^Y OF PRlNCfJgN. ^OtOGICAL SEconverted 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 should betray him; and yet permitted the infidel to mingle in his trains to continue in his service, to share the honours of his sincere followers; and never cast him off till he had proved his rottenness 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 different 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 preroga- tive of exploring secret motives, " I, Jeho- vah, search the heart. I try the reins." And it is a source of ineffable consolation that none but himself can try them. The obtrusion of the creature is completely barr- ed out by his own unchangeable constitution. 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 my- 56 CHURCH OF GOD. self inform them by my own act. Whoever, therefore, maintains that the reality of con- version is the reason of admissian to Chris-- tian privilege, lays down a rule which never can be applied. There aris none who furnish more conclusive evidence of its nullity, 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 reve- lation either 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 transac- tions ; and consequently would never be im- posed upon. But to such lengths they do not pretend to go : that is, they proclaim the falsi- ty of their own doctrine, and the futility of their own rule. How dare they who cannot detect a perjury in the custom-house, or a lie in the shop, represent themselves as able to detect hypocrisy in religious profession ? It is foolish conceit; it is contemptible quack- ery. Take notice how they use their own rule. They get a man to recount his experi- ence. 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 ? CHURCH OF GOD. 57 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, nothing is so amazing about them as their effrontery. All sober men should eschew them as jugglers and impostors. An astrologer who casts nativities from the as- pect 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 Chris- tianity^ is all that the church may require in order to communion. She may be deceiv- ed; 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 prin- ciple now laid down is inseparable from hu- man nature, and pervades every form of 58 CHURCH OF GOD. human society. Examine 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 govern- ment. When one becomes a member of a hterary, a mechanical, a benevolent, or any other association, he accedes to its constitu- tion 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 ac- counted, "good men and true," till they for- feit their reputation and their immunities by some criminal deed. Who doubts that indi- viduals unfaithful in heart to their engage- ments, are scattered through all these combi- nations? Yet who would deem it better than madness to decide on their external relations without a warrant from external acts? What horrible confusion would follow a departure from this maxim? Nothing 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 principle 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 covenant- CHURCH OF GOD. 59 ed seed, and of handing down their blessings to the end of time. But the second and principal channel of conveyance is hereditary descent. The re- lations and benefits of the covenant are the birthright of every child born of parents who are themselves of "the seed." " I will establish/' says God, " my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant.'' The substance of which, to repeat a preced ing proposition, manifestly is, that as soon as a new individual is generated from this seed, he is within the covenant, and, according to its tenor, God is his God. This is a charac- teristic 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 un- der 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-mere \\ He has the faithfulness of God pledged to him, as one of Noah's covenanted seed, that tho world shall not be drowned by a second deluge; nor visited by another calamity to exterminate his race. Now, what imaginable reason can be as- signed, why, in the covenant with his visible Church, the uniform and consistent God should depart from his known rule of dispen- sation, and violate all the natural and moral 60 CHURCH OP GOD. 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 of Pentecost. But what was in the ministry of the Baptist? What in the minis- try 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 demon- strated, the covenant with Abraham and his seed was a covenant with the visible Church — if this covenant has never been abrogated — if its relations and privileges, with an ex- ception in favour of adults who desired to come in on the profession of their faith, were to be propagated in the line of natural gene- ration, THEN, it follows, that the infant seed of persons who are under this covenant, are themselves parties to it ; are themselves mem- bers 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; there- fore, at this moment, the covenant privileges of the infant seed are in force. Visible mem- bership is one of those privileges ; therefore the infant seed of church-members are also members of the church. However men may corrupt and have cor- CHURCH OF GOD. 61 rupted 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 government, they are compelled to see the principle here contended for, opera- ting, with irresistible force, every hour be- fore their eyes. For whether they will, or whether they will not, the fact is, that the Church of God, with an exception before mentioned, ever has been, and is now, pro- pa'gated by hereditary descent. There is not, perhaps, in any nation under heaven that has been once Christianized, 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 beware how, in opposing infant church-membership, we fight against a principle which is wrought into the essence of all God's constitutions respecting man. ESSAY IV. IMTIATIXG SEAL. On the "sign of circumcision'^ which God annexed to his covenant with Abraham, as " a seal of the righteousness of faith,'' some remarks have already been made. In its im- mediate reference to the Patriarch's seed, it certified that they belonged to the Church of God, and were entitled to all the privileges 62 CHURCH OF GOI>. which she derived immediately 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 them- selves circumcised, and imparted to their chil- dren all the prerogatives of a native Hebrew. On the supposition, then, that circumcision had 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 consequences follow. First, That there is no longer any initia- tory 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 un- der the operation of an nnsealed covenant ; that is, that God has withdrawn the sensible pledge of his covenant relation to. her. If it be said that Baptism is appointed to be the initiatory seal under the New Testament dis- pensation, and is directed to be applied to believing adults, the plea is true; but it con- CHURCH OF GOD. 63 cedes 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, distinct from that church which is composed of the elect only. (2.) As he has never made a neiv visible church; nor drawn back from his old engage- ments, this plea concedes, that the church now in existence is the very church organi- zed 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 cir- cumcision must furnish the rule for that of baptism. And consequently, this same plea which is designed to preclude infant baptism, turns out to be a demonstration of its divine right. Thus the point before us would be completely settled. But to wave this advan- tage, and to put the subject in another light, let us distinguish, in this matter of circum- cision, between the substance and form. The substance of the ordinance, that which pro- perly constitutes the seal^ was the certifica- tion o the person sealed, of his interest m 64 CHURCH OP GOD. 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, per- formed without any sealing whatever. The sons of Ishmael were circumcised, but they belonged not to the covenanted seed, and therefore circumcision sealed nothing to them. The Jews are circumcised still, but being cut off from the olive-tree, being cast out of the church of God, and suspended from the pri* vileges of the covenanted seed, their circum- cision is nothing. On the other hand, the seal had been the same, although adminis- tered by a different rite. The amputation of a toe, the perforation of an ear, the sprink- ling of blood, or the anointing with oil, would have answered the purpose as well as cir- cumcision. 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 cove- nant. Now as it is self-evident, that this sanction may be conveyed under any form which he shall please to prescribe, it is a gross error in reasoning to conclude, that because the ancient form is laid aside, there- fore 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 CHURCH OF GOD. 65 inseparable in fact; as the former cannot be applied to us but through the medium of the latter; and therefore if this be aboUshed, the other is to us as if it did not exist;" I reply, that the objection concludes equally against the existence of a church upon earth; for it must appear in some visible form, or else, io us, it is no church: and the argument is still good, that if the abolition of a particular form of sealing God's covenant, involves the abo- lition of the seal itself, then the abolition of a particular form of his church, involves the abolition 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 application. In truth, it is a fundamental principle, \ha.t forms of dispeyisation do not affect the substance of the things dispensed. Otherwise, the covenant of grace has been changed often. But if five forms of dispen- sation have not touched the substance of the covenant of grace ; nor three forms of dispen- sation, the substance of the covenant with Abraham; why should the disuse of a par- ticular mode of sealing this latter, draw after it the destruction of the seal itself, and of all the relations and benefits sealed? The 66 CHURCH OF GOD. issue is, that circumcision 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 substituted in its place? As none of the par- ties to this controversy pretend that it has been succeeded by any other ordinance tlian 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 ten- or of God's dealing with her, and to the positive declarations of his word. If nothing — then the apostle Peter led his hearers 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 Abra- ham ; nor in any other sense, than as asserting the joint interest of their infants, with them- selves, in the covenant of God, and, conse- quently, their right to the seal of that interest. One of the most stubborn and rational pre- judices of the Jews against the Christian dis- pensation, was the fear of losing the privi- leges 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. CHURCH or GOD. 67 " You mistake the matter/^ cries Peter, full of the Holy Ghost, " there is nothing in the gospel of Jesus Chsist, nor the new economy which he has introduced, to destroy or abridge the mercies held out and secured by the cove- nant with Abraham. The Saviour is, himself, the chief blessing of that covenant. The evan- gelical dispensation displays its provisions in clearer light, and greater extent. The pro- mise subsists in unabated virtue, and Avith increased 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 our God shall call.''' How could the words of Peter be interpreted by a Jew? In no other way than this, that neither the covenant Avith Abraham, nor the seal of that covenant, nor the interest of his infant seed in it was abro- gated, 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, whatever, according to the nature of that covenant, is comprehended in the declara- tion, " 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 Apostle Q8 CHURCH OF GOD. speaks of a promise well known and highly prized: — "the promise," without any ex- planation. "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 meaning, and it says not a syllable of circumcision, nor of its rela- tion to baptism; nor of infant church mem- bership." Yes, but it is a promise in Abra- ham's covenant: it depends upon the immu- tability 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 ad- mitted 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 understood the Apostle ; for among all their objections 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 apprehension by a fraud upon their consciences. The fraud extended to the CHURCH OF GOD. 69 Gentile converts; for it referred them to the Jewish standard of interpretation; and every one of the inspired penmen of the New Tes- tament, is accessary to its influence, as there is not a sentence in all their writings to cor- rect the error: and the deception will not end even with them ! But if these things cannot be maintained — If there is no such mockery as a seal with- out 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 Apos- tle did not abuse the understanding of his hearers, nor sport with their faith in his ve- racity — 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 account stands with regard to them separately. It will be seen in the following contrast. CIRCUMCISION BAPTISM 1. Was an initiatory rite, 1. Is an initiatory rite by which the circumcised by which the baptized are were owned as of the cove- numbered among the disci- nanted seed, and of the peo- pies of Christ, and the mem- pleofGod. bers of the church of God. 2. Was a seal of the right- 2. The person is baptized eousness of faith. Rom. iv. in the name of Jesus Christ 11. i. e. of the justification for the remission of sins, of a sinner through the (Acts ii. 38.) which is 70 CHURCH OF GOD. righteousness of the surety through faith in his blood ; embraced by faith. so that God is just and the justifier of him that beUev- cth in Jesus. 3. Was an emblem and a 3. Is a sign and means means of internal sanctity, of our sanctification in vir- " The Lord thy God will cir- tue of our communion with cumcise thine heart, and the Christ. — " Buried with him heart of thy seed, to love by baptism into death ; that the Lord thy God with all like as Christ was raised up thine heart, and with all thy from the dead by the glory soul, that thou mayest live." of the Father, even so we Deut. XXX. 6. Sec also ch. also should vi'^alk in newness X. 16. of life." Rom. vi. 4. See also 1 Pet. iii. 21. The parallel is certainly striking. Circum- cision and baptism do both put a mark upon their subjects, 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 justi- fied 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 circum- cised and baptized to be esteemed members. Both represent, and are means of obtaining, that real purity which is eifected by the Spirit of Christ; and is the characteristic of all those members of his church who are justified by faith in his blood. Such a coincidence can- not be casual. It bespeaks design. And seeing that circumcision and baptism do thus substantially answer the same ends, and that the former has ceased, the only sound con- CHURCH OF GOD. 71 elusion is, that it has been succeeded by the latter. Change of dispensation was a suffi- cient reason why the form of sealing the covenant dispensed should also be changed ; and the points of difterence between baptism and circumcision, as covenant seals, are only such as were demanded by the nature of the change : the former being much better adapt- ed to a more extensive and spiritual dispen- sation than the latter. And this is an addi- tional consideration to show that the one has been substituted in the room of the other. Let us proceed in our inquiry by examin- ing, Secondly, into the scriptural manner of representing circumcision and baptism when they are spoken of together; or when bap- tism is mentioned in connexion with the covenant of which circumcision was the seal. Take two examples. 