Members both good and bad, like "wheat and tares," and "gathered of every land." Thus, those who worshipped the calf, in the wilderness, who adored the brazen serpent, who worshipped Baal, and the Gods of other nations, notwithstanding the manifestations of the wrath of God upon those several occasions, were nevertheless Members of his Visible Church, because they retained the Law of God, and the Holy Seal of his Covenant, even in the depth of their Disobedience and Rebellion. But I am aware that here an insur mountable difficulty presents itself to our Dissenting Brethren, and that we may be asked how can the Wicked partake of a Mystical Union with Christ? Now I would reply that the Body of Christ is called His Mystical Body, not on account of any Mystical Union with Him, but from Mystical reasons which St. Paul, his Apostle, explains in his Epistle to the Ephesians,* wherein he compares this Mystical Union between Christ and His Church to that of a husband and wife for as the wife is called the wife, the very flesh of the husband, so is the Church of Christ called; and the reason why the wife is so called, is because she was formed out of the side of the man, and the reason why the Church of Christ is so called is because she was formed out of the pierced side of Christ, for "out of it came water," representing Baptism, "and blood," representing the Lord's Supper. Now if these mystical reasons, for which the Church is called the Body of Christ, include wicked professors, and concealed hypocrites, as well as truly good men, it is evident, that wicked men may be said to be the Members of the Mystical Body of Christ, without such a Mystical Union with Him. For that wicked men are Members of Christ's Mystical Body, I think very certain; because they may be united by Covenant to Christ, and those who are thus united must necessarily be Members of His Mystical Body, because Christ has but one Body, which is His Church and Mystical Spouse. Our Dissenting Brethren should recollect that Men may be in Covenant with Christ, and not perform the Conditions of that Covenant, nor obtain the rewards of it. May not wicked men live in Visible Communion with the Church? May they not be Baptized in the name of Christ? May they not feast at His Table? Certainly they are, therefore, in Visible Covenant with Him; because if the Sacraments do not prove that we are in Covenant with Christ, no man can tell whether he be in Covenant or not. Now all that are in Covenant with Christ are his Body, and nuless we can find two Covenants, and two bodies for Christ, we must admit that Good and Bad Men in this World are in the same Covenant, and Members of the same Covenant, and Members of the same Body. Our Saviour tells us, that there are some Branches in Him that bear no fruit, but they are in Him for all that, although hereafter they shall be taken away, and separated from him ;† and St. Paul dissuades the Corinthians from Fornication by this Argument, that Eph. v. 25-32 + John xv. & they are Members of the Body of Christ: "Know ye not," says he, "that your Members are the Members of Christ; Shall I then take the Members of Christ, and make them the Members of an Harlot? God forbid ;"* which supposes that such a thing may be done, that the Members of Christ may be made Members of a Harlot, and that supposes that very wicked men may be Members of the Body of Christ. It is therefore evident that every definition of the Christian Church, which, (upon this, or any other principle,) excludes Visibility as one of its essential characteristics, cannot be considered a Scriptural one. But, secondly, as I have observed, the notion entertained by our Dissenting Brethren of the Church of Christ does not include Unity, because " a Voluntary Society" may mean any, and every Society of Christians, and is therefore comprehensive of all the different Sects into which the Christian Church has been divided. But this idea is evidently subversive of one great end which Christ had in view in the establishment of His Church, viz. that "the Unity of the Spirit, and the Bond of Peace," might be preserved among its Members. For upon the supposition that every Society of professing Christians is the Church of Christ, (which the definition of " a Voluntary Society" evidently implies,) the Church must in that case consist of as many separate Societies under different forms, as there are fanciful men to make them, and consequently is no longer in that collected state in which it is possible to live in Communion with it; for before the Members of the Church can live in Communion with each other, the Church as a Society must be at Unity in itself; but according to the definition of "a Voluntary Society," the Church may be any thing and every thing that men please to make it; and if so, there can be no such sin as Schism in the World, because the sin of Schism pre-supposes the Establishment of one certain Society by Divine Authority, with which all Christians are obliged to