CONTENTS. VI. Duties of Church Members towards each other 66 VII. The Duties of Church Members to the Mem- bers of other Christian Societies On the true Nature of Church Power On the Mode of conducting Church Meetings On the Admission of Members to the Church. On the Removal of Members from one Church On the Conduct to be observed by a Church in On the Propriety of occasionally administer- ing the Lord's Supper in Private Houses, for the Sake of sick Persons who are inca- pable of attending the Solemnities of Public On the Causes of those Schisms which some- CHURCH MEMBER'S GUIDE. CHAPTER I. ON THE NATURE OF A CHRISTIAN CHURCH. IT is obviously incumbent on the members of any community, whether civil or sacred, to acquaint themselves with its constitution and design; without this, they can neither adequately enjoy the privileges, nor properly discharge the duties, which their membership brings with it. Such persons are held more by feeling than by principle; a tenure quite insufficient, as a bond of religious connexion. It is admitted that as in the human frame, so in the system of divine truth, there are parts of greater and less importance: and the man who would put the principles of church government upon a level with the doctrine of the atonement, and represent a belief in the former as no less essential to salvation than a reliance upon the latter, betrays a lamentable ignorance of both. Still, however, although the hand is of less consequence to vitality than the head or. the heart, is it of no value? Will any one be reckless of his members, because he can lose them and yet live? So because church government is of less moment to spiritual and eternal life than faith in Christ, will any one abandon it as a vain and profitless subject? Whatever God has made the subject of revealed truth, should be guarded, on that account, from being considered as too frivolous to deserve our attention, The government of the church ought never to be viewed apart from its moral and spiritual improvement, any more than the laws of a country should be considered as something distinct from the means of its civil order, comfort, and strength. It is impossible for us to imagine otherwise, than that the Head of the church arranged its government with a direct reference to its purity and peace, and that the system he has laid down is the best calculated to promote these ends. Hence, then, it is obviously our duty to inquire what that system is, not merely for its own sake, but for the sake of the interests of evangelical piety. The error of viewing the subject of church government as a mere abstract question, is very common, and has tended more than any thing else, with many persons, to lead them to regard it with indifference and neglect. The acknowledgment of no other rule of faith and practice than the word of God, must tend to exalt the only infallible standard of truth, and the only divine means of sanctity-the refusal to own any other head of the church than Christ, must bring the soul into more direct submission to him-the scheme of founding a right to spiritual privileges exclusively on the scriptural marks of religious character, and not upon legislative enactments, or national dissent, must have a tendency to produce examination, and prevent delusion—and indeed the habit of viewing the whole business of religion as a matter of conscience, and not of custom, to be settled between God and a man's own soul, must ensure for it a degree of attention more solemn and more effectual than can be expected, if it be allowed, in any degree, to rank with the affairs which are regulated by civil legislation. It will probably be contended by some, in apol ogy for their neglect, that the New Testament has laid down no specific form of church government, and that where we are left without a guide, it is useless to inquire if we are following his directions. If by this it be meant to say, that the Lord Jesus Christ has left us no apostolic precept or example, which is either directory for our practice, or obligatory upon our conscience, in the formation of Christian societies, nothing can be more erroneous. It might be presumed, a priori, that a matter of such moment would not be left so unsettled, and we have only to look into the Word of God, to see how groundless is the assertion. It is true that we shall search the New Testament in vain for either precedent or practice, which will support all the usages of our churches, any otherwise than as these usages are deduced from the spirit and bearing of general principles. These alone are laid down by the apostles, but still with sufficient precision to enable us to determine whether the Episcopal, the Presbyterian, or Independent form of church government, be most consonant with the mind and will of Christ. What is a Christian church? The word church signifies an assembly. In the New Testament it invariably applies to persons, not to places. It means not the building in which the assembly is convened, but the assembly itself. It has an enlarged, and also a more confined signification in the Word of God. In some places it is employed to comprehend the aggregate of believers of every age and nation; hence we read of the "general assembly and church of the first born," and of the church which" Christ loved and purchased with his blood." Acts xx. 28. In its more confined acceptation, it means a congregation of professing Chris tians, meeting for worship in one place; hence we read of the church at Corinth, of the Thessalonians, of Ephesus, &c. These are the only two senses in which the word is ever employed by the sacred writers; consequently all provincial and national churches, or, in other words, to call the people of a province or nation a church of Christ, is a most gross perversion of the term, and rendering the kingdom of Jesus more a matter of geography than of religion. The sacred writers, when speaking of the Christians of a whole province, never employ the term in the singular number; but, with great precision of language, speak of the churches of Galatia, Syria, Macedonia, Asia, &c. A church of Christ, then, in the latter and more usual acceptation of the term, means "a number of professing Christians, united to each other by their own voluntary consent, having their proper officers, meeting in one place for the observance of religious ordinances, and who are independent of all other control than the authority of Christ expressed in his word." This company of professing Christians may be few or many in number, rich or poor in their circumstances, and may meet either in a mean or magnificent building, or in no building at all. These things are purely adventitious; for, provided they answer to the above definition, they are still, to all intent and purpose, a church of Christ. I. The members of the church should be such as make a credible profession of their faith in Christ ; or, in other words, such as appear to be regenerated by the Spirit of God, to have believed in the Lord Jesus for salvation, and to have submitted themselves in their conduct to the authority of his word. To these the Head of the church has limited the privileges of his kingdom; they alone can enjoy its |