1. The apostle Peter, in his famous address to Avhich there has already been frequent reference, assigns the perpetuity of Abra- ham's covenant, and the validity of its pro- mise, as a reason why his Jewish hearers should be baptized. "■ Repent,'' says he, "and be baptized every one of you, in the name of 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 72 CHURCH OF GOD. economy ? " Your circumcision sealed to you/^ says the apostle, "your interest in the covenant with Abraham, as it was exhibited luider the law: baptism seals your interest m that covenant, as it is exhibited in perfec- tion under the gospel. If you refuse the Lord Jesus, and the initiating ordinance 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 application 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, occupying the same place with regard to the promise un^er the new dispensation, which was occupied by circumcision under the old? Admitting this, every thing is clear. Two initiatory rites of the same general import, cannot exist together. The dispensation by Christ Jesus takes place of the dispensation by Abra- ham, with all the additions by Moses; the form oY sealing the covenant under this, takes place of the form of seaUng it under those. The greater contains all that was contained in the less, and supersedes it. Baptism sup- plants circumcision. 2. In the epistle of Paul to the Colossians, CHURCH OF GOD. 73 is the following passage. " In whom,'' viz. Christ, ^<^also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in put- ting 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 regenera- tion, and of communion with Christ, as the fountain of spiritual life. The Apostle is treat- ing of a believer's completeness in Christ — oi circumcision in Christ. That his mean- ing might not be mistaken, he explains him- self of the inward grace, calling it, ^Hhe circumcision made without hands," and to cut off all misconception, he explains his ex- planation, declaring this " circumcision with- out hands," to be, " the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, bv the circumcision of Christ." 3d. Baptism, too, is a sign of regeneration, and of communion with Christ, as the foun- tain of spiritual life. In baptism, saith Paul, ye are "buried with /4 CHURCH OF GOD. Christ," "ye are risen with him/' through a divine faith, "the faith of the operation of God" — Whereas ye were " dead in sins, and the uncii^ciuncision of your flesh, ^^ (un- circumcision put for the state of unregene- racy,) God hath quickened you together with Christ. Collect now the result. A believer's sanc- tification, in virtue of union with Christ, Paul declares to be represented by both circumci- sion and baptism; for he expresses his doc- trine by these terms indifferently; and an- nexes to them both, the same spiritual signi- fication. He has, therefore, 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 A^ery same seal of God's covenant, under the forms of circumcision and baptism respec- tively. 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 seal of God's covenant is perpetuated under the second form, viz. bap- tism; and that it signifies and seals in a man- ner suited to the evangelical dispensation, whatever was previously signified and sealed by the rite of circumcision. If we again inspect the Apostle's proposi- tion, 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 circumcision and baptism. CHURCH OF GOD. 7o he appears to assume, as an indisputable 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 exchange. '^ Circumcised — in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circum- cision of Christ; buried with him in bap- tism.'^ What can the Apostle intend, by the ''circumcision of Christ?'^ Doubtless, not the literal rite, for this would destroy at once the whole of his reasoning on the article of sanctification, in the same way as it is de- stroyed by those who interpret the phrase, <^ buried with him in baptism," of submer- sion of the body in the act of baptizing. The Apostle cannot so trifle. By the "circumci- sion of Christ,'' he means that righteousness of faith, that mortification of sin, that quick- ening influence, which flow from Christ, and were signified by circumcision. 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 recog- nizes by specifying the things signified. In his transition from the one to the other, that is, from circumcision to baptism, as signify- ing, 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. /b CHURCH OF GOD. " With regard to the things signified," saith he, "there is no difference. The circumci- sion of Christ, and burial with him in bap- tism, are expressions of similar import ; both declaring a believer's communion with him in his covenant mercies. With regard to the outward sign, fellowship with Christ in his death and resurrection, is represented in bap- tism, as putting off the body of ' the sins of the flesh' was formerly represented in cir- cumcision.'^ If this be just, the inference is plain. Baptism is the Christian circumci- sion; 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 received the sign of circum- cision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had, yet being uncircumcised ; that he might be the father of all them that be- lieve, 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 Avho also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which 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 CHURCH OF GOD 77 be, in a sense which belonged, and could be- long, to no other man, the Father of all tliem that believe. 2. That with the righteousness of faith, he should transmit the seal of God's covenant, by the intervention of which it was to be perpetuated in the world, and actually impu- ted 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 signiJiedhY circumcision; for the apostle includes them in the first prerogative: and such an inter- pretation would convert into mere tautology, two propositions which are strongly distin- guished from each other in the text. Circum- cision, says the apostle, was a seal of the righteousness of the faith which Abraham 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 righteous- ness which they embrace by faith: and fur- ther, the benefits conferred through the me- dium of Abraham's covenant, are asserted to be contemporary with the seal; both de- scending together from him to the last of the covenanted seed. The apostle himself applies 8 78 CHURCH OF GOD. the principle, in the most positive terms, to the old and the new dispensation. To the old dispensation-—" The father of circumcision to them who are not of the cir- cumcision only," evidently those who, being his descendants, or incorparated with them, were literally circumcised. 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 circumcision to them also who walk in the steps of his faith. '^ In what sense is Abra- ham the "father of circumcision," as the apostle maintains, to them who never were literally circumcised, and whom he expressly distinguishes from the circumcision? Mani- festly 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 inte- rested. But circumcision is abolished long ago: yet Abraham is the father of circum- cision to them at this hour. There is no avoiding a direct contradiction, but upon the principle, that though the outward rite of circumcision is discontinued, yet the sub- stance 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 circumcision. But now, if this seal does CHURCH OF GOD. 79 not subsist in the ordinance of baptism, it has no existence at all; and there is no possible sense in which Abraham is to us the father of circumcision. Therefore, baptism has suc- ceeded to circumcision. This reasoning draws after it, infaUibly, the church-membership of infants, and their right to baptism. For as there is no distinc- tion 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 circumcision; and as they were made over to the former, and their infant seed, they must also be made 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: be- cause the extension of a privilege can never be pleaded as a proof of its abrogation; and the New Testament itself has positively an- nulled, in spiritual things, all pre-eminence and inferiority arising from condition or sex. The only difficulty of any importance, un- der 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 ap- pointment, very often affixed to a lie. The difficulty is precisely the same in refer- ence to circumcision as to baptism. The former was undoubtedly " a seal of the right- 80 CHURCH OF GOD. eousness of faith;" and as iindoubtely was often applied to multitudes who never had that righteousness. Did the God of truth, therefore, certify a lie? Methinks so blasphe- mous a deduction, which is equally valid against his acknowledgedmsXiiuiion of infant circumcision, as against his disputed institu- tion of infant baptism, should make sober men, who cannot escape from it, suspect the soundness of their views. It is, moreover, the same difficulty which occurs in the cele- bration of the Lord's supper, and in the bap- tism of adults ; unless we can be assured that all the recipients are true converts. But, indeed, the difficulty itself is created by erro- neous 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 pro- per application of this distinction will remove it, and " demonstrate that the seal of God's covenant, does, in every instance, certifj^ ab- solute truth, whether it be applied to a be- liever, or to an unbeliever; to the elect, or to the reprobate. ESSAY V. INFANT- MEMBER In our preceding number we gave a general view of the church of God, as one great visi- CHURCH OF GOD. 81 ble society which he has taken into peculiar relations to himself. We traced its origin, as an orgajiized whole, up to the Abrahamic covenant, of which we explained the nature, and proved the perpetuity. We also inves- tigated the uses of its initiating rite, viz. cir- cumcision; which, we assigned reasons to show, has been exchanged, under the evan- gelical dispensation, for the ordinance of bap- tism ; and we touched, in general terms, upon the conclusion which our premises justify, respecting the ecclesiastical condition and privileges of infants born of believing parents. Having avowed our persuasion, that they are, in virtue of their birth, members of the church of God, and entitled, during their in- fancy, to baptism in his name, we shall, in this number, state our conclusion more fully, and shall strengthen it with some auxiliary considerations. The reader, on looking back to Essay III., p. 60, will find the following paragraph. " If, as has been already demonstrated, the covenant with Abraham and his seed was a covenant with the visible church — if this cove- nant has never been abrogated — if its rela- tions and privileges, with an exception in favour of adults who desired to come in on the profession of their faith, were to be pro- pagated in the hue of natural generation, THEN, it follows, that the infant seed of per- sons who are under this covenant, are them- selves parties to it; are themselves members of the church ; and whatever privileges that 82 CHURCH OF GOD. 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 cove- nant is in force at this moment; 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 members of the church." This, then, is the ground on which Ave take our stand in pleading the cause of the chil- dren 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 constituted them such by his own commandment and cove- nant 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 pre- cept was not necessary. The relation we are inquiring into had been instituted long before; it had subsisted without one mo- ment's interruption for more than nineteen centuries. During this great lapse of ages it had enlisted on its side, in addition to its divine original, the most irrefragable preju- dices of antiquity, the most confirmed national habit, and the fastidious jealousy of preroga- tive. In this state of its prevalence was the CHURCH OF GOD. 83 evangelical dispensation announced. If the same relation of infants to the church was to continue under the New Testament form, nothing is more easy than to assign the rea- son why it was not instituted anew. The principle was undisputed; it was acted upon as a principle which the change of dispensa- tion did not touch; and consequently, a new mstitution was superfluous. The silence of the New Testament on this head, is alto- gether in favour of those who maintain that the union of parents with the church of God, includes their children also. But on the sup- position that this principle was to 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 engrafted upon a prin- ciple that penetrates the essence of human society; which coincides with the genius of every other divine constitution respecting 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 84 CHURCH OF GOD. soothe the anguish which it has inflicted ! Is it thus that God deals with his people? Does this look like his wonted condescension 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 superseded by that of Jesus Christ, he pre- pared the way in the most gradual and gen- tle manner; he showed them from their own Scriptures, that he had done only what he had intended and predicted from the begin- ning; 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 slow- ness; when they were extremely unwilling to part with Moses, he stooped to their in- firmities; and persevered in his lenity, till the destruction of their city, their sacrifices, their temple, their nation, left their further demurring 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 distinguish between good and evil, from all the interest which they once had in his church, the heavy man- date is preceded by no warning, is accom- panied with no comfort; is followed by no- thing to replace the privation; is not even supported by a single reason ! The thing is CHURCH OF GOD. 85 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 children's claim as members of the Christian church, all that they ask with regard to the silence of the New Testament, that very con- cession works their ruin. If their views are correct, it could not have been thus silent. Out of their own mouths we draw their con- viction; and cast them in the judgment by the very evidence which they offer in their vindication. The case is now reversed. Instead of our producing from the New Testament such a warrant for the privileges of our infant seed, as they require, we turn the tables upon them ; and insist, that they shall produce Scrip- tural proof of God's having annulled the constitution under tvhich ive assert our right. Till they do this, our cause is invin- cible. 