May the prayer-hearing God bear you in safety across the deep; open before you, in heathen lands, an effectual door; make you the blessed instruments of raising to the fellowship of angels and justified spirits thousands who otherwise had died in their sins, and been wretched and miserable forever; and, after a long life, bestow upon you in heaven "joy unspeakable and full of glory!"

SERMON VI.

THE DESIGN, RIGHTS AND DUTIES, OF LOCAL CHURCHES.

"These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." 1 TIM. 3: 14, 15.

IT has pleased God to carry into effect his purpose of redeeming men, by the instrumentality of a visible society organized exclusively for that end. This society, commencing its operations soon after the Fall, and extending them through every intervening age, and destined to labor in the sacred cause till the last day, has been denominated the Church of God. It is, in the text, called a house, as embodying in one family the children of God, and as the seat of their social labors, protection, and enjoyment. By a change of figure, it is denominated the pillar and ground of the truth; to denote, doubtless, the actual efficacy of the church in upholding, from age to age, the cause of God.

The first form of the church appears to have been patriarchal, in adaptation to the most simple state of human society, as existing in tribes, originating in a common ancestor, and united by ties of blood, and mutual interests and dangers. In the church thus organized, the common ancestor was the priest, to instruct his descendants and uphold the divine worship. The life of the patriarch, extending in the

first ages to nearly a thousand years, rendered a written revelation less important, and gave to his precepts and example authority for the maintenance of truth, and the instituted worship of God.

The next form of the visible church was one which was accommodated to the exigencies of a nation. The progress of society from the pastoral to the agricultural and commercial state amalgamated tribes, and constituted nations. By these changes, and the reduction of human life to a hundred and twenty years, the efficacy of patriarchal instruction and authority was destroyed; and families, having no common head, were scattered abroad, and soon exchanged the knowledge and worship of the true God for the fictions and impurities of idolatry.

To defend the church, in this condition, against violence and the seductions of idolatry, her secular and spiritual interests were united, under the immediate administration of God himself, with the sanctions of special providential prosperity, or special judgments, as she should maintain or abandon his worship. To the church of God, thus organized, was given a territory, to be held upon the condition of constancy in the maintenance of the true worship; and, to aid the church in her work, a written revelation was committed to her care, and forms of worship were prescribed. When the temporary purpose of this dispensation was answered, in the preservation of religion until the Desire of nations had come, and, by the offering of himself, had made propitiation for sin, then, that he might give to his atonement a more extended operation in the salvation of man, the external form of the church was again changed, in accommodation to the exigencies of the world. This was done by requiring, in all nations, individuals possessing the requisite qualifications to associate under

the laws of Christ, for the advancement of the great designs of his kingdom. Wherever, therefore, a number of individuals, possessing the required qualifications, associate to maintain the ordinances of the Gospel, they become a society incorporated by the God of heaven, with specific chartered privileges. This is the foundation of local churches. The rights of these local associations include the election of their own officers, and the framing of their own articles of faith, and the ordering of their own worship and discipline, according to their conceptions of the Word of God. The organization is such as may embody, and ultimately will embody, the population of the world.

It will be the object of this discourse to illustrate

THE DESIGNS OF THE MOST HIGH IN THE ORGANIZATION OF LOCAL CHURCHES, AND THE REQUISITE QUALIFICATIONS FOR MEMBERSHIP.

ence.

One obvious design of local churches is the consummation of holiness in believers, and their preparation for heaven. Christians are imperfect; and if, in a moment, it were possible to efface every stain of sin, it pleases God to accomplish the work progressively, by the interposition of moral influThe church is the society in which this influence is to be exerted, the school of instruction and discipline, where the light of truth is to shine, restraint to operate, impressions on the heart to be made, and the prayers, and praises, and confessions of the saints to be offered; and there is to be enjoyed the mutual fellowship, watchfulness, exhortation, and aid; and there the Lord commandeth his blessing, even life forevermore. In accordance with this primary design of the church, apostles and prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, are said to be given for the perfecting of the saints,-for the edifying of the body of Christ.

Local churches are designed, also, to secure the purity and perpetuity of revealed truth. The propensity of man to change the truth of God into a lie is notorious. To counteract this determination of a rebel world to forget God, the reiterated miraculous interposition of Heaven has been steadily required, until the sacred canon was completed. When that event was accomplished, the lively oracles were committed to the church, with the responsibility of contending earnestly for the doctrines, precepts, and ordinances, contained in them. It is in reference to the agency of the church in maintaining the doctrines and moral influence of the Bible, that she is called the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and the pillar and ground of the truth.

Local churches are organized, also, for the preservation of the Sabbath, and the maintenance of the public worship of God. It is not enough, to secure the salvation of man, that truth is revealed, and continued from age to age, in the Bible and in the church. To be made effectual, it must be communicated; and, for this purpose, a system of moral administration must lend its instrumentality. But, in a world lying in wickedness, the besetting influence of sloth, the temporizings of fear, the cravings of avarice, and the repellencies of a heart averse from God, will prevent the spontaneous formation of any abiding measures for the religious instruction of mankind, or even for the preservation of that system which God has established. The tide of worldliness, unobstructed, would roll over the Sabbath-day, and extinguish the fire upon the altar of God. To churches, therefore, is committed the work of preserving the Sabbath, and of perpetuating the worship of God; - not by physical power, but by that moral influence which the word and institutions of Heaven, sustained