communicate; indeed separation from it in such a case becomes impracticable, because a Society must have acquired some regular and collected form, before a separation from it can take place. It is, therefore, certain that the Church of Christ cannot be "a Society," (i. e. any, or every Society,) "of Christians meeting together to attend Gospel Ordinances in the same place;" and still less can it be " a Voluntary Society," excepting so far as it is left to the choice of every man, whether he will be for ever happy or miserable, because it is a Society, of which all men are obliged to be Members, as they value their eternal happiness. The exclusion, thirdly, of perpetuity from the Dissenting definition of the Church of Christ is another proof of its defectiveness. The Scriptures invariably represent the Church of Christ as a Society, which will always be visible, and therefore it cannot be, (as our Dissenting Brethren suppose,) a mere Assembly of men, for Assemblies are rather things that belong to a Church. Men are assembled for the performance of public actions, but when those actions are ended, the Assembly dissolves itself, and is no longer in being; but the Church which was assembled continues no less afterwards than before. We may, therefore, conclude that the Church of Christ is correctly defined as "a Perpetually Visible Society, whose Members are United together for their Order and Government according to the Rules of the Christian Religion." It will now be necessary to carry this definition farther. The whole Catholic Church of Christ thus defined implies all true Christian Churches united together by the bands of Union, and such acts of Communion as distinct Churches are capable of, and obliged to; consequently it comprehends the whole number of Christians in all places admitted into the Christian Church by lawful Baptism, and gathered into particular Churches under their respective Church Governors, united to one another and to Christ their Head by one common Christianity, publicly professed in assembling together and worshipping God, and in the frequent participation of the Eucharist, instituted by Christ as a federal rite of His Church, aptly representing not only the close connection between Him and His Church, but also the mutual fellowship of one Christian with another.* These particular Churches make up the Catholic Church of Christ as homogenous parts which have all the same nature; and like the main body of the Sea, which being one, yet within different precincts has different names, as the Red Sea, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, &c., so the Catholic Church is in like manner divided into a number of distinct particular Churches, each of which is termed a Church within itself, being a separate branch of the Catholic, or Universal Visible Church upon Earth, as the Churches of England and Ireland, the Episcopal Churches of Scotland and America, the Churches of Denmark, Sweden, and Rome, and the Greek Church in Russia, and in the East. To apply the foregoing remarks to the case of the Church of England, by which I mean that Society of Christians, who in England are united together under the same profession of Faith, the same Laws of Ecclesiastical Government, and Rules of Divine Worship. Now I readily admit that such a Church differs very greatly from that of a Voluntary Society," but as I have shown that the Church of Christ is not " a Voluntary Society," so likewise it will be necessary to show that the foregoing definition of the National Church of England is not at variance with the Scriptural notion of the Church of Christ. I have already proved the Church to be "a Society of Men united together for their Order and Government according to the Rules of the Christian Religion." Now since the lowest kind of that Society, viz. Congregations for Worship, are called Churches; since the largest Society of all Christians is accounted a true Catholic Church, and both from their union and consent in some common thing; why may * 1 Cor. x. 17. not a National Society agreeing together in the same Faith, and under the same Government and Discipline, be as truly and properly a Church as any particular Congregation? For the measure of extent does not alter the nature of the thing; the Kingdom of France being as truly a Kingdom as the small Kingdom of Sardinia; and as several families make one Kingdom, so several lesser Churches make one National Church. We may, therefore, infer that the National Church of England perfectly corresponds with the Scriptural idea of the Nature of a Christian Church. Q. 2.