremely 
 perplexing ; reconcile expressions otherwise irre- 
 concileable; show the futility of objections found- 
 ed on the want of grace in the individual sealed ; 
 
 Vol. IV. 21 
 
162 Church of God. 
 
 and demonstrate, as we promised, " that the seal of 
 God's covenant does, in every instance, certify absolute 
 truth ; whether it be applied to a believer or an unbe- 
 liever ; to the elect or the reprobate" 
 
 
163 
 
 CHURCH OF GOD. 
 
 No. VII. 
 
 Results, 
 
 From explaining the uses which the visible 
 church, constituted as we have stated it to be, sub- 
 serves, we pass on to some of its practical results. 
 We mean certain principles, flowing, as necessary 
 conclusions, from the doctrine which we have es- 
 tablished; and which directly influence the whole 
 system of ecclesiastical order. 
 
 1. The right and duty of all them who in every 
 place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus., to hold 
 religious fellowship with each other, as God af- 
 fordeth opportunity, are undisputed among Chris- 
 tians. Whatever be their diversities of opinion 
 concerning the extent of that general description, 
 and the religious fellowship founded upon it, yet 
 within the limits which they prescribe to them- 
 selves respectively, they not only revere it as a 
 duty, but esteem it as a privilege : They both in- 
 sist upon its letter, and act in its spirit. A private 
 
164 Church of God. 
 
 Christian goes from one congregation to another, 
 and is received upon the evidence of his having 
 been a member of that which he left. A minister 
 of the gospel travels into parts distant from the 
 place and society where he was ordained ; and 
 preaches the word, without scruple, in any other 
 part of the world ; and without a thought of his 
 wanting a new commission. A person lawfully 
 baptized is every where considered as under sa- 
 cramental consecration to God in Christ ; and 
 nobody dreams of repeating his baptism. We 
 make no account of the question about a valid or 
 invalid ministry, because we confine ourselves, at 
 present, to the communion which obtains among 
 those who are agreed on this point. 
 
 We ask, then, what is the origin and reason of 
 this communion ? What is there to render it law- 
 ful and proper ? " A common interest," you will 
 say, " in the Christian ordinances, and the bene- 
 fits dispensed by them." No doubt. But what 
 is the basis of this common interest? How did it 
 become common ? " Christ has procured it for 
 his church." Most certainly. But what church ? 
 The church of those who are " written in the 
 Lamb's book of life ?" Nothing more incontro- 
 vertible. Yet do you not perceive that you have 
 laid the foundation of all religious fellowship in 
 this — that the elect church of the redeemed is 
 one ? and that individual Christians enjoy their 
 
No. VII.— Results. 165 
 
 spiritual immunities, merely as parts of that great 
 whole to which Christ has bequeathed them ? As 
 members of the one " household of faith ?" As 
 citizens of the one " city of God ?" That the right 
 to spiritual privileges turns precisely on this point, 
 " They are given to the church, and I am a 
 member of the church/' But as there can be no 
 external communion without an external church, 
 and as all the sections of true believers all the 
 world over, compose but one church invisible, it 
 follows that the sections, or if you will, congrega- 
 tions, of visible believers, compose but one visible 
 church. For it seems unreasonable to say, that 
 the ivhole number of real Christians should not bear 
 the same general relation to the ivhole number of 
 professing Christians among whom they are in- 
 cluded, with that which every portion of real Chris- 
 tians bears to that portion of professed Christians 
 in which it is included. But the relation which a 
 number of true Christians, in the bonds of Chris- 
 tian fellowship, bear to the external society to 
 which they belong, is that of a part of the Church 
 catholic invisible, to a particular visible church. 
 Therefore, the relation which all the parts of the 
 church invisible bear to all particular visible 
 churches, is that of one general church invisible 
 to one general church visible. 
 
 Again: The several portions of real Christians 
 are related to their aggregate number, as parts of 
 
166 Church of God. 
 
 a great whole which is the Catholic church invisi- 
 ble. Therefore, all the portions or congregations 
 of professed Christians are related to each other 
 as parts of a great whole, which is the Catholic 
 church visible. 
 
 Hence it results, that as a right to those privi- 
 leges which the Lord Jesus hath purchased for his 
 redeemed, is founded in the circumstance of being 
 a member of that church which is made up of 
 them ; so, a right to the external privileges which 
 are dispensed by an external ministry in the ex- 
 ternal church is founded upon the fact of one's 
 being a member of that church. It is on this 
 ground, and on this alone, that the communion of 
 churches is established. A man is not admitted 
 to Christian fellowship in one congregation be- 
 cause he is a member of another — this would be 
 a solecism. But he is admitted because he is a 
 member of the church catholic ; of which his com- 
 munion in any particular church is received as 
 evidence by every other particular church. He is 
 free of the " city of God," and therefore entitled 
 to the immunities of citizenship in whatever part 
 of the city he may happen to be. We may illus- 
 trate this matter by an analogy from civil affairs. 
 A citizen of the state of New-York carries his 
 citizenship with him to every spot under her juris- 
 diction. It is of no consequence in what county 
 or town he resides ; nor how often he removes 
 
No. VII.— Results. 167 
 
 from one town or county to another ; nor whether 
 he be at his own dwelling; or on a visit to a friend; 
 or on a journey ; whatever privileges belong to 
 him in his general character, of a citizen of the 
 state, he can claim any where and every where : 
 for example, the right of voting for governour, pro- 
 vided he be legally qualified. 
 
 On the contrary, a man's being an inhabitant 
 of a particular city or town, does not give him the 
 least title to the immunities peculiar to any other 
 city or town. It would be very absurd for him to 
 insist that because he had a right to vote for 
 charter-officers in New-York, therefore he has a 
 right to vote for charter-officers in Albany ! The 
 reason is, they are independent on each other. 
 But if voting for charter-officers were a right at- 
 tached to citizenship at large, then he could claim 
 the right in any city within the state — and he 
 would vote in Albany, not because he had voted 
 in New-York, but because he is a member of the 
 state which includes them both. 
 
 The very same principle pervades the church 
 of God. Were it not one, no man could claim 
 privilege or exercise office, out of the particular 
 church to which he belongs. A minister is no 
 minister out of his own pulpit and his own charge. 
 It would be just as proper for an alderman of 
 New-York to issue writs in Albany, as for a minis- 
 ter of a congregation in New- York to offer to 
 
168 Church of God. 
 
 preach in Albany. The effect would be, that a 
 minister must have a new commission, that is, a 
 new ordination, for every new church he should 
 preach in. 
 
 We know that no church under heaven is able 
 to carry this principle out into practice. There 
 is but one of two ways to avoid the embarrass- 
 ment : 
 
 Either, communion between the members and 
 ministers of different congregations, is the result of 
 an agreement between them ; or the independent 
 churches themselves do act upon the principle 
 which they deny, the catholic unity of the church. 
 
 If the latter, our point is gained. If the former, 
 then the communion of churches is derived, not 
 from their communion with our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 nor from his authority ; but from a human com- 
 pact ; and thus far we have no Christian privileges 
 at all. 
 
 If, to elude the force of this conclusion, it be 
 said, that Christ has warranted and required his 
 churches, although independent of each other, to 
 keep up their fellowship in his name — we reply, 
 that this is a contradiction. Because the very fact 
 of his uniting them in such fellowship constitutes 
 them, to its whole extent, but one body, the mem- 
 bers of which cannot possibly be independent on 
 each other. The issue is, that all Christian and 
 ministerial communion originates in the visible 
 
No. VII.— Results. 169 
 
 unity of the catholic church ; and that tnere is no 
 explaining its reason, nor preserving its existence, 
 without admitting, in some shape or other, that 
 .the church of God is one — this is our first result. 
 
 2. From the relation in which the children of 
 believing parents stand in the church of God there 
 result mutual rights and duties. 
 
 1st. Such children have a right, even in their 
 infancy, to a solemn acknowledgment of their 
 membership by the administration of baptism — 
 they have a right to the individual and collective 
 prayers of Christians ; that is to be remembered 
 before the throne of grace by Christians in their 
 retired devotion, and in the public worship of the 
 church. — They have a right, during their tender 
 age, to her instruction, her protection, and her 
 salutary control. It would be strange, indeed, if 
 little children, who were so graciously noticed by 
 her king and her God, should have no claim upon 
 her parental affection. They are her hope; they 
 are the seed from which she is to look for " trees 
 of righteousness ; the planting of Jehovah that he 
 may be glorified." And, as such, they are intitled 
 to her patient and assiduous culture. 
 
 This is the birth-right of the children of those 
 
 who name the name of the Lord Jesus. We had 
 
 it from our fathers. " They trusted in God ; they 
 
 trusted in him and they were not confounded." 
 
 He was their God ; and he was our God also, be- 
 Vol. IV. 22 
 
170 Church of God. 
 
 cause he was the God of their seed. Thus " the 
 lines fell unto us in pleasant places ; yea we had 
 a goodly heritage." Owning the God of our fa- 
 thers, we call upon him as the God of our seed;, 
 and the inheritance which we derived from them 
 we transmit to our sons and our daughters, that 
 they may hand it down to their children, and their 
 children to another generation. Our giddy youth 
 undervalue this privilege; our profane youth laugh 
 at it. In doing so they " observe lying vanities, 
 and forsake their own mercies." Such as have 
 coma to their right mind, and have learned to sit 
 at the feet of Jesus, will say, with heartfelt emo- 
 tion, in the words of Dr. Watts : 
 
 " Lord, I ascribe it to thy grace ; 
 
 And not to chance, as others do ; 
 That I was born of Christian race, 
 
 And not a heathen or a Jew." 
 
 2d. There are duties corresponding with these 
 privileges. Youth born in the Christian church, 
 acknowledged as her children, and put under her 
 care, can never shake off certain tender and so- 
 lemn obligations. 
 
 They are bound to revere her authority, and to 
 promote her happiness. The very law of nature 
 intitles her to this. A young man who should 
 evince, from the time he was capable of action, a 
 studied contempt for the magistrates, laws, insti- 
 tutions and welfare of his country, would be held 
 
No. VII.— Results. 171 
 
 to have renounced all virtuous principle ; and, if 
 he should elude the tribunals of justice, could noi 
 escape the punishment of public detestation. But 
 why? Is it because God has entrusted his church 
 with his living oracles; and dignified her with his 
 gracious presence, that her counsels are beneath 
 regard, and her control a matter of scorn ? Is it 
 because she has done more to prepare her children 
 for usefulness, for comfort, and for glory, than 
 mere civil society ever did, or ever can do, that 
 she has forfeited their esteem, does not deserve a 
 hearing when she exhorts or remonstrates, and 
 shall have her most friendly and faithful services 
 repaid with indifference or disdain ? And shall 
 behaviour which, in every other community would 
 seal a man up for infamy, be applauded as spirited 
 and magnanimous in the church of God ? Let 
 not the unworthy notion find a place among our 
 young people ; let them feel their obligation to 
 requite, with kindness, the care which watched 
 over their early days ; and to respect the counsels 
 and institutions whose tendency is not to debase, 
 but to ennoble them ; not to embitter their en- 
 joyments, but to ensure their peace ; not to lead 
 them into harm, but to save them from ruin here, 
 and to crown them with external blessedness in 
 the world to come. 
 
 Let them reflect, moreover, that they are bound 
 to own their relation to the church of God, by 
 
172 Church of God. 
 
 professing the name of the Lord Jesus Christ ; 
 showing forth his death in the communion of the 
 holy supper, and walking in all his ordinances and 
 commandments blameless. 
 
 It is to be feared that even such of them as are 
 of sober deportment ; as carefully avoid every 
 thing rude or unbecoming toward Christianity and 
 Christians ; as would turn with horrour from open 
 infidelity, do yet, for the most part, labour under 
 the evil of an erroneous conscience on this sub- 
 ject ; and seduce themselves into a false and hurt- 
 ful tranquillity. They seem to think that profess- 
 ing or not professing to be followers of Christ is a 
 matter of mere choice — that the omission con- 
 tracts no guilt, while it enlarges the sphere of their 
 indulgences, and exempts them from the necessi- 
 ty of that tender and circumspect walk which be- 
 longs to a real Christian. 
 
 This is all wrong — radically wrong. The very 
 mildest construction which it can bear, amounts 
 to a confession of their being " aliens from the 
 commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the co- 
 venants of promise" — of their anxiety to decline 
 something which the service of God imposes, or 
 of retaining something which it abjures — and is 
 not this a most alarming thought ? Do they expect 
 to get to heaven with tempers and habits which 
 are incompatible with devotedness to God upon 
 earth ? If they do not choose to " name the name 
 
No. VII.— Results. 173 
 
 of Christ," is it not because they do not choose to 
 " depart from iniquity ?" Let them not cherish 
 any delusive hope. Without holiness no man shall 
 see the Lord. And if any man have not the Spirit of 
 Christ, he is none of his ! O let them weigh well the 
 alternative ! If they do, what possible reason can 
 they assign for refusing to honour him before 
 men ? Nay, this cannot be admitted : for if with 
 the heart they believe unto righteousness, with the mouth 
 they will also make confession unto salvation. And 
 Christ has told them that if they will not confess 
 him before men, they have nothing to expect but 
 that he will not confess them before his Father who is 
 in heaven. By not confessing the Lord Jesus, 
 they declare themselves willing to be accounted 
 unbelievers. Are they prepared for the conse- 
 quences ? 
 
 Furthermore. It arises out of the very nature 
 of the case, that if the most High God condescends 
 to offer eternal life, in his dear Son, to sinners 
 whom he might justly shut up under an irreversi- 
 ble sentence of death, they cannot slight his offer 
 without the most flagrant ingratitude, and the 
 most aggravated guilt. His commandment to re- 
 ceive the Lord Jesus Christ, as his " unspeakable 
 gift," is peremptory : and disobedience to it an act 
 of direct rebellion. To say then, " 1 will not pro- 
 fess the name of Christ," is to say, " I will neither 
 submit to the authority of God, nor accept the gift 
 
174 Church of God. 
 
 of his grace." With the very same propriety 
 might you say, I will pay no respect to the moral 
 law — I will go after strange Gods : I will bow to 
 graven images — I will swear and blaspheme — I 
 will not keep holy the Sabbath day — I will not 
 obey my parents — I will murder, and commit 
 adultery, and steal, and lie, and covet ; 1 will do 
 nothing which God has required ; and I will do 
 every thing which he has forbidden ! Does the 
 youthful reader start and tremble ? Why ? The 
 same God who has said, Thou shalt not kill — thou 
 shalt not commit adultery — thou shalt not steal — 
 thou shalt not lie ; has said, Believe on the Lord Je- 
 sus Christ. It is the same authority which enjoins, 
 and the same rebellion which resists. Thou canst 
 not, therefore, decline that " good confession, but 
 at the peril of putting away from thee the words 
 of eternal life." And thou knowest what his word 
 has decided. — If any man love not the Lord Jesus 
 
 Christ, let him be . # 
 
 There is something more. Many young persons 
 imagine that they are not members of the church, 
 until, upon a personal profession of their faith, they 
 join it in the communion of the holy supper. This 
 is a great mistake. The children of Christian 
 parents are bom members of the church. Their 
 baptism is founded upon their membership ; and 
 not, as some people suppose, their membership 
 
 * ] Cor. xvi. 22. 
 