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 consolation of calling upon God as our God, and the God of our seed. 86 CHITRCH OP OOD. 2. We have before remarked, that the ex- dusion of infants from the Church of God, contradicts all the analogies of his external dispensations towards men.* A correct reasoner will require the highest evidence of which the case is susceptible, before he 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 end- less propositions which are generated by the ceaseless activity of the human mind. One of them, well understood and judiciously ap- plied, is a better preservative from error, than a million of those small arguments by which multitudes regulate their opinion and their conduct. If, indeed, it is the will of God that chil- dren shall not be esteemed, during tlieir in- fancy, 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 appoint- ment, there is an end to all our difficulties and disquisitions. "Thus saith Jehovah," discharges, at once, every human inquiry. But seeing that, in every public constitution, 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 birthright as members of his * See pages 57 — 59. CHURCH OP GOD. 87 church. For as his constitutions of nature and of grace agree with the most wonderful harmony;' and as this agreement is the foun- dation of all those references to the former, by which the Scriptures explain and illus- trate the latter, it is "passing strange," that he should introduce, into the heart of his church, a law which is at complete variance with the whole system of his creation and providence ! that he should go out of his way to make an exception, not /or, but against, his own people : refusing to them, as mem- bers of his church, the benefit of an ordinance which in other societies erected by his autho- rity, 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 parti- cipate in all the disasters of the external church. If she be corrupted, the corruption infects them ; if she be persecuted, the perse- cution smites them; if her mercies be sinned away, the punishment of the sin lights on them. Could they suffer more upon the sup- position of their being really members? It seems, then, that they are to share in all her afflictions, without sharing in her privileges: that when evil overtakes her, they are to be treated as citizens; but when her immuni- ties are dispensed, as aliens. So that the Lord our God suspends a leading principle of his physical and moral order, for the sake 88 CHURCH OP GOI>. of barring the seed of his people from privi- lege; and permits it to take its full course for the infliction of calamity I This is more than incredible ! 3. If the children of believing parents are not members of the chm-eh, before making a profession 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 Pagans or Jews. A right to in- struct, to warn, to entreat them, she certainly has; and she has the same right with regard to the Jew or the Pagan; but no authoiHty over any of them. Her jurisdiction bemg necessarily confined to her own subjects; 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 di- recting them. Their parents she can enjoin to " bring them up in the nurture and admo- nition of the Lord,'^ because God has ren- dered it a branch of parental duty; and she ought to enforce the observance of his law by all those spiritual means which he has confided to her zeal. But if parents be in- capable of fulfilling their obUgations ; if they should happen to be separated from their families; to fail through negUgence, or be cut off by death : or if the children prove re- CHURCH OF GOD. 89 fractory to parental admonition; in none of these cases can the church of God interpose any further than to perform an act of vohm- tary benevolence. 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 members? The same principle upon which she attempts to control the children of her members, would justify her in attempting to legislate for others who are without her pale, extending her discipline 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 pro- fession 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 inspired apostle to be "holy," are no more members of his church, than the savage who wanders upon the banks of the Missouri? How can he persuade himself, that among the solemn trusts of the Christian church, that most important one of superin- tending the youth, has been omitted? That she has received no charge, possesses no 90 CHURCH OP GOD. power, and is under no responsibility, on this subject, further to stimulate the individual efforts of parents, masters, or teachers? If she has received 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 treated as her mem- bers ; 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 exem- plary inspection. He has, an the other hand, frowned upon churches as they became re- miss in this particular; his good Spirit has" departed from them; and there are not a few which, at this hour, may trace their declen- sion and the rapid approach of their desola- tion, 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 authority over them ; and to deny it in opposition both to the blessing and the curse of God; is to smite^the Re- deemer's kingdom in the heart of one of its most precious interests, the youth ; and to do it much deeper and more effectual injury, than it is likely to suffer from the assaults of open enemies. CHURCH OP GOD. 91 These consequences appear to us inevita- ble. Far from us be tho thought of imputing them to those who reject the church-member- ship of infants ; or of asserting that they do in fact occur as regularly as we might expect. For, on the one hand, God does not permit error to mature all the deadly fruits which she is capable of bearing: and, on the other, the nature of human society is not to be sub- verted by theory. Let men profess what they please ; let them renounce, and if they think fit, ridicule, our doctrine; it is nevertheless true, that they cannot get along in the reli- gious, any more than in the civil communi- ty, 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 Abraham, to the cessation af 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 sous in the grave, than permit them to ga without the token of- their being Abraham's seed. On these facts we found three inquiries. The first relating to the privilege which God con- ferred upon his people; the second to the effect which the recalling of it produced on 92 CHURCH OF GOD. them ; and the third to their state of feeUng under the loss. First, "The sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith," applied, by divine direction, 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 indelible 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 sot- tish enough to pretend. Their condition, there- fore, as members of his church, and the sacra- mental sign of it, was a real and an important privilege. What has become of it? If infants are no longer members of his church, it is taken away, and what has re- placed it? Nothing. Nothing! then God has put the children of his people under the new dispensation, further 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 with progres- swe\\^\t and favour; — the communication of his grace and truth always increasing, never diminishing ; — 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 CHURCH OF GOD. 93 whereas he had formerly separated his peo- ple from the heathen that knew him not ; had drawn around them a line of covenant-good- ness ; 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 inheritance, and enrich their joys; to fulfill the promise of those good things which " eye had not seen, nor ear heard, neither had entered into the heart of man," he begins with teUing 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 covenant, in among the " dogs/*' And all this, after he had sworn that he would "not break his covenant, 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. That the unchaiigeableness of God's gifts and caUing- 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 reinstate them in their privi- leges; that this design is to be accomplished 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 call- ing," 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 hisc ovenant. 9 94 CHURCH OF GOD. Let us, however, allow that we have mis- construed the divine covenant; and that in- fants born after the settlement of the new economy, had no such claim as had the infant posterity of Abraham. How did the new arrangement affect the children of those who were the first members of the Christian church? For example, those who were add- ed to her on the day of Pentecost ? This is our Second Inquiry. The rule of G od'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 what- soever 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.'^ Acts iii. 22, 23. The sin of which the Jews were warned by their great lawgiver, was their not obey- ing the voice of his greater successor; that is, the sin of rejecting the Messiah. The punishment denounced against this sin, was " destruction from among the people." Who were the people? And what was the destruc- tion? (1.) Who were the people? Not the nation of the Jews. For, having committed the crime, they themselves fell under the penalty. Their nation was to be CHURCH OF GOD. 95 destroyed 5 whereas, according to the predic- tion of Moses, it was not tlie people that were to perish; but the disobedient who were to be destroyed from ainongtlie people; which impUes 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." Rom. xi. 2. Acts xiii. 48. They who com- mitted the crime before us, never belonged to this people, and so could not be destroyed from among them ; and they whom God had thus chosen did not commit the crime. "As many as were ordained to eternal life, be- lieved." Who then are "the people" from among whom the sinners were to be destroyed? If not the Jewish people, if not the elected peo- ple 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.* * 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 church from which they were to be 96 CHURCH OP GOD. (2.) What was the "destruction?" Not temporal death: for God never or- dained this punishment for the sin of unbe- lief 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 dis- paragement; 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? Undoubtedly, in having their name and place exterminated from among the people of God; in being cast out of his church, and exposed to that perdition which shall be the fate of all whom he disowns. 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 vengeance, that their children shared their fate. destroyed, was to remain a people, and the peculiar object of the divine regard. This is true of no people but that which composes his church. The Christian church is therefore the very same church from which the Jews were cast out. 3. The term " people" cannot designate the church other- wise 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." CHURCH OP GOD. 97 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 estab- lishing the principle of judgment, the children of those who were not disobedient, partici- pated 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 already, the question is, by what authori- ty were they cast out? It would be an un- heard of thing if the faith of their parents in the " consolation of Israel,'' should expel them. A singular way, indeed, of convert- ing a Jew, to tell him that the very fact of his being a believer in Christ would excom- municate his children! The issue is short. Either the children of believing Jews were members 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 beginning of the new dispensation, infants were members of 98 CHURCH OF GOD. his church. We give our opponents their option. We have yet to answer a Third Inquiry, concerning the excision of infants 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 feehngs of a beheving Jew? Tenacious, in a high degree, of their pecu- harities — ^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 chil- dren were comprised with themselves in the covenant of God, it is not possible that the Hebrews could have submitted, without re- luctance, to a constitution which was to strip them of their favourite privilege; to dissever their tenderest ties; to blot the names of their httle ones out of the register of God's people ; and treat them afterwards, from generation to generation, as the little ones of the heathen man and the publican ! On every other pre- rogative, 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 forget, at once, that they were men and that they were Jews. Search the records of the New Testament from one end to the other, and you will not find the trace of a remonstrance, an objection, CHURCH OF GOD. 99 or a difficulty on this subject, from the mouth of either abeheviiig or anunbeUeving Israel- ite! 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 latter lay constantly in wait for matter of accusation against the Chris- tians. Nothing could have prompted him to louder clamour, to fiercer resistance, or to heavier charges, than an attempt to overturn a fundamental principle af the covenant with Abraham : nothing could have more startled and distressed the meek and modest disciple. Yet that attempt is made; that fundamental principle of the covenant with Abraham, is overturned; and not a friend complains, nor a foe resents ! What miracle of enchantment has so instantaneously relieved the conscience of the one, and calmed the wrath of the other? Where is that wayward vanity, that captious criticism, that combustible temperament, that insidious, implacable, restless enmity, which by night and by day, in country and in town, haunted the steps of the apostles, and treas- ured up actions, words, looks, for the hour of convenient vengeance ? All gone ; dissipated 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 cove- nant with Abraham ! that very covenant from which he professes to derive his whole im.- 100 CHURCH OP GOD. portance ! ! We can believe a great deal, but not quite so much as this. Should it be alleged, that the Jews did probably oppose the exclusion of their in- fants from the New Testament Church, al- though the sacred writers 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 exist- ence of a fact which is unsupported by either history or tradition. On this ground, the plea which we have stopped to notice is per- fectly nugatory. In the present case, however, the proba- bilities look all the other way. We mean, that if the Jews had made the opposition, which, on the supposition we are combat- ting, it is inconceivable they should not have made, it would have been so interwoven with the origin, constitution, progress, and transac- tions of the primitive Church, as to have ren- dered an omission of it almost impossible. The question about circumcision and the obligation 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 for- mal decision of the apostles and elders. Now as circumcision was the seal of the Abrahamic covenant, which explicitly constituted infants members of the Church, is it to be imagin- CHURCH OF GOD. 101 ed that so hot a controversy should have been kindled about the enseaUng rite, and none at all about the privilege sealed? or that a re- cord should have been carefully preserved of the disputes and decision concerning the sign; and no record at all kept of the discus- sions concerning the thing signified, which imparted to the former all their interest and value ? It is, therefore, utterly incredible that the resistance of Jews to the Christian arrange- ment for shutting out their children from the church of God, 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 pro- fessing 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 cir- cumcision. 