QUESTION IV. 73 gether, on speaking or singing the praises of God, and cele- brating all the institutions of Christ, especially that great one, the supper of the Lord, which is called communion. They devote themselves first to the Lord in public by their profession, as they have done before in secret ; covenanting to walk with him in all his ordinances ; then they give up them- selves to one another, and they receive one another in the Lord, which is the wordused most frequently in the New Testament for admission into the_communion of saints, or being solemnly ac- knowledged as fellow- christians, and consequently as having a right to special ordinances. They profess their agreement or consent to worship usually together, to'attend usually on the or- dinances of communion as administered in that church, and to fulfil all necessary duties of christian fellowship in a special man- ner towards one another for mutual edification, as far as God shall instruct and enable them : And this is called the church- covenant, which is in truth nothing else but a voluntary solemn agreement with some particular society, to practise those social duties of the christian religion among them at appointed times and places, which Christ himself has required in general to be practised somewhere when opportunity is found. Such a consent or agreement to meet at stated times and places for social worship, is not indeed formally instituted in the New Testament : But there are several passages in the New Testament which very plainly suppose it, as will appear imme- diately. And the reason why it was not delivered in the form of the gospel institution is this, because it is a principle of natural religion ; the light of reason teaches it, and upon this account it was not set down as an institution under the Old Testament, thoughdoubtless the patriarchs and holy men of old practised it, ever since there was any such thing as public worship set up in the world : So the Israelites met and read the scripture, and prayed in their synagogueswithout the formality of a particular divine institution ; whenever a synagogue was built, the neigh- bouring inhabitants by consent weekly worshipped there. I confess where magistrates take upon them to impose a re- ligion upon the people, and national and parochial churches are appointed by some assuming powers, this free covenant or agree- ment degenerates into a constrained consent : but such a free and explicit agreement is more necessary among those Christians who are, leftto their own liberty, or who dissent from a national and established church. This covenant has indeed been much cen- sured both by the profane world, and by some fellowChristians : And it must beconfessed that somefew ministers and churches of rigid and narrow principles, have heretofore given too just an occasion of censure, by drawing up their particular church-cove- nants in a long form of writing, and inserting several things into
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