SECTION IV.

$ 1. I Should do injuftice to my argument, if I

faid nothing of fome paffages of Scripture, from which, thofe who read without due attention, may be apt to conclude, that hypocrites are true members of the church.

The church feems compared to a field, where tares grow up with the wheat, to a threfhing floor, where good grain is mixed with the chaff, to a net which draws bad fifh as well as good, and to a feaft where a guest comes, not having on the wedding-garment, Matth. xiii. throughout, and xxii. 11. Muft we not conclude from thefe Scriptures, that hypocrites are members of the church-By no means. Unless we must also infer, that chaff is good grain, and that tares are wheat, becaufe they often happen to be mingled together. There is no occafion for an inference thus difhonourable to facred writ. These parables represent to us, not the nature of the church, but her condition in this world; where hypocrites are mingled with Chriftians, breathe the fame air, worship in the fame temple, and make the fame outward profeffion. Bad fifh as well as good are drawn by the gospel-net, i. e. The preaching of the gofpel excites many, who remain inwardly wicked, to profefs Chriftianity. Yet the bad fifh are not put into veffels with the good, i. e. they have no real fellowship with them, and do not partake in their privileges. The field, where the tares grow up with the wheat, Chrift himself has told us is the world, not the church. And, if the parable of the tares

fhews,

fhews, that hypocrites mix with the godly in the visible church; it alfo fhews, that they have no right to do it, that they are fraudulently fown in God's field by the devil, and though for a time borne with, fhall at laft be difgracefully rooted out. Such would therefore do well to confider, what honour they derive, or what benefit they can reap from a church-membership of which the devil is the author. The feast where a man came, not having on the wedding-garment, reprefents the folly of those who not only pafs for good men in the eyes of the world, but fancy themfelves entitled to the bleffings of grace and glory, though they are not cloathed with the spotless robe of the Redeemer's righteousness.

$.2. Our Lord fays, John xv. 2. Every "branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away," which feems to intimate that men may be branches in Chrift or members of the church, and yet fpiritually unfruitful.-I anfwer, hypocrites may be termed branches. in Chrift, because they were esteemed fuch by themselves and others as apoftates are faid to be blotted out of the book of life, Pfal. Ixix. 29. Rev. xxii. 19. because, though not really elected, they had once been accounted fo. Or these words may be a threatning, that Jefus would root out the Jewish nation, as barren and unfruitful branches, from the vineyard of his church, i. e. deprive them of their covenant-relation to God, and of the bleffings connected with that relation. See Rom. xi. 22. This is Cyril's interpretation, lib. 10. c. 24. Or, perhaps, the words var fhould be joined, not tothe preceding words wav nλnua, but to the following μη φέρον. And then it intimates, not that there are unfruitful branches in Chrift the

true

true vine; but that there are branches, which not being in Chrift, and having no fap and nourifhment from him, bring forth no fruit accept+ able to God, and fo must be rooted out, and caft into hell-fire. The Syriac verfion favours this interpretation, every branch which in me brings not forth fruit.

$3. 1 Cor. v. 10,13. is brought as an evi dence, that men may be brethren, and within the church, who yet are covetous, extortioners, or living in fome other courfe of prefumptuous fin. But though this paffage fhews, that bad men may be tolerated in the world, and civil intercourfe lawfully kept up with them: it equally fhews, that church-fellowship with those whom we know to be bad, is unlawful. The Ifraelites, in the time of the paffover, were to fearch, and caft: out of their houses, all the leaven that was in them, and that was allowed to be in them at other times. The New Teftament difpenfation is one continued paffover, in which unconverted finners, who were formerly members of the fame external fociety with the godly, are to be caft out of the church, which is now a new lump unleavened, admitting only the unleavened bread of fincerity and truth. Hypocrites may lurk in the church, as leaven might lurk in a house, in the time of the paffover, notwithstanding the moft diligent fearch. But hypocrites have no right to be there, and, fo foon as they are difcovered, must be turned out. They are called, Brethren, 1 Cor. v. 11. They are members of the church in the opinion of others. But brethren in truth they are not. They feem to be within, and indeed are within the church, as to the body, but they are without it as to the foul. They are within,

within, in the fame fenfe, as leaven, which ought to have been without. It deferves our notice, that the apoftle does not speak of fome of the church as within, and others as without, and thus give countenance to the diftinction of a vifible and an invifible church, but fpeaks of all the members of the church as within, and of the world as without. All then who belong to the church, are within, or members of the church invifible. Some are fo, truly, and in the eyes of God; others, only apparently, and in the eyes of men. The firft have a title to be within. The fecond have no title. If we reckon them within, it is only, because their profeffion being credible, we charitably believe it fincere, and that confequently they are united to Chrift. And hence, fo foon as we find, from their course cf life, that their profeffion was deceitful, it becomes our duty, to renounce communion with them.

§ 4. 2 Tim. ii. 20. is alfo urged to prove,

that God intended there fhould be bad men in the church, as in a great houfe, there are wooden veffels, and veffels of difhonour. But as Origen well obferves, contra Celfum, lib. 4. p. 210. the great house, in this paffage, means the world, and not the church. The world is termed a house, Matth. v. 15. For the apostles who are to give light to thofe in the houfe, are termed, ver. 14. the light of the world. And from ver. 16. it appears, that thofe in the houfe, means perfons to be converted to Chriftianity, by the fhining of the apoftles light, and who confequently were not yet converted. And though the church is termed a houfe in other Scriptures, yet, when Paul wrote to Timothy, a great house would

have been no fit epithet for Chrift's little flock. And indeed in this paffage, the church and the world feem plainly diftinguished. The world is reprefented as a great house, in which are veffels of difhonour, bad men as well as good: the church as a pillar in that houfe, peculiarly belonging to God, and having holiness engraven upon it. Let me add, it would be ftrange, if Chriftians were required, ver. 21. to purge and separate themselves from heretics and profane perfons, and yet, in the immediately preceding verfe, thefe veffels of difhonour were represented as a neceffary part of the church's furniture. In the world, that great houfe, veffels of difhonour muft be admitted. But it is the duty of the church to rid herself of them, for to her, no vesfels, fave veffels of honour and mercy, belong. Compare Rom. ix. 21.

§ 5. They are mistaken, who think, that the outer-court, Rev. xi. 1, 2. reprefents the vifible church. For the church confidered as inwardly the habitation of God, and outwardly employed in his worship, is reprefented by the temple and inner-court, where was the altar, and where the Ifraelites worshipped. But the outer-court represents a corrupt fociety, affuming the name of the church, whose pretenfions God will demonftrate to be false, and which he will give up to be trodden down by her enemies. This may be the reason, why the angel commiffioned to meafure the temple, was prohibited to measure the outer-court, because that outer-court was properly no part of the temple..

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