His design, in short, manifestly was, to adapt His Religion to the social principles of man's nature; and to bind His Disciples, throughout all ages, to each other, by those ties of mutual attachment, sympathy, and co-operation, which in every human Community and Association, of whatever kind, are found so powerful.

of a Com

§ 2. Obvious, and indeed trite, as the remark Properties may appear, most persons are apt, I think, not munity. sufficiently to consider what important conclusions result from it;-how much is implied in the constituting of a Community. It is worth while, therefore, to pause at this point, and inquire what are the inherent properties and universal character naturally and necessarily belonging to any regularly-constituted Society, as such, for whatever purpose formed. For I think it will appear, on a very simple examination, that several points which have been denied or disregarded by some, and elaborately, but not always satisfactorily, maintained by others, arise, as obvious consequences, out of the very intrinsic character, the universal and necessary description of a regular community.

It seems to belong to the very essence of a A CommuCommunity, that it should have-1st, Officers of quires

' See Bampton Lectures for the year 1822, Lect. I.

nity re

RULES, and

OFFICERS, some kind; 2dly, Rules enforced by some kind of penalties; and, 3dly, Some power of admitting MEMBERS. and excluding persons as Members.

power to admit

For, 1st, whatever may be the character, and whatever the proposed objects, of a regularlyconstituted Community, Officers of some kind are essential to it. In whatever manner they may be appointed,-whether by hereditary succession, or by rotation, or by election of any kind,— whatever be the number or titles of them, and whatever the distribution of their functions,(all which are matters of detail,) Officers of some kind every Community must have. And these, or some of these, while acting in their proper capacity, represent the Community; and are, so far, invested with whatever powers and rights belong to it; so that their acts, their rights, their claims, are considered as those of the whole Body. We speak, e. g. indifferently of this or that having been done by the Athenians, the Romans, the Carthaginians; or, by the Athenian, the Roman, or Carthaginian Government or Rulers. And so also when we speak of the acts of some University, or of the Governors of that

And it is to be observed that it makes no difference, as to this point, whether the Governors are elected by the governed, and in any degree restrained by them, or are hereditary and unlimited. In all cases, the established and recognised Rulers of any Community are considered as representing it.

University, we are using two equivalent expres

sions.

of a Com

binding on

bers.

2dly. It seems equally essential to every Com- Bye-laws munity that it should have certain Regulations munity or Bye-laws, binding on its own members. And its memif it be not wholly subjected to the control, and regulated by the directions of some extraneous power, but is in any degree an independent Community, it must so far, have power to enact, and abrogate,-to suspend, alter, and restore, bye-laws, for itself; namely, such regulations, extending to matters intrinsically indifferent, as are not at variance with the enactments of any superior authority. The enforcement also of the regulations of a Community by some kind of Penalties, is evidently implied by the very existence of Regulations. To say of any Community that its Laws are valid, and binding on its members, is to say that the violators of them may justly be visited with Penalties and to recognise Officers in any Community is to recognise as among its Laws, submission to those Officers while in the exercise of their legitimate functions.

power be

Political

In the case of Political Communities, which is Coercive! a peculiar one, inasmuch as they necessarily ex-longs to ercise an absolutely-coercive power, the Penalties Communimust be determined according to the wisdom and justice of each Government, and can have no

ties.

Admission to membership of a Community.

other limit. But in a voluntary Community, the ultimate Penalty must be expulsion; all others, short of this, being submitted to as the alternative.h But in every Community, of whatever description (or in those under whose control it is placed) there must reside a power of enacting, enforcing, and remitting, the Penalties by which due submission to its laws and to its officers is to be secured.

3dly. Lastly, no less essential to a Community seems to be a power, lodged somewhere, of determining questions of Membership. Whatever may be the claims or qualifications on which that may depend,-nay, even whether the community be a voluntary Association, or (as is the case with political Communities) one claiming compulsory power,-and whatever may be its purpose in all cases, the admission to it, or exclusion from it, of each individual, must be determined by some recognised authority.

Since therefore this point, and also those others above-mentioned, seem, naturally and necessarily, to belong to every regular Community, since it must, in short, consist of regularly-constituted Members, subject to certain Rules, and having certain Officers, it follows, that whoever directs or sanctions the establishment

See Appendix, Note (B.)

of a Community (as our Lord certainly did in respect of Christian Churches,) must be understood as thereby sanctioning those institutions which belong to the essence of a Community. To recognise a Community as actually having a legitimate existence, or as allowably to be formed, is to recognise it as having Officers,-as having Regulations enforced by certain Penalties, and as admitting or refusing to admit Members.

vinely con

Christian

munity.

§ 3. All this, I say, seems to be implied by Rights dithe very nature of the case. But, on purpose, ferred on a as it should seem, to provide against any mis- Comapprehension or uncertainty, our Lord did not stop at the mere general sanction given by Him to the formation of a Christian Community, but He also particularized all the points I have been speaking of. He appointed or ordained the first Officers; He recognised the power of enacting and abrogating Rules; and He gave authority for the admitting of Members.

Such is the obvious sense of his directions to his Apostles: obvious, I mean, to them, with such habits of thought and of expression as they had, and as He must have known them to have. He must have known well what meaning his words would convey to his own countrymen, at that time. But some things which would appear plain and obvious to a Jew,-even an