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 be saved." Had their doctrine prevailed, circumcision in the Christian church must have been regulated by the Mosaic law. But this law prescribed the circumcision of infants. Now, under what pretext could they urge a compliance with this ordinance, according to the law of 10 102 CHURCH OF GOD. Moses, upon the Gentile converts, unless it were an undisputed point that the children of these converts were members of the Chris- tian 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 be- long to the Christian community, and have no concern with its sealing ordinances." Yet no such exception was ever taken. This one fact, under all its circumstances and connexions,* is equivalent to a doctrinal declaration of the apostles and elders at Je- rusalem, that the change of dispensation has not affected the rights of infants born of be- lieving 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 initiating ordinance. 5. The language of God's word, respect- ing children, is in perfect accordance with the principle of their being members of his church; but is irreconcilable with the con- trary 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,^^ Isa. Ixv. 23. The Redeemer, in the days of his flesh, was much displeased with an attempt of his disciples to keep back * Compare Acts xxi. 21. CHURCH OF GOD. 103 infants from approaching him, and said, " Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the king- dom of God.^^ Mark x. 14. An expression which, we well know, signifies the New- Testament church. " The promise," said Peter, after the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, " The promise is to you, and to your children^ Acts ii. 39. These, and similar expressions, with which the word of God abounds, correspond much better to that system which associates chil- dren with their parents in his church, than with that which rejects them as no part of it. And we must have very strong reasons to justify our embracing a system which re- quires a language contrary to the genius of the language which the Holy Spirit himself has selected. 6. Unless we greatly mistake, the apostle Paul has twice decided the question before us in the most unequivocal manner; and de- cided it in our favour. One of his decisions is in the following words: " The unbelieving husband is sanc- tified by the wife; and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband ; else were your children unclean, hut now are they holy." 1 Cor. vii. 14. In what sense does a beUeving, sanctify an unbelieving, parent, so that their children are holy ? Wherein does this holiness con- sist? Some have been so galled by this as- sertion of the apostle, that they have tried to 104 CHURCH OF GOD. fritter it down into a grave declaration of the legitimacy of children born of parents thus situated. As if faith in Christ were neces- sary to the vahdity of espousals? As if all the marriages of the heathen were mere con- cubinage ; 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 chil- dren, that internal conformity to the divine purity, which is commonly called " holiness" or sanctification. This is contrary to reason, to Scripture, and to daily experience. Yet he says that a believing parent renders holy the unbelieving one; and that, in conse- quence, their children are holy. What does he mean? " Holy," as a term of established use and signification, 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 acquires a peculiar property. I For this interpretation we have his own authority — when prohibiting various pollutions, he thus addresses the people of Israel ; " Ye shall be holy unto me ; for 1 the Lord am holy; and have severed ^ow. from other people, that ye should be mine.^^ Lev. XX. 26. This " severing" 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. CHURCH OP GOD. 105 ( "Unclean," as contrasted with "holy," expresses the state of a person not separated to the service of God : in whom he has no peculiar interest, and who is, therefore, "com- mon;" i. e. unappropriated to God. All who are conversant with the scriptural phra- seology know this representation to be true. What, then, does the apostle say? He says that if the unbelieving were not sancti- fied by the believing, 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 be- lieving does sanctify the unbelieving parent, their children are the reverse of " unclean :" they are " holy ;" they are born under pecu- har relations to God; they are appropriated to him; they are members of his church; and as such they undoubtedly have a right to the token of their membership — to bap- tism. 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, with- in the external covenant of God, we are un- able 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 member of the church" is in ours; and could not be otherwise understood by the primitive Chris- tians. 106 CHURCH OF GOD. The only plausible difficulty which lies against our view, is, that " According to the same reasoning, an unbeliever, continuing in unbelief, becomes 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 husband is sanc- tified 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 reckoned among its members merely in virtue of union to a believing husband or wife. Well then, if the " sanctification," which an unbeUeving wife derives from her believing husband, does not make her b. member of the church, the " ho- liness" which children derive from a beUev- ing parent cannot make them members of the church." The objection is shrewd: but like many other shrewd things, more calculated to em- barrass 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 speci- ousness and tried by the standard of common sense, being neither more nor less than this, CHURCH OF GOD. 107 that all his discourse 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 holi- ness, which the objection denies; then a per- son 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 non- sense as can well be uttered. If those who differ from us feel themselves wronged, we beg them to show in what the holiness men- Honed 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 pre- cisely 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 pro- fession of their faith. This is a special sta- tute, limiting in the case of adults, the general doctrine of membership. Consequently the doctrine of Paul must be explained by the restriction of that statute. " Sanctify" her 108 CHURCH OP GOD. unbelieving husband the believing wife does ; and so does the believing husband his unbe- lieving wife; i. e. to a certain length; but not so far as to render the partner thus sanc- tified, a member of the church — the former cannot be doubted, for the apostle peremp- torily asserts it — the latter cannot be admit- ted; for it would contravene the statute al- ready quoted. The membership of infants does not contravene it. And, therefore, al- though the holiness which the apostle as- cribes to infants involves their membership ; it does not follow that the sanctifying influ- ence 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 plain- est manner, that this sanctification regards the unbelieving parent notybr his own sake, but as a medium affecting the transmission of covenant-privilege to the children of a be- liever. A simple, and we think, satisfactory ac- count of the matter is this : Among the early conversions to Christian- ity, it often happened, that the gospel was believed by a woman, and rejected by her luisband; 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 offspring ; a question was naturally suggested by such a disparity CHURCH OF GOD. 109 of religious condition, as to the light in which the children were to be viewed. Consider- ing the one parent, they were to be account- ed "holy;" but considering the other, they were to be accounted "unclean." Did the character 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 difficulty was a real o le ; and calculated to excite much distress in the minds of parents who, like the primi- tive Christians, did not treat the relation of their little ones to the church of God, as a slight and uninteresting afiair. Paul obviates it by telling his Corinthian friends, that in this case, where the argument for the children appears to be perfectly bal- anced by the argument against them, God has graciously inclined the scale in favour of his people : so that for the purpose of con- veying to their infants the privilege of being within his covenant and church, the unbe- lievhig husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife by the husband. If it were not so, it must be the reverse ; because it is impossible that a child should be born in two contrary moral states: the7i, the be- lieving husband being rendered " unclean" by his wife; and the believing wife "un- clean" 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 separation /ro?7i him; like those who are 110 CHURCH OF GOD. 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 influ- ence shall go the other way. That instead of the interest which a child has in his cove- nant, 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 covenanted seed; shall be members of the church — Now, saith Paul, they are holy. The passage which we have explained, establishes the church-membership of infants in another form. For it assumes the princi- ple that when both parents are reputed be- lievers, 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 accounted members of the church, the diffi- culty could not have existed. For if the faith of both parents could not confer upon a child the privilege of membership, the faith of only one of them certainly could not. The point was decided. It would have been mere im- pertinence to teaze the apostle with queries Avhich carried their own answer along with them. But on the supposition that when CHURCH OF GOD. Ill both parents were members, their children, also, were members; the difficulty is very natural and serious. " I see," would a Co- rinthian convert exclaim, " I see the children of my Christian neighbours, owned as mem- bers of the church of God; and I see the children of others, who are unbelievers, re- jected with themselves. I belive 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," replies the apostle: "God reckons them to the be- Heving, 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 mar- ried person should continue, after conversion, in the conjugal 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 argument, as he has employed in the text. And it is utterly inconceivable how such a doubt could have entered their minds, had not the membership of infants, born of believing parents, been undisputed, and es- teemed a high privilege ; so high a privilege, 112 CHURCH OP GOD. 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 hus- band 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 doc- trine, that, by the appointment of God him- self, 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 de- cision 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 graffed 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 na- ture, into a good olive tree; how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree?'' Rom. xi. 23, 24. That the olive tree signifies, and can sig- nify nothing else than the visible church with the privileges 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, ^Uhe natural branches," have been " broken olf,'^ and thou the Gentile, " graff- ed in.'^ CHURCH OF GOD. 113 G raffed 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 excom- municated. 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 be- fore their expulsion. The new branch with its buds is transferred to the good olive tree, and grows in its fatness. Whatever privi- leges, therefore, the Jews had formerly, as members of the Church of God, all these, at least, their Gentile successors enjoy. But the membership of their infants was one of these privileges; a principal one. Therefore, the children of Gentile believers are members of the Christian church. Turn, now, the argument. The Jews are to be restored. These, the " natural branch- es," shall be "graffed in again" — shall be "graffed into their own olive tree.''^ Again! Into their own olive tree! Then their own 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; 114 CHURCH OF GOD. will be branches of the same olive tree. But they are to be graffed into their own tree, says Paul. The consequence returns irre- sistibly upon us. The church of God under both dispensations 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 apos- tle expresses it, graffed in again, their chil- dren also must be members of the church, or else God will break his promise, and the Holy Spirit of truth deceive their hope. The restored Jews, however, can derive their privileges only through the medium of the New Testament church. The membership of their infants is one of the privileges to be so derived; therefore the infants of believing parents are members of the New Testament church! — Which was to be demonstrated. ESSAY VI Believing that our preceding numbers con- tain a true and scriptural account of the visi- ble church in general, we think it proper, be- CHURCH OF GOD. 115 fore inquiring into its particular provisions, to point out some of the ends which it is cal- culated to answer, and some of the conse- quences 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. So that the Catholic church consists of all them who, throughout the world, profess the true religion; and of their children. This great community, which is but one, has 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 rela- tions, enjoys special privileges in which her members have a right to participate accord- ing to their circumstances. From the very nature of the case, it must and does happen, that many of these mem- bers are Christians only in name: such as never have been, and never shall be, vitally united to Christ, but shall die in their iniqui- ty. Yet if their unsoundness be not detect- ed; 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 believer who shall hold the highest place among the saved. The reason, which has been illustrated al- 116 CHURCH OF GOD. ready, is, that Christian ordinances are ad- ministered by men; and the secret state of the soul before God is not and cannot be, their rule of judgment. In this case, appear- ances 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 conscience 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 not so, not one among all the ministers of the gospel since the 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 exclusion of hypocrites and reprobates? CHURCH OF GOD. 117 Doubtless many think so. For men are apt to conceit that they can mend the works of God. And such multitudes of experiments 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 em- ploy 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 appoint- ments; and humbly inquire whether we can- not discover in that very constitution which has been described, something not unworthy of his wisdom and his goodness too. There is a strong analogy between the kingdom 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 subject of his government, and the theatre of his grace. The renewed heart is infested with depravity. Sin dwells in them who bear most of their Saviour's image, enjoy the largest share of his commu- nion, and approach the nearest to his perfec- tion. " If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 1 John i. 8. But this " sin that dwelleth in them," does not hinder them from being in soul and body, " the temples of the Holy Ghost." 