No. VII.— Results. 175 
 
 upon their baptism. On the same principle, when 
 they arrive at the years of discretion, they may, in 
 taking upon them their baptismal engagements, 
 by a becoming profession of the Lord Jesus, de- 
 mand a seat at his table, as their 'privilege which 
 the church cannot deny. Their allegiance to him 
 as their Redeemer, their King, and their God, is 
 inseparable from their birth-right. The question, 
 then, with them, when they reach that period of 
 maturity which qualifies them to judge for them- 
 selves, is, not whether they shall contract or avoid 
 an allegiance which has hitherto had no claims 
 upon them : but whether they shall acknowledge 
 or renounce an allegiance under which they drew 
 their first breath ? Whether they shall disown the 
 prince of life, and wave their interest in his church ? 
 Whether they shall disclaim the God of their fa- 
 thers; forswear their consecration to his service — 
 take back the vows which were made over them 
 and for them when they were presented to him in 
 his sanctuary; his blessed name called upon them; 
 and the symbol of that " blood which cleanseth 
 from all sin," applied to them ? Not whether they 
 shall be simple unbelievers, but whether they shall 
 display their unbelief in the form of apostasy ? That 
 is the question : and an awful one it is. As they 
 value their eternal life, let them consider, that 
 every hour of their continuance in their neglect of 
 Christ is an hour of contempt for his salvation, 
 
176 Church of God. 
 
 and of slander on his cross. How shall their 
 hearts endure or their hands be made strong, 
 when he shall come to reckon with them for their 
 treading him under foot, and counting the blood of the 
 covenant wherewith he teas sanctified, an unholy thing ? 
 Reckon with them he will, and precisely for their 
 not owning him ; for they cannot, no, they cannot 
 shake off their obligations to own him; although 
 in the attempt they may destroy themselves for 
 ever. 
 
 " According to this representation," I shall be 
 told,, "the condition of many of our youth is very 
 deplorable. It is their duty, you say, to profess 
 the name of Christ, and to seal their profession at 
 the sacramental table. This they cannot do: 
 for they are conscious that they do not possess 
 those principles and dispositions which are requi- 
 site to render such a profession honest. What 
 course shall they steer ? If they do not profess 
 Christ, they live in rebellion against God : if they 
 do, they mock him with a lie. Which side of the 
 alternative shall they embrace ? Continue among 
 the profane, and be consistently wicked ? or 
 withdraw from them in appearance, and play the 
 hypocrite ?" 
 
 The case is, indeed, very deplorable. Destruc- 
 tion is on either hand. For the unbelieving shall 
 have their part in the lake of fire,* and the hypo- 
 * Rev. xxi. 8. 
 
No. VIL— Results. 177 
 
 crite's hope shall perish.* God forbid that we 
 should encourage either a false profession, or a 
 refusal to make one. The duty is to embrace 
 neither side of the alternative. Not to continue 
 with the profane, and not to act the hypocrite ; 
 but to receive the Lord Jesus Christ in truth, and 
 to walk in him. " I cannot do it," replies one : 
 and one, it may be, not without moments of seri- 
 ous and tender emotion upon this very point : " I 
 cannot do it." My soul bleeds for thee, thou un- 
 happy ! But it must be done, or thou art lost for 
 ever. Yet what is the amount of that expression : 
 in the mouth of some a flaunting excuse, and of 
 others a bitter complaint — I cannot ? Is the ina- 
 bility to believe in Christ different from an inabili- 
 ty to perform any other duty ? Is there any harder 
 necessity of calling the God of Truth a liar, in 
 not believing the record which he hath given of his son, 
 than of committing any other sin ? The inability 
 created, the necessity imposed, by the enmity of 
 the carnal mind against God ?f It is the inability 
 of wickedness, and nothing else. Instead of being 
 an apology, it is itself the essential crime, and can 
 never become its own vindication. 
 
 But it is even so. The evil does lie too deep for 
 the reach of human remedies. Yet a remedy 
 there is, and an effectual one. It is here — " / 
 will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be 
 
 * Job viii. 1. t Rom. viii. 7. 
 
 Vol. IV. 23 
 
178 Church of God. 
 
 clean ; from all your ftlthiness, and from all your idols 
 will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I giye you, 
 and a new spirit will I put within you : And I will 
 take away the stony heart out of your flesh ; and I 
 will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my 
 spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my sta- 
 tutes ; and ye shall keep my judgments and do them* 
 Try this expedient : Go, with thy " filthiness" and 
 thine " idols :" Go, with thy " stony heart" and 
 thy perverse spirit, which are thy real inability, to 
 God upon the throne of grace ; spread out before 
 him his " exceeding great and precious promise," 
 importune him as the hearer of prayer, in the 
 name of Jesus, for the accomplishment of it to 
 thyself — wait for his mercy : it is worth waiting 
 for — and remember his word ; Therefore will the 
 Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you ; and 
 therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy 
 upon you : for the Lord is a God of judgment ; bless- 
 ed are all they that wait for him."\ 
 
 The rights and duties of the children of believing 
 parents, arising out of their relation to the church, 
 is only part of our second result, as they are mu- 
 tual, let us now turn the question and view it 
 in its relation to the rights and duties of the Chris- 
 tian church toward such children. 
 
 A right to provide for the proper education of 
 their youth, has always been claimed, and exer- 
 
 * Ezek. xxxvi. 25—27. f J s . xxx. 18. 
 
No. VIL— -Results. 179 
 
 cised in some form or other, by every civilized 
 community. It is, indeed, inherent in the very na- 
 ture of human society ; as it springs out of that 
 great, universal, and essential principle of man — 
 self-preservation. The risen generation, is, for 
 the most part, fixed. Their habits are formed, 
 their characters settled, and what is to be expect- 
 ed from them may be ascertained with sufficient 
 exactness for the principal purposes of life. Not 
 so with the rising race. No sagacity can foretell 
 what characters shall be developed, or what parts 
 performed, by these boys and girls who throng our 
 streets, and sport in our fields. In their tender 
 breasts are concealed the germs, in their little 
 hands are lodged the weapons, of a nation's over- 
 throw or glory. Would it not, then, be madness ; 
 would it not be a sort of political suicide, for the 
 commonwealth to be unconcerned what direction 
 their infant powers shall take; or into what habits 
 their budding affections shall ripen ? Or will it be 
 disputed, that the civil authority has a right to 
 take care, by a paternal interference, on behalf of 
 the children, that the next generation shall not 
 prostrate in an hour, whatever has been conse- 
 crated to truth, to virtue, and to happiness, by the 
 generations that are past ? 
 
 If this is the common privilege of human nature, 
 on what principle shall it be denied to the church 
 of God ? Spiritual in her character, furnished with 
 
180 Church of God. 
 
 every light to guide the understanding; and every 
 precept to mould the heart — possessing whatever 
 is fearful to deter from sin, and whatever is sweet 
 and alluring to win to God and holiness, how is it 
 possible that she can have no right to bring these 
 her advantages to bear upon the youth committed 
 to her trust ? Why were they thus committed? 
 How shall she deserve the name of the spouse of 
 Christ, if she endeavour not to bring up her own 
 children in his " nurture and admonition ?" Ad- 
 mitting the children of believing parents to be her 
 members, the right to instruct and watch over 
 them, is a matter of course. For it is a solecism 
 and an absurdity to talk of a society which has 
 no authority over its own members. And when 
 we establish the right, we establish also the duty. 
 The power is given to be employed. It is a talent 
 for which the master will demand an account. If 
 he has authorized his church to take charge of 
 the children within her pale, she is responsible for 
 the manner in which she acquits herself of the 
 trust. How is this to be done ? 
 
 1st. All baptized children, (whom by their bap- 
 tism she acknowledges to be a part of her care,) 
 are to be instructed by her authority, and under 
 her eye. 
 
 There is a domestic training which it is her 
 business to see that parents give their children. 
 But she has an interest in these children altoge- 
 
No. VII.— Results, 181 
 
 ther her own. Her ministers, or official catechists, 
 are, in her name, to instill into them, the principles 
 of the Christian religion, over and above their tuition 
 at home ; and whether their parents be faithful to 
 them or not. A child is not to be turned off, and 
 left a prey to destruction, because its parents do 
 not shrink from the crime of " blood-guiltiness," 
 even guiltiness of the blood of their own offspring. 
 Means are, therefore, to be used, that all the chil- 
 dren of a congregation attend public instruction in 
 the doctrines and duties of religion, as an ordinance 
 of Christ ; and to have the sense of their subjec- 
 tion to his ordinances incorporated with their ear- 
 liest habits of thinking. No church can neglect 
 this care without suffering : no church has ever 
 fostered it without abundant recompense. The 
 most intelligent, sober, staid, active Christians, are 
 usually those who have grown up under the ope- 
 ration of this gentle but efficient discipline. 
 
 2d. The church is to inspect the conduct of her 
 youth. 
 
 I do not mean that she is to encourage hawkers 
 of scandal, nor to entertain legions of spies, for 
 their benefit. Not that she is to put on that dis- 
 mal visage which petrifies the juvenile heart ; nor 
 to indulge that morose inquisition which arraigns, 
 as a crime, every burst of juvenile cheerfulness. 
 It is as much a part of God's natural constitution 
 that youth should be sprightly, as that age should 
 
182 Church of God. 
 
 be grave. To reduce to one size and one quality, 
 all the decencies of life in all its periods, is the at- 
 tribute of zeal which never discriminates, of se- 
 verity which never learns, or of Pharisaism which 
 finds a righteousness in reprobating enjoyments 
 which it cannot share. 
 
 But, after every proper allowance and precau- 
 tion, there is left a large field of juvenile conduct 
 for the eye of the church to explore. Both in af- 
 firming the principles of rectitude, and in resisting 
 the principles of evil, she may and she ought to 
 do much for her youth. 
 
 If a child be exemplary in filial or fraternal af- 
 fection ; pure in behaviour among others ; diligent 
 in learning the precious truths of revelation ; re- 
 verential towards the ordinances of public and 
 private Avorship; fearful of sinning against God; 
 it is no small encouragement to have these excel- 
 lencies observed, cherished, and honoured, by 
 those who bear rule in the church. Timidity sub- 
 sides ; bashfulness is attempered into modesty ; 
 the ductile inclination grows into consistent pur- 
 pose ; and thus " little ones" are brought to Jesus 
 Christ, and prepared for occupying, in due season, 
 the places of those whose gray hairs announce 
 the approach of that hour in which they are to be 
 numbered with them who have died in faith. 
 
 On the other hand, can any reflecting person 
 doubt, that the seasonable interposition of the 
 
No. V1L— Results. 183 
 
 church of God, might save many a youth from 
 falling a victim to his own depravity, or to the de- 
 pravity of others ? Why should a doubt be enter- 
 tained on the subject ? Is the experiment fairly 
 tried ? Are the churches in the habit of throwing 
 themselves in between ruin and the youth who 
 have not openly professed religion ? Do parents, 
 on the failure of domestic admonition, ever resort 
 to this remedy ? Ought they not to do it ? Why 
 should a tender and solemn remonstrance, in the 
 name of the living God, the Creator and the Judge 
 of all, be without its influence in recovering an 
 unpractised sinner from the errour of the wicked? 
 Why should not an authoritative expostulation, on 
 the part of the church of God, brought home to 
 individual feeling, have some effect, as a rational 
 means, in prevailing with the young to consider 
 their obligation to recognize the vows made over 
 them in their baptism ? There are more trouble- 
 some consciences on this point, among our youth, 
 than we, perhaps, imagine. Why should they not 
 be told, that continuance in carelessness, or aban- 
 donment to iniquity, will compel the church of 
 God to disown them, and to rank them with those 
 concerning whom she has no promises to plead ? 
 Let it not be said that " the state of religious so- 
 ciety forbids such an interference — that parents 
 and children would spurn at it as an encroach- 
 ment upon their liberty — and that instead of 
 
184 Church of God. 
 
 gaining our youth, it would drive them, at once, 
 into the camp of the profane ;" — at least, let not 
 these things be said without facts to support them. 
 They are the suggestions of fear, unsanctioned by 
 experience. No doubt, in the decayed state of 
 Christian order, much prudence is necessary for 
 its revival : but the necessity of prudence cannot 
 excuse inaction. It is very possible, also, that 
 some young saints would " kick against the pricks." 
 But the same objection lies against the faithful 
 preaching of the word ; and against the impartial 
 use of discipline toward professors. There are 
 weighty reasons why a judicious extension of 
 church authority to baptised youth in general, 
 would not be so fruitless and despicable as some 
 suppose. 
 
 First i The mere power of opinion which it would 
 employ, could not be easily resisted. It is to be 
 remembered, that a very little quantity of opinion 
 goes a great way with all minds which have not 
 yet acquired self-stability ; and such opinion as the 
 Christian church can at all times command, no 
 man living can disregard with impunity. 
 
 Secondly, In many instances, this interference 
 would combine with domestic precept and exam- 
 ple ; and how far their united forces would go, 
 nothing but the event is entitled to pronounce. 
 
 Thirdly, Dissolute as the world is, and disposed 
 as multitudes are to scoff at every thing which 
 
No. VIL— Results. 185 
 
 bears the image and superscription of Jesus Christ, 
 it will be no recommendation even with thought- 
 less people, that a young person fled away from 
 the voice of kindly instruction; much less that he 
 was thrust out on account of his vices. Some 
 there are, who, to serve the present hour, would 
 applaud his spirit ; and, on the first disagreement 
 would upbraid him with his disgrace. It is not in 
 human nature to stand easily under an excommu- 
 nication of any sort. Exclusion, for faults, from 
 any decent society, is, and ever will be, a stigma. 
 Whoever disbelieves it, has only to try. 
 
 Fourthly, The providence of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and his control over the hearts and affairs 
 of men, are especially to be regarded. Perhaps 
 no instance can be shown of contempt upon the 
 discipline of his house not being followed, sooner 
 or later, with most disastrous consequences to the 
 offender. He has promised to own, support, and 
 vindicate it, as solemnly as he ever promised to 
 bless the gospel of his grace. If more stress were 
 laid upon his agency in rendering effectual his own 
 institutions ; we should both discharge our duty 
 more exactly, and see it crowned with greater 
 success. Let the churches begin to look after 
 their youth — let them commit their efforts to their 
 master's faithfulness. It will be time enough 
 to complain when he " leaves himself without a 
 witness." 
 
 Vol. IV. 24 
 
186 Church of God. 
 
 3d. There is a particular class of children to 
 whom the church owes a duty which she too fre- 
 quently neglects — I mean orphans. 
 
 Godly parents die; and their little ones are 
 scattered. Scattered, indeed, they often must be, 
 but forgotten they ought not to be. They are of- 
 ten permitted to be placed in families where they 
 can reap no religious benefit. All responsibility for 
 them seems to be thrown away, and given to the 
 winds with the last breath of their father or mo- 
 ther. Thus abandoned by the church, which 
 ought to be to them in God's stead, and when 
 their father and their mother forsake them, to take 
 them up, they are in danger of being lost in this 
 world, and in the world to come. I speak imme- 
 diately of those who have no private dependence 
 but the bounty of strangers. Guilt in this matter, 
 there certainly is, and the sooner we arise to 
 shake it out of our skirts, the better will it be for 
 ourselves, and our own children. 
 
