be observed, that the Church comprehends all true believers in Christ in every part of Christendom, laity as well as clergy, however distinguished by different names, or sub-divided into national or other less numerous sects or societies. is the Catholic Church that is meant, when it is contradistinguished from the the world; it is that grand society of hu man beings which is united to Jesus Christ, as the limbs to the head of the body.

It

The word ECCLESIA (the Greek for Church)originally signifies an EVOCATION, or a calling out. It imports therefore, that they who are in the Church are called out of a wicked and unbelieving world, and admitted into a society of which Jesus Christ is the head. The English word CHURCH (Xugiann, Kyriace, Kirk, or Church) signifies a house or society appropriated to the LORD (up); a portion of mankind devoted to, and accepted by, the Author of our holy religion. It is obvious to all but the illiterate, that the word Church, when applied to a building, where a part of the people thus separated meet for the purposes of worship, is a popular term,

U 4

term, and has deviated like many other words from its original and proper signification; which is that of a society sepa rated from a wicked world, and rescued from perdition.

All human beings must belong to one or other of these classes; they must be members of the Church, or of the world; the world, I mean, in a SCRIPTURAL sense. If they believe in Christianity, they must acknowledge the condition of those who are not of the Church, but of the world, to be truly deplorable. If a limb be cut off from a living body, it must die inevitably.

It should be the endeavour then of every serious man to make haste to escape from a situation, in which it is dangerous to continue; and to be incorporated with those who are in the way of peace and security. As Christ is the head of the Church, so an evil spirit is represented in Scripture to be the Prince of the World: the one is the Captain of Sal. vation; the other, often under the disguise of an angel of light, a Tempter to sin, misery, and everlasting perdition.

The

The sheep that are in the fold are under the protection of the good Shepherd ; but those who stray, become the victims of famine, or the ravenous Wolf, " who "goeth about seeking whom he may is destroy."

This distinction between the CHURCH and the WORLD is of PRIME IMPORTANCE, and is truly Scriptural.

"I I am well assured," says an ingenious Author of an Essay on the Church," that if this subject of the Church, now só nuch neglected and almost forgotten, should come to be better considered'; there would be more true piety and more peace, more of those virtues which will be required in Heaven, and which must therefore be first learned upon earth.

"Some think they can make their own Church, and so dispise the word of God, and fall into infidelity. Others think they can make their own Church, or even be a Church unto themselves; and so fall into the delusions of ENTHU¬ SIASM, or the uncharitableness of SCHISM. But as there is nothing to enlighten the minds of men in the doctrines of salva

tion

tion but the word of God, so is there nothing that can unite their hearts and affections but the CHURCH OF GOD:-" Ye are one bread and one body," saith the Apostle; one body by partaking of one bread, and that can only be in the same Communion.

66

"There are two societies of which we are members; of the WORLD, by our 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 these societies are influential on those who belong to them; the one corrupts, the other sanctifies therefore, it is of the last importance to mankind to consider and understand the difference between them.

:

"The WORLD is composed of men lost 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 distinction.

"The Scripture says, the whole world lieth in wickedness.' What human phi

losophy

1

losophy says of this description we are not to regard: if it is the description which stands in the Holy Scriptures, we are not to consider what men may say of it.

"Such is the WORLD, and such are we all, so far as we are members of it: God, therefore, of his infinite mercy, takes us out of this wicked society," and translates us into another. He delivers us from the power of darkness, and translates us into the kingdom of his dear Son; and WITHOUT this translation, we are inevitably LOST.

"This society is a 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 mnade partakers of an holy life, which is elsewhere called, the Life of God; from which life they are alienated who are out of this society."

* The nearest approach to PERFECTION of the SPIRITUAL BODY WHEREIN WE ARE TO RISE AGAIN, which any Man is capable of making, in his present situation, is the thing directly productive of Salvation.” TUCKER'S Light of Nature.

The