1 Cor. vi. 19. It would be quite as reasonable to maintain, that a Christian can- not be a child of God because there is " a law in his members warring against the law of II 118 CHURCH OF GOD. his mind." Rom. vii. 23. or that the world is not God's world because " the tumult of those that rise up against him increaseth con- tinually ;" Psal. Ixxiv. 23. as to maintain that a church composed partly of converts and partly of the unconverted, is not for that rea- son a true nor a scriptural church. The neigh- bourhood and conflict of good and evil in this life is one of those depths which nothing but folly attempts to fathom; yet while the mystery is unsearchable, the doctrine is clear, and the fact notorious. Whoever, then, shall deny that God has so constituted his church here as to include concealed enemies in the midst of real friends ; and has left no method of drawing, with certainty, the line of practi- cal 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 affec- tions 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 consistent 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 acknowledged by God as his world, and the believer as his child; will find it equally consistent with his perfec- CHURCH OF GOD. 119 tion that servants of sin as well as servants 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 pro- mote her purity ; nor afford the slightest coun- tenance to careless admission into her com- munion, 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." Rom. iii. 8. And although he, in that sovereignty which "giveth no account of any of his matters," has permitted and over- rules the sin of the creature for purposes worthy of himself; yet we are not seated in tlie throne of sovereignty; we are miderlaw; 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." Heb. xii. 8. It no more follows that his church is not to thrust from her embrace the known servants of sin, because hei* vigilance may be eluded and her efforts defeated ; than it fol- lows that believers may indulge themselves in the commission of sin, because all their ex- ertions will be insufficient to destroy it while they are in the body; or than it follows, that crimes are to stalk unquestioned through the earth, because they cannot be entirely 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 120 CHURCH OF GOD. church of God, according to our principles, is well and wisely constituted — It is precisely adapted 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 that it is a constitution of God. Bat 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 profes- sors 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, all the motives and CHURCH OF GOD. 121 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 conjec- ture how far the law of God's house, and liberal intercourse with his people, frustrate the worst designs of hell by shncklins^ 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 inadvertently 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 rev- erence? 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, de- ride their Bible, mock the ordinances of re- hgion, than to inculcate upon them lessons of truth, of probity, of respect to the name, the day, the word, and the worship of God? Go a step further, and say that it would be bet- ter to lay aside all the control of civil govern- 122 CHURCH OF GOD. ment, and let loose the myriads of rogues and traitors whom the community unwittingly cherishes. in her bosom, than to keep them under the salutary awe of the tribunals of justice, of the dungeons and the halter! Besides, men who only profess reUgion, 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 renders society reserved and suspicious; and thus they become a me- dium of transmitting the moral influence of the gospel to thousands and tens of thousands who yield no intentional obedience to its au- thority. 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 unno- ticed and unknown, Christianity streams its influence over human 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 faculties; a check to his passions; and a rein to his ac- tions, of which he is unconscious. But if you could turn out of the church all who are not heirs according to the promise of eternal life, you would, in a great measure, defeat the benign influence of the gospel upon the civil community; because you would destroy many points of their contact, and remove CHURCH OF GOD. 123 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 afford- ed 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 accomplices into the assembly of the saints ; and God converts the intrusion into a chain for them both. Thus the visible church, composed of beUevers 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 increased: and in proportion as they are respected, is its character amiable, and its condition prosperous. Who can doubt, even for a moment, that the abandonment of all nominal Christians to the unsanctilied propensities of their nature, would multiply crimes and accelerate individual and public ruin ? And who can doubt, that the check imposed on these propensities by an outward profession of the cross of Christ, averts ca- lamity which would otherwise be both cer- tain and severe? Let us not overlook the immense difference between temporal and eternal good; and between the means by which they are respectively procured. The 124 CHURCH OF GOD. religion which will not save a soul from hell, may yet save a nation from destruction. It is only upon gross transgression, freely and obstinately committed, that God inflicts those evils which he calls " his judgments.'' There may be much secret impiety ; much smoth- ered opposition to his government, but it must break out; must become flagrant; must resist the milder correctives, 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 chas- tise; always, however, for open sin. But the cry for vengeance must be loud and long before he resign a land to desolation, and mark it so irreversibly for his curse, that " though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they should deliver neither son nor daugh- ter;" but merely "their own souls by their righteousness ;" Ezek. xiv. and " though Moses and Samuel stood before him, his mind could not be toward it." Jerem. xv. We are not unaccustomed to the clamour which some, " who know not what they say, nor whereof they affirm," 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. CHURCH OF GOD. 125 Little as we incline 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 abound- ing 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 perpetually praising Christianity, and per- petually insulting it, were to yield a decent deference to its authority — if our magistrates, instead of sacrificing their allegiance to God, whose ministers they are, Rom. xiii. on the altar of a wretched and fickle popularity, were to become a more steady and uniform " terror to evil doers," the storm which black- ens over our trembling country would be dis- sipated; and the smiling skies invite every man to resume his seat '^ under his vine and under his fig-tree.'^ The preventing of sin, then, being a pre- vention 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 number of them who are not reconciled to God by the death of his son, remaining the same. We say the number of unconverted remain- ing the same. For it cannot be doubted, that 12 126 CHURCH OF GOD. as two real Christians are better and more useful than one real and one apparent Chris- tian; 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 a clean and un- clean in her communion; so it is infinitely more desirable, and more conducive to peace and happmess, that, while this purity is unat- tainable, the appearance of godliness in those who have none, should encourage the hearts and strengthen the hands of those who have it ; and thus hypocrisy concur with sincerity 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 answer, among others, has been returned. If believers were exempted from the common mortality; if, like Enoch and Elijah, they should go to heaven without "putting off their tabernacle," then death would reveal the secrets of the eternal world. It would be known by the very manner of his depart- ing hence, whether an individual was saved or lost. What anguish, what horror, what distraction, would fill the souls and the fami- lies 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 CHURCH OF GOD. 127 very same effect be produced, were all unbe- lievers 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 subject- ing them, in common with others, to the de- cree 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 constructed, that, any further than a judgment may be formed from external evi- dence, he alone ''knoweth them that are his.'^ Both are provisions of one gracious system. They, therefore, who would so model the Christian Church as to keep or to expel from her conmiunion, all ungodly men who do not show themselves to be such by their ungodly principles or deeds, are labouring to defeat the mercy displayed in the death of a believer, and to wring his heart with agony during the whole period of his life. Eternal thanks to the divine compassions, they cannot suc- ceed! The counsel of the Lord is against them; and "the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand." 3. The mixed character of the Church con- tributes directly to her prosperity. It does 128 CHURCH OF GOD. 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 present 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 furnished 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 con- clude, with little offence against charity, that the great majority of professed Christians, are not unwilUng to try how far this experiment of starving 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 in- dulgence, than those, who, in this life, have " robbed God.'^ Mai. iii. 3. 9. But small as the encouragement is for any, who by following another honest caUing, can procure a tolerable livelihood, and lay up even a little for their families, to devote CHURCH OF GOD. 129 themselves to the religious 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 jiext step must be to nail up the doors of our places of worship. We are in tlie habit of praying that the Lord, who has declared that " the silver is his, and the gold is his," would influence the hearts of the opu- lent to bring their offerings into his courts: we thank him, when, in a manner somewhat uncommon, he hears our prayers and sends the bounty; and yet we overlook the daily occurrence of this very thing which is the object of our petitions and of our gratitude! 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 excluded, the effect must be to dimin- ish, in a most distressing degree, the actual pecuniary resources of the church. For men who are marked as enemies, will never lend her the same aid as men who are supposed to be friends. And thus the absohite purifi- cation of the church upon earth, would over- throw the plan which the wisdom of God has devised, to cause his very foes to assess their own purses in carrying on that dispen- sation of grace which, at lieart, they do ziot 13^0 CHURCH OF GOD. love ; and which, if left to themselves, they would resist with all their might. The same reasoning 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 ter- rible as an army with banners.'' What is true of Christianity in general, is equally true of its peculiar doctrines. The more rigidly 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 dis- coveries of real science. But these results which have shed, and are shedding their lustre upon the evangeli- cal system, combine the researches of the ablest men in the most hterary periods of the world. There is no department of human knowledge which God has not laid under tri- bute to his word. Linguists, mathematicians, astronomers, botanists, mineralogists; chy- mistrt', physiology, and medicine ; the anti- quarian, the traveller, the natural, civil, and ecclesiastical historian; commerce, agricul- ture, mechanics, and the fine arts — are all to be found waiting at the temple of God, open- CHURCH OF GOD. 131 ing their treasures, and presenting their gifts. Whoever has the least acquaintance with things older than himself, and without the petty circle of his personal 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 defence, to an extent and with an effect of which thousands, who are now reaping the benefits of their efforts, can have no possi- ble conception. Yet, certainly, among those who have thus fortified 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 /r)r it. And that such would have been the conse- quence 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 apprised 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 spiritu- ality of mind. Nor are we regardless of the mischief which "unsanctified learning" has 132 CHURCH OF GOD. done in the church of God; and of the jeal- ousy with which, on that account, many seri- ous 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 ap- plication. Because some have prostituted their learning to pervert the truth and insti- tutions of our Lord Jesus Christ, shall we not accept the aid of the same weapon, right- fully used, to vindicate them ? Shall we com- mit 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 Gocl has seen fit to cre- ate. Because " unsanctified" opulence has spread corruption through Christian commu- nities, is it desirable that all Christians be beggars? Because strong men, if they be of quarrelsome temper, may keep a whole neighbourhood under the terrrors 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 pun- ish itself Therefore, to reject a potent agen- cy because its perversion will involve calam- ity proportioned to its vigour, is the very CHURCH OF GOD. 133 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 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 Christian 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 comfort of the church of God. If the gospel is to be maintained, or a starving disciple to be fed, it will make no difference 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 en- countered, the truth is still the same, whether the talent which demonstrates it be connected with the spirit of faith or the heart of unbe- lief. The excess of these two benefits over and above what could be performed by Chris- tians alone, is the advantage, in point of re- source^ 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. 