much less to disguise them in a dress not their own. The naked truth is the only arms she opposes to all its adversaries, regardless of their censure, or of their approbation. "This is the truth," says she, "revealed by God; this ye must embrace, or ye can have no part with him." If the world look upon what she says as foolishness, she is not surprised, for she knows that " the sensual man perceiveth not the things that are of the spirit of God; for, it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand," 1 Cor. ii. 14.; but that "the foolishness of God is wiser than men;" and pitying this blindness, she earnestly prays to God to enlighten them, "with modesty admonishing them......if, peradventure, God may give them repentance to know the truth," 2 Tim. ii. 25.

If ever there was a time wherein this conduct of the Church was necessary, this present age seems in a particular manner to demand it. At present, the gates of hell seem to be quite set open, and infidelity of every kind stalks lawless on the earth; the sacred truths of religion are reviled and denied, the gospel adulterated by innumerable opposite and contradictory interpretations fixed upon it; its native simplicity disguised by loftiness of speech, and the persuasive words of human wisdom, and a thousand condescensions and compliances are admitted and received, by which the inflexible purity of its maxims is enervated both in faith and practice, and the "narrow way that leads to life" converted in the opinion of men, "to the broad road that leads to destruction." This observation is particularly true in regard to that latitudinarian principle, so common now-a-days, that a man may be saved in any religion, provided he lives a good moral life, according to the light he has; for, by this,. the faith of Christ is evacuated, and the gospel ren

dered of no avail; a Jew, a Turk, a Heathen, a Deist, an Atheist, are all comprehended in this scheme, and if they live a good moral life, have as good a right to salvation as a Christian! To be a member of the Church of Christ is no longer necessary, since, if we live a good moral life, we are in the way of salvation, whether we belong to her or not? What a wide field does this give to the passions of men! What liberty to all the whims of the human mind! It is, therefore, of the utmost consequence to examine upon what ground this principle stands: to see if it be sterling coin; to be satisfied whether they can trust our salvation to it or not. It is, no doubt, the interest of Atheists and Deists to adopt this maxim, to extol it with the highest praises, to adorn it with the most specious veil of liberality of sentiment and charity; but a Christian who believes the gospel, will not so readily receive it; he knows the Scripture contains the truth of the Most High God, and that it is perfectly unsafe to trust our soul to any maxim, however specious it may appear, which is not grounded in their sacred oracles; and, therefore, before he adopts it, will rigorously scrutinize it by what they teach.

To do this is the design of the following inquiry; or rather to shew, from the most precise declarations of the word of God, that the above freethinking maxim is diametrically opposite to all the lights of revelation. For there we learn, that the Son of God became man, and appeared among men on purpose to instruct them in the knowledge of these divine truths, on which their salvation depends; and, therefore, that he absolutely requires true faith in him, and in the sacred truths which he revealed, as a necessary condition of salvation. There also we learn, that he instituted a holy Church upon earth, to be the depository of these truths, and that

he absolutely requires of all to be united with that Church in order to be saved. In the belief of these two general truths all Christian Churches agree. The Churches of England and Scotland solemnly acknowledge them as well as the Church of Rome, and hold, that without the true faith of Jesus Christ, and without being a member of his true Church, there is no salvation. However much they differ in their application, they all agree in the belief, of these truths. So that it is the common cause of Christianity which is defended in this inquiry. The Church to which the author belongs will easily appear, upon perusal of it; and if he applies these general truths to his own Church, it is only because he believes it to be the true Church. A member of any other Church must do the same, if he reasons consequentially; wherefore, without any further preamble, we shall proceed to the point, and shew, in the words of the Confession of Faith of the Church of Scotland, That out of the Church of Christ, there is no ordinary possibility of Salvation, Confes. of Faith, chap. xxv.

Q. 1. How does this appear from the holy Scriptures?

A. The holy Scriptures are very clear upon this head; but, as the texts which declare it to us, propose it in different points of view, we shall here consider them separately for the greater clearness.

SECTION I.

DIRECT PROOFS FROM SCRIPTURE.

(1.) THE prophet Isaiah, foretelling the glory of the Church of Christ, says, "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every

tongue that resisteth thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn," Isaiah, liv. 17. "For the nation and the kingdom that will not serve thee, shall perish," Isaiah, lx. 12. Here we see declared in express terms, that all those who oppose the Church of Christ, and refuse to submit to her authority, shall be condemned by her, and shall perish. Our Saviour declares the same in still stronger terms, when he says to the pastors of his Church, in the persons of his apostles, when he sent them to preach the gospel, "Whosoever shall not receive you, NOR HEAR YOUR WORDS, going forth out of that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. Amen, I say to you, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city," Matth. x. 14.

(2.) Our Saviour, after ordering us to admonish our offending brother in private, or before a few witnesses, concludes thus, "If he will not hear them, tell the Church. And, if he will not hear the Church, let him be to thee as a heathen or a publican," Matth. xviii. 17. The heathens are those who know not the true God, and who worship stocks and stones, and the very devils themselves, instead of God; the publicans were a set of people among the Jews, remarkable. for their crimes, and looked upon by all as abandoned by God, and given up to a reprobate sense; with these, then, all those who obstinately resist the voice of the Church, are classed and condemned by the mouth of Jesus Christ himself.

(3.) Our Saviour, speaking of his Church under the figure of a flock, of which he himself is the good Shepherd, says, " Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be onefold and one Shepherd," John, x. 16. He is here

speaking of those who were not then joined in communion with his apostles and other disciples, and he calls them, at that time, "his sheep;" but to shew there was no salvation for them in the state they were then in, and unless they were united to the fold, he says, "them also I must bring;" which shews, that, according to the disposition of the divine decrees, it was absolutely necessary, that all who belong to Jesus Christ, all whom he acknowledges for his sheep, should be brought to, and united in communion with, that one fold, which is his Church.

(4.) In consequence of this, we are assured, that, when the apostle began to publish the gospel," the Lord daily added to their society, such as should be saved;" or, as the Protestant translation has it, "The Lord daily added to the Church such as should be saved," Acts ii. 47.; which points out in the strongest manner, by what God actually did, that they being added to the Church is a condition absolutely required by him, in order to be saved; and if that was so then, it must be so now, and will be so to the end of the world; for the conditions of salvation, ordained at the beginning, and revealed by Jesus Christ, could never be altered by any other, and he never made any new revelation by which he altered them himself.

(5.) The Church is the body of Christ, and all who belong to the Church are members of his body, and as such are united with Jesus Christ as the head; but those who are out of the Church, are not members of his body, and of course are not united with Christ, the head. Now, speaking of his Church and all her members, under the figure of a vine, with all its branches united to it, he says, I am the vine, ye the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for

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