(8.) In the baptism of infants, it certifies, that even they need the purification of that blood "which cleanses from all sin;" and that it can be applied to them for their salvation. So that infant baptism is a visible testimony, incorporated with the ordinances of God's worship, both to the guilt and depravity of our nature, independently of actual transgression, and to the only remedy through our Lord Jesus Christ. If you reject it, you throw away the only ordinance which directly asserts the principle upon which the whole fabric of redemption is built, viz. that we are by nature children of wrath.

These are great and important uses of the sacramental seal; intimately connected with the faith, hope, and consolation of the church; and yet distinct and separate from an individual's interest in the salvation of God. Whatever shall become of him, they are grand, and solemn, and tender truths, to which he is the instrument of perpetuating a testimony. Should he afterwards be a reproach, instead of an ornament, to the gospel, should he be "abominable, and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate," he shall perish indeed; but his perdition shall not affect the testimony given in his person, by the sacramental seal, to those blessed truths and privileges which we have enumerated. That testimony, that sealed testimony, is absolute; it is perfectly independent of his spiritual state; and is precisely the same,

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whether he be "appointed to wrath, or to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ."

2. The sacramental seal has a special relation to the church invisible, and to the spiritual mercies of the covenant of grace.

Union with Christ; acceptance in his merits; participation of his Spirit; the fellowship of his death, of the power of his resurrection, of his everlasting love, and an interest in all the blessings of his purchase, the sacraments do certainly represent and seal. These glorious objects always have been, and still are, in the most lively and affecting manner, exhibited to, and perceived by, the faith of believers; and their personal interest therein is at times certified to their consciences by "that Holy Spirit of promise whereby they are sealed to the day of redemption." But all this is peculiar to the household of faith. It presupposes their interest in Christ; it is over and above the general uses which we just now specified: and is a secret between the Omniscient God and the happy recipient.

The reader now sees, that the attestation of the sacramental seal is to be limited and extended by the state of the receiver. If he be only a member of the visible church, and merely within the bond of the external covenant, it certifies in him and to him whatever appertains to him in that relation, and nothing more. But if he be a member of the church invisible also, and interested in the

saving benefits of the covenant of grace; it goes further, and certifies whatever appertains to him in that relation.

With the help of this obvious distinction, we remove difficulties which are otherwise extremely perplexing; reconcile expressions otherwise irreconcilable; show the futility of objections founded on the want of grace in the individual sealed; and demonstrate, as we promised, "that the seal of God's covenant does, in every instance, certify absolute truth; whether it be applied to a believer or an unbeliever; to the elect or the reprobate."

ESSAY VIII.

RESULTS.

FROM explaining the uses which the visible church, constituted as we have stated it to be, subserves, we pass on to some of its practical results. We mean certain principles, flowing, as necessary conclusions, from the doctrine which we have established; and which directly influence the whole system of ecclesiastical order.

1. The right and duty of all them who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, to hold religious fellowship with each other, as God affordeth opportunity, are undisputed among Christians. Whatever be their diversities of opinion concerning the

extent of that general description, and the religious fellowship founded upon it, yet within the limits which they prescribe to themselves respectively, they not only revere it as a duty, but esteem it as a privilege. They both insist upon its letter, and act in its spirit. A private Christian goes from one congregation to another, and is received upon the evidence of his having been a member of that which he left. A minister of the gospel travels into parts distant from the place and society where he was ordained; and preaches the word, without scruple, in any other part of the world; and without a thought of his wanting a new commission. A person lawfully baptized is every where considered as under sacramental consecration to God in Christ; and nobody dreams of repeating his baptism. We make no account of the question about a valid or invalid ministry, because we confine ourselves, at present, to the communion which obtains among those who are agreed on this point.

We ask, then, what is the origin and reason of this communion? What is there to render it lawful and proper? "A common interest," you will say, "in the Christian ordinances, and the benefits dispensed by them." No doubt. But what is the basis of this common interest? How did it become common? "Christ has procured it for his church." Most certainly. But what church? "The church of those who are written in the Lamb's book of life." Nothing more incon

trovertible. Yet do you not perceive that you have laid the foundation of all religious fellowship in this-that the elect church of the redeemed is ONE, and that individual Christians enjoy their spiritual immunities, merely as parts of that great whole to which Christ has bequeathed them, as members of the one "household of faith," as citizens of the one "city of God?" That the right to spiritual privileges turns precisely on this point-"They are given to the church, and I am a member of the church." But as there can be no external communion without an external church, and as all the sections of true believers all the world over, compose but one church invisible, it follows that the sections, or if you will, congregations, of visible believers, compose but one visible church. For it seems unreasonable to say, that the whole number of real Christians should not bear the same general relation to the whole number of professing Christians among whom they are included, with that which every portion of real Christians bears to that portion of professed Christians in which it is included. But the relation which a number of true Christians, in the bonds of Christian fellowship, bear to the external society to which they belong, is that of a part of the church catholic invisible, to a particular visible church. Therefore, the relation which all the parts of the church invisible bear to all particular visible