134 CHURCH OF GOD. ESSAY VII. The seco7id\ya.Y in which the mixed charac- ter of the visible church contributes directly to her prosperity, is by increasbig her num- bers. The gospel is the great means of turning men " from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God." For this pur- pose it is necessary that they and it should meet. " How shall they call on 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 preach- er?" Rom. X. 14. Whatever 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 attend- ance upon the public worship of God, and have at last been arrested 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 in- considerable a portion of the saved to have any weight in the argument." We believe this, upon the whole, to be true. It was CHURCH OF GOD. 135 long ago ol)seTved, 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 or- dinary method of providence 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 conversion after middle life, are, for the most part, extremely rare. Let the aged Christian run over, in his mind, such of these instances as have come within his own know- ledge, and we shall be much deceived if his Hst be not very short. Yet small as is their relative number, their amount, absolutely 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 altogether, and left them to perish in their iniquity ? It is vain to reply that " the Lord knoiceth 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 in- tervention of means: and the admission of members into his church upon external evi- dence only, appears, from the nature of the thing, and is proved by the event, to be one of his means. 136 CHURCH OF GOD. The operation, however, of this cause of her increase, is not confined to the persons of late converts: nor would our argument be much affected, were they still fewer, or were there none at all. Thousands, who have the form of godliness loithout the poiver, and who die as they live, in the gall of bitter- ness and the bond of iniquity, are heads of families. By their authority and example, children, apprentices, servants, who, other- wise, would rove unrestrained like the ivild ass's colt, are kept from much gross and open wickedness: they learn to respect the Sabbath day; they come under Christian instruction; they attend the institutions of public worship ; to multitudes of them God blesses his own ordinances for their eternal Ufe. And thus, while the parent or the mas- ter 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 felloio heir with Christ in glory. Nay, individuals without families, are often the unconscious instruments of salvation to others. No hu- man being is so poor as not to have an ac- quaintance. 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 be- side, and without, conversion from sin to God, CHURCH OF GOD. 137 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, attachment to a par- ticular minister or circle of friends, engage much warm and active patronage to ecclesi- astical bodies. One companion brings an- other; that one a third; and thus, by a most comphcated 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 per- son, 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 reprobate. Withdraw, then, all the families of nomi- nal Christians, and all their acquaintances whom they allure to the public ordinances — withdraw the acquaintances 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 de- cent, 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 know- ledge of Jesus and the resurrection, is gone. 138 CHURCH OF GOD. 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. There is an exception to this reasoning too obvious and plausible to pass, unnoticed. " Facts appear to be against us. Who com- posed the audiences of the apostles? Who flocked to the sound of the evangehcal trum- pet, 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 to 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 empty 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 ministrations but Jesus Christ, and hi^n crucified.''^ A mistake is never so imposing, as when it misapplies undoubted truths. We admit all the facts here stated, but cannot see how they invalidate our reasoning; because they have occurred in the history of the Church, so conducted as not to exclude the secret de- ceiver. 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 CHURCH OF GOD. 139 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 at all. Could a method be devised of distinguishing 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 complexion and charac- ter of his Chm'ch would be altered. She would be another Church altogether from U)hat he has made her. And since he has adapted the tenor of his providence, and the influences of his grace, to her actual consti- tution, it is idle to imagine that the course of events which is connected with her present constitution, would attend her under a con- stitution 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 ac- complishing her ends. Nor can they assign any tolerable reason for a belief that of all the eff'ects which now flow from the dis- pensation 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 ordinances, 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. 140 CHURCH OF GOD. In times of affliction, the witnesses for truth are often more, and in the times of prosperity- fewer, than they are supposed to be. Could the line be accurately drawn between sound and unsound professors, the former would frequently find themselves in a very small minority. Such a disclosure would not only dispirit their minds and repress their exer- tions, but subject them to taunt, to insult, and to oppression. We must bear in remem- brance that the "world which lieth in wick- edness," never wants the inclination to per- secute them who are "chosen out of it.'^ The computed number of Christians serves to check that inclination; 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 distinctly pointed out, this erring charity of theirs would get its rebuke in their ruin. The fire would feed upon their flesh, and scaftblds 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, Avith 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 CHURCH OF GOD. 141 a middle 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 de- structive contact. The malice of the perse- cutor sleeps, and his arm is idle, from the difficulty of selecting his victim 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 effective, 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 knowledge of the ways of God, can perceive to be accomplished by the mixed condition of his Church. That there are no others most worthy of his wisdom, though infinitely above the reach of ours, nothing but inebri- ating 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 pro- gress enjoins sobriety of thought; restrains the indiscretion of zeal ; and rebukes the spirit of intrusive ignorance ; enough is dis- covered to remove the modest scruple, and satisfy the reverential inquiry. In a preceding part of this discussion, we 13 142 CHURCH OF GOD. contracted an engagement which we shall here fulfil. To our doctrine which unequivocally ad- mits 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 rela- tion, it is objected, that "we debase and prostitute the sacraments; that we necessarily give the seal of spiritual blessings to multi- tudes who have not and never shall have, "any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God" — that by such an application 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 confes- sedly 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 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 CHURCH OF GOD. 143 account 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 refu- tation, even though it be mathematically correct. Hence shrewd but petty sophism, and warm but cloudy declamation, against the visible church, make a quick impression, 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 tot- tering. 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, objec- tions to the doctrine of a visible Church Catholic, in so far at least, as it embraces the administration of the sacraments, apply with equal force to the system of their advocates ; to an appointment unquestionably divine ; and to the scriptural declarations concerning eternal life. 1. To the system of their advocates. For if the baptizing of infants who possibly may not, and, in many instances, certainly do not, prove to be true Christians, is charge- able with nulHty and mockery; then tlie baptizing of adults who possibly may not, and, in many instances, certainly do not, 144 CHURCH OF GOD. 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 ac- cordingly, their administration must always be involved in the charge of nullity and mockery. The opponents of infant baptism are so pinched by this retortion of their argu- ment, that they endeavour to disembarrass themselves by adopting the reality of Chris- tian experience, that is, the discovery of a man's gracious state, as their principle of admission to the sacramental privilege. The subterfuge will not avail them. They must found their discovery either on special reve- lation, or upon other evidence. To the former 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 certified by others, and are external evidence; or the account which he himself gives of his own conversion. This to himself is internal, but the moment he mentions it to others, it becomes testimony, and like the former, it is external evidence. Is, then, the judgment of his examiners lia- ble to mistake ? If not, how did they become infallible ? And, as the reality of a gracious state is the reason of their admitting a man into their communion, it must for ever remain a sufficient reason for retaining him : for those with whom we now contend, hold the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. How, then, can they ever justify the exclu- CHURCH OF GOD. 145 sion of any of their members? For as the possession of grace is the ground of his ad- mission, nothing but the want of it can be a ground of his expulsion. Thus, in every case of excommunication, they stand self-convict- ed 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, there- fore, as they have ever had in their commu- nion, members, who, " when weighed in the balances, were found wanting," it is impos- sible not to perceive that they are in the very same predicament with those whom they re- proach 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 ordi- nance of circumcision. We must repeat, that as circumcision is expressly declared to be a "seal of the right- eousness 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 infants who knew nothing of that righteousness of faith which 146 CHURCH OP GOD. it sealed, was also a nullity and a mockery; was also an absurd and foolish ceremony; and the divine commandment which enjoined it, a foolish and an absurd commandment. 3. These same objections are applicable to the scriptural doctrine of eternal life. " He that believeth and is baptized,s\\?i\\ be saved," quotes the Anabaptist. We continue the quo- tation : " but he that believeth not shall be clamned.^^ Mark xvi. 16. His argument is this : Faith is required in order to baptism: But infants cannot exercise faith : Therefore, infants cannot be baptized. 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 shutting 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 do not say that the opposers of infant baptism hold such an opinion. Their most distinguished writers disown and repel it. But we say that it necessarily re- sults from their requiring faith, in all cases, as a qualifica- tion for baptism. They do not follow out their own posi- tion. They stop short at tlie point which suits their system. We take it up where they leave it, and conduct it to its direct and inevitable conclusion. Tlierefore, though we do not charge the men with maintaining that those who die in infancy perish; yet we charge this con- sequence upon their argument; for it certainly proves this, or it i>roves nothing at all. CHURCH OF GOD. 147 we are compelled to repeat, against still more trite objections; but it is of importance to show that the heaviest stroke wliich the ene- mies of our doctrine level at us, is levelled, with equal strength, at themselves, their Bi- ble, and their God. These remarks belong to that sort of argu- ment which is called argumentum ad homi- nem; 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 dis- prove error: not to show that our own cause is good; but that our adversary's reasoning is bad ; by showing that his weapon cannot pierce us but at the expense of transfixing himself; so that if he prevail against us, he will, 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 decision on the merits of the case. Which we shall attempt by pointing out the true use of the sacramental seal. We observed in an early part of the dis- cussion, that the difficulty which produces objections like those we have been exposing, is created by erroneous notions of the church of God; by confounding visible members with his elect; and his covenant to the church with his covenant o-f grace in Christ Jesus: and that a proper application of this distinction will remove the difficulty. The sacramental seal has appropriate rela- tions to these covenants respectively : and thus we distinguish them. 148 CHURCH OP GOD. 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 pri- vileges. (2.) It certifies, that the righteousness of faith and the salvation connected with it, are dispensed in the church ; and Uiat 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 unceasing interest in his mediation ; and access in her public character, and in the acts of direct worship, 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 trans- mitting down, from generation to generation, the knowledge and execution of God's plan of grace. (7.) It certifies, that the individual sealed has a right to the prayers, the instruction, the protection, and the discipline of the house of God. CHURCH OP GOD. 149 (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 salva- tion. So that infant baptism is a visible tes- timony, incorporated with the ordinances of God's worship, both to the guilt and depra- vity of our nature, independently of actual transgression, and to the only remedy through our Lord Jesus Christ. If you reject it, you throw away the only ordinance which di- rectly asserts the principle upon which the whole fabric of redemption is built, viz. that we are by nature children of wrath. These are great and important uses of the sacramental seal; intimately connected with the faith, hope, and consolation of the church ; and yet distinct and separate from an indi- vidual'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 perpetuating a testimony. Should he afterwards be a re- proach, instead of an ornament, to the gospel, should he be " abominable, and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate," he shall perish indeed ; but his perdition shall not af- fect the testimony given in his person, by the sacramental seal, to those blessed truths and privileges which we have enumerated. That testimony, that sealed testimony, is absolute; it is perfectly independent of his spiritual state; and is precisely the same, 14 150 CHURCH OF GOD. whether he be " appointed to wrath, or to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." 