christian who has never received either baptism, or the Lord's supper, or attended a place of christian worship.

That the dissolution of the church involves in it the destruction of christianity, the following considerations will make manifest. If there were no church, there could be no ministry; for all ministers have sprung from churches. Ministers without churches could not perform the duties of their office. They could not give the sacraments, because these are both church ordinances; baptism being the rite of initiation into the church, and the Lord's supper being an act of communion among its members. Many of you are mere outward hearers; and you conceive that a minister might be found who would not object to preach to a whole congregation of outward hearers. But where would you find him? In the state of things contemplated, you must recollect there is no church; you must seek for him, therefore, among the wicked of the world. That is an admirable school of preparation for the high vocation of an ambassador of Christ! Well, when you have engaged a man of the world to preach to you, without exercising any discipline, or administering the sacraments, he would be a pretty sort of a pastor, would he not? and be likely to do your souls a great deal of good? But where must he preach? Not, I presume, in the open air all the year round. You must build him a chapel; you must engage a person to light and clean and have the care of it; you must keep it in repair; you must pay your preacher a salary. Can all this be done without association and christian communion? And when all is ready, what doctrine is to be preached? Can this be settled without christian communion also? You may, perhaps, form a scheme in your minds, of having a minister without a church; but on trial, so many difficulties will arise, as to render the thing impracticable. The experience of eighteen centuries has not furnished an instance of such a plan being carried into effect. No body of men would go this length without wishing to

go farther; and though you see no natural impossibilities in the way of realizing the megrim, yet the moral difficulties may safely be pronounced to be insuperable. And can you seriously think that that way will terminate in heaven, which leads to the annihilation of christianity on earth? But if the new project were practicable, yet this sort of christianity, without either church or sacraments, would be good for nothing.

In opposition to all I have said, you would remind me, that nearly all sects are agreed that nothing more is necessary to salvation than repentance, faith, and holiness; you contend that these may be experienced without church fellowship; and you infer that communion is not necessary. That those who repent of their sins, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and lead holy lives, will be finally saved, I readily grant. The only question is, whether all this can be done by persons who refuse the communion of all the churches of Christ. I say, refuse; for where communion cannot be had, all obligation to it is at an end; and salvation may, no doubt, in such a case, be obtained without it. But this is not your case. The churches of Christ abound in your vicinity, and are open to those who wish in good earnest to save their souls. Now let us try that repentance, faith, and holiness, which a man may experience, while in his heart he prefers the fellowship of sinners to that of saints.

1. Repentance. The first thing enjoined upon those who, on the day of pentecost, were pricked in their hearts, was to repent. And we have seen how repentance operated upon them; it induced them, without delaying for a day, to save themselves from the world, and unite themselves to the church of God. And why do multitudes in these times discover so much dread of a christian church, that though they live for years near the door of it, they can never be persuaded to enter in? I know of no other answer that can be given, but that their love of sin causes them to prefer the society of the depraved to that of the just; or, in a word, that they will not repent. In Matthew xxi.

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28-32, we have a parable in which the kingdom of God is compared to a vineyard; and the proprietor of this vineyard is represented as ordering his two sons to go and work in it. One promised, but did not perform; the other refused, "But afterward he repented and went." It is generally admitted, that by the kingdom or vineyard, in this parable, is intended the church. Here then is a command of God to enter into his church; and here is an example of a person as soon as he has repented, complying with the precept. No one would have believed that the first son repented, if it had not been added that he "went;" and your repentance amounts to nothing, if it do not move you to enter into God's church, and to work for him.

2. Faith. You believe in the holy, universal church, but in no particular church; although the universal is made up of particulars. You believe in the communion of saints; but you prefer to that the communion of sinners. You believe in the person of Christ for salvation; and you reject the church to which he adds daily those that are saved. You also reject his doctrine which denounces those as factious and incorrigible who refuse to submit to the discipline established in the household of the faithful. "If he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican." (Matt. xviii. 17.) You believe a few lines of the Bible, and think that sufficient; and so take the liberty to trample all the rest under foot. Give me an instance from the New Testament, if you can, of a person being called a believer, who refused communion with the church of Christ. Your faith is presumption.

3. Holiness. You are very holy, no doubt; but it looks a little suspicious that you decline the society of holy persons, and prefer the fellowship of sinners. Pray how did you attain to holiness? You are very orthodox, I presume, and can talk at a wonderful rate respecting the sanctification of the Spirit, as well as the "belief of the truth." But have you ever experienced the truth of this verse: 66 By one Spirit are we bap

tized into one body; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit?" If you had received this Spirit, he would have baptized you into the body of the faithful. You think you can be holy enough without being dependent on the church; the apostle, however, was of another mind. In representing the communion of saints, and their dependence one upon another, under the figure of a human body, in which the members are united; he remarks, "God hath set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. Now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you." (1 Cor. xii. 18-21.) But God hath not, it seems, set you in the body; and you can, on account of your superior holiness, say to all the members of it, "I have no need of you." The Holy Spirit works holiness in the hearts of christians in their use of the means of grace; and among the chief of these means are the ordinances of the church; such as the Lord's supper, meetings for prayer and conversation on christian experience, for mutual instruction, reproof, correction, warning, comfort, and all the exercises of discipline. Of these helps you voluntarily deprive yourselves; and you have great cause for fear that your boasted holiness, which gives you no relish for the companionship of the just below, will give you no meetness to partake of the inheritance of the saints in light. As every man, however, endeavours to reconcile his conscience to his conduct, in order to keep all quiet within, we must examine the pleas you urge for standing aloof from the right

eous.

1. You pretend that the church is not good enough. Some of its members do not live up to their profession; but with all the noise they make about religion, they are very loose in their morals. You tell us how you hate hypocrisy, and affirm that if you were to join with us, you would act a consistent part.

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The objection contains two causes of regret. first is, that there should be such defective characters

in the church. Our Saviour has, however, assured us that some tares will grow up with the wheat, and that the zeal which would eradicate them all, would be more mischievous than beneficial; since, with the tares, it would root up the wheat also: both, he declares, must grow together until harvest. The gospel net encloses a great multitude of different kinds of fish, and must be drawn to the shores of eternity before the final separation be made, when the good will be gathered into vessels, and the bad be cast away. In the present state of things, however desirable it may be to find a perfect church, it is impossible; we must, therefore, be content to associate with some who are hypocrites, and with others who have much of weakness and infirmity, if we will enjoy the fellowship of those whose piety and integrity are above suspicion. The hypocrites may serve as a beacon to warn us against unfaithfulness; the weak will furnish exercise for our patience and charity, in bearing with and hiding their failings; and the perfect will, it is to be hoped, rouse our zeal to emulate their virtues. With all its defects, however, the church is superior to the world in supplying examples of holiness, and the means of attaining it; and if we cannot find a church exactly so pure as we might wish, yet we cannot be sincere if we do not unite with the most holy society to which we have access. Now you boggle at the church because it is not quite perfect, and in the mean time you continue in the fellowship of the world. What are you doing there? Is the world made up of saints? What aids to holiness do you derive from it? When you meet together, is it to pray to God, to sing the praises of the Redeemer, and to converse respecting the work of the Holy Spirit on your hearts? Do you blush? and well you may! If you had a spark of religion, you would come out from among them, and be thankful for the many and great helps which the church of Christ, with all its imperfections, can and would most gladly afford you. You profess to be religious; and your religion seems to consist in little else than vilifying the character of pious people, as though it