n by the Church of God, in an
Ecclesiastical capacity, is an act of obedience to his word. That
community, in its organization and laws essentially distinct from civil
society, one throughout every age, and embracing the saints of every
land, as one body, He designates, "My Servant." Whatsoever, therefore,
is practised by the church in her collective capacity, however
denominated, and without rebuke, is performed by her in this character.
And hence, whether introduced as "Israel," or "Jacob," or "My People,"
or as bearing any other honourable epithet, and vowing or swearing to
the Lord, she appears under the aspect of a chosen society performing
duty; and each promise and prophecy delivered concerning this, as well
as each other allowable exercise, assumes the features of a precept, and
each performance of it in truth, the marks of a warranted service. And
the church, in this, is said to serve God. At Horeb, before the mission
of Moses to Egypt, for the deliverance of Israel, the Lord, with regard
to the solemnities of Covenanting that were there to occur, said to him,
"When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall _serve_
God upon this mountain."[187] Commanding and exhorting to engage in
solemn covenant renovation, Hezekiah said to Israel,--"Now be ye not
stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves (margin, _give
the hand_) unto the Lord, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath
sanctified for ever; and _serve_ the Lord your God, that the fierceness
of his wrath may turn away from you."[188] And not less, than under a
former dispensation, is the exercise represented as an act of obedience
in New Testament times. There is no reason for maintaining that the
apostle enjoined not the exercise of social, but merely that of personal
Covenanting, when he thus addressed the Church of God at Rome,--"I
beseech you there-fore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which
is your reasonable _service_."[189]

The exercise of Social Covenanting with God, performed by his Church
both in an Ecclesiastical and a National capacity, is a part of his
service. Being a religious observance, this cannot be performed by the
members of the Church collectively, whether united ecclesiastically or
otherwise, if not associated as the Church of God. But also when, united
both ecclesiastically and in a national capacity, they address
themselves to