2. The sacramental seal has a special rela- tion to the church invisible, and to the spirit- ual mercies of the covenant of grace. Union with Christ; acceptance in his mer- its; participation of his Spirit; the fellow- ship of his death, of the power of his resur- rection, of his everlasting love,, and an inter- est in all the blessings of his purchase, the sacraments do certainly represent and seal. These glorious objects always have been, and still are, in the most lively and affecting manner, exhibited to, and perceived by, the faith of believers; and their personal interest therein is at times certified to their consci- ences by " that Holy Spirit of promise where- by 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 be- tween 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 s/ate of the receiver. If he be only a member of the visible church, and merely within the bond of the external cove- nant, it certifies in him and to him whatever appertains to him in that relation, and no- thing more. But if he be a member of the church invisible also, and interested in the CHURCH OF GOD. 151 saving benefits of the covenant of grace ; it goes further, and certifies whatever apper- tains to him in that relation. With the help of this obvious distinction, we remove difficulties which are otherwise extremely perplexing; reconcile expressions otherwise irreconcilable; show the futility of objections founded on the want of grace in the individual sealed ; and demonstrate, as we promised, " that the seal of God's cove- nant does, in every instance, certify absolute truth; whether it be applied to a believer or an unbeliever^ ta the elect or the repro- bate." ESSAY VIII. From explaining the uses which the visible church, constituted as we have stated it to be, subserves, we pass on to. some of its practical results. We mean certain princi- ples, flowing, as necessary conclusions, from the doctrine which we have established; 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 affordeth opportunity, are im- disputed among Christians. Whatever be their diversities of opinion concerning the 152 CHURCH OF GOD. extent of that general description, and the religious fellowship founded upon it, yet within the limits which they prescribe to themselves respectively, they not only revere it as a duty, but esteem it as a privilege. They both insist upon its letter, and act in its spirit. A private 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 law- fully baptized is every where considered as under sacramental consecration to God in Christ; and nobody dreams of repeating his baptism. We make no account of the ques- tion about a vaUd or invalid ministry, be- cause 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 rea- son of this communion? What is there to render it lawful and proper ? "A common interest," you will say, " in the Christian ordi- nances, and the benefits dispensed by them." No doubt. But what is the basis of this com- mon 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 incon- CHURCH OF GOD. 153 trovertible. 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 spiritual immunities, merely as parts of that great ivhole to which Christ has bequeathed them, as members of the one "household of faith," as citi- zens 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 with- out an external church, and as all the sec- tions 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 whole number of real Chris- tians should not bear the same general rela- tion to the whole number of professing Chris- tians among whom they are included, with that which every portion of real Christians 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 Christian fellowship, bear to the external society to which they belong, is that of a part of the church catholic invisi- ble, to a particular visible church. There- fore, the relation which all the parts of the church invisible bear to all particular visible 154 CHURCH OF GOD. churches, is that of one general church invi- sible to one general church visible. Again : The several portions of real Chris- tians are related to their aggregate number, as parts of a great whole, which is the Catho- lic church invisible. Therefore, all the por- tions or congregations of professed Chris- tians 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 privileges which the Lord Jesus hath pur- chased 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 dis- pensed by an external ministry in the exter- nal 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 commu- nion of churches is established. A man is not admitted to Christian fellowship in one congregation because he is a member of an- other — this would be a solecism. But he is admitted because he is a member of the church catholic; of which his communion in any particular church is received as evidence by every other particular church. He is free of the " city of God,'' and therefore en- titled to the immunities of citizenship in whatever part of the city he may happen to be. We may illustrate this matter by an analogy from civil affairs. A citizen of the CHURCH OF GOD. 155 State of New York carries his citizenship with him to every spot under her jurisdic- tion. It is of no consequence in what county or town he resides; nor how often he removes from one town or county to another; nor whether he be at his own dweUing; or on a visit to a friend; or on a journey; whatever privileges belong to him in his general cha- racter of a citizen of the state, he can claim any where and every where : for example, the right of voting for governor, provided he be legally qualified. On the contrary, a man's being an inhabi- tant 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 of each other. But if voting for charter officers were a right attached 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 pul- pit and his own charge. It would be just as 156 CHTTRCH OF GOD. proper for an alderman of New York to issue writs in Albany, as for a minister of a con- gregation in New York to offer to preach in Albany. The effect would be, that a minis- ter 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 embarrassment : 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 ca- tholic 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 compact; 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 re- quired his churches, although independent of eacfi 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 members of which cannot possibly be independent of each other. The issue is, that all Christian and ministerial communion originates in the visi- CHURCH OP GOD. 157 ble unity of the catholic church; and that there is no explaining its reason, nor pre- serving 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 to 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 lit- tle 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 glorifi- ed." And, as such, they are entitled 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, because he was the God of their seed. Thus "the lines fell unto 158 CHURCH OP GOD. US in pleasant places; yea we had a goodly heritage.'^ Owning the God of our fathers, we call upon him as th€ G-od of our seed; and the inheritance which we derived from them we transmit to our sons and our daugh- ters, that they may hand it down to their children, and their children to another gene- ration. 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 come to their right mind, and have learned to sit at the feet of Jesus, will say, with heartfelt emotion, 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 heatlien or a Jew." 2d. There are duties corresponding with these privileges. Youth born in the Chris- tian church, acknowledged as her children, and put under her care, can never shake off certain tender and solemn obligations. They are bound to revere her authority, and to promote her happiness. The very law of nature entitles her to this. A young man who should evince, from the time he was capable of action, a studied contempt for the magistrates, laws, institutions and welfare of his country, would be held to have renoun- ced all virtuous principle; and, if he should elude the tribunals of justice, could not es- cape the punishment of public detestation. But why? Is it because God has entrusted CHURCH OP GOD. 159 his church with his living oracles; and dig- nified 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 re- monstrates, and sliall 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 obliga- tions to requite, with kindness, the care which watched over their early days; and to re- spect the counsels and institutions whose ten- dency is not to debase, but to ennoble them; not to embitter their enjoyments, but to en- sure their peace; not to lead them into harm, but to save them from ruin here, and to crown them with eternal blessedness in the world to come. Let them reflect, moreover, that they are bound to own their relation to the church of God, by 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 160 CHURCH OF GOD. as are of sober deportment; as carefully avoid every thing rude or unbecoming to- ward Christianity and Christians; as would turn with horror from open infidelity, do yet, for the most part, labour under the evil of an erroneous conscience on this subject ; and seduce themselves into a false and hurtful tranquillity. They seem to think that pro- fessing or not professing to be followers of Christ is a matter of mere choice — that the omission contracts no guilt, while it enlarges the sphere of their indulgences, and exempts them from the necessity of that tender and circumspect walk which belongs 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 stran- gers to the covenants of promise" — of their anxiety to decline something which the ser- vice of God imposes, or of retaining some- thing 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 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!" let them weigh well the alternative ! If they do, what CHURCH OP GOD. 161 possible reason can they assign for refusing to honour him before men? Nay, this can- not be admitted : for if with the heart they beUeve unto righteousness, with the mouth they will also make confession unto salva- tion. And Christ has told them that if they will "not confess him before men," they have nothing to expect but that " he will not con- fess them before his Father who is in hea- ven." By not confessing the Lord Jesus, they declare themselves willing to be ac- counted unbelievers. Are they prepared for the consequences? 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 irreversible sentence of death, they cannot slight his offer without the most flagrant ingratitude, and the most aggrava- ted guilt. His commandment to receive the Lord Jesus Christ, as his " unspeakable gift," is peremptory: and disobedience to it an act of direct rebellion. To say then, " I will not profess the name of Christ," is to say, " I will neither submit to the authority of God, nor accept the gift 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 im- ages — 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; I will 162 CHURCH OP GOD. 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 adul- tery — thou shalt not steal — thou shalt not lie: has said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the same authority which en- joins, 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 ." 1 Cor. xvi. 22. There is something more. Many young persons imagine that they are not members of the church, until, upon a personal profes- sion of their faith, they join it in the com- munion of the holy supper. This is a great mistake. The children of Christian parents are horn members of the church. Their bap- tism is founded upon their membership; and not, as some people suppose, their member- ^ ship upon their baptism. On the same prin- ciple, when they arrive at the years of dis- cretion, they may, in taking upon them their baptismal engagements, by a becoming pro- fession of the Lord Jesus, demand 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 CHURCH OF GOD. 163 that period of maturity, which quahfies them to judge for themselves, is, not whether they shall contract or avoid an allegiance which has hitherto had no claims upon them: but whether they shall acknowledge o^ renounce an allegiance under which they drew their first breath; whether they shall disown the prince of life, and waive their interest in his church; whether they shall disclaim the God of their fathers; forswear their conse- cration to his service — take back the vows which were made over them and for them when they were presented to him in his sanc- tuary; his blessed name called upon them; and the symbol of that " blood which cleans- eth 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 ques- tion: 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 salva- tion, 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 Xh^u^ treading him under foot, and counting the blood of the covenant where- with he was 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. 164 CHURCH OF GOD. " 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 requisite to render such a profession honest. What course shall they steer? If they do not profess Christ, they live in rebelUon against God: if they do, they mock him with a lie. Which side of the alternative shall they embrace? Con- tinue among the profane, and be consistently wicked? or withdraw from them in appear- ance, and play the hypocrite?" The case is, indeed, very deplorable. De- struction is on either hand. For the unhe" lievins^ shall have their part in the lake of fire, Rev. xxi. 8; and the hypocrite's hope shall perish. Job viii. 13. God forbid that we should encourage either a false profes- sion, 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 serious and tender emotion upon this very point : " 1 can- not do it." My soul bleeds for thee, thou unhappy! 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 CHURCH OF GOD. 165 flaunting excuse, and of others a bitter com- plaint — I cannot? Is the inability to believe in Christ different from an inabihty to per- form 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 neces- sity imposed, by the enmity of the carnal mind against God? Rom. viii. 7. It is the inability of wickedness, and of 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 — " I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give 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 /?w/ my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes; and ye shall keep my judgments and do them." Ezek. xxxvi. 