147 / 652
SEAM.
IX.,
WITH ITS DUTIES
AND
ADVANTAGES.
137
edification
of
his
body,
our
Saviour has
appointed the
erecting
of
particular
churches. And
wherever
a
suffi-
cient number
of
persons
were called,
it
was
the
constant
practice
of
the
primitive
times, to
unite
in
such socie-
ties
as
stated members
of
them,
under the
guidance and
conduct
of
those
pastors
,and
teachers,
which with
their
own
consent the Holy
Ghost
had set
Over
them
to
rule
and feed
them.
This
is
a constitution
of
Christ, which
is
directly thwarted and opposed
by
a
generation
of
loose
and rambling christians,
that content
themselves with
bare hearing,
and
that
too
in
a very
odd
way.
For they
are a sort of
volatile
auditors, perpetually
frisking
to
and
fit.,
who
can
fix
no where.
Were alhmen
of
this
hu-
mour,
there
could
be
no such
thing
as
particular
churches,
which
Christ
has
appointed
for the
edifying
of
his
mem-
bers
:
And
how
they can
rationally expect
to flourish
;either
in
grace or
peace,
while
they
live in
a.
direct op-
position
to
a
manifest
institution
of our
Lord Jesus,
which
was
not
more an effect
of
his
authority, than
of
his
wisdom
and
goodness,
I
wish
men would
seriously
consider.
Are
any
of
you
so
self-sufficient
that
you
need
no pastor,
nor
the
assistance
of
your
fellow-
christians to
watch
over,
admonish, rebuke,
exhort,
comfort,
strength-
en,"
and
counsel you
?
Are there
none
of
the churches
of
Christ that are pure
enough
?
None
of
them
that
have
latitude,
or
strictness enough
for
you
?.
None
of
them
:worthy
enough
for you to
join
yourself
Auto
?
When
our
Lord
hath
given such
variety of
gifts to his
ministers,
is
there none
of
them
whose
abilities suit
you,
and
please
your curious palates,
that
by
settling
under
them you
may
be
edified
?
I
may say to such
persons
as
Constan-
'tine once did
to'
such a
self
-
conceited
man,
"
Take
a
ladder
and climb up to
heaven-
by
thyself alone."
In
short,
a
society
of
believers, walking
together
in
gospel
order,
is
like the
excellent composure
of
syllables, words,
and sentences,
that
have a
great
deal
of
sense
and signi-
fication
in
them
;
but
a separated
and
divided christian,
that
will
join
himself
to
no church,
is
like
a
single
letter
or disjointed
syllable,
that
is
perfect
nonsense."
Reflection
III.
" IIow
criminal are
those
persons
who break.
the
beautiful
order
and harmony
of
a
church
of Christ
for
trifles
?"
Whose fanciful`humours, or
whose
.
imposing
spirit
raises
up discord and
Contest
in
a
well