 Beside the conclusions which we have drawn 
 from the general Constitution of the Church of 
 God, relative to Christian communion, and the 
 rights and duties mutually subsisting between the 
 Church and her infant members, there is a 
 
 Third result relative to her officers ; especially 
 those who labour in the word and doctrine. It is 
 this : They are primarily the property of the 
 church catholic \ and only in a secondary and 
 
No. VII.— Results, 187 
 
 subordinate sense, the property of a particular con- 
 gregation. 
 
 Throughout the christianized world, it has al- 
 ways been customary, in a greater or less degree, 
 to remove ministers of the gospel from one pastoral 
 charge to another, or to liberate them from pasto- 
 ral ties altogether, that they might promote, in a 
 different form, the interests of the Christian cause. 
 For very obvious reasons, these removals happen 
 most frequently to men of talents. Nor is there a 
 single thing which creates more uneasiness and 
 heart-burning. It is perfectly natural. For neither 
 individuals nor societies are fond of parting with 
 what they consider a treasure. Able, faithful, dis- 
 creet ministers, are a rare blessing ; and it would 
 say little for the understanding, and less for the 
 religion, of any Church which should lightly re- 
 linquish it. We must further admit, that a wan- 
 ton disruption of the pastoral ties is foolish, un- 
 warrantable, and extensively pernicious. 
 
 Still the question of its propriety must be tried, 
 not by examples of its abuse, nor by its unpopula- 
 rity, but by the principles on which it is founded, 
 This cannot be done, without examining the na- 
 ture of the claim which a particular congregation 
 has to her minister. 
 
 The pastoral connexion is commonly compared 
 to a matrimonial connexion ; which, being for 
 
188 Church of God, 
 
 life, the popular inference is, that the pastoral con- 
 nexion also is for life. 
 
 This proves nothing, except the facility with 
 which most people impose upon themselves by 
 sounds and similes. A simile is no argument. And 
 the simile of a man and his wife, to denote a pastor 
 and his congregation, is peculiarly unhappy. If it 
 is to prescribe the duration of their union, it must 
 also regulate the discharge of their duties. Now, 
 as married persons must confine their matrimo- 
 nial intercourse to themselves, not allowing a par- 
 ticipation in it to any other, this simile, working 
 up the ministerial relation into a sort of pastoral 
 matrimony, would render it absolutely unlawful 
 in a minister to hold religious communion with 
 any other people, and in his people to hold reli- 
 gious communion with any other minister. Nor, 
 if a minister's just maintenance should grow in- 
 convenient to a people's finances, or he should 
 fall into disfavour, even without any charge of 
 misconduct, would they think it sound reasoning 
 to turn upon them with their own simile, and say, 
 " A minister and his people are as husband and 
 wife. A wife takes her husband for better for 
 worse ; so did you take your minister ; and as you 
 took him you must keep him. The plea of pover- 
 ty or disgust is of no avail ; a woman is not to quit 
 her husband whenever she thinks that he spends 
 too much of the fortune she brought him ; nor is 
 
No. VII.— Results. 189 
 
 she to run away from him merely because she 
 does not like him any longer, or has a fancy for 
 some one else. This is no better than downright 
 adultery : and such is the behaviour of a congre- 
 gation, who has grown tired of a minister, and 
 wishes to get rid of him." It would be very hard 
 to persuade a congregation that this is correct 
 reasoning ; and yet it is exactly such reasoning 
 as we hear every day against the removal of a 
 minister, grounded on the notion of something 
 like a marriage covenant between him and his 
 charge. The reasoning proceeds from feelings 
 pretty general among men, prompting them to 
 prefer a bargain which shall be all on one side, 
 and that side their own. They wish to have the 
 whole comfort without risk of privations on the 
 one hand, or of irksome burdens on the other. It 
 is perfectly equitable in their eyes, that a minister 
 should leave them to better their situation; but to 
 leave them in order to better his own, is almost, if 
 not altogether, an adulterous desertion ; and even 
 if it be to forward upon a larger scale, and with 
 more efficacy, the advantage of Christ's kingdom, 
 his authoritative removal is little, if at all, less 
 than robbery ! 
 
 But let us be just. They are not the people 
 only who adopt this preposterous reasoning. 
 Ministers have too frequently fallen into the same 
 errour ; and, in some instances, they have exactly 
 
190 Church of God, 
 
 reversed the popular conclusions ; stating it as 
 good and wholesome doctrine, that a minister 
 should have it in his power to retain his cure as 
 long as he pleases; and to resign it when he 
 pleases ; but should by no means be subject to re- 
 moval when the people wish it. Thus, in their 
 turn, making the bargain all on their own side. 
 This is paltry work : It is, on both sides, a calcu- 
 lation fit only for sharpers. In so far as it arises 
 from honest opinion, it springs out of a radical 
 mistake, which is to be rectified by considering 
 how the unity of the visible church affects minis- 
 terial character and labours. 
 
 The mistake is this : that " a minister and his 
 congregation possess each other, if I may so word 
 it, in a mutual fee simple — that they have an ex- 
 clusive and absolute right to each other;" where- 
 as no such possession, no such right does, or can, 
 exist. 
 
 Our Lord Jesus Christ, when he " ascended up 
 on high, leading captivity captive, gave gifts unto 
 men. And he gave some," (i. e. some whom he 
 gave were,) " apostles ; and some, prophets ; and 
 some, evangelists ; and some, pastors and teach- 
 ers ; for the perfecting of the saints ; for the 
 work of the ministry; for the edifying of the body 
 of Christ." Eph. iv. 
 
 Here ministers of the gospel are said to be 
 Christ's ascension-gift to his church ! But what 
 
No. VII.— Results. 191 
 
 church ? Certainly not a particular congregation, 
 for the gift includes ministers who never could be 
 confined to so limited a charge. No one particu- 
 lar congregation ; no, nor any section of Chris- 
 tians, though containing many congregations, 
 could appropriate to themselves the labours of an 
 apostle, or an evangelist. These were, beyond 
 all contradiction, officers of the church catholic, 
 or of the church visible.* But it is to the same 
 church that Christ has given the ordinary ministry, 
 " pastors and teachers." They are included in 
 one and the same gift. Therefore, a minister be- 
 longs primarily and immediately to the church 
 catholic ; and only mediately, that is, through the 
 medium of the church catholic, is assigned to a 
 particular congregation. It is, of course, her pro- 
 vince and duty to determine how, and where, he 
 shall be employed. The only rule of judgment is, 
 the greatest amount of benefit which may accrue from 
 his services to the interests of the Redeemers kingdom. 
 The determination of this point must be confided 
 to such a portion of the church catholic, assem- 
 bled in judicatory, (since it is impossible for the 
 whole to meet,) as shall secure, according to hu- 
 man probabilities, a wise and impartial decision. 
 To lodge such a power in the hands of a particu- 
 lar congregation, would be manifestly improper ; 
 
 * See page 1—26. 
 
192 Church of God. 
 
 for it would not only make one set of men the 
 judges in their own case, and in their neighbour's 
 too, but would subject the great interests of the 
 church of God to the control of persons unfur- 
 nished with sufficient information, often impas- 
 sioned, always prepossessed ; and, therefore, in- 
 capable of "judging righteous judgment." Mis- 
 takes, and improprieties will, no doubt, occur, be 
 the power where it may : because perfection is to 
 be found no where. Yet, when a question is to 
 be tried before a court composed of representa- 
 tives from several particular churches, having much 
 more ability, and better opportunities of informing 
 themselves, than the mass of any congregation can 
 have : being also free from that selfish bias to 
 which the best minds and hearts are liable from 
 calculations directly affecting themselves, it is in 
 as fair a way of being decided well, as the imper- 
 fection of man admits. When such a court, then, 
 fixes the pastoral relation between a minister and 
 a congregation, it does not surrender him up ab- 
 solutely to them ; nor wed them to each other for 
 life. It places him there, because it believes that 
 his labours there will fee, upon the whole, most 
 useful to the church at large. And the principle 
 which regulates the formation, must also regulate 
 the continuance, of his pastoral relations. He is 
 to remain so long as the church of God shall gain 
 more by his continuance than by his removal, and 
 
No. VIL— Results. 193 
 
 no longer. Whenever it shall clearly appear that 
 his labours may be turned to better account by his 
 removal than by his continuance, he ought to be 
 removed : not, however, at his own discretion, or 
 the discretion of his people, but upon the same 
 careful examination by the church representative, 
 as preceded his first settlement. We repeat, that 
 it would be unreasonable and unrighteous, to let 
 an individual or a congregation possess the pow- 
 er of sacrificing to their narrow gratification, the 
 interest of the Christian community. Ministers, 
 then, must be in that situation which shall render 
 their labours of the greatest utility. They are or- 
 dinarily joined to parochial charges ; because this, 
 upon the whole, is the best practical system ; and 
 not because their charges have an exclusive pro- 
 perty in them. The claims of the church at large, 
 always supersede the claims of any particular 
 part ; so that whatever be the attachment of a 
 people to their minister, or of a minister to his 
 people, when the general claim is set up, their par- 
 ticular feelings must give way; and that upon 
 this self-evident truth, that the whole is greater 
 than a part. Pursuing the same reasoning, we 
 perceive, that whether a minister shall have a con- 
 gregation or not, is a question of secondary im- 
 portance ; and is to be answered by a prudent con- 
 sideration of the previous question, — whether he 
 
 Vol. IV. 25 
 
194 Church of God. 
 
 is likely to be more extensively useful with or with- 
 out a congregation ? 
 
 That removals from charges where men are 
 beloved and useful, ought not to be rash ; ought 
 not to take place, without the most solid reasons ; 
 ought, in all cases, to be managed with circumspec- 
 tion and with dignity ; that the very uneasiness 
 excited by such removals, ought to be weighed in 
 the balances among the strong reasons against 
 them are dictates of common sense and equity ; 
 and no wise judicatory will ever disregard them. 
 But that the principle is sound — that a minister 
 may lawfully be removed from one charge to ano- 
 ther ; or from one species of labour to another, 
 cannot be controverted, without tearing up the 
 foundations of the whole church of God. 
 
 Finally. A very important result from the fore- 
 going discussions concerning the nature of the 
 church is, that no form of church government can be 
 scriptural, which is not adapted to this broad and mas- 
 ter-principle, that the visible church is one. 
 
 Her external organization must be such as shall 
 show her to the world, as a living body, according 
 to the apostle's figure. Eph. iv. 12. 16. She must, 
 therefore, have principles, and means, of common 
 action. The whole must control the parts — She 
 must have a power of self-preservation, which 
 includes, 
 
No. VII. — Results. 195 
 
 1. A power of commanding the agency of any 
 particular member : 
 
 2. A power of combining the agency of all her 
 members : 
 
 3. A power of providing for her nourishment 
 and health : 
 
 4. A power of expelling impurities and corrup- 
 tions. 
 
 These things are essential to her organization 
 according to the description given of her in the 
 word of God. We may have occasion to illustrate 
 them more particularly hereafter ; we close, at 
 present, with one remark — that a number of par- 
 ticular churches not united in mutual dependence, 
 and not furnished with a principle of living effi- 
 ciency in one common system, so as to bring the 
 strength of the whole to operate in any part, or 
 through all the parts collectively, as occasion may 
 require, no more resemble the visible church of 
 Christ, than the limbs of the human body, dissev- 
 ered, and not " fitly joined together, and compacted 
 by that which every joint supplieth, according to 
 the effectual working in the measure of every 
 part," resemble a healthy man. 
 
197 
 
 CHURCH OF GOD. 
 
 No. VIII. 
 Officers. 
 
 A community so large, and yet so compact ; 
 formed, preserved, and perpetuated with so much 
 care ; directed to so high an end ; and furnished 
 with principles of such universal application, as 
 we have proved the church of God to be, requires 
 a suitable regimen. God is the God of order : no 
 order can be kept up any where without govern- 
 ment ; and no government can exist without offi- 
 cers to administer it. Our next inquiry, there- 
 fore, relates to the officers whom Christ hath ap- 
 pointed. 
 
 In the Apostolical church were the following : 
 viz. 
 
 1. Apostles, — 1 Cor. xii. 28. Eph. iv. 11, 
 
 2. Prophets, — Rom. xii. 6. 1 Cor. xii. 28 
 
 Eph.iv. 11. 
 
 3. Evangelists, — Eph. iv. 11. 
 
198 Church of God. 
 
 4. Pastors and teachers, — Ibid. Acts xiii. 1. 
 who ruled, \ 
 
 who also laboured in wordand\ 1 Tim. v. 17. 
 doctrine, 5 
 
 5. Elders, who " ruled" without " labouring 
 
 in word and doctrine," Ibid. 
 
 6. Deacons, Acts vi. 1 — 6. 1. Tim. iii. 8. 
 
 It is evident that the great object of all these 
 
 offices was the religious education of the world. 
 We mean that they were intended to instruct 
 mankind in the knowledge of divine truth ; to in- 
 spire them with pure principles and spiritual af- 
 fections ; to form their individual and social habits 
 to practical holiness, and moral order; in one 
 word, to render them " meet for the inheritance 
 of the saints in light." 
 
 It is also evident, that some of these offices 
 were only temporary. Which of them were de- 
 signed to be permanent, and in what form, is an 
 inquiry which we must postpone till we shall have 
 settled a previous question. 
 
 It has been, and still is, a received belief among 
 almost all who profess Christianity, that the Re- 
 deemer has instituted a regular ministry to be per- 
 petuated in an order of men specially set apart 
 and commissioned by his authority, for the pur- 
 pose of inculcating the doctrines and duties of 
 Christianity ; and that no man may lawfully en- 
 
No. VIII.— Officers. 199 
 
 ter upon its functions without an official warrant 
 from them who are themselves already in office. 
 
 Others contend that this whole system is of hu- 
 man origin ; is founded either in ignorance or in 
 fraud ; and militates directly against the nature 
 and privileges of the Christian church. 
 
 Others again, attempt a middle course ; allow- 
 ing the general principle of a ministry, but leaving 
 the application of it at large ; and conceiving the 
 exercise of gifts with the approbation of the 
 church, that is, a number of professing Christians 
 met together for public worship, to be a valid and 
 sufficient call. 
 
