church, and of the doctrines of truth by which it is fupported.

THERE never was a time from the beginning of the world, when there was not a party against the church of God; and our Ifrael must have its enemies, as that church had which came out of Egypt. In the first age of the Gofpel, the Apoftle St. Jude fpoke experimentally of those whom he then faw, or prophetically of those whom we fhould fee, that they go in the way of Cain, and run after the error of Balaam, and perish in the gainfaying of Corah. If our governors were as cruel as Pharaoh, fome would rejoice at it, and upbraid us with every disadvantage we might be under from hard ufage; as a fign that the church is a thing of no confequence, and that all thofe who belong to it are the vaffals of the ftate. If the church were as pure as Abel, the envy and jealoufy of Cain would hate its offerings and facrifices. If its order and œconomy were as perfect as in that church which covered the face of the earth in its paffage to Canaan, the selfinterested spirit of the mercenary Balaam would endeavour to bring a curfe upon it, and blast its greatnefs. If its governors were as manifeftly fupported in their commiffion as Mofes and Aaron, the fpiritual pride of Corah would fet up the holiness of the congregation against its priesthood, and the power of the people against the civil magiftrate, who gives it protection. But none of these things ought to ftagger or furprize a reader of the Scripture: they are all to be expected: these things were our examples; and the church would not be the church of God, if there were none to rife up against it.

WITH these confiderations in his mind, and not without them, a reader will be prepared to examine

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 itself, under the relation it bears to Jefus Chrift, abideth for ever.

ESSAY

ON THE

C HU R с н.

CHAP. I.

OF THE

DISTINCTION

BETWEEN THE WORLD AND THE

CHURCH; WITH THE NATURE AND CHARACTER OF BOTH SOCIETIES.

Two

WO things of a contrary nature are beft 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 season 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 spiritual birth in baptism. When we are admitted into the Christian covenant, we renounce this world as a wicked world, and become members of the church, which is called the holy church. Both thefe focieties 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 wickednefs, 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 disturb 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 worft 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 wifdom. 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 beast." 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 strange havoc amongst us, notwithstanding the laws and regulations of society: what then would this world be without them?

With respect to God, the ftate 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 difobedience, can inherit nothing from God but wrath and punishment.

You will fee this account verified by the plaineft declarations of the Scripture.-Firft, 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, fpeaking of the natural state of the Ephefians before their converfion, he defcribes them as "aliens and ftrangers 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 defcribing it, of which they that are members, muft of courfe be without God, and without hope: they belong to a society which knows him not.

Then, thirdly, that the world is under condemnation; "we "are chaftened of the Lord," faith St. Paul, "that we fhould "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; difpofed 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 description which stands 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 defcription 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 dark nefs, and tranflates 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,