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whom, then, have the subsequent scriptures been committed? "Unto the New Testament Church," you will say. Agreed. But the question falls back upon you, what is the New Testament Church? If she is not the very same great society which God formerly erected for the praise of his glory, and has caused to pass under a new form of dispensation, three consequences follow:

1st, That the Old Testament is no part of the trust deposited with her, and belongs not to the rule of her faith.

2d. That God has divided his testimony between two churches of the most different nature; and of which one has long been extinct. Therefore,

3d. That the whole scriptures, as the testimony of God, never were, nor can be, committed to any church whatever, unless in virtue of another special revelation.

But if, on the contrary, these scriptures are the testimony of God deposited with his church, then it irresistibly follows, that she is now, and ever has been, since her first organization, a public visible society which God has appropriated to himself; where his name is known, and his mercies are vouchsafed.

And, indeed, the general principle of the church visible is so inseparable from the Christian style and doctrine, that its most strenuous opposers are unconsciously admitting it every hour of their

Vol. IV.

4

lives. They talk habitually of "the church; the faith of the church; the worship of the church; the sufferings of the church; God's dealings with his church," and a thousand things of like import. Let them ask what they mean by such expressions? They will not say," a particular congregation;" and if they say "the election of grace," they will speedily contradict themselves, and fact, and the word of God too. Their whole language, as Christians, is accommodated to the very thing, which, in form, they renounce. There is no getting along without it. No ingenuity can enable them to converse five minutes together about the church of God, as existing on earth, without the introduction of an idea different from either of those which they affix to that term: and this third idea, if they will be at the trouble to analyze it, will turn out to be no other than that of the Visible Church Catholic.

We have now developed our views of that phrase," the church," and assigned our reasons for them the reader will, therefore, recollect, when he meets with it in the course of our disquisitions, that we mean by it the aggregate body of those who profess the true religion: all making up but ONE Society, of which the Bible is the statute book; Jesus Christ the head; and a covenant relation the uniting bond.

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CHURCH OF GOD.

No. II.

On its first Organization.

In the preceding number we have proved the existence of a Visible Church Catholic; and that this is the thing intended by such spiritual phrases as "the Church of God," "the house of God," "the kingdom of heaven." But it does not more certainly exist, than it exists in virtue of a divine interposition. None but the living God could set up, protect, and govern, his own kingdom. The question is, when, and where, and how, so singular a society was instituted? The question is of moment, as being connected with interesting views of the external economy of salvation. Let us attempt to answer it.

We know by experience that the church of God was in the world before us. So did our fathers. So did the previous generation: and in this manner the historical fact may be deduced from the days of the apostles. The "Church,"

therefore, has not been created since their days. Was it created then? No: the apostles found it, as we found it, older than themselves. Their writings are full of its privileges, its ordinances, and other peculiarities; but contain not a single hint of its originating with them. They uniformly suppose its prior establishment, and speak of it as having been long and familiarly understood. Guided by the clue which they have put into our hands, we go back to the books of the prophets, and meet the same supposition there. We proceed, with similar success, through the Levitical law, and the Sinai-covenant; we pass the age of Moses, and arrive at the Father of the faithful. Here the clue runs out. No ingenuity can follow it further. People of God there were; promises of God there were; gracious revelations, and acceptable worship of God, there were: but a Church of God, organized upon the principle of visible unity, and standing in such relation to him as it did in after ages; such a Church, before the vocation of Abram, there was not, nor any thing which bore the semblance of it. For its original organization; for the germ of that great system into which it has already grown, and shall yet grow, we must look among the transactions of that memorable period which elapsed between the call of Abram in Ur of the Chaldees, and the birth of his son Isaac.

On the first of these occasions Jehovah gave him a double promise:

1. A promise of a numerous progeny, and great personal prosperity. I will make of thee a great nation; and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing; and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee.Gen. xii. 2, 3.

2. The promise of his being a medium of conveying extensive blessings to the world. In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.-v. 3.

All the subsequent communications which God made to him are referrible to one of these two promises. They were both called up at different intervals, explained, expanded, and confirmed, till each of them became the basis of an appropriate covenant. Let us briefly mark their progress.

1. The promise of a numerous progeny is repeated with an engagement to bestow upon them the land of Canaan, ch. xii. 7. This promise was stated and confirmed in the most precise and ample terms, after Abram had separated from Lot, ch. xiii. 14. 17. And finally, as he was advancing in years, and the probability of its accomplishment was proportionably diminishing, the Lord "came to him in a vision," and having cheered him with this gracious assurance, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward, ch. xv. 1,

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