 To clear up this matter, let us consider, 
 
 1. What the scriptures have determined con- 
 cerning the fact in dispute : and 
 
 2. What are the uses, qualifications, and mode 
 of preserving, a standing ministry. 
 
 1. As to the fact These things are worthy of 
 regard. 
 
 1st. It is undeniable, that from the time God set 
 up his church in her organized form, (and even 
 before,) until the Christian dispensation, there 
 was an order of men consecrated, by his own ap- 
 pointment, to the exclusive work of directing her 
 worship, and presiding oyer her interests : inso- 
 much that no man, but one of themselves, not 
 even a crowned head, might meddle with their 
 functions; nor undertake, in any way, to be a 
 
200 Church of God. 
 
 public teacher of religion, without an immediate 
 call from heaven attested by miraculous evidence. 
 2d. The ancient prophets, " who spake as they 
 were moved by the Holy Ghost," foretold that the 
 same principle should be acted upon in the days of 
 the Messiah. Thus in Isa. lxvi. 21. I will also take 
 of them for priests and for levites, saith Jeho- 
 vah — and Dan. xiii. 3. They that be wise shall 
 shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that 
 turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and 
 ever. The word rendered " wise," signifies teach- 
 ers," whose business, and, according as they are 
 blessed of God, whose happiness, it is to turn men 
 unto righteousness. Our Lord himself has used 
 the term in the same sense, as indeed it was a 
 very common signification among the people of 
 the East : Behold I send you prophets, and wise men, 
 and scribes. Matt, xxiii. 34. The force of the argu- 
 ment is, that these predictions contemplate events 
 which were to take place in the Christian econo- 
 my ; and without which they could not be fulfilled. 
 The passage from Isaiah refers to the " new hea- 
 vens and the new earth" which the Lord should 
 make : consequently, to New Testament times : 
 And not only so, but to their most illustrious pe- 
 riod — the restoration of the Jews, and the glory 
 of the latter day. " Priests and Levites," to per- 
 form services similar to those under the old eco- 
 nomy, there can be none ; because the end of 
 
No. VIIL— Officers. 201 
 
 those services being accomplished, their further 
 continuance is impossible ; and the economy itself 
 has vanished away. Yet the prediction and the 
 promise must be fulfilled : and can mean nothing 
 less than this, that as the Priests and the Levites 
 were appointed of God to minister in holy things 
 during the former dispensation, and in a manner 
 suited to its peculiar character ; so there should 
 be appointed of God, under the new dispensation, 
 a ministry corresponding to its peculiar character; 
 which ministry should flourish even in those days 
 when the most copious effusions of the divine 
 Spirit should seem to render it the least necessary. 
 And this is a full answer to the objection brought 
 from the promise that all Zion's children shall be 
 taught of God — and they shall teach no more every 
 man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, 
 " know the Lord ;" for they shall all know me from the 
 least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord. 
 Jer. xxxi. 34. 
 
 We say that an objection drawn from such pas- 
 sages against a Christian ministry, as regular and 
 exclusive as the ministry of the Levitical Law, is 
 of no weight : 
 
 For in the first, place, they are not more full and 
 
 explicit than those passages which promise such 
 
 a ministry : and as both are true, no interpretation 
 
 can be admitted of one, which shall contradict the 
 
 other. 
 Vol. IV. 26 
 
202 Church of God. 
 
 Secondly, If the objection is well-founded, it 
 sweeps away not only a standing ministry ; but all 
 religious instruction in every shape : prohibiting 
 even parents to " bring up their children in the 
 nurture and admonition of the Lord ;" and putting 
 under a bushel the very light of the " gifted breth- 
 ren" — which would be rather lamentable. 
 
 Thirdly, There is the most perfect consistency 
 between a great diffusion of religious light, and 
 great use of religious teachers. We find, by ex- 
 perience, that the most enlightened Christians do 
 most honour and value an enlightened ministry. 
 The ignorant, and the vain are most ready to sup- 
 pose that they need no instruction. Give instruc- 
 tion to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser ; teach a 
 just man, and he will increase in learning, (Prov. ix. 
 9.) But, seest thou a man wise in his own conceit ? 
 there is more hope of a fool than of him, (xxvi. 1 2.) 
 The "principalities and powers in heavenly places," 
 were no novices in the knowledge of God. But 
 when they wished to obtain still larger views of his 
 " manifold wisdom." they did not blush to take a 
 lesson from the lips of Paul, (Eph. iii. 10.) 
 
 There is no difficulty in the appellation of 
 " Priests and Levites ;" seeing it was customary 
 with the prophets to speak of New Testament 
 blessings in Old Testament style ; and not prac- 
 ticable for them to use any other, and be sufficient- 
 ly intelligible. 
 
No. V1IL— Officers. 203 
 
 3d. Our Lord Jesus Christ delivered their com- 
 mission to his apostles in terms which necessarily 
 imply a perpetual and regularly successive minis- 
 try. Go ye* and teach all nations, baptizing them 
 in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost : Teaching them to observe all things 
 whatsoever I have commanded you ; and, lo, lam with 
 you alway, even unto the eni> of the world, Matt, 
 xxviii. 19. 
 
 That this command and promise though imme- 
 diately addressed, were not limited, to the apos- 
 tles, is so obvious as almost to shame an argu- 
 ment. But since we are sometimes required to 
 prove that two and two make four, we remark, 
 
 First. That as the command is to teach all na- 
 tions ; it must spread as far, and last as long as 
 nations shall be found. It is therefore a command 
 to make the Christian religion universal ; and to 
 perpetuate it from generation to generation. 
 
 Secondly. That as the Apostles were shortly to 
 " put off their tabernacles," the command could 
 not possibly be fulfilled by them. It runs parallel 
 with the existence of nations. It must, therefore, 
 be executed by others, in every age, who are to 
 carry on the work which the apostles begun ; and 
 who, by the very terms of the commandment, are 
 identified with them in the general spirit of their 
 commission, which is, to preach the doctrines, 
 
204 Church of God. 
 
 enforce the precepts, and administer the ordi- 
 nances, of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Thirdly. That the promise, " I am with you al- 
 way, even unto the end of the world," cannot with- 
 out palpable absurdity, be restricted to the per- 
 sons, nor to the days of the Apostles. Closely 
 rendered it is, " I am with you always, even until 
 the consummation of the age" i. e. " dispensation."* 
 But what age ? what dispensation ? Either the 
 Jewish, or the Christian. 
 
 Not the Jewish, certainly. It would be very 
 strange if the grace of the Redeemers promise 
 should abide with his apostles till the end of the 
 old dispensation, and run out exactly at the mo- 
 ment when it was wanted for the new one. The 
 " world," therefore, is that " world" which Paul 
 calls " the world to come," (Heb. ii. 5.) i. e. the 
 Christian dispensation. " I have just introduced 
 it," says the master, " and I will be with you to 
 the close of it." The promise, then, as well as the 
 precept, reaches to the end of time ; and, like the 
 precept, embraces a successive ministry to whom 
 our Lord Jesus has engaged the continuance of 
 his gracious presence. 
 
 4th. The Apostles themselves acted upon the 
 principle of a perpetual ministry. « They ordain- 
 ed Presbyters in every church," (Acts xiv. 23.) 
 Paul has left, in his epistles to Timothy and Titus, 
 
 * 'Ews rr\s rfuvreXsiag <rou a«wvo£. 
 
No. Vlll.— Officers. 205 
 
 as a part of the rule of faith and practice, partic- 
 ular directions for the choice of Bishops or Pres- 
 byters and deacons : And in his epistle to the He- 
 brews, (ch. xiii. 17.) he charges these widely scat- 
 tered disciples, to obey their spiritual rulers, un- 
 der this precise idea that they watch, says he, /or 
 your souls as they that must give account. 
 
 5th. The New Testament abounds with predic- 
 tions and warnings of apostacy in the ministers of 
 religion ; which of course, implies the continuance 
 of a ministry. 
 
 6th. The book of Revelation expressly recog- 
 nizes the diffusion of the Gospel, in times yet to 
 come, by the instrumentality of a public ministry, 
 (ch. xiv. 6.) 
 
 Since, therefore, the Head of the church institu- 
 ted a regular ministry in his church thousands of 
 years ago — since he directed his prophets to fore- 
 tell its existence under the new dispensation — 
 since he gave to his apostles a commission which 
 necessarily supposes its perpetuity — since these 
 apostles themselves acted upon that principle in 
 erecting churches — since the rule of faith has 
 given instructions to guide its application — since 
 the prophetic spirit in the last of the apostles has 
 uttered oracles which are founded upon it — no 
 conclusion is more safe and irrefragable than this; 
 that a regular, standing ministry is an essential 
 constituent of the church of God. 
 
206 Church of God. 
 
 This point settled, that our Lord Jesus Christ 
 has instituted a ministry which is to be coeval with 
 his church, we now proceed 
 
 2. To consider the uses, qualifications, and 
 mode of preserving, a standing ministry. 
 
 1st. Its uses. 
 
 The common sense of mankind, in all ages and 
 countries, has taught them, that no system of re- 
 ligion can be maintained and perpetuated, without 
 an order of religious teachers. Search the world 
 over, and you shall not find a nation, civilized or 
 savage, without such an order. The truth or 
 falsehood of the religious system has no imme- 
 diate connexion with this argument. It is found- 
 ed upon a principle which includes the cardinal 
 secret of human improvement — the division of la- 
 bour. In other words, that to ensure excellence in 
 any occupation whatever, it must be confined to 
 a particular class of men, and these men must be 
 confined to it. Set ten individuals to work at ten 
 different species of industry, so that every one 
 shall be employed by turns upon all the ten ; let 
 other ten work at the very same things, but dis- 
 tribute them so as that each of the ten shall have his 
 appropriate employment, never intermeddling with 
 the other nine ; and two effects will follow — First, 
 The produce of each particular species of industry 
 will be incomparably better ; and, Secondly, The 
 aggregate produce of all will be incomparably 
 
No. VIII. — Ministry. — Uses. 207 
 
 greater, upon the second plan than upon the first. 
 That is, the work performed in the ten branches 
 of industry by ten men, each one being limited to 
 a particular branch, will be incomparably superi- 
 our in quality and quantity, to the work performed 
 by the same number of hands labouring promis- 
 cuously in all the branches. Whoever disputes 
 this position, has yet to learn the first letter in the 
 alphabet of human experience. Apply this to the 
 church of God. The religious cultivation of a 
 people upon the principles of revelation, furnishes 
 matter not only for a separate calling; but for a 
 calling which requires subdivision. 
 
 The rules of faith and duty are comprised in a 
 miscellaneous volume, the different parts of which 
 are to be studied, compared, explained, enforced. 
 This is not the work of a novice ; of an occa- 
 sional exhorter; of one who spends six days of 
 the week in a secular employment ; and comes 
 forth on the sabbath to vent his babblings under 
 the name of preaching. Talent, learning, and 
 labour, have found the week short enough for the 
 right preparation of a people's spiritual food, and 
 the discharge of other ministerial functions. In 
 proportion as intellect is strong, knowledge deep, 
 and the habit of application vigorous, is a sense of 
 the ministerial trust impressive and awful. Fee- 
 bleness of mind, and the conceit of ignorance, 
 
203 Church of God. 
 
 make it sit light upon the heart, and frustrate 
 some of its noblest effects. 
 
 Were we not accustomed to absurdities, we 
 should think it unaccountable, that, while the edu- 
 cation of children is an exclusive occupation, the 
 education and direction of children and men both, 
 should ever be merely an incidental matter j and 
 be left to the chance-medley of a fugitive hour! 
 Had Christianity set out upon this maxim, she had 
 never reached the age of one hundred years. Her 
 divine head did not commit her, for a single day, 
 to such irregular and incompetent guidance. 
 Those things which, in later times, are the fruit of 
 patient and painful investigation, were, at the be- 
 ginning of her career, in the East, open to every 
 eye and familiar to every mind. Yet her teachers 
 w r ere a separate order, as the very face of her his- 
 tory in the New Testament shows. If Timothy, 
 who was an extraordinary officer, a native of those 
 regions from which the scriptural allusions and 
 illustrations are taken ; a disciple, too, of an in- 
 spired master, was enjoined to " give himself to 
 reading, to exhortation, to doctrine ;" if he was not 
 to neglect, but to stir up the " gift which was in 
 him, which was given him by prophecy, with the 
 laying on of the hands of the Presbytery"-— If he 
 was to meditate upon these things ; to give him- 
 self wholly to them ; that his profiting might ap- 
 pear to all ;" how can equal diligence and appli- 
 
No. VUl.— Ministry.— Uses. 209 
 
 cation be dispensed with in others who have to 
 encounter much greater difficulties without the 
 same advantage? How dare men, not possessing 
 the hundredth part of the information necessary to 
 elucidate a single chapter of the Bible, which 
 happens to contain matter beyond the simplest 
 rudiments of Christianity, how do they dare, under 
 such circumstances, to ascend the pulpit as ex- 
 pounders of " the oracles of the living God ?" If 
 " the priest's lips must keep knowledge, because 
 he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts," how 
 shall the crude and undisciplined mind " bring 
 forth things new and old ?" It is not possible ; the 
 constitution of God's world forbids, that a man 
 who is busied six days out of seven, in mechani- 
 cal, commercial, or other secular toil, should have 
 his intellect trained to the immensely important 
 and comprehensive duty of instructing his fellow- 
 men in the will of God, and the science of happi- 
 ness. If the diffusion of religious light; if the 
 formation of the moral habits of a community; 
 if the prevention and suppression of errour and 
 vice ; if the consolation of the afflicted ; if the 
 administration of ordinances designed of God as 
 means of eternal life, do not demand an entire de- 
 votedness of those to whom they are intrusted, 
 nothing can. 
 
 It is vain and foolish to dissemble facts. All 
 sound exposition of the scriptures ; i. e. all the 
 
 Vol. IV. 27 
 
210 Church of God. 
 
 pure and steady light of truth which shines in the 
 churches, has been the work of men thus devoted. 
 The discourses of others are, for the most part, 
 mere shreds pilfered from the webs woven by that 
 industry, learning, and talent, which they affect 
 to undervalue. That usurpation of the sacred 
 office, termed lay -preaching, now grown so com- 
 mon, cannot fail, unless a miracle should, invert 
 the course of nature, to degrade, and if it become 
 general, to destroy, the ministry of reconciliation. 
 The enemy could desire nothing more noxious to 
 Christianity, than gradually to expel all cultivated 
 talent from her pulpits ; and to throw her inter- 
 ests into the hands of men self-approved, and self- 
 sent. There is, indeed, an apology, which, though 
 insufficient, cannot be denied to have a founda- 
 tion. Shrewd men, even in vulgar life, hear 
 preachers, who, in the cant prase, have been reg- 
 ularly bred, utter very small discourse ; confine 
 their lucubrations to a few plain points, repeat the 
 same things in the same way, and that none of 
 the best, until every person of a tolerably retentive 
 memory, can tell pretty nearly beforehand, what 
 " entertainment" is to be expected. With such 
 facts habitually before them, they learn to ima- 
 gine that the ministry is no mighty affair; they 
 say, and they say truly, that " they can preach as 
 well themselves ;" and the next step is to try. The 
 people perceive no great superiority or inferiority; 
 
No. VIII. — Ministry. — Uses. 211 
 
 and why should they maintain a man for giving 
 them instruction of no better quality, than they 
 can get for little or nothing ? All this is natural ; 
 and more, it is reasonable. Why, indeed? Let 
 us not pretend to dispute what the world knows 
 to be true. Let us not shut our eyes upon our 
 own disgrace, and the ruin of the Christian cause. 
 
 Pudet hcec opprobria! We have ample ground 
 for humiliation. There are many, many " regu- 
 larly bred" clergy, who are much fitter to make 
 shoes, or buttons, or baskets, than to make ser- 
 mons. No disrespect to any branch of mechan- 
 ical industry ; but every thing in its place. No 
 men can be more out of place, than multitudes 
 who are in the ministry. It was a sad mistake 
 which caused them to stray into the pulpit. How 
 has this happened ? By what fatal perversion has 
 the province of instructing mankind in things per- 
 taining to God and to eternity, fallen so frequently 
 into the hands of the ignorant and stupid? And 
 why, when young men, neither stupid nor ignorant, 
 enter upon it, does the progress of their ministry 
 so little correspond with its original promise ? 
 
