s spoken of, and is recognised by her
members. To Jeremiah was given the commission, "Go, and cry in the ears
of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I remember thee, the
kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest
after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown." "Israel was
holiness unto the Lord." "For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and
burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress."[343] In days
long posterior to the time of Israel's deliverance from Egypt, the
Church sang, "He turned the sea into dry land: they went through the
flood on foot: there did _we_ rejoice in him."[344] The Church,
posterior to the advent of Christ, is represented as a house in which
Moses had served, but which Christ had built, and over which, as well in
the days of the patriarch as in the last times, He ruled as a Son.[345]
And to the Church existing in all times, unquestionably belongs the
inimitably beautiful description,--"Christ also loved the Church, and
gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the
washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a
glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but
that it should be holy and without blemish." Since the Church, then, is
a body, her standing is independent of the individual members who may be
in her communion; as a responsible agent, even as an individual, she may
come under obligation and fulfil it; and through every age of her
existence, be held bound to duty by her engagements. The same principle
which is applicable to the Church as a whole, behoves to be contemplated
by every Section of her in given circumstances. If the whole Church
might enter into covenant engagements, as in Abraham, which would entail
obligation throughout successive ages, ought not every community
thereof, as a part of the whole, to bind itself before the Lord to
services to be performed by its successors? If a whole society may
Covenant, ought not an individual of that society to do so singly? And
if the obligations come under by the one person, not less than those of
the whole body, ought to be discharged, ought not those of a given
Section of the visible Church to be fulfilled by it, as a body forming a
part of the general community, even as the covenant duties of the whole.

Thirdly. Because of the Church's social character. As it is not merely
in their individual, but also in their social capacity