-With what authority has the Christian Church been invested by its Divine Founder? Unity being an essential characteristic of the Church of Christ, (as has been already shown in the preceding answer,) we must necessarily suppose that our blessed Saviour in the foundation of His Holy Institution, made all needful provision to preserve it, by securing to His Church sufficient authority for that purpose, in order to control Schismatics, and enforce their Communion with it. This he could do no otherwise than by investing it with all the powers which the nature of such a Society instituted by Himself, to continue to the end of the world, required. For this purpose we find that He ordered all final appeals to be made to it, saying, "Tell it to the Church;" and chose Twelve Public Rulers, called Apostles, as Judges of Ecclesiastical matters, whom He invested with the very same authority that He Himself had received from His Father, saying. "AS my Father sent me, EVEN SO send I yon." We find that these Twelve Apostles exercised this Authority thus conferred upon them. That at Corinth, St. Paul, in his absence, excommunicated, absolved, and enacted laws:† that he directed the Laity to " Obey "the Prelates that had rule over them, and to submit themselves, since they watched for their souls, as they that must give account:" that he commended the Romans for their "Obedience" to Church authority, and declared that on that account "he was glad in their behalf:" that he com manded the Corinthians to obey him," Be ye followers of me," says he, “even as I am of Christ," and praised them because they "remembered him " and his authority in all things, and kept his ordinances even as he delivered them to them," "asking no question for," (or on pretence of) "conscience sake," but merely because he "so ordained" (or commanded) "in all Churches" under his Episcopal Jurisdiction. We find that St. John, another Apostle, censured one Diotrephes, because in the true spirit of Korab, "loving to have the pre-eminence," he had created a division among the brethren, by resisting the superior authority of his Bishop; which characters St. Paul had previously condemned in these words, "If any man obey not our word by this Epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed." We find John xx. 21. + Cor. xiv. 29, 36, 37. Heb, xiii. 7. 1 Cor. xi. 1, 2 D 2 that the Apostles being regarded as the chief "Stewards" of Christ's Household, and entrusted with the care and government of it, very early drew up, and agreed upon a short summary of Faith, for the use of the Church of Christ, which each of them sent to be carefully preserved and maintained by the several Churches of his own plantation, which summary is called in Scripture, "the Form of sound Words,"*"the Proportion of Faith," and the Depositum, or "thing committed to the trust" of Timothy. Moreover if wo inquire into the practice of the Apostles, we shall find that besides the standing Rules of the Gospel, they established many Regulations, as the several occasions of the Churches under their care, required. We shall find that in many of St. Paul's Epistles, (especially in those to the Corinthians,) he prescribes particular Rules for the decency of Divine Worship, the avoiding of scandal, and other things which were not determined by Christ; and he speaks of customs which he himself and other Apostles established, and the Churches observed. We shall find, that when a dispute arose a few years after the Ascension of our Saviour, concerning the necessity of circumcising the Gentile converts, the Apostles and Elders met at Jerusalem, and made a decree upon the subject, which they communicated to the Churches then established in different parts of Asia, and required their obedience to it: which cannot be denied to be an instance of authority exercised by the Church, under the direction of the Apostles, in a controversy of Faith. We shall find that St. Paul enjoined Timothy, Bishop of Ephesus, "to charge " his Clergy "to teach no other doctrine" than what the Gospel sanctioned, and that he requested Titus, Bishop of Crete, to reject after the first and second admonition, a man that was an Heretic;" from which it is evident, that Timothy and Titus had authority given them to regulate the Faith of all the Churches in the Diocese over which they were appointed to preside, which in the one instance comprehended a vast portion of Asia, and in the other the hundred cities of Crete; and that Titus was expressly directed to exclude from Communion with the Church of Christ any person who persevered in the maintenance of Heretical opinions; and, therefore, there must have been, even at that early period, some fixed test, by which the faith of professed Christians was to be judged; and the consequence of not conforming to that test was by Apostolical Authority, excommunication. From what has been already urged upon this subject, it is certain that the Church of Christ has been vested with an authority not only to decree Rites and Ceremonies, (which it is my intention to prove more clearly in my Fifth Chapter,) but also to interfere in Controversies of Faith. But there is another Authority entrusted to the Governors and Ministers of the Christian Church; I mean a power of Jurisdiction, or a Right to execute and enforce the Laws which it has made; that 2 Tim. i. 13. Rom. xii 6. 1 Tim. vi. 20. 1 Cor. xi. 16. 1 Tim. i. 3. |