 There are two prominent reasons. 
 
 (1.) The miserable provision for their temporal 
 support. 
 
 When men consecrate themselves to the reli- 
 gious weal of a people, and do, by that act, forego 
 the opportunities open to all others, of providing 
 
212 Church of God. 
 
 for themselves and their families, a competent 
 maintenance is the least remuneration which they 
 have a right to claim. It is the dictate of com- 
 mon sense, common justice, and common huma- 
 nity. It is also the express commandment of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. But, notwithstanding these 
 considerations, the ministry is little better than a 
 starving profession. Not one man in twenty, were 
 he compelled to live upon the salary allowed by 
 his congregation, could escape from beggary and 
 rags. The certain effect is, on the one hand, to 
 deter young men of respectable talents from the 
 ministry altogether ; and, on the other, to discour- 
 age, depress and finally to ruin those who are in 
 it already. 
 
 That degree of talent which fits one, so far as 
 intellectual endowments go, for a useful minister 
 of the Gospel, is much rarer than many seem to 
 imagine; and, humanly speaking, has its temporal 
 prosperity in its own power. When other pursuits 
 invite by the promise of not only a maintenance, 
 but of gain, and even of opulence, it is idle, it is 
 unreasonable, to hope that youth of talents, with- 
 out fortune, whatever be their piety, will serve the 
 church of God at the expense of devoting them- 
 selves to infallible penury, and all the wretchedness 
 which belongs to it. They may desire, they may 
 wish; and, in some instances, from that simplicity 
 which never calculates or which flatters itself that 
 
No. VIII.— Ministry.— Uses. 213 
 
 something favourable " will turn up," they may 
 venture : but in general, they must turn away with 
 a sigh from the employment which, of all others, 
 their hearts most long after. Let us not hear of 
 self-denial, spiritual-mindedness, and a heroic indif- 
 ference to worldly things, as characteristic of the 
 true minister of Christ. Self-denial does not mean 
 starving. The spirituality of the father will not 
 stop the cravings of his children when they cry 
 for food ; nor is there any heroism in preferring 
 tatters and a hovel to decent clothing and lodg- 
 ing, when they may be had. It is very convenient, 
 no doubt, for men who are adding house to house, 
 field to field, thousand to thousand, to harangue, 
 in a religious style, on the necessity of a minister's 
 imitating his master, " who had not where to lay 
 his head ;" when the practical inference from all 
 this is in favour of their own pockets. They are 
 wonderfully concerned for spirituality and self- 
 denial to be practised by their ministers; but as 
 to their own share of these virtues; as to their 
 parting with a pittance of their pelf to render him 
 comfortable — why — that is another affair. It is 
 one of the most wicked forms of hypocrisy to 
 plead for the cultivation of a minister's heavenly- 
 mindedness, by way of an apology for cheating 
 him out of his bread. The sin of the neglect 
 complained of is not equally gross in all. In some 
 it proceeds from thoughtlessness ; in others from 
 
214 Church of God. 
 
 incapacity to make a right estimate ; but in most, 
 it is the fruit of downright covetousness. There 
 has been, on this subject, an absurd squeamishness 
 in those whom the Lord has authorized to " live 
 by the gospel." They have borne, and forborne ; 
 they have submitted to every species of sacrifice 
 rather than disoblige their people ; and their only 
 reward has been an accumulation of injuries and 
 cold-blooded contempt. It is time for them to 
 claim their due in a modest, but manly tone ; and 
 throw the fearful responsibility of expelling an 
 enlightened ministry from the church upon those 
 who are able, but not willing, to support it honour- 
 ably. We say an "enlightened" ministry. For 
 we have no conception that niggardly provision 
 will soon strip her of every thing in the shape of 
 a minister. You cannot place the pecuniary 
 recompense so low, as that it shall not be an ob- 
 ject for somebody. Fix your salaries at 50 dollars 
 a-year, and you shall not want candidates. But 
 then they will be fifty-dollar-men. All genius, all 
 learning, all high character, all capacity for exten- 
 sive usefulness, will be swept away ; and rudeness, 
 ignorance, impudence, and vulgarity, will become 
 the religious directors of the nation. The man 
 is blind who does not see matters fast hastening 
 to this issue in the United States. 
 
 In the mean time, such ministers as are better 
 qualified for their stations, are not only decreasing 
 
No. VIII.— Ministry .— Uses. 2 1 5 
 
 in proportion to the population, but with few ex- 
 ceptions, are prohibited from cultivating the pow- 
 ers which they possess. Remote from literary so- 
 ciety ; without libraries ; without leisure to use 
 what books they have ; distracted with anxiety 
 for their immediate subsistence ; doomed to the 
 plough or some other secular business, to keep 
 themselves fed and clothed, their intellect becomes 
 enfeebled ; their acquisitions are dissipated ; their 
 ministry grows barren ; their people indifferent ; 
 and the solid interests of Christianity are gradual- 
 ly, but effectually, undermined. Let the churches 
 be warned. They have long slept on the edge of 
 a precipice ; the ground is caving in below them; 
 and still they are not aware. Not a place of any 
 importance is to be filled without the utmost dif- 
 ficulty. The search must be made from Dan to 
 Beersheeba; often, very often, unsuccessfully; and 
 when successful it is only enriching one church by 
 the robbery of another. The population of our 
 country is increasing with unexampled rapidity ; 
 very incompetent means are used to furnish an ef- 
 ficient ministry ; and the people themselves are 
 throwing the most fatal discouragement in the 
 way. All denominations seem to be engaged in a 
 practical conspiracy to starve Christianity out of 
 the land. Let them tremble at their deeds ; let 
 their loins be loosed, and their knees smite to- 
 
216 Church of God. 
 
 gether, at the bare possibility that they MAY 
 SUCCEED. 
 
 But it is not the people only who are in fault ; 
 for, 
 
 (2.) Much of the guilt of decayed Christianity 
 lies at the doors of the ministers and judicatories 
 of the church. 
 
 It is not arguing for the divine right of a stated 
 ministry; it is not boasting about the excellence 
 of " our church ;" it is not lamenting over the su- 
 pineness of the public, that will cure the evil. It 
 is the procuring a ministry which shall render atten- 
 dance upon their ministrations the interest of both the 
 understanding and the heart. Without this, every 
 effort is vain: and this belongs to Christian judi- 
 catories. Let the world see and feel that there 
 is an immense superiority of the regular over an 
 irregular ministry, and there will be no more lay- 
 preaching ; nor so much difficulty in getting a de- 
 cent support. But it cannot be concealed, that 
 little as congregations give, they often give to the 
 uttermost farthing, " for value received." The 
 mischief is, that the rule of abridgment becomes 
 general, and the " workman who needeth not to 
 be ashamed," must share the fate of him who is 
 no workman at all. Ministers have themselves to 
 blame for much of this evil. They have lowered 
 the standard of ministerial qualifications. They 
 usher into their high office men who have neither 
 
No. V1IL— Ministry.— Uses. 217 
 
 head nor hands for any thing else. The apostolic 
 directions, (in 1 Tim. 3.) are almost totally disre- 
 garded. Instead of " laying their hands suddenly 
 on no man," they have been too much in the habit 
 of laying hands upon every one they can find — 
 novice or no novice — fit to teach or unfit — able to 
 govern or unable ; all are accepted — nothing, or 
 next to nothing, is refused. An absurd tender- 
 ness ; a fear of hurting the feelings of a young 
 man or of his friends ; an infatuated haste to 
 meet " the wants of the churches ;" has poured 
 fourth a stream of ignorance and incapacity, 
 which now threatens to sweep away the harvest 
 it was designed to water. In the degradation of 
 the pulpit ; in the butchery of the scriptures ; in 
 the defaced beauty, and tottering pillars of the 
 Christian fabric, is to be seen the reward of timid 
 indulgence and chimerical hope. If the ministry, 
 as a public order, is to regain its credit, its own 
 mismanagement must be radically cured. 
 
219 
 
 CHURCH OF GOD. 
 
 No. IX. 
 Ministry. — Qualifications. 
 
 The uses of the Christian ministry, which was 
 our first point, are, in several respects, so blended 
 with its qualifications, which is our 
 
 2d point; that we cannot treat of the one with- 
 out demonstrating the other. 
 
 It is the business of a Christian minister to in- 
 struct his people in what they are to believe con- 
 cerning God, and what duty God requires of them. 
 His first qualification, therefore, is piety. 
 
 We are sinners. The characteristic principle 
 in the religion of sinners, that, without which it is 
 absolutely worthless to them, is salvation by a 
 redeemer. Remove this — take away the incar- 
 nation and atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 give us any thing as the ground of our hope but 
 redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins 
 according to the riches of his grace, and there is no 
 more Christianity. Now for men, calling them- 
 
220 Church of God. 
 
 selves ministers of the Lord Jesus, to omit the 
 cross where he gave himself for us, an offering and 
 a sacrifice to God of a sweet-smelling savour ; or to 
 debase the doctrine of the cross so that it shall 
 cease to be our exclusive trust for the pardon of 
 our sin, is to lay the foundation of their ministry 
 in treason to the Son of God. The doom of such 
 unfaithful servants will be marked with peculiar 
 severity and horrour. The Lord, the righteous 
 judge, will require at their hands the blood of their 
 fellow-sinners ; and they shall perish with the per- 
 dition of those who crucify him afresh, and put him 
 to an open shame. 
 
 Less fearful, indeed, but sufficient to strike our 
 souls with alarm and dread, is the condition of one 
 who preaches to others a gospel which he has not 
 believed to his own salvation. What drudgery ! 
 what wearisomeness ! to proclaim a Saviour 
 whom he does not love ! Display the precept and 
 the penalty of the law, he may. Declare the doc- 
 trine of the cross, he may. Expound the Scrip- 
 tures, in general, he may. Defend the truth against 
 its adversaries, he may. But how can he give to 
 every one his portion of meat in due season? 
 How can he feed the sheep ? How feed the lambs 
 of Jesus Christ ? How sympathize with the chil- 
 dren of godly sorrow ? How accompany the pil- 
 grim through the valley of the shadow of death ? 
 How bind up the broken-hearted ? How comfort 
 
 
No. IX. — Ministry. — Qualifications. 221 
 
 others with the consolation wherewith he himself 
 has been comforted of God ? Tor these, the most 
 benignant offices of the evangelical ministry, ta- 
 lent however great, and learning however pro- 
 found, if not sanctified by the grace, if not imbued 
 with the Spirit of Christ, are good for nothing. In 
 speculation a believer, in the efficient principles of 
 character an unbeliever, their possessor will pro- 
 nounce his own judgment. Leaving to apostates 
 their whole pre-eminence of wo, he will find no- 
 thing enviable in his " portion among the hypo- 
 crites, where there shall be weeping, and wailing, 
 and gnashing of teeth." 
 
 Let those who are already in the ministry look 
 to their personal interest in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 " lest, having preached the gospel to others, they 
 themselves be castaways." Let young men who 
 aspire to the sacred office, give all diligence, in 
 the first place, to " make their calling and election 
 sure." Let those to whom pertains the introduc- 
 tion of others into the ministry, endeavour, by all 
 such means as do not imply the judging of a man's 
 state without external evidence, to ascertain the 
 fruits of faith in their candidates for the pulpit. 
 Let parents and friends be extremely cautious in 
 destining a child, or a relative, at a very early 
 age, to the ministry of reconciliation. Let him 
 first, as a condemned sinner, " receive Christ Jesus 
 the Lord ;" and then, as a saved sinner, " walk in 
 
222 Church of God. 
 
 him," before he " profess to testify the gospel of 
 the grace of God." 
 
 But let us not be quoted as countenancing, by 
 any thing we have now said, the arrogance of 
 certain preachers and " gifted brethren," who set 
 themselves up as exclusive judges of grace in their 
 neighbours ; and, with the most offensive self- 
 sufficiency, go about praying for " unconverted 
 ministers." It would do such men no harm to 
 commune now and then with their own hearts ; 
 complying with the advice of Paul to the fastidi- 
 ous teachers at Corinth, who " sought a proof 
 of Christ speaking in him. Examine yourselves, 
 whether ye be in the faith," lest they fall eventually 
 under the reproof administered to those bloated 
 religionists " which say, stand by thyself, come not 
 near to me, for lam holier than thou" 
 
 Piety, however indispensable to the ministry, is 
 not, of itself, an adequate preparation. A man 
 may be a very good man, and yet a very incom- 
 petent teacher. The apostle Paul has positively 
 required that he be " apt to teach;"* i. e. have the 
 faculty of communicating instruction. 
 
 This comprehends 
 
 (1.) X good natural capacity. 
 
 We do not mean that every one who is admit- 
 ted into the ministry ought to be a man of genius. 
 Whatever be suggested by individual vanity, or 
 
 * AiSaxnxos. 1 Tim. iii. 2. 
 
No. IX. — Ministry. — Qualifications. 223 
 
 the partial fondness of friends, genius is so ex- 
 tremely rare, that if it were essential to public of- 
 fice, the Christian pulpit, the bench of justice, the 
 university-chair, or the senatorial seat, would very 
 seldom be occupied. — When it does appear, it is 
 misunderstood, fettered, tortured, and, as far as 
 possible, crushed, by vulgar dulness, by scholastic 
 pedants, by that medium race, the mere men of 
 letters — we wish we were not compelled to add — 
 and, too often, by small Theologians. It will, how- 
 ever, force its own way : and as its proper object 
 and work lie out of the ordinary routine of official 
 life, it cannot enter into the standard of fitness for 
 official employment. On genius, therefore, it is 
 vain to insist, for it cannot be had. But a good 
 natural capacity is much more common, and 
 should be peremptorily required. He who is not 
 apt to learn, will never become apt to teach. 
 Most people imagine that education is to do every 
 thing, and nature nothing. But what is the pro- 
 vince of education? Not to create faculties, but to 
 call them forth. Natural capacity is the material 
 with which education works : It is the soil which 
 she cultivates, and where she sows the seeds of 
 instruction. Expend your utmost labour and skill 
 upon a brick, and you shall never impart to it the 
 polish of marble. Why ? simply for this reason, 
 that it is a brick, and not marble. Let a lad be to- 
 lerably stocked with brain, and his improvement 
 
224 Church of God. 
 
 in the hands of an able preceptor will repay every 
 care, expense, and toil. But if that important 
 article be wanting, it is a hiatus valde deflendus — 
 there is no method of supplying such a lamenta- 
 ble lack. One would think that this is so evident 
 as to be a mere truism. And yet, evident as it is, 
 the incessant introduction into the ministry of 
 men whose natural incapacity renders themselves 
 and their office contemptible, shows that it is 
 practically disregarded. We may not dissemble — 
 the interests in jeopardy are too precious to admit 
 of temporizing — It is too notorious to be denied — 
 the very Christian ministry seem determined to 
 try, upon the largest scale, that most absurd and 
 hopeless experiment, the education of a block- 
 head for public usefulness ! The instances, we be- 
 lieve, are comparatively few in which the pow- 
 ers of a youth are put to any reasonable test in 
 order to ascertain whether, in point of intellect, he 
 is really worth training up for the ministry. Col- 
 lege diplomas, considering the dishonourable fa- 
 cility with which they are granted, are but sus- 
 picious pledges of either knowledge or talent. 
 Some years ago, a young man who had been 
 originally a maker of brooms, and had " studied 
 divinity," as it is termed, for two or three sessions, 
 was exhibiting a specimen of his improvement 
 before a foreign Presbytery ; and acquitted him- 
 self so little to their satisfaction, that they judged 
 
No. IX. — Ministry. — Qualifications. 225 
 
 it necessary to remand him to his first vocation, 
 as more commensurate with his abilities. This 
 decision was announced by a venerable old minis- 
 ter, in the following manner : — " Young man : It 
 is the duty of all men to glorify God. But he calls 
 them to glorify him in different ways, according to 
 the gifts he bestows on them. Some he calls to 
 glorify him by preaching the gospel of his Son; 
 and others, by making besoms, (brooms.) Now, 
 it is the unanimous judgment of this Presbytery, 
 that he has not called you to the ministry, since 
 he has not qualified you for it; and, therefore, that 
 it is your duty to go home to your father, and 
 glorify God by decent industry in making besoms." 
 
