ing to the soul, the other outward, answering to the body. Hence some have written. much upon a visible Church and an invisible, as if they were two things; but they are more properly one, as the soul and body make a single person.

In the 12th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Apostle gives such a description of that society, into which Christians are admitted, as will shew us the nature of it. "Ye are come, says he, unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heayenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and Church of the first born which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect; and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel"*. used give us a true prospect

let us take them in their order.

The terms here

of the Church: By Mount Sion,

we are not to understand the place, but the thing signified, the heavenly society of God and his saints; the same which David in spirit calls the Hill of the Lord†, whereto the King of Glory was to ascend; and the Holy Hill of Sion,

*Chap. xii. 22. &c.

+ Psalm xxiv.

Sion, spoken of in the 2d Psalm, on which the Son was to be placed, after the vain opposition he should meet with from the Kings and Rulers of the earth. This is that Zion of the Holy one of Israel, to which the forces of the Gentiles were to flow from all parts of the world, as the prophet Isaiah describes it*; which prophecy was not fulfilled in the literal Sion where the Jews lived.

This society is also called the City of the living God, distinguished from the cities of the world, as Jerusalem was from the cities of the heathens: who dedicated their cities not to the living God, but to the names of their dead idols; such as were Beth Shemesh, Beth Peor, and others of that sort. This being then the city of the living God, must be an immortal society; for the living God does not preside over dead citizens; he is not the God of the dead but the God of the living, and all the members of this society live unto him. This is the city, said to have foundations, whose builder and maker is God: to this the holy Patriarchs looked as the object of their hope, knowing, that they were even then of it, and should never be out of it, because the citizens of God never die. It is therefore called the heavenly

heavenly Jerusalem, because it is of an heavenly nature and it is called the Jerusalem which is above, which is free and is the mother of us all it is free in its nature, and cannot be brought into bondage by the persecuting powers of this world; and its members are free, because they are spiritual; and spirits cannot be bound. It is the mother of us all; even of all the families of the earth that are admitted into it; it gives the new birth to people of all countries; it knows no distinction of Jews or Christians, and its citizens may live at Athens, Rome, or Antioch.

Its spiritual nature is farther declared, in that it is said to comprehend an innumerable company of angels: the whole family of heaven is included in it. The Apostle calls it the general assembly, because it takes its members from all times and all places: other assemblies are partial, composed of the citizens of one city, or the people of one nation. It is the Church of the first born written in heaven, because its members, being intitled to the privilege of inheritance, are therefore called first born, to whom the right of inheritance belongs. This is also spoken with reference to that custom of the law, according to which all

* Gal. iv. 26.

the

the first born were to be sanctified unto the Lord; and Moses was commanded to register them all, and take the number of their names*; with reference to which, the sons of the spiritual society are said to have their names written in heaven, where they are registered in the book of life. The word Church explains nothing to us in English, but in the Greek it signifies the company of those who are called out of the world to be the servants and citizens of God. Other societies have their proper judges and rulers; but here, God is the judge of all; his law is the rule of judgment, and he rewards and punishes without fear or favour. In the communion of the Church the spirits of just men made perfect are also included. It is a society, which admits only the spirits of the living, and as such cannot exclude the spirits of the dead: and this confirms what we said above, that the Church is a spiritual commu nity, comprehending the dead as well as the living: for the best interpretation supposes these to be the spirits of the Martyrs, who had finished their earthly course, and were made perfect through sufferings after the example of their Saviour.

The Christian Church is here described by

Numb. iii. 40.

the

the old names, to shew that it was no new thing, but the same holy mount of God, the same heavenly city of God, to which the spiritual part of his people always belonged: and they knew they did so, because the living God must be the head of a living.society. They who were ignorant of its true nature, disputed about the place where the Church ought to be: the Samaritans contended that it was to be on their mountain; the Jews said it was to be only at Jerusalem: but, as a society of spirits, it is no where and every where; the true worshippers of God are they who worship him in spirit and in truth; wherever these are, there is that Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all.

The Church being a society of a spiritual kind, is therefore called by the same names in all ages: Christians are said to be come unto Mount Sion, and Moses is said to have been with the Church in the wilderness. The reasonableness of which will be farther evident, if we consider the nature of its vocation: it is separated from the pollutions of the world, and called unto holiness of life. Ye shall be holy unto me, said the Lord; for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people that ye should

* John iv. 23.