and most sacred duties to Christ, and his cause, and his people, and to a perishing world, are to and through the church of which they are members. Let this obligation be felt as it ought to be, and the interests of every church, and of christian benevolence at large, will be provided for.*

The obligations and consequent duties of church members are, therefore, a threefold cord, binding them, in a peculiar sense, to God, to duty, and to each other. A failure to discharge them in one of these respects, is a failure in all: fidelity in one, implies fidelity in all. In this light let us view them more particularly.

In addition to the universal duty of love to all men, as the creatures of God, as brethren of the human race, as capable of immense happiness, and as exposed to great danger; and in addition to the love which we are to bear to all professed Christians, as far as we see in them the image and the spirit of Christ, we are bound to love the members of the same church with peculiar complacency, and tender, affectionate regard. Of them we have received satisfactory assurance that they are the children of God; as such we welcome them to the baptismal waters; with them we have cast in our lot, and stand up before the world as the disciples of our common Lord. We love them, not only on principles of consanguinity, or friendship, or general esteem, not as reputed Christians, merely, but as those whom we most sincerely and intelligently believe to be such ; and we therefore love them for Christ's sake. The love and holy confidence between members of the same church, bears the nearest resemblance to the love of heaven, for every church is intended to be a type of heaven. There, love will be based on certain knowledge; here, on the highest earthly assurance of each other's piety.

"That which inwardly each man should be, the church outwardly ought to testify. And therefore the duties of our religion which are seen, must be such as that affection which is unseen ought to be. Signs must resemble the things they signify. If religion bear the greatest sway in our hearts, our outward religious duties must show it, as far as the church hath outward ability."— Richard Hooker.

Love between church members should be expressed by sympathy. "Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep." Our Saviour was eminent for sympathy. Witness his conduct at the grave of Lazarus, and his conversation with the weeping sisters. Oh, how precious is christian sympathy! How it blesses every heart through which it flows! It is as "the dew of Hermon, that descended upon the mountains of Zion.”

To pray one for another, in secret, is the duty of church members. How often does the Apostle Paul mention this duty, and assure his brethren that he daily bowed his knees before God, burdened with desire that Christ might dwell in their hearts by faith, and that they might know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. Genuine prayer will beget sympathy, which will be expressed by visiting the brethren in their afflictions, bearing each other's burdens, and distributing to their necessities. All these are expressions of love, which produce more love. And if members pray for one another, they will watch over each other with earnest solicitude. A decline of piety in a brother, will fill them with deep concern; a relapse into sin, with inexpressible grief.

"Forbearing one another in love," is another sacred duty of church members. They will see in each other many imperfections, and much that is disagreeable. They must not speak or think harshly of weak brethren, or even of vulgar brethren, if such there are, but with all gentleness seek to make them better. The Saviour did not seek out the amiable and the refined, and make them his sole companions. Christians differ, too, in their views of some points of doctrine, or, which is oftener the case, in the manner of expressing their views, and here is room for forbearance.

Church members are under the deepest obligations to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. For this purpose, while valiant for the truth, they should be tender of each other's feelings. They must not be self-willed, not tenacious of their own way. They must watch against the spirit that "loveth the preeminence." They must not

think nor say too much about equal rights. "I am as good \ as you," should never be uttered, or thought, by a church member, but "You are as good as I," should be their language; or, rather, "In lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves." Subordination, modesty, a delicate regard to the distinctions of sex and age, should characterize church members. "Ye younger, submit yourselves to the elder, yea, all of you, be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility."

Church members are bound to attend all the meetings of the church, when in their power, to feel a deep interest in its welfare, to seek its peace and prosperity by devoting their abilities of every kind to its service. This they virtually pledged themselves to do, in becoming members. They have no right to scatter their attendance on different meetings, to the neglect of those of the church. They should readily engage as Sabbath school teachers, or pupils, be ready to exhort or pray in social meetings, act on committees, or give counsel, if needed, and in every proper way seek to promote the temporal and spiritual prosperity of the body.

SECT. 5. The Rights of Church Members. Private Judgment.

The rights of church members may be considered under two general divisions: First, those which they acquire in becoming members; and Second, those which are inalienable, and which the church cannot control or abridge.

1. Church members acquire the right to all the privileges of the church. They are entitled to an equal voice in the election of its officers, and the transaction of all its business. In the admission and exclusion of members, they are entitled to act in concurrence with the church, according to the precepts and principles of the gospel. They have a claim to the instructions, the oversight, and intercessions of the pastor. This is a privilege which those who are not members may enjoy, as every pastor should feel it to be a duty

to bestow them on all within his power; but they may be justly claimed and expected, by members of the church.

The privilege of participating at the Lord's table, is also one of the rights of church members, whenever that ordinance is celebrated by the church. The members of each church, and no others, are entitled to this privilege as a right.

2. The previously existing natural and political rights of men are not increased, or abridged, by becoming church members, or church officers. Their rights to property, and to citizenship, remain unchanged. The rights of parents to control their children, the duty of children to obey their parents, and of the wife to be in subjection to her husband, and to be loved as Christ loved the church, are only rendered more sacred by their all becoming members of the church.

The right of private judgment in religion, belongs to every church member. When some of the Puritans, who had fled from oppression in their own country, were persecuted by the majority, for differences in religious opinions, they complained that after all, they had only exchanged the tyranny of the "lords bishops," for that of the "lords brethren." Having never relinquished the principle of a national church, the authority of the civil magistrate in matters of faith and worship, nor considered the just extent of the prerogative of individual conscience, they had not discovered that the power of a majority needs to be checked, as well as that of a hierarchy, or that the tyranny of the many may be as real, and as grievous, as the tyranny of a few.

The right of private judgment, then, is to be considered, in opposition to the claims, not only of lords temporal and lords spiritual, but also of the lords brethren; not only the authoritative recommendations of conclaves and councils, of synods and conferences, but the resolutions of conventions, of associations, and the votes of church majorities. Baptists, in this country, at least, have fought the battles of soul-freedom with political intolerance, and their

victories are written in letters of blood.* The greatest remaining danger to our personal religious freedom lies in the aggregation of ecclesiastical power, and as this is not concentrated in "lords bishops," the encroachments which we have to fear are those of the "lords brethren." For to smother soul- freedom under a superincumbent load of public opinion, is as real tyranny as to frown it down by judicial rebukes, or thrust it through with the sword of power.

There is constant danger that the free action of our churches will be crippled by large religious assemblies, and the rights and responsibilities of individual Christians abridged by the combined power of the church. This danger should be guarded against with watchful jealousy. A deep and wide-spread feeling of personal responsibility is the palladium of our freedom, our safety, and our strength. This feeling should not be awed nor restrained, but encouraged. In the same ratio that the proper sphere of private judgment is narrowed, will the feeling of personal responsibility be destroyed.

It may not be easy to define the exact limits of private judgment. As has been already shown, the nature of the church relation and covenant does not require exact uniformity of opinion, but specific elements of character, obedience to plain commands, and an intelligent assent to those fundamental doctrines which are clearly revealed in the scriptures. The question arises, What doctrines must be believed as essential to church membership, and what may be safely left to private judgment? Without attempting to settle this point in detail, a remark or two may throw some light upon it. And first, the leading doctrines of religion are subjects of experience, quite as much as of investigation; they are often, if not usually, implanted in the heart before they assume a form in the head. The justice and holiness of God, the sinfulness of man, the certainty of future judgment and eternal retribution, the

* Vide Backus' History of the New England Baptists, passim.