pletely organized body; a body which we call, cor. porate and federal. It must, according to the illustration, exhibit in its nature, and constitution, the variety, order, unity, and harmony of the human body.

2. The members of the Church, the body of Christ must differ in size, character, and situation, as do the members of the natural body.

3. One member, of the Church however, large or small, is as much a member as any other. No person can be partly a member of the Church and partly not. Every individual must be wholly a member or not at all. It would be perfectly ridiculous to say, that my hand is partly a member of my body, and partly not; or that my little finger is not so fully a member as my hand, or my foot.

4. The members of the Church have mutual cares and sufferings, and all have duties to perform according to their age, gifts, and standing.

Some may grant that the Church of Christ is indeed a complete body corporate, and federal-that the members may differ in size, gifts, &c. and yet they be all of mature age, or like the members of a banking, or manufacturing company, who become members by their own voluntary act and deed.This we will find not the fact, from the following illustrations of Church membership.

The Church is represented in the Scriptures as a kingdom-Christ is the king, and the Members are his subjects. You will not require any instances as

proof of this. Now in every kingdom there are subjects of all ages. A kingdom without infants would be a new thing under the sun. There are generally in every kingdom natural born subjects, and foreigners who have become subjects by adoption, or naturalization. And it is a principle which appears founded on the nature of things, and which is universally acted on, that no one can be a subject of two distinct, independent kingdoms at the same time. And here you perceive essential points of difference between a kingdom and a banking company, or any such corporate body. A man may purchase and hold stock in ten or twenty banks, and have control in them all. And we may say that he and his funds are partly merged in one, and partly in another. But in a kingdom his whole person as a subject is merged, and owing allegiance there, he can owe it no where else. Now if the Church be correctly exhibited by a kingdom, then she embraces subjects of every age-parents and children are equally and wholly subjects. This the Scriptures enable us to make out still more conclusively. We find the Church called a city and a commonwealth, and her members, citizens-a house or family and her members children. I will call your attention particularly to Ephesians ii. 12, 19. "At that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Now therefore ye

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are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the Saints and of the household of God." The members of the Church are here called citizens, in opposition to aliens, and foreigners; and they are called members of the household, or family of God in opposition to strangers, or sojourners. As the Apostle speaks in allusion to the city of Jerusalem or the Mount Zion, the city of the living God, and to citizenship among the Jews, we must have recourse to their laws on the subject.

It is well known that all the heathen nations were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and were excluded from the rights and privileges of Jerusa

lem.

All the natural born Israelites were citizens of the commonwealth, and all born of citizens in Jerusalem were citizens of that city. Gentiles could become citizens by renouncing their idolatry, professing faith and allegiance to the God of Israel, by receiving circumcision, baptism, and offering sacrifice in the Tabernacle, or Temple. These were called proselytes of righteousness. There were others called proselytes of the gate, who professed the righteousness of the Jews, but refused to be circumcised, and to conform to all the laws of Moses. These were permitted to sojourn in the land, and to worship at the gate in the outer court of the Gentiles; but they could not purchase, and hold landed estate, nor were they considered, in any sense, citizens. They are particularly designated by the Apostle as foreigners.

These foreigners by the preaching of the Gospel and the Grace of God, became, fellow-citizens with the Saints-that is, they were naturalized and adopted, as members, into the Church of God; and then they were no longer foreigners. They were not only fellow-citizens with the Saints, but they were also "of the household of God." The allusion is to those who literally were admitted into the Temple, the house of God, and partook of all the privileges, of that house The Priests and Levites were, in the strictest sense, the household of God, under the law; but all God's people are now made Kings and Priests unto God-they dwell in his house, and are accounted his children. Into this number the Ephesians were adopted. They were not members "in part," and entitled to some privileges and debarred from others. Parents and children were equally citizens of the commonwealth of Israel, and of the city of God-they entered with their Parents into the house of God, and with their parents enjoyed the privileges of that house. The children of the believing Ephesians must also be citizens, and enter with their parents into the house, the Church of God, there to enjoy all the privileges. There is no getting clear of this, without charging the Apostle with using illustrations, of membership and privileges in the Church which are inappropriate, and calculated to lead plain, honest people astray.

Various other metaphors, and comparisons, are made use of in the Scriptures to illustrate the nature

and Constitution of the Church, and to define her members, with their privileges and dutics. She is called a garden-a vineyard-a sheepfold-afflock; and in corresponding terms, her members are called plants, trees, vines, sheep, and lambs. All these illustrations exhibit the Church as a Society regularly organized, composed of children and grown people-all equally members and entitled to the same privileges. If these things are not clearly, and decisively established by the preceding illustra tions, I have yet to learn for what they are introduced into the Sacred writings? If there be no similarity between the metaphors, and figures used, and the Church and her members, they arc worse than useless they are calculated to lead us into error, and leave us, "in endless mazes lost." It appears from the views expressed by some, that the Church of God is wholly unlike every other Society upon earth, and that when he instituted her, he departed from every other of his known institutions. If this were the fact, how can we account for the incessant references in the Scriptures to those institutions? Instead of showing us the similarity between the Church and the human body, a kingdom, city, Commonwealth, &c. the Sacred writers should have been employed in showing that there is no similarity between them. It is readily granted that the Church, like every other Society, has her characteristic pe culiarities, and in these she differs from all others. For example, she is of Heavenly origin—her organ,