25 — 27. Try this ex- pedient : Go, with thy " filthiness" and thine "idols;" Go, with thy "stony heart" and thy perverse spirit, which are thy real ina- bility, to God upon the throne of grace; spread out before him his " exceeding great and precious promise" — importune him as 15 166 CHURCH OF GOD. the hearer of prayer, m the name of Jesus, for the accomphshment 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 gracions unto you: and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment; blessed are all they that wait for him.'' Isa. xxx. 18. The rights and duties of the children of believing parents, arising out of their relation to the church, is only part of our second re- sult. As they are mutual, let us now turn the question and view it in its relation to the rights and duties of the Christian church toward such children. A right to provide for the proper education of their youth, has always been claimed, and exercised in some form or other, by every civilized community. It is, indeed, inherent in the very nature of human society; as it springs out of that great, universal, and es- sential principle of man — self-preservation. The risen generation is, for the most part, fixed. Their habits are formed, their cha- racters settled, and what is to be expected from them may be ascertained with sutHcient exactness for the principal purposes of life. Not so with the rising race. No sagacity can foretell what characters shall be devel- oped, or what parts performed, by these boys and girls who throng our streets and sport in our fields. Li their tender breasts are con- cealed the germs, in their little hands are CHURCH OF GOD. 167 lodged the weapons, of a nation's overthrow 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 pa- ternal interference, on behalf of the children, that the next generation shall not prostrate in an hour, whatever has been consecrated 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 cha- racter, furnished with 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 holi- ness, 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 chil- dren 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, 168 CHURCH OF GOD. 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 respon- sible for the manner in which she acquits herself of the trust. How is this to be done? 1st. All baptized children, (whom by their baptism she acknowledges to be a part of her care,) are to be instructed by her autho- rity, and under her eye. There is a domestic training which it is her business to see that parents give their chil- dren. But she has an interest in these chil- dren altogether her own. Her ministers, or official catechists, are, in her name, to instil into them the principles of the Christian reli- gion, 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-guilti- ness," even guiltiness of the blood of their own offspring. Means are, therefore, to be used, that all the children 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 subjection to his ordinances incorporated with their earliest habits of thinking. No church can neglect this care without suffering: no church has ever fostered it without abundant recom- pense. The most intelligent, sober, staid, active Christians, are usually those who have CHURCH OF GOD. 169 grown up under the operation 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 dismal visage which petrifies the juvenile heart; nor indulge that morose in- quisition 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 be grave. To reduce to one size and one quality, all the decencies of life in all its periods, is the attribute of zeal which never discriminates, of severity which never learns, or of Pharisaism which finds a righteousness in reprobating enjoyments which it cannot share. But, after every proper allowance and pre- caution, there is left a large field of juvenile conduct for the eye of the church to explore. Both in affirming the principles of rectitude, and in resisting the principles of evil, she may and she oitght to do much for her youth. If a child be exemplary in filial or fraternal afiection; pure in behaviour among others; diligent in learning the precious truths of re- velation; reverential towards the ordinances of public and private worship ; fearful of sin- ning against God; it is no small encourage- ment to have these excellencies observed, cherished, ani honoured, by those who bear 170 CHURCH OF GOD. rule in the church. Timidity subsides; bash- fulness is attempered into modesty ; the duc- tile .inclination grows into consistent purpose; and thus " little ones" are brought to Jesus Christ, and prepared for occupying, in due season, the places of those whose grey 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 per- son doubt, that the seasonable interposition of the church of God, might save many a youth from falling a victim to his own de- pravity, or to the depravity of others? Why should a doubt be entertained on the sub- ject? 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 re- sort to this remedy? Ought they not to do it? Why should a tender and solemn remon- strance, 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 error of the wicked? Why should not an (mthoriiative expostulation, on the part of the church of God, brought home to individual feeling, have some efl'ect, 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 troublesome consciences on this point, among our youth,«-than we, per- CHURCH OF GOD. 171 haps, imagine. Why should they not be told, that continuance in carelessness, or abandon- ment to iniquity, will compel the church of God to disown them, and to rank them with those concerning whom slie has no promises to plead? Let it not be said that "the state of religious society forbids such an in- terference — that parents and children would spurn at it as an encroachment upon their liberty — and that instead of gaining our youth, it would drive them, at once, into the camp of the profane ;" — at least, let not these things be said without /crc/* to support them. They are the suggestions of fear, unsanctioned by experience. No doubt, in the decayed state of Christian order, much prudence is neces- sary for its revival: but the necessity of pru- dence 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 baptized youth in general, would not be so fruitless and despicable as some suppose. First, The mere power of opi?iwn 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- stabihty; and such opinion as the Christian 172 CHURCH OP GOD. church can at all times command, no man hvmg can disregard with impunity. Secondly, In many instances, this inter- ference would combine with domestic pre- cept and example; and how far their united forces would go, nothing but the event is en- titled to pronounce. Thirdly, Dissolute as the world is, and disposed as multitudes are to scoff at every thing which bears the image and superscrip- tion of Jesus Christ, it will be no recommen- dation even with thoughtless 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 excommunication of any sort. Exclusion, for faults, from any decent society, is, and ever will be, a stigma. Who- ever 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 re- garded. 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 CHURCH OP GOD. 173 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 fahhfulness. It will be time enough to complain when he "leaves himself without a witness." 3d. There is a particular class of children to whom the church owes a duty which she too frequently 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 often 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 mother. Thus aban- doned 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 immediately of those who have no private de- pendence 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 com- munion, and the rights and duties mutually 16 174 CHURCH OF GOD. subsisting between the church and her infant members, there is a Third result relative to her officers; espe- cially those who labour in the word and doc- trine. It is this: They are primarily the property of the church catholic; and only in a SECONDARY and subordinate sense, the property of a particular congregation. Throughout the christiauized world, it has always 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 pastoral 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 trea- sure. Able, faithful, discreet ministers, are a rare blessing; and it would say little for the understanding, and less for the religion, of any church which should lightly relinquish it. We must further admit, that a wanton 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 unpopularity, but by the principles on which it is founded. This cannot be done, without examining the nature of the claim which a particular congregation has to her minister. CHURCH OP GOD. 175 The pastoral connexion is commonly com- pared to a matrimonial connexion; which, being for life, the popular inference is, that the pastoral connexion also is for life. This proves nothing, except the facility with which most people impose upon them- selves 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 regu- late the discharge of their duties. Now, as married persons must confine their matri- monial intercourse to themselves, not allow- mg a participation 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 religious communion with any other minister. Nor, if a minister's just maintenance should grow inconvenient 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 po- verty 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 176 CHURCH OP GOD. she brought hhn; nor is she to run away from him merely because she does not Uke 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 congregation, 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 reason- ing as we hear every day against the removal of a minister, grounded on the notion of some- thing like a marriage covenant between him and his charge. The reasoning proceeds from feelings pretty general among men, prompt- ing them to prefer a bargain which shall be all on one side, and that side their own. They wish to have the whole comfort with- out 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 oivn, is almost, if not altogether, an adulterous de- sertion ; and even if it be to forward, upon a larger scale, and with more efficacy, the ad- vantage of Christ's kingdom, his authoritative removal, is little, if at all, less than robbery ! But let us be just. It is not the people only who adopt this preposterous reason- ing. Ministers have too frequently fallen into the same error; and, in some instances, they have exactly reversed the popular con- clusions; stating it as good and wholesome doctrine^ that a minister should have it in his CHURCH OF GOD. 177 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 removal Avhen the people wish it; — thus, in their turn, making the bargain all on their own side. This is paltry work. In so far as it arisen 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 exclusive and absolute right to each other; whereas no such possession, no such right does, or can, exist. Our Lord Jesus Christ, when he " ascend- ed up on high, leading captivity captive, gave gifts unto men. And lie gave some," (i. e. some whom he gave were,) "apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 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 church? Certainly not a particular congregation, for the gift includes ministers who never could be confined to so limited a charge. No one particular congregation; no, nor any section of Christians, though contain- ing many congregations, could appropriate to themselves the labours of an apostle, or an evangelist. These were, beyond all con- 16* 178 CHURCH OF GOD. tradiction, 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. There- fore, a minister belongs primarily and imme- diately to the church catholic; and only me- diately, that is, through the medium of the church catholic, is assigned to a particular congregation. It is, of course, her province and duty to determine how, and where, he shall be employed. The only rule of judg- ment is, the greatest amount of benefit lohich may accrue from his services to the interests of the Redeemer's kingdom. The determi- nation of this point must be confided to such a portion of the church catholic, assembled in judicatory, (since it is impossible for the whole to meet,) as shall secure, according to human probabilities, a wise and impartial decision. To lodge such a power in the hands of a par- ticular congregation, would be manifestly im- proper; 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 unfurnished with sufficient information, often impassioned, always pre- possessed; and, therefore, incapable of ^'judg- ing righteous judgment." Mistakes, and im- proprieties will, no doubt, occur, be the pow- er where it may: because perfection is to be found no where. Yet, when a question is to be tried before a court composed of represen- CHURCH OF GOD. 179 tatives from several particular churches, hav- ing much more ability, and better opportuni- ties 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 imperfec- tion of man admits. When such a court, then, fixes the pastoral relation between a minister and a congregation, it does not sur- render him up absolutely to them; nor wed them to each other for hfe. It places him there, because it believes that his labours there will be, 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 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 represen- tative, as preceded his first settlement. We repeat, that it would be unreasonable and unrighteous, to let an individual or a congre- gation possess the power of sacrificing to their narrow gratification, the interest of the Chris- tian community. Ministers, then, must be in ISO CHURCH OF GOD. that situation which shall render their labours of the greatest utility. They are ordinarily joined to parochial cliarges; because this, upon the whole, is the best practical system; and not because their charges have an exclu- sive property in them. Tiie 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 gener- al claim is set up, their particular feelings must give Avay; and Ibat upon this self-evi- dent truth, that the whole is greater than a part. Pui'siring the same reasoning, we per- ceive, that whelhcr a minister sliall have a congregation or not, is a question of second- ary importance ; and is to be answered by a prudent cousideratioii of tlie previous ques- tion — whether he is likely to be more exten- sively useful with or without 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 circumspection and with dignity; that the very uneasiness excited b}^ 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 another; or from one species of labour CHURCH OF GOD. 181 to another, cannot be controverted, without tearing up the foundations of the whole church of God. Finally. A very important result from the foregoing discussions concerning the nature of the church is, that no form of church go- vernment can he scriptural, ivhich is not adapted to this broad and master-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, 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 nourish- ment and health: 4. A power of expelling impurities and corruptions. These things are essential to her organiza- tion according to the description given of her in the word of God. We close with one re- mark — that a number of particular churches not united in mutual dependence, and not fur- nished with a principle of living efficiency 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 182 CHURCH OF GOD. of Christ, than the limbs of the human body, dissevered, 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. THE END. Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Librar; 1012 01123 9144