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SERMON XIII.

COMMINATION SERVICE.

66

JEREM. X. 24.

O LORD, CORRECT ME, BUT WITH JUDGMENT: NOT IN THINE ANGER, LEST THOU BRING ME ΤΟ NOTHING."

THE Commination Service, which will form the last subject in our course, derives its title, from the denouncing of God's anger and judgment against sinners. The minister, in the opening address, refers to the custom existing in the Primitive Church, that such persons, as stood convicted of notorious sin, were, at the beginning of Lent, put to open penance. They were punished in this world, that their souls.

might be saved in the day of the Lord; and that others, admonished by their example, might be the more afraid to offend.

As the subject of the Primitive Church has been often referred to, in this series of Lectures, I shall avail myself of the present opportunity, to give a very short account of the early Christians, as they existed under that form of sacred government founded by our Lord, and transmitted through the Apostles, under divine guid

ance.

I. The Primitive Church did not consist of a number of Christians, differing in opinion as to the truths and administration of the Gospel. As there was "one Lord," so was there "one faith, one baptism." The Primitive Church was a Society, regularly governed. It consisted of various branches. There was the Church of Jerusalem; that of Antioch; that of Corinth

and others settled by the Apostles, or their missionaries, throughout the world. But it was one Church, as much as a tree is one, though stretching out its various branches from different parts of the ascending trunk. It was Catholic, in the true sense of the word-that is, universal. What was believed in one, was believed in all. It gathered from all nations, and classes; "high and low, rich and poor, one with another 1." It was a large family, scattered abroad, but guided by the same rules, principles and spirit. The bond of union was so strong, that from the lips of heathen prejudice, was extorted that glorious attestation to their imbibing the mind that was in Christ Jesus-" See how these Christians love one another !" If more remarkable for the exercise of some than other virtues they were these-Devotion, in private, in their family, in the public observance of the Lord's Day, and other

1 Ps. xlix. 2.

Festivals, as well as appointed Fasts; humility, patience, charity, temperance, and purity.

And great must have been the contrast presented in such a city as Rome, or Corinth, herein, to the idolatry, unbridled lust, fierce vengeance, luxury, pride, and worldly mindedness, reigning without a check, under a scheme of religion, of which morals formed no essential part. The deep impression of the Redeemer's atoning death, the consciousness, by inward grace and outward miracle, of the Comforter's presence amongst them, the undefined idea in the minds of many (though corrected by Scripture,) that the second coming of the Lord was immediately at hand,-these, and other elevating feelings, tended to separate the follower of Jesus from an untoward generation. To this, much influence was added from the brutal persecutions which disgraced the earth for three hundred years. To know, that you were liable, on almost any day, to be dragged to death from the

bosom of your family; and that if you publicly avowed your belief in the Saviour before the magistrate, your sentence was, whatever the cruelty, or caprice, of the judge might determine-this fear kept false professors far away from a religion of so much peril, and rendered the true disciple watchful, and stedfast. It was this liability to death, which introduced the custom of sponsors; lest the parents should leave their children, without any security to the Church, for their being brought up in the faith, when they themselves were cast to the lions, torn asunder by trees, crucified, beheaded, or burned. They "worked out their salvation with fear and trembling 1." They were often compelled to meet at the earliest hour, for worship, and in the most retired places. And into these holy assemblies would the savage spy exultingly intrude; and springing on his prey, bear away some new victims of oppression. The

1 Phil. ii. 12.

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