Gospel institutes. The true holy catholic church is made up of all the members of Christ, who, from the first publishing of his Gospel to this day, have believed in him, or shall hereafter profess a sound faith in the Saviour, to the end of the world; or, in the words of my text, of those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, which are in every place (i. e. every part of the world), who call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. It concerns us, my brethren, to attend to the expression, all that are sanctified in Christ. Jesus, called to be saints; the plain sense of which is, all who are made holy, who lead godly lives, who are called by the gracious voice of their Master in his blessed Gospel to be saints, that is, to be conformed to his image, by observing his precepts, imitating his example, and proving their love to him, by their obedience to the call: in short, first to become holy persons, or good Christians on earth, and then to be rewarded as such, in a more exalted degree in heaven. The word saint will admit of no evasive or limited interpretation; it means positively, both in its original and applied sense, both in an earthly and heavenly state, a person eminent for virtue and piety. Whatsoever are your pretensions to outward gravity of manners, however superior you may suppose yourselves to others, because you have obtained a habit

of frequent prayer, attending various preachings, of talking continually in the phrase of Holy Scripture, or of being singular in your ways, and zealous and partial to every thing new and captivating in the forms of religious profession, it will avail you nothing, if you do not bring forth fruits meet for repentance; this being the test that you belong to Christ, and have the Spirit of Christ, without which you are none of his.

No man living can have any claim to the character or reward of a saint, who doth not show daily amendment of life; he may be a saint outwardly, like as a Jew or a Christian (as the Apostle tells us) may become so according to the letter, and the positive rites of his persuasion; but as he only is a Jew, who is one inwardly, by the circumcision or purification of the heart, so he only is a Christian, who is ready and willing to take up every cross laid upon him by the wisdom and goodness of God, and to walk purely in the steps of that Master under whose banner he has enlisted.-Without a change of heart and life, without a command over our unruly passions and unchristian tempers, every other appearance is but hypocrisy, put on by many for various ends, according to their particular situation, their natural disposition, constitutional weakness of mind, and not unfrequently from ignorance and perverse

ness united. The true saint communeth with his own heart, and is still; he acquiesces with the orders of Providence both in church and state, and labours, by God's grace, to let his light shine in the exercise of the most essential virtues, and not merely to display his zeal in vain and dangerous, at least, hazardous encroachments on regular and established institutions. He exhorts all to worship God after the manner of their wise and pious forefathers, and admonishes all who start aside like a broken bow, to return to their original fold. This, my brethren, I verily believe is a fair picture of part of the character, at least, of a true member of Christ, of that saint, of that child of God, who composes or forms a portion of that holy catholic or general spiritual church, of which Jesus is the head and Saviour, and every faithful member of which will finally be made an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.

Now, perhaps, some may ask, how can a church or assembly, even of such holy people as these, be an object of our faith; since we neither do, nor can see it, or communicate with it? In resolving this question, we are led to apply this further and evangelical notion of faith. For, first, we believe by the word of God (that is, by divine revelation), that all who have gone before us, in the true faith of Christ, and the fear of God's holy name, though

they cannot be in actual and visible communion with us at present, do yet live to God, and are still members of Christ's church, though in a different state from us, and though we may never meet in this life; and whatever national description may be given to the mode of the service of such persons, if we are actuated by the same pure evangelical principles, if we are equally sincere in our profession, we shall all meet together in one glorious society at the last day. And on the same grounds we do also further believe, that in all ages yet to come, to the end of the world, as Christ himself declares (Matt. xx. 20), he shall continue to have a church on earth; and that neither the power of men, the malice of the devil, nor (as

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We may illustrate this by a familiar comparison of the things we see and know. Is it not certain, that a person may belong to some celebrated institution, or society, and be among the purest members of that fraternity, without our ever seeing him, or his even belonging to our nation? As long as he lives up to the universal laws of his order, he does honour to the founder of it, and is in the truest sense a part of the body composed of different members like himself. He is entitled to the promised benefits of the particular com munity to which he belongs, and his name will live in honour or reproach, according as he has been deserving or not of the upright profession he has made. Thus, every true Christian is a member of the universal or catholic church, however distant his abode from that visible and actual community of which we form a part,

expressed, Matt. xvi. 18) the gates of hell, shall be able to prevail against it.

But we have abundant testimonies in Holy Writ to prove, that, notwithstanding this society consists of so many different members, and those even at so great a distance of time and place from one another; yet they all together make but one church, in the sense the word is accepted, as a community of Christians; for it is evident, how different soever the members of this church may seem to be, yet, as St. Paul speaks (Acts, ii. 42), they were proved by continuing in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. They were united together under one head, the Lord Jesus, as is illustrated in Rom. xii. 4, 5: For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office; so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Further: they are sanctified and ruled by the same Holy Spirit, are endued with the same love to God, and towards one another; live by the same laws, profess the same faith, partake of the same sacraments, have the same hope of salvation set before them, worship the same God, by the same Advocate and Saviour, Jesus Christ; and, lastly, shall one day be gathered into one actual place and portion, viz. the glorious kingdom af God for ever. A blessed prospect! that enables