what I have written upon the church. If any of our diffenting brethren fhould look into this little piece, and find the matter fo reprefented as to engage their attention; my prayer fhall be with them, that God may give them the grace to caft out the bitter leaven of a party-fpirit; to lay afide all temporal motives and interefts, and confider the church (as I have done) only fo far as it is related to the other world. To any particular or national church, all temporal alliances are but momentary confiderations, which pafs away with the fashion of this world; and the church may be either with them, or without them, as it was in the first ages: for the church itfelf, under the relation it bears to Jefus Chrift, abideth for ever.

J

ESSA Y

ΟΝ ΤΗΣ

CHURCH.

СНАР. І.

OF THE

DISTINCTION

BETWEEN THE WORLD AND THE

CHURCH; WITH THE NATURE AND CHARACTER OF BOTH SOCIETIES.

TWO things of a contrary nature are best understood when

they are placed near to one another, or compared together in the mind. The fummer is better understood, and more to be valued, when we compare it with the winter; a feafon in which fo many comforts are wanting, which the fummer affords us. The bleffings of government are more acceptable, when compared with the miferies of anarchy. We have the like advantage when we compare together the church and the world, thofe two focieties of which we are members: of the world by out natural birth; of the church by our fpiritual birth in baptifm. When we are admitted into the Chriftian covenant, we'renounce this world as a wicked world, and become members of the church, which is called the holy church. Both these societies are influential on those who belong to them; the one corrupts, the other fanctifies therefore it is of the laft importance to mankind to confider and understand the difference between them.

If we afk, why the world is called wicked, we shall find it to be fuch from the nature and manners of its inhabitants: for the world, as it means the fyftem of the vifible creation, can have no harm in it. There can be no wickedness, where there is no moral agency nor freedom of action.

From the fin of Adam, and the effects of his fall, the state of man by nature is a state of fin. The Scripture is fo, exprefs in this, that it is not neceffary to infift upon it. A difpofition to evil comes into the world with every man, and is as a feed, which brings forth its fruit throughout the course of his life. Many evil paffions difturb and agitate his mind; and from the ignorance or darkness which prevails in him, he knows not that he is to refift them in order to his peace and happiness; nor hath he ability fo to do, if he did know it. The worst and the most violent of all his paffions is pride, which affects fuperiority, and delights in vain fhew, and pompous distinction; whether it be that of wealth, or honour, or wisdom. Covetoufness disposes him to take all he can to himself, and pay no regard to the wants of others; whence the state of nature is a state of war, in which men plunder and deftroy one another; not knowing the way of peace, which confifts only with restraint, and must be taught them from above; "the way of peace have they not known;" faith the Scripture.

Man knows all things by education, but nothing by nature, except, as the Apostle faith, what "he knoweth naturally as a "brute beaft." The world, as we fee it now, is under the reftraint of laws, which in fome countries are better in themfelves, and better executed than in others: but if there were no laws and no governments to execute them, then we should fee what a scene of deftruction and mifery this world would be, through the finfulness of man's nature. Fraud, rapine, and cruelty, thofe three dreadful monsters, make ftrange havoc amongst us, notwithstanding the laws and regulations of fociety: what then would this world be without them?

With refpect to God, the state of man is a state of rebellion, alienation, and condemnation. His ways are fo oppofite to the will of God, that he is faid to be at enmity with him. He has no alliance with his Maker, either as a child, a fubject, or a fervant; but being under a general law of disobedience, can inherit nothing from God but wrath and punishment.

8

You will fee this account verified by the plainest declarations of the Scripture.-First, as to the enmity of the world against God. "If the world hate you," faith our Lord when he came to fave it, "ye know that it hated me before it hated you.”. Secondly, as to their alienation or departure from all alliance with him" you that were fome time alienated and enemies in your "minds by wicked works;" faith St. Paul, Col. i. 21 and again, speaking of the natural state of the Ephefians before their converfion, he describes them as "aliens and strangers from the "covenants of promife, having no hope, and without God in "the world." In which paffage, there is fomething farther than appears from the found of the words; for when we read, "without God in the world," the words "in the world," are emphatical, and denote this wicked world, fuch as we have been describing it, of which they that are members, must of course be without God, and without hope: they belong to a fociety which knows him not.

Then, thirdly, that the world is under condemnation; "we are chaftened of the Lord," faith St. Paul," that we should not be condemned with the world:" whence it is evident, that the world, as fuch, is under condemnation, and can expect nothing of God but punishment for fin.

We are now prepared to take a review of this fociety called the world. It is compofed of men loft by the fall; disposed to all manner of evil; ignorant of the way of peace; at enmity with God, and with one another; delighting themselves in the pride of appearance, and the vanity of diftinction. In a word, "the "whole world lieth in wickednefs," and they that are condemned for fin, will be condemned with the world, whofe condemnation, therefore, is a thing of courfe. What human philofophy may fay of this defcription of the world, we are not to regard: if it is the defcription which ftands in the Holy Scripture, we are not to confider what men may say of it. A proud world will never be pleased to see an humiliating description of itself.

Such then is the world, and fuch are we all, fo far as we are members of it. God therefore of his infinite mercy takes us out of this wicked fociety, and tranflates us into another. He "de"livers us from the power of darkness, and translates us into "the kingdom of his dear Son ;" and without this tranflation we are inevitably loft. You are here to obferve, that the kingdom of Chrift is one of the names of his church; and they that are in it,

as it is diftinguished from the world, are called " children of the "kingdom." Its nature is totally different from the kingdoms of this world (of which we shall see more hereafter;) for as the world is called wicked, fo the church is called holy; and all the holinefs that can be in man, must be derived from thence. If we enquire how, and in what respects, the church is holy, we find it must be fo from its relation to God. It is called the "church of God;" and he being holy, every thing that belongs to him must be fo of course. And further, it is a fociety, or body, of which the Holy Spirit is the life; and this life being communicated to those who are taken into the church, they are thereby made partakers of an holy life, which is elsewhere called "the life of God;" from which life they are alienated who are out of this fociety. It is holy in its facraments; our baptifin is an holy baptifin, from the holy spirit of God; the Lord's fupper is an holy facrifice; the ordinance of absolution is for the forgiveness of past fin, that the members of the church may be recovered from sin to a state of holiness, and peace with God. The church is holy in its priesthood; all the offices of which are for the sanctification of the people.

The contrary nature of the two focieties I have been speaking of, will now be better understood, when they are compared together. In the one, men are in a loft condition; in the other, they are in a state of falvation: for as the world is alienated from God, the church is in alliance and covenant with him, and partaker of his promifes. As the world is under condemnation, the church is under grace and pardon of fin: its baptifm washes away original fin, and gives a new birth to purity and righteousness; its other facrament of the Lord's fupper maintains that fpiritual life which is begun at baptifm, as meat and drink fupport the life we receive at our natural birth. As the world is without hope, the Chriftian hath hope in death, through the refurrection of Chrift, and is affured, that he who is united to the life of God, can never die: for God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. While the wicked are to perifh with the world which they inhabit, the children of God are "heirs with Chrift of an eternal kingdom."

The church is alfo holy, when by the word church, we underftand the building or place in which the people affemble to accomplish the fervice of God. As the world on the other hand, hath always had its unholy places of affembly, its theatres, its idol tema