With Him all is infinite, and infinity excludes gradations. What then can creatures do, or be for Him? They can be channels through which the perfections of God shall flow forth out of himself into manifest exercise: they can be witnesses of the divine character thus manifested: they can be so many sounding-boards which shall prolong and reverberate from sphere to sphere, the praises of Him who spake and they were made, who commanded and they were created.

The performance of the divine purpose differs in this respect essentially from the purpose itself. It descends among creatures, and partaking so far of their infirmities, it becomes progressive, and is of course (until the last step shall be taken in it) incomplete. The part of it, in which we are most vitally concerned, is the salvation of sinful men. This expression, the salvation of sinful men, involves many truths, which, although essential to a right and adequate view of our subject, are scarcely suitable, beyond mere enumeration, for the present

occasion.

Such are the creation of holy angels, each in individual completeness; the fall of some of them into rebellion against God with all its tremendous consequences; the creation of man, not as the angels in individual distinctness, but the whole race prospectively in one man, like a tree whose seed is in itself, so that God has never created a second man; the temptation of the aggregate man by a fallen angel; and the ruin of himself and his posterity by trans

gression of God's commandment; the resources of the Godhead, in coequal and coeternal persons, from the depth of which arose an interference on behalf of fallen man, at once righteous and merciful, upholding inviolate the justice of the divine administration, while it opens the hand and heart of the great Sovereign to the poor helpless rebel; the salvation of sinful men in progress for four thousand years on the credit of the predetermined atonement by Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world; the incarnation, or God manifest in the flesh, and the accomplishment by the wondrous person thus constituted, God and man in one Christ, of that great central work, in this world's history, to which, as predicted by the prophets, all who believed the word of God looked forward till it was done; and to which, as recorded by the apostles, all who believe look back since it was done.

1. These believers, from the first and to the last inclusive, compose the church in its highest sense, the church mystical, called in holy Scripture the body of Christ.

To have clear views of this important branch of revealed truth, it is necessary to contemplate the component parts of this church in four classes -first, those who having finished their course of faith and patience upon earth, are now absent from the body and present with the Lord-secondly, those in the flesh who are now living by the faith of the Son of God-thirdly, those who are born of the flesh, and who shall, in God's good time, be born

again of the Spirit, but are not yet converted to God-and fourthly, those who are not yet born of the flesh, but are clearly seen and known of "Him who calleth things that are not, as though they

were."

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I am aware that in stating this primary meaning of the church," I am encountering opposition in some minds; and have therefore cordial satisfaction in falling back upon what is usually considered high authority by the class of objectors now alluded to; and quoting the language of our own judicious Hooker, as at once a shield for myself against the imputation of novelty or rashness, and a defence for my argument against facility of refutation:

"That church of Christ, which we properly term his body mystical, can be but one; neither can that one be sensibly discerned by any man, inasmuch as the parts thereof are some in heaven already with Christ, and the rest that are on earth, (albeit their natural persons be visible,) we do not discern under this property, whereby they are truly and infallibly of that body. Only our minds by intellectual conceit are able to apprehend, that such a real body there is, a body collective, because it containeth a huge multitude; a body mystical, because the mystery of their conjunction is removed altogether from sense. Whatsoever we read in Scripture concerning the endless love and the saving mercy which God showeth towards his church, the only proper subject thereof is this church. Concerning this flock it is that our Lord and Saviour hath promised,' I

give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hands." They who are of this society have such marks and notes of distinction from all others, as are not objects unto our sense; only unto God who seeth their hearts, and understandeth all their secret cogitations, unto him they are clear and manifest. All men knew Nathaneal to be an Israelite; but our Saviour piercing deeper, giveth further testimony of him than man could have done with such certainty as he did,' Behold indeed an Israelite, in whom there is no guile.""

1

In the sight of God, the members of this mystical body, the component parts of this church, these objects of his " endless love and saving mercy,' have ever been, in every age, wholly distinct from all the rest of mankind, in their privileges, their character, and their destiny.

It is not necessary to my present purpose, to prolong controversy upon this point, though the distinct mention of it was, as we shall see, quite indispensable. It is the only view of "the church” taken by some of our opponents; so that while it is wholly denied on the one hand, it is exclusively dwelt upon on the other. We are thus pressed into a two-fold opposition, while against one class of objectors we maintain that this view of the church is truth; and against another class (to whom we proceed now to address ourselves) we maintain that it is not the whole truth.

1 Eccl. Pol., book iii. sect. i.

2. We present, then, for the serious consideration of religious dissenters, another scriptural meaning of "the church."

In every age of the world, at least since the days of Abraham, there has been a portion of mankind separated from all the rest, not only in the sight of God who searcheth the heart; but also in the sight of man, which is limited to the outward appearance. There has been a society instituted, all the members of which have received some visible token or badge, distinguishing them from all other men.

At least since the days of Abraham. The records of the antediluvian world are very brief, and do not supply detailed and unambiguous information upon this point. It is indeed recorded, that at a very early period "men began to call upon the name of the Lord," or, to call themselves by the name of the Lord. And a distinction is marked between the sons of God, and the daughters of men.3 But we are not instructed in the precise nature of that distinction, or whether it was accompanied by outward token, or if so, in what that token con

any

sisted.

Since the institution of circumcision, however, the case is plain. A man of Mesopotamia, in no way distinguished from the surrounding idolaters, either by birth or early education,* was selected by God to be the origin of a special society among men. That society was to wear first a family aspect in the

2 Gen. iv. 26.

3 Gen. vi. 2, 4.
5 Isa. li. 2.

4 Joshua xxiv. 2, 3.