 The mode of the old gentleman was, to be sure, 
 somewhat original; but his spirit ought to pervade 
 the church. Would to God he had dropped his 
 mantle, and that it had been borne on the wings 
 of the wind across the Atlantic. If every preacher 
 incompetent, from a gross defect of natural capa- 
 city, were put to the same trade with the young 
 Scotchman, how great would be the increase of 
 brooms ! 
 
 1 Some who have accompanied us thus far, will 
 stop short here, and discover a willingness to dis- 
 pense with acquisitions which were formerly con- 
 sidered as essential to a well-ordered ministry. 
 " Piety," they say, " will keep a man straight upon 
 the main articles of truth ; and strength of mind, 
 
 Vol. IV. 29 
 
226 Church of God. 
 
 though rough and unpolished, will enable him to 
 impart them to others in a plain but impressive 
 manner. This," they will add, " is vastly supe- 
 riour to the drowsy discourse of hundreds who 
 have been through college, have studied divinity, 
 and pass for great scholars." 
 
 We protest, once for all, against learned dul- 
 ness. Little as we delight in solecisms and un- 
 couthness, we will pardon the maulings of Pris- 
 cian's* head by the club of untutored power ; we 
 shall esteem ourselves repaid for an injury to syn- 
 tax, or for a rugged illustration, by nature's pathos 
 and vigour ; when we should loose our patience 
 with solemn insipidity, or doze under the influ- 
 ences of a leaden diploma ; nor deem it any re- 
 compense for the loss of our time, that we w r ere 
 put learnedly to sleep. Yet, bad as this is, it is 
 still worse to suffer the insipidity without the poor 
 consolation of some literature to qualify it — an 
 affliction of much more frequent occurrence than 
 the other. 
 
 But by what sort of artifice do men cozen their 
 understanding into such argumentation as this ? 
 " Talent without education is better than stupidity 
 with it ; therefore, talent ought not to be educa- 
 ted ! !" Here is a colt of excellent points and 
 
 * Priscian, a famous old grammarian. Hence one who violates 
 the rules of grammar, is said to break Priscian's head. 
 
No. IX. — Ministry. — Qualifications. 227 
 
 mettle ; He is worth a score of you dull, blunder- 
 ing jades, that have been in harness ever since 
 they were able to draw ; therefore, he will do very 
 well without breaking ! It is surprising that so 
 many, otherwise discreet persons, will maintain 
 that to be wise and good in the Church of God, 
 which they know to be absurd and mischievous 
 in every thing else. In fact, talent, instead of be- 
 ing exempted from the necessity of cultivation, is 
 alone worth the trouble, and needs cultivation in 
 proportion to its strength. Talents are born, 
 knowledge and skill are acquired, God creates the 
 one ; he has left the other to be obtained by ex- 
 perience and industry. No talent can coin facts ; 
 and without facts it will run to waste. — Without 
 information it has no materials to work upon; and 
 without discipline it will work wrong. The power 
 of doing evil is in exact proportion to the power 
 of doing good. Petty minds produce petty harms 
 and petty benefits. The errours of great minds 
 are great errours, and draw after them deep, wide, 
 and lasting consequences. It is of unutterable 
 moment that they be set right in the beginning. 
 This, in so far as depends upon human exertion, 
 is the province of cultivation, which, of course, 
 makes the 
 
 (2.) Part, of " aptness to teach." 
 
 What ought it to imbrace in a minister of Jesus 
 Christ ? We may distribute it into two branches ; 
 
228 Church of God. 
 
 the first consisting in literary acquirement ; the 
 second, in intellectual and moral discipline. 
 
 When we consider, that the Scriptures are 
 written in languages which have not been spoken 
 for ages — that they contain a succinct epitome of 
 human history, in reference to the plan of grace, 
 from the beginning to the end of time: going 
 backward to the origin of nations, and forward to 
 their extinction : marking by the sure word of 
 prophecy, the various fates of various people, as 
 well as the principle dispensations of providence 
 toward the Church — that they relate events which 
 cannot be vindicated against plausible objection, 
 without painful research into the phenomena of 
 our globe — that they are full of allusions to the 
 works of God and of man — that they exhibit hu- 
 man character under all its varieties, intellectual 
 and moral ; individual and social — that their illus- 
 trations of truth, and formulas of speech are bor- 
 rowed from objects equally strange to our habits 
 and conceptions ; from the face of the country ; 
 from the soil ; from the climate ; from the govern- 
 ments; from the idolatry; from the literature; 
 from the state of domestic society ; from the man- 
 ners of the East — that the language of prophecy 
 is wholly peculiar; being a system of symbols, 
 which, though as certain in themselves, and as 
 reducible to fixed laws of interpretation as any 
 alphabetical language whatever, are perfectly un- 
 
No. IX. — Ministry. — Qualifications. 229 
 intelligible without the study of those laws 
 
 When we consider these things, it is impossible 
 not to perceive that the study of the Bible allows 
 of the widest range of learning ; and that without 
 a respectable portion of it no man can " rightly 
 divide the word of truth." 
 
 Acquaintance with the original tongues is indis- 
 pensable. 
 
 God has delivered his word to us in Hebrew 
 and Greek, which being now, as they are com- 
 monly called, dead languages, are not liable to the 
 fluctuations of a living one. These are the ulti- 
 mate and the unalterable standard of truth, by 
 which every doctrine must eventually be tried. 
 Excellent versions the Churches have ; versions, 
 from which all that is to make us " wise unto 
 salvation," may be learned by the humblest pea- 
 sant or labourer, as certainly as by the accom- 
 plished scholar ; versions, undoubtedly susceptible 
 of improvement ; but which the licentious spirit 
 of the times gives us very dubious promise of re- 
 placing with better. Timeo Danaos — we invari- 
 ably suspect these amended Bibles, which the Isca- 
 riot-bands of professed Christianity are labouring, 
 on both sides of the Atlantic, to thrust into the 
 hands of the unlettered and the simple. # 
 
 * There is a late most audacious attempt to explain away the 
 whole gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ; absolutely 
 stripping it, with the single exception of the doctrine of the resur- 
 
230 Church of God. 
 
 But the excellence of versions does not super- 
 sede the necessity of studying the originals. The 
 very fact, that God has preserved them by a care 
 hardly short of miraculous, would, of itself, estab- 
 lish our position. Why were they committed to 
 dead languages at all ? Why thus carefully pre- 
 served amidst the ruined literature of the world, 
 and the moral midnight of the " dark ages ?" To 
 be thrown, neglected, into a corner ? To be kept 
 as a curiosity to feed the worms, and amuse the 
 antiquary? To be decried by gabbling imperti- 
 nence ; or give the ministers of religion an op- 
 portunity of displaying their sense and spirit, by 
 treating as unworthy of their study, and as beneath 
 their notice, those original volumes which their 
 God has not thought it beneath him to consign, 
 for their use, to the safeguard of his wonder-work- 
 
 rection, of every principle which makes it "glad tidings" to a 
 sinner; substituting in the room of "redemption by the blood of 
 Christ," a barren morality, little if any better than that of the 
 Pagans, who were "without Christ, without hope, and without 
 God in the world ;"f and straining into the "cup of salvation" the 
 distilled venom of Socinian blasphemy. This fatal draught is 
 handed about with incessant assiduity, and put to the lips of the 
 unthinking, that they may " sleep the sleep of death." All this un- 
 der the modest and respectful guise of, " an improved version of the 
 Neio Testament.''' 1 The precedent of such treachery was set long 
 ago. Its author is "gone to his own place," But the "improved 
 version," with its accompaniments, show that his treason has not 
 perished with him. " Betray ye the Son of man with a kiss ?" 
 
 f Eph. ii. 12. 
 
No. IX. — Ministry. — Qualifications. 231 
 
 ing providence ? For ourselves, Ave doubt not that 
 his chief design in permitting the Hebrew and 
 Greek tongues to die away; in protecting the 
 remnants of classical literature, and causing it to 
 revive, was that his blessed book might be read 
 in the original; and that his Church might be 
 able to assert and maintain his truth inviolate, by 
 having direct access to the fountains themselves. 
 And as little do we doubt that the cry which 
 modern times, and especially modern infidels have 
 raised against classical literature, and in which 
 some Christians and Christian ministers have un- 
 wittingly joined, is a deep, though to many an 
 unsuspected" stratagem of hell, to bring the ori- 
 ginal Scriptures into gradual disuse ; and, then, 
 by discrediting the versions, to involve Christian- 
 ity in embarrassment and shame. 
 
 Independently on the argument to be derived 
 from the extraordinary preservation of the sacred 
 records, there are other demonstrations of the 
 necessity of studying them in the original. 
 
 All human works partake of human infirmity ; 
 and are marked with characters of the age in 
 which they are achieved. The remark is univer- 
 sally applicable, because the fact is universally 
 true ; and must be so, as it involves a contradic- 
 tion, or something like one, to suppose it other- 
 wise. The state of the sciences, the style of the 
 fine arts, the very form of handwriting, at a par- 
 
232 Church of God. 
 
 ticular period, are stamped with characters by 
 which the date of performances in them can fre- 
 quently be ascertained, with sufficient precision, 
 many centuries afterwards. If a man write a book 
 which has familiar and frequent references to dif- 
 ferent subjects of human knowledge, these refer- 
 ences must be regulated by the general state of 
 that knowledge ; and if it labour under any ma- 
 terial defects, must participate in those defects. 
 No enormity of genius, no distance of views and 
 discoveries, like those of Bacon and Newton, be- 
 yond the sphere of his contemporaries, will ena- 
 ble him to escape, in all things, the common im- 
 perfection. 
 
 Now the best versions of the Bible are but hu- 
 man works. Stupendous works, indeed, are some 
 of them, all things considered, but still hu- 
 man. They bear strong traces of the state of 
 knowledge upon many subjects at the time when 
 they were made. The effect is, that innumerable 
 passages of Scripture are incorrectly rendered. 
 The vast extension of physical science, of ac- 
 quaintance with Eastern customs, and even of 
 philology, within the last fifty years, has estab- 
 lished a multitude of Scriptural facts ; has cleared 
 up a multitude of obscurities; has rectified mis- 
 renderings and misinterpretations which no integ- 
 rity or perspicacity could once avoid; has deci- 
 sively refuted the objections of enemies. The 
 
No. IX. — Ministry. — Qualifications. 233 
 
 process is still going on, and will continue to go 
 on. For it is the wonderful property of the book 
 of God, that it has never yet been detected in a 
 mistake, even when speaking on those subjects of 
 which the knowledge was either partially or not 
 at all possessed by the penmen. Its enemies have 
 often charged it with ignorance and errour ; but 
 a closer investigation has invariably proved the 
 ignorance and the errour to be their own. # 
 
 * Voltaire, more malignant than Celsus, more impudent, if 
 possible, than Paine, and more witty, peradventure, than all the 
 rest of the goodly brotherhood put together, lost no opportunity of 
 reviling the Scriptures. And if a plump, round lie were now and 
 then necessary to his purpose, as he was not over-nice in his means, 
 he did not permit the want of it to interrupt his " useful labours." 
 Once on a time he made a grand discovery, which was to dock off 
 from the age of the book of Proverbs a handful of centuries, and so 
 prove the book itself to be spurious. He found this good fortune 
 in Chap, xxiii. 31. which the Latin Vulgate renders, " cum splen- 
 duerit in vitro color ejus," i. e. " when its colour," (wine,) " is 
 brilliant in the glass.'" Now, drinkiug-glasses, being, according to 
 Mons. Voltaire, a " very recent invention ;" and being mentioned 
 in this text, it follows that the book of Proverbs is still more recent, 
 or it could not have mentioned them. Unhappily for the " grand" 
 philosopher, the Hebrew original says nothing about glass ; but 
 simply " cup," so that all Mr. V's, argument can prove, at the 
 utmost, is, that the Vulgate translation is later than Solomon ; a 
 most rare discovery ! See the admirable work entitled Lettres de 
 quelques Juifs a M. de Voltaire. Tom. in. p. 324, a performance 
 which plays with the flippant infidel even as grimalkin playeth 
 w r ith an unlucky mouse; and of which the strong sense, superiour 
 learning, grave irony, and blistering wit, threw Voltaire into as 
 
 t Diet. Philos. Art. Salomon. 
 
 Vol. IV. 30 
 
234 Church of God. 
 
 But it is always difficult, and often impractica- 
 ble, to push our advantages without a knowledge 
 of the original. Under such a privation, the ex- 
 pounder or the advocate of revealed truth must 
 trudge painfully on, yielding a blind credence to 
 the assertion of another ; and if, upon any occa- 
 sion, the fidelity or the competency of his guide 
 should happen to be suspected by himself, or im- 
 peached by others, he has no escape from the 
 misery of suspense, or the shame of defeat. But 
 when his acquaintance with the original enables 
 him to measure all criticisms and glosses by that 
 authoritative test, he can take his ground with a 
 promptitude, and keep it with a confidence, se- 
 cond in value only to the ground itself. 
 
 Again. All living languages fluctuate. Old 
 words become obsolete ; new ones are coined ; 
 and of those which remain in vogue, multitudes 
 gradually change their meaning, so as to convey 
 in popular and even classical usage, ideas very dif- 
 ferent from what they expressed a century before. 
 This fluctuation is extensive and rapid nearly in 
 proportion to the varieties of industry, the com- 
 petitions of skill, and the intercourse of nations. 
 
 great a rage, as Beattie's " Essay on Truth," threw the gentle Da- 
 vid Hume. The point of their satire remains unblunted, and their 
 reply to Voltaire unanswerable ; notwithstanding the epithet of 
 " pendant" applied to their author by Mons. Voltaire's distressed 
 editor, fortified, too, by a philosophic quibble. Vid. Oeuvres de 
 Voltaire, Tom. xliii. p. 131. 8vo. 1785. 
 
