Page:Short illustration of the commission given by Jesus Christ to his apostles.pdf/20

 The end of its assembling was to perform and observe Christ's.

These are the outlines of a visible church of Christ, such as the apostles planted in every place where there was a sufficient number of disciples to compose it. Such a church, with its office-bearers, is an organized body, complete in all its parts, and has the full power of government and discipline within itself. It is a visible representation of Christ's true catholic church, which is at present, and therefore is designed by the same epithets, such as God’s building, habitation, temple, house, Christ's body, spouse, &c. To such a church were the ordinances delivered, as also the instituted discipline; and it is only in such a society separated from the world, that they can be observed according to their primitive institution.

This union of believers is represented in the Scriptures, as being a connection of the most close and intimate kind — a union, which, when formed is not to be dissolved but upon grounds the most important. The closeness of this union we find an apostle frequently illustrating by that sympathy of feeling which Subsists among members of the human body. “We being many are one body in Christ, and every one member one of another.” And as a means of preserving this unity of principle, the grounds of it are