No. IX. — Ministry. — Qualifications. 235 
 
 Eastern versions of the Bible suffer the least. The 
 Eastern habits and languages being, for obvious 
 reasons, more stable than those of the West. But 
 from the changes which have passed upon the 
 languages of Europe, the vernacular versions, un- 
 derstood according to the present acceptation of 
 their terms, frequently put into the mouth of the 
 sacred writer propositions most foreign to his 
 sense ; and lead the unwary reader into false and 
 hurtful conclusions. Strong examples might be 
 adduced from our English Bible ; but our limits 
 forbid the detail. 
 
 Further. The art of printing has multiplied 
 books, we had almost said, into a nuisance. The 
 multiplication of books has, in its turn, vitiated 
 the art of printing. It has sunk from an employ- 
 ment for talents and erudition, into a mere me- 
 chanical craft. The voracious demand for books 
 rendered this unavoidable. United with the 
 boundless circulation of the Scriptures, with the 
 quick succession of editions, and with the low 
 price at which the copies must be furnished for 
 common use, it has increased the number of typo- 
 graphical errours beyond all count. Some of 
 these are of such a nature as to pervert the mean- 
 ing of the passage, yet to preserve grammar and 
 sense, and to defy correction from the context. 
 Let us mention a curious instance. In 1 Cor. 
 vi. 4. The apostle says, " If ye have judgments of 
 
236 Church of God. 
 
 things pertaining to this life, set them to judge 
 who are least esteemed in the Church !" One of 
 the editions has it, " set them to judge who are 
 best esteemed." A glance at the original detects 
 the mistake. But, setting this aside, no man could 
 tell with certainty, whether we should read " least," 
 or " best ;" and a hundred critical arguments 
 might have been mustered to show that the wrong 
 reading is the better. 
 
 Besides ; there are many things, and those of 
 importance, in every language, which disappear, 
 or rather never appear in a translation. We know 
 that this is doubted, denied, and even laughed at 
 by many. We cannot help it. It is the privilege 
 of ignorance to laugh ; of insincerity, to misrepre- 
 sent; and of captiousness, to doubt. Leaving 
 them in the possession of their several honours, 
 we combine the suffrages of all candid scholars. 
 There is a colouring, a vivacity, a vigour, a com- 
 prehension, a pungency of idiom, a felicity of re- 
 ference in the structure of a word or the peculiari- 
 ty of a phrase, which never can be transferred. 
 There is a clear opening of sense to an eye prac- 
 tised in the original, which a thick cloud mantles 
 the moment it passes into a version. There is a 
 precision of construction obvious to a scholar of 
 taste, the causes of Which are more a matter of 
 feeling than of argument ; and though perfectly 
 decisive, are too delicate to be perceived by the 
 
No. IX. — Ministry, — Qualifications, 237 
 
 uncultivated sense. Yet, in their effects, they 
 tinge and beautify the whole discussion of a 
 subject. 
 
 In conclusion. The adversaries of evangelical 
 truth and hope, are much addicted to the practice 
 of assailing our faith through the medium of criti- 
 cism. What they want in solidity, they make up 
 in boldness and in show. When you press them 
 with the subject, they will criticise all your heavy 
 matter away into the thin air of metaphor ; little 
 concerned if, in following up their principle, they 
 criticise God himself into a figure of speech. 
 When you press them with a plain text, they will 
 flout at the translation, abuse the translators, and 
 hear nothing but the original When you produce 
 the original, as little to their comfort as the trans- 
 lation, they smell a corruption in the text, and it 
 must be purged by manuscripts ; any manuscript 
 being good enough to amend or discard an ortho- 
 dox expression. When the manuscripts are re- 
 bellious, which commonly happens, unphilosophi- 
 cal Christians as they are, they must receive the 
 castigation of critical acumen, i. e. the guesses of 
 an Arian or Socinian mender of the Bible, are to 
 sway our consciences in the question of heaven 
 and eternal life ; or we are to be degraded from 
 the rank of rational believers to the pitiable plight 
 of bigots, fanatics, and simpletons. 
 
 To repress this effrontery, and to shield the 
 
238 Church of God. 
 
 community from the assaults of this rabid fury ; as 
 well as to meet the several exigencies enumera- 
 ted above, there is no effectual means but the 
 living teacher skilled in the original tongues, and 
 imbued with the correspondent learning. The 
 times awfully demand it. And if such employ- 
 ment does not require a separate profession for 
 the ministry, and able and educated men in it, 
 there is not, and cannot be, a human occupation 
 to which every human being is not always and 
 every where equally competent. 
 
239 
 
 CHURCH OF GOD, 
 
 No. X. 
 
 Ministry. — Qualifications. 
 
 To a critical knowledge of the original tongues, 
 a scribe well instructed in the kingdom of God 
 must add an extensive acquaintance with facts 
 necessary for explaining scriptural subjects. 
 
 These facts are greatly diversified in their na- 
 ture, and are to be gathered from various provin- 
 ces of human research. The more immediately 
 important may be classed under the general heads 
 of historical and physical facts. 
 
 To the historical class belong — 
 
 1. Annals ; which record distinguished events, 
 ecclesiastical, civil, political, military, commercial, 
 &c. 
 
 2. The government, resources, and institutions 
 of a country. 
 
 3. The biography of famous individuals. 
 
 4. Public and private customs and manners. 
 
240 Church of God. 
 
 5. The state of the sciences, of literature, and 
 of the arts. g 
 
 The physical class comprehends facts relating, 
 
 1. To the system of the world — 
 
 2. To those phenomena, the study of which 
 forms, what is commonly called, Natural Philo- 
 sophy ; and in which the progress will be short 
 and slow without the help of mathematics — 
 
 3. To natural geography, geology, &c. 
 
 4. To the natural history of animals, especially 
 of man. 
 
 The catalogue might easily be enlarged; for 
 there is no department of human knowledge or 
 skill which does not furnish something of value to 
 a good Divine. The design of the foregoing spe- 
 cification is merely to exhibit a summary of things 
 which embrace copious details, and with which 
 an accomplished and well-armed theologian ought 
 to be conversant. An adept in all of them he can 
 hardly become; but such an acquaintance with 
 them as shall enable him to turn their lights in 
 upon obscure parts of the holy writings ; and to 
 dissipate the artificial darkness created by the foe, 
 he may and should acquire. 
 
 " And can so much human learning — such vo- 
 lumes of history — such long narratives of political 
 things and political men — so much natural philo- 
 sophy, and astronomy, and geography, and all the 
 rest of it, be necessary to preach the Gospel of 
 
No. X. — Ministry. — Qualifications. 241 
 
 salvation ? Cannot a minister prove from the Bible 
 that men are lost and perishing, but he must fetch 
 his arguments from the story of kings and king- 
 doms whereof not one of his audience in twenty 
 ever heard the names ? Can he not tell them of 
 Jesus Christ, without telling them of Alexander 
 the Great, or Mahommed, or Genghis Khan? 
 Can he not display the grace of God, without the 
 diagrams of Euclid ? nor treat on scriptural sym- 
 bols, without an algebraical equation ? May 
 not his doctrine be heavenly, unless he calculate 
 eclipses ? And must he be unable to dig for the 
 hidden treasures of wisdom, without plunging into 
 the belly of a mountain, or the bottom of the sea ? 
 Where did the Apostles get such qualifications ? 
 What had your human learning to do with the 
 4 mouth and wisdom' with which Peter and John, 
 two ignorant and unlearned men, put to silence all 
 the Rabbis of the Sanhedrim ? By what means 
 do numbers of the most devoted, faithful, and 
 successful labourers in the Lord's vineyard, make 
 full proof of their ministry, and commend them- 
 selves to every man's conscience in the sight of 
 God ?" 
 
 Against such glowing interrogation, reason 
 wages an unequal war. Confounding and jum- 
 bling together things which have no alliance ; 
 tacking an absurd conclusion to an acknowledged 
 truth, and pressing the fiction home upon the un- 
 Vol. IV. 31 
 
242 Church of God. 
 
 tutored mind with an air of pious triumph, it can- 
 not fail of persuading multitudes, who fancy they 
 are convinced because they are amazed ; and, 
 arguing much more from their wonder than from 
 their understanding, become the intractable con- 
 verts of zeal without knowledge. 
 
 Our reply is short. 
 
 The Apostles furnish no precedent. All their 
 defects were supplied by the inspiration of the 
 Holy Ghost. What progress would they have 
 made without it ? It will be time enough to quote 
 them when we are placed in their circumstances, 
 and can claim their supernatural aids. Let the 
 Spirit of God be the miraculous instructor, and 
 we shall immediately dispense with human learn- 
 ing. In that case we will leave the feet of Gama- 
 liel, and hang upon the lips of a fisherman or a 
 scavenger. Till then, we hold ourselves excused. 
 But it is with the worst possible grace that we 
 are referred to the Apostles as patterns of an illi- 
 terate ministry, when the Holy Ghost was at the 
 pains to teach them, by miracle, things of which 
 we are confidently told the Christian ministry have 
 no need whatever ! 
 
 As little can be gained by the examples of an 
 illiterate ministry in later times and among our 
 selves. 
 
 That a plain, uneducated man, of good native 
 sense, may unfold the elementary, which are the 
 
No. X. — Ministry, — Qualifications. 243 
 
 essential, doctrines of the cross, with propriety, 
 with interest, and with effect — that God has often 
 used, and still uses, the ministry of such men in 
 calling sinners to the fellowship of his Son Jesus 
 Christ, is both true and consolatory. Nay, he 
 has made individuals, alike destitute of informa- 
 tion and of talent, the instruments of conversion 
 and confirmation to other individuals of superiour 
 minds and attainments. But we are not, there- 
 fore, to pick out all the unlearned lackbrains 
 among Christians, and set them to instruct the 
 men of sense and education. God's sovereignty 
 over-rules our infirmities, our mistakes, and even 
 our follies, for the production of good; when, 
 without his interposition, they could have pro- 
 duced nothing but evil. Yet this does not alter 
 the nature of things. It magnifies, by contrast, 
 the greatness of God ; but shows no respect to 
 the littleness of man. Our infirmity is infirmity 
 still; and our follies are follies still. They are 
 not converted into strength, correctness, and 
 wisdom — nor are they to be repeated by us — be- 
 cause God has graciously controlled them for our 
 own benefit and the benefit of others. Talent is 
 his gift ; learning is obtained by the favour of his 
 auspicious providence. His people are under a 
 sad delusion when they affect to despise his 
 bounty; and to honour that which it is given to 
 destroy — we mean — Ignorance. He is also a 
 
244 Church of God. 
 
 sovereign. He may do as it pleaseth him. He 
 can fit his instruments for their work. But his 
 sovereignty is no rule of our action ; and we must 
 take instruments as we find them ; i. e. such as 
 he has made them. When we come with our 
 offerings, we must bring of our best. As we can- 
 not change the nature of means, we are bound to 
 select those, which are, in themselves, best cal- 
 culated to insure the end. Now ignorance is not 
 so well adapted to instruct as knowledge is : nor 
 can stupidity acquire or apply knowledge as talent 
 can. God employed an ass to rebuke the mad- 
 ness of a prophet; but it does not follow that 
 other asses are destined to a similar office ; and 
 are expected to bray as often as they encounter 
 a prophet. We have no objection that modern 
 Balaams shall be put to the same school ; but we 
 must first see the same power exerted to qualify 
 the Teacher and enable the " dumb ass to speak 
 with man's voice ;" or we shall heartily join in 
 requiting the noise of His Dumbness with a sound 
 cudgelling; the precedent in the book of Num- 
 bers to the contrary notwithstanding. 
 
 If good is effected by ignorant imbecility, the 
 true conclusion is, that means make no difference 
 when God chooses to act; as all difficulties are 
 equal, that is, are nothing, to omnipotence. But 
 we abuse our reason ; injure the truth ; and affront 
 the holy one, when, from such a fact we conclude, 
 
No. X. — Ministry. — Qualifications. 245 
 
 whether formally or practically, that we are to 
 clothe ignorance and imbecility with the authori- 
 ty, and assign them the duties of knowledge and 
 power. We tacitly put ourselves on a level with 
 God ; we indirectly assert our omnipotence. Grant, 
 as we cheerfully do, that, through the divine 
 blessing, good has often been done, and much 
 good too, by persons whom we should have pro- 
 nounced unfit, on account of either talent or lite- 
 rature, or both, for the ministry of reconciliation 
 — Does it follow, that, with the same blessing 
 upon proper qualifications, the good would not 
 have been much greater ; especially as we do not 
 argue on the supposition of miracles ? It is a law 
 of God's own enacting, and it is kept in operation 
 by his continual agency, that all bodies shall gra- 
 vitate, or tend in their motion, toward the center 
 of the earth. But will a feather, therefore, over- 
 come the resistance of the air as easily, and fall 
 to the ground as rapidly, as a stone, seeing they 
 are both acted upon by the same force ? God pre- 
 serves, by his Spirit, the functions of the animal 
 economy. Shall, therefore, a kitten draw as much 
 as a horse ? It is his visitation which sustains 
 our spirits. Shall the brains of a fool perform, on 
 this account the intellectual exploits of genius ? 
 The analogy is perfect, because the principle is 
 universal, pervading all the divine constitutions 
 with which we have any acquaintance. The ar- 
 
246 Church of God. 
 
 gument which it furnishes on the point before 
 us, is irresistible ; concluding with the force of 
 nearly mathematical evidence, against the no- 
 tion we are combatting; and demonstrating that, 
 other things being equal, the most intelligent min- 
 istry will bring most glory to God, and most hap- 
 piness to men. In the mean time, let Christian 
 ministers and judicatories ponder solemely the 
 principle of the following extract from the prophet 
 Malachi : Ye brought that which was torn, and the 
 lame, and the sick ; thus ye brought an offering. 
 Should I accept this of your hand? saith Jehovah. 
 But cursed be the deceiver which hath in his flock a 
 male, and voweth and sacrificeth unto Jehovah a 
 corrupt thing ! For I am a great king, saith the 
 Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the 
 heathen. This fearful commination is levelled 
 against the priests who profaned Jehovah's name. 
 And the profanation consisted precisely in their 
 consecrating to him the worse, when they might 
 have consecrated the better. " He that hath ears 
 to hear, let him hear !" 
 
 But all such declamation is founded upon a 
 supposition which is manifestly false : viz. that a 
 minister of the Gospel has nothing to do in his of- 
 ficial instructions, but to insist upon the simplest 
 doctrines of the Gospel in their simplest form. 
 That they have been very extensively habituated 
 to this practice'where vital religion is cherished, 
 
No. X. — Ministry. — Qualifications. 247 
 
 admits of no dispute. But that the habit is a 
 good one, admits of much. We institute no com- 
 parison between always preaching the simple 
 truths of Christ, and not preaching them at all, or 
 preaching them very seldom, and very slightly. 
 When my own conduct is criminated, it is no jus- 
 tification to plead that my neighbour's is worse. 
 The evil to which we object, solemnly and deci- 
 sively object, is, the keeping Christian people in 
 a state of perpetual childhood. God has charged 
 us to " leave the principles of the doctrines of 
 Christ, and go on to perfection." He has forbid- 
 den us to be continually occupied in " laying the 
 foundation of repentance from dead works ; of 
 faith toward God; of the doctrine of baptisms; 
 of laying on of hands ; of resurrection of the 
 dead ; and of eternal judgment." Yet it is not to 
 be questioned ; the fact is clear as day, that the 
 mass of evangelical ministers never build above 
 the " foundation;" never get out of the principles 
 or mere rudiments of Christianity. Take what 
 text of the Bible they will, you always find them 
 teaching some one or other of these " rudiments;" 
 always working at some part or other of this foun- 
 dation. We do not blame them for this ; but for 
 doing nothing else. For seldom or never rising 
 in their instructions higher than those things which 
 the veriest novices in religion understand almost 
 as well as themselves. There is little consultation 
 
248 Church of God. 
 
 of the wants of different classes : little distribution 
 of his portion to every one in due season. There 
 is milk for babes. Good. Let the milk never be 
 withheld : but there should be more. There is 
 no meat for strong men. It is milk, milk, milk. 
 This is the complaint. The effect is, that Chris- 
 tian knowledge is very scanty, and Christian at- 
 tainments very low : so that hundreds and thou- 
 sands of our most pious people are ready to be 
 tossed about with every wind of doctrine which 
 does not blow them out the precincts of their ele- 
 mentary principles. There are few incitements 
 to study the Bible. With the exception of some 
 doctrinal passages and moral precepts, it is a 
 book of darkness. Some parts of it are even fall- 
 ing into neglect, and comparative contempt. 
 
 Hence the facility with which dissentions mul- 
 tiply, and all manner of sects and pretenders draw 
 away disciples after them. Such is the effect. 
 The immediate cause we have stated. The pri- 
 mary and efficient cause is more remote. It is in 
 the defective training of the ministry it self. We 
 speak it boldly ; because it is a most serious, and 
 a most seasonable, though a painful and unpopu- 
 lar truth. Incapacity we lay aside : but we can- 
 not too deeply lament that where there is not this 
 incurable malady, yet, partly from want of previous 
 preparation, and partly from want of means to 
 pursue their studies after entering upon their 
 
No. X. — Ministry. — Qualifications. 249 
 
 functions, the ministers themselves cannot enrich 
 their public instructions. The Bible is not ex- 
 pounded ; it cannot be expounded — It is not un- 
 derstood; it cannot be understood by men without 
 learning, however respectable their native powers. 
 Who can illustrate the modes of speech used by 
 the scripture, its allusions, its similes, its parables, 
 its symbols, unimbued with the knowledge of 
 Eastern climate, customs, arts, and institutions ? 
 Who can trace and show the accomplishment of 
 prophesy, without large historical inquiry ? Who 
 can repel the attacks, and wipe off the aspersions 
 of unbelievers, if he be a stranger to those re- 
 searches from which the attacks derive their force, 
 and the aspersions their filth ? The thing is im- 
 possible. In honest truth, the bible is to most of 
 our clergy a sealed book. Their ignorance is un- 
 suspected, because they have, for the most part, 
 to deal with men more ignorant than themselves. 
 But it is not to be conceived how few are the in- 
 stances in which they could satisfy decent and 
 proper questions, compared with those which 
 should put them to silence. Here is the true se- 
 cret of that limited sort of preaching which so 
 generally prevails in our pulpits. Our ministry 
 cannot help themselves. They do not know any 
 thing else. Their communications run the length 
 of the matter which they have to communicate. 
 Even the fiercest decriers of human learning never 
 Vol. IV. 32 
 
250 Church of God. 
 
 forget to display every patch and shred of it which 
 they accidentally pick up. None more sure to 
 turn up the bottom of their treasury than them- 
 selves. If any of them chance upon a smattering 
 of letters, his light shall never expire under a 
 bushel : the world shall be in no danger of losing 
 the benefit of his lore. And though in thrusting 
 it out upon his hearers he slander his authorities, 
 by murdering their sense and their names together, 
 he shall be admired as a prodigy, and revered as 
 an Apostle. Say the ministers of religion what 
 they will, if they employ no learning in their minis- 
 trations, it is because they have none to employ : 
 and it is adding deception to misfortune, to play 
 off their inability under the mask of a higher de- 
 gree of spirituality of mind, and a purer desire of 
 glorifying the divine teaching. 
 
 The evil is alarming ; it is enormous. It has so 
 overgrown our country, and is so deeply rooted, 
 that its eradication by human effort is at best pro- 
 blematical. So long, and so commonly have both 
 ministers and people been accustomed to it, that 
 it is hard to convince many of them of its being 
 an evil at all. The standard of ministerial cha- 
 racter has been gradually lowered down from its 
 once imposing elevation to the level of every volu- 
 ble and boisterous prater. That which w r as for- 
 merly considered as the acquisition " of children 
 and those of weaker capacity," is now, with many. 
 
No. X. — Ministry. — Qualifications. 251 
 
 the ministerial attainment. The Churches have 
 begun to reap the fruits of that tree which their 
 own apathy and parsimony have nourished, if not 
 planted. The bitter morsel has been only tasted 
 hitherto. The meal of gall and wormwood is yet 
 to come. Let them not deceive themselves. The 
 period of desolation is at hand. They have been 
 warned and entreated, years and years together, 
 to provide for the suitable education of their min- 
 istry i and they have been deaf as adders to the 
 voice of expostulation. Slow-paced retribution 
 has begun her march, and will fulfil her work. 
 Even riow, the United States must be searched 
 through for a single man fit to occupy a post of 
 eminence or of danger ; and the dearth threatens 
 to increase. Let us not have the lullaby of Peace, 
 peace, when fearful facts thicken upon us every 
 hour. If the same apathy shall continue; if stren- 
 uous exertions be not speedily, extensively, and 
 perseveringly used, there will be no averting the 
 ruin. Things must rush on from bad to worse, 
 till the truth of the Gospel is corrupted, its glory 
 obscured, and its power withdrawn, an horrour of 
 thick darkness overspread the land. 
 
 " Knowledge is power," in the same sense in 
 which every other instrument may be denomina- 
 ted power ; viz. as a means to an end. By itself 
 it is as inefficient as any material weapon what- 
 ever. The weapon is useless without a hand to 
 
252 Church of God. 
 
 employ it. No better is knowledge detached from 
 a sound head. It would be wasting time to prove 
 that mere learning is among the most feeble and 
 inert of human things. Prodigies of erudition are 
 frequently destitute of common sense ; and, in the 
 practical business of life, in all that relates to the 
 direction of men, are more impotent than chil- 
 dren. Such reservoirs of unassorted facts answer 
 one good purpose, and only one; they furnish 
 materials for those who can think. Heavy plod- 
 ding industry must be content with the useful pro- 
 perty, and the humble praise, of a pioneer for 
 brain. Learning, therefore, although indispensa- 
 ble to an " ability to teach," will not of itself, im- 
 part that ability. To give it its proper effect two 
 things are necessary : 
 
 1. Good sense. 
 
 2. Good sense well disciplined. 
 
 On the first we have already expressed our opi- 
 nion ; but its great importance will excuse a few 
 additional remarks. 
 
 Were we reduced to the alternative of choosing 
 between good sense without learning, and learn- 
 ing without good sense, we should not hesitate 
 for a moment. Good sense, alone, will be always 
 respectable ; learning, alone, almost always ridic- 
 ulous. No being is so credulous, so easily duped, 
 so regularly absurd, so good for nothing upon an 
 emergency, so utterly incapable of conducting 
 
No. X. — Ministry. — Qualifications. 253 
 
 affairs, as a man whose memory is stored with all 
 manner of information, yet is destitute of under- 
 standing to use it rightly. Whenever he comes 
 into collision with native vigour, however uncul- 
 tivated, he is sure to provide the means of his 
 own overthrow. He brings forth his learning with 
 the confidence of victory, and is amazed to find 
 his artillery wrested from him, and turned instan- 
 taneously upon himself. Without the sagacity to 
 perceive his error, he is in danger of repeating it 
 as often as he turns disputant. A fact is to him 
 a fact; and the odds are infinitely against him, 
 that out of the million facts at his command, he 
 shall select the one least likely to serve him, and 
 that when, by the misapplication of one part of his 
 learning he has drawn himself into difficulty, he 
 will be unable, with all the rest of it to draw him- 
 self out again. The Christian story is full of ex- 
 amples of this mismanagement. Even the pulpit, 
 where the preacher ought at least to be consider- 
 ate, is doomed to dishonour, when occupied by 
 indiscretion. There are many subjects which 
 must be handled, but which require caution, dex- 
 terity, and delicacy. 
 
 Men of great literature, and even of good man- 
 ners, who never offend against modesty, make 
 most absurd mistakes in delivering to one audience 
 discourses fit for another of entirely different char- 
 acter. They are very apt to do so, if they have 
 
254 No. X. — Ministry. — Qualifications. 
 
 allowed themselves to be absorbed in a particu- 
 lar theme. Their favourite must be the favourite 
 of all the world. Abstruse demonstrations, which 
 years of study have rendered familiar to them- 
 selves, must, of course, be evident to the mechan- 
 ic and the husbandman. An English divine, who 
 was deeply enamoured of the study of Opticks, 
 and was a very distinguished proficient in all its 
 minutiae, could scarcely preach on a text in the 
 bible without sliding into his darling discussions. 
 Accordingly, having to preach to a plain country 
 congregation in Kent, he lectured them with much 
 pith and animation, on his dioptricks, and catop- 
 tricks, his refractions, reflexions, and angles of inci- 
 dence. They were greatly edified, no doubt ; and 
 the preacher was much delighted. It happened, 
 however, that in going from church to the house 
 of a substantial farmer, his host thus accosted 
 him. " Doctor, you have given us an excellent sermon 
 to-day : but I believe you made one mistake." " Mis- 
 take /" exclaimed the Dr. " Sir, that is impossible, 
 it was all demonstration ! /" " True, your Reverence," 
 quoth Hodge, " but them there things that you 
 preached so much about you called HopsTWKs ; now 
 in our country, here in Kent, we call 'emii/ojo-poLES." 
 We think we have heard, in the course of our 
 lives, sermons nearly as well adapted to time 
 and place, and quite as instructive to the people. 
 The injudicious treatment of types, parables, 
 
Church of God. 255 
 
 and all figurative language, has been so common, 
 that it ceases to surprise and almost to displease. 
 Habit gradually renders us insensible to faults 
 which, at first, strike us with great force ; and the 
 unquestioned piety of many public teachers serves 
 as a mantle for even their absurdity. In every 
 walk of life, superiors will be imitated by inferiors. 
 Blemishes are much more easily copied than ex- 
 cellence; and when the aberrations of thought 
 have imparted respectability to a bad taste, the 
 evil becomes almost incurable in minds of a se- 
 condary order. The irregular sportings of an 
 active and untrained imagination, seduce, by their 
 glare, the footsteps of imitation ; and, what was, 
 in the original, a splendid defect, becomes in the 
 copy an unpardonable offence. Thus have suc- 
 cessive generations of preachers regularly improv- 
 ing upon bad models, displayed their ingenuity in 
 marring the beauty of the Scripture, in destroying 
 the harmony of its parts, in breaking off the fine 
 points of its most exquisite passages ; and when 
 they have committed all these ravages, and con- 
 verted the book of God into a book of quibbles 
 and conundrums, they please themselves with the 
 self-flattery of having performed wonders of in- 
 struction and edification. Typical and figurative 
 texts must be hunted to death. The more points 
 of resemblance, the abler, of course, is the preach- 
 er ; and the more he can find in a figure than 
 
256 No. X. — Ministry. — Qualifications. 
 
 other people can, the more, are they taught to 
 believe, do they see of the fulness of the Scrip- 
 tures. How he made his discoveries, is a question 
 which few think of asking. The marvellous has 
 a patent for a sort of implicit faith. For the many, 
 it is sufficient that he made them ; sagaciously 
 concluding that if the wonders had not been there, 
 he could not have found them. There is, indeed, 
 one consolation, and it is not a small one, that 
 preachers who love the precious doctrines of the 
 cross, will preach what is true in itself, however 
 they may desert or mangle their texts. Yet this 
 is no excuse for coupling with it all manner of 
 nonsense, and fathering it upon the wisdom of 
 God. 
 
 The most insufferable departure from the prin- 
 ciples of sound exposition is that perversion of the 
 plain facts of the Bible which is called spiritualizing 
 them. As if there were not passages enough 
 which contain fairly and unequivocally, according 
 to the laws of proper construction, every doctrine 
 of the Gospel ! as if the Spirit of God had not 
 made his own book spiritual enough ! 
 
 It is inconceivable what havoc this species of 
 mania, for it deserves no better name, has made 
 in the sober and dignified lessons of divine revela- 
 tion. And it shows how powerful is the influence 
 of an irrational fashion, when even great men are 
 swept by it into the bog of absurdity. Massillon's 
 
Church of God. 257 
 
 sermon on the impotent folk around the pool of 
 JBethesda, with all its eloquence, cannot escape 
 from this censure. We have before us a thing 
 called a sermon, prepared for the press too; 
 which is a morceau in this kind of skill. 
 
 The author takes for his subject the history of 
 Ehud's adventure when he killed Eglon, the king 
 of Moab, and delivered Israel. After pathetically 
 lamenting, in his introduction, the blindness of 
 those who perceive in the context nothing but a 
 plain history, he proceeds to unfold the mysteries 
 which unveiled themselves to his eye. Every 
 thing is transformed into a type. Ehud is a type ; 
 his dagger is a type ; his left-handedness a type ; 
 the quarries by which he passed a type. In a 
 word, he and his adventure are types of Christ and 
 his providence. Eglon, too, is a type ; a type ot 
 Satan ; his big belly, fat, dirt, and all. But how 
 was Eglon's/otf typical of Satan ? You may won- 
 der, reader, but if you have any sense, you will 
 
 never guess Why even thus. Satan is the god 
 
 of this world ; he works in the children of disobe- 
 dience. These children of disobedience are a 
 vast multitude. The whole of them together serve 
 as a body for Satan ; so that he is a fat devil in- 
 deed ! We are not caricaturing. We are relating 
 a simple fact without exaggeration, and even below 
 the truth ! And this vile gibberish must be palmed 
 upon plain people as spiritual preaching ! Another 
 
258 No. X. — Ministry. — Qualifications. 
 
 sample occurred in a discourse upon Gen. xxix. 2. 
 where Jacob is related to have " looked, and be- 
 hold, a well in the field ; and lo ! there were three 
 flocks of sheep lying by it." This is all type. — 
 The three flocks typify the three dispensations, to 
 wit, the Patriarchal, the Mosaic, and the Chris- 
 tian. The well, too, is typical. And the preacher 
 having desired his hearers carefully to observe 
 that the " well was in the field," broke out into 
 this edifying exclamation, " What a mercy, my 
 brethren, that the field was not in the well! /" 
 
 We have quoted strong cases, but not stronger 
 than others we could quote. They are the genuine 
 consequences of that vicious mode of parodying 
 the Bible, from which good sense is the only pre- 
 servative. Considering how much of this harle- 
 quin trumpery is bandied about in the Church un- 
 der the garb of spiritual preaching, it is little short 
 of a miracle that the religion of Christ Jesus is not 
 burlesqued out of the world.* 
 
 * This number was never finished by the author. Nor has any 
 paper been found, containing his thoughts upon "the mode of pre- 
 serving, a standing ministry," which was to form the last topic of 
 this series. — Ed. 
 
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