IN answer to your doubt, concerning joining any church communion, I will tell you what I would do myself.
_First_, As to any defects in the outward form, and performance of _baptism and the supper of the Lord in the church, I am under little or no concern about them;――Because all that is_ inwardly meant or _intended by them_, as the life, spirit, and benefit of them, is subject to no human power, _is wholly transacted between God and myself_, and cannot be taken from me, by any alteration made by man, in the outward celebration of them.
If the church, in my baptism, should sprinkle a little milk, or wine, instead of water, upon my face, it would be no defective baptism to me, if I had all that inward disposition of repentance, of faith in Christ, to be born again of him, which was meant, figured, and implied by such immersion into water, as was the first baptism.
The same may be said of the supper of the Lord, however varied in its outward manner from what it was at first, if the inward truth, pointed at by it, is loved and adhered to by me, I have all the benefit that could be had by it, when it was kept in the same outward form, in which the first church used it.
And therefore the outward celebration of these sacraments is reverenced by me, wherever they are observed, as standing in the same place, and significant of the same inward blessing, as in their first institution.
I join therefore in the public assemblies, not because of the _purity_, or _perfection_ of that which is _done_; but because of that which is _meant_ and _intended_ by them; they mean the holy, public worship of God; they mean the edification of Christians; they are of great use to many people; they keep the world from a total forgetfulness of God; they help the ignorant and letterless to such a knowledge of God, and the scriptures, as they would not have without them.
And therefore, fallen as these church assemblies are, from their first spiritual state, I reverence them, as the _venerable remains_ of all that, which once was, and will, I hope, be again, the glory of church assemblies, _viz._ the _ministration of the Spirit, and not of the letter_.
And there are two great signs of the near approach of this day, in two very numerous, yet very different kinds of people in these kingdoms.
In the one sort, an extraordinary increase of new opinions, methods, and religious distinctions, is worked up to its utmost height. And we see them almost every day running with eagerness from one method to another, in quest of _something_, which they have not been able to find.
Now, as the vanity and emptiness of any thing, or way, is then only fully discovered, when it has run all its lengths, so that nothing remains untried, to keep up the deceit; so when strife of opinions, invented forms, and all outward distinctions, have done their utmost, have no farther that they can go, then if the zeal was simple and upright, all must end in this full conviction, that vanity and emptiness, burden and deceit, must follow us in every course we take, till we expect all, and receive all, from the invisible God blessing our hearts with all heavenly gifts, by his eternal, all-creating word, and life-giving spirit in our souls.
The _other sign_ is to be found in another kind of people, in most parts of these kingdoms, who in the midst of the noise and multiplicity of church-strife, having heard the still, and secret voice of the true shepherd, are turned inwards and are attentive to the inward truth, spirit, and life of religion, searching after the spiritual instruction, which leads them to seek Christ, and his redeeming Spirit, as the only safe guide from inward darkness to inward light; and from outward shadows into the substantial, ever enduring truth; which truth is nothing else, but the _everlasting union of the soul with God, as its only good, through the Spirit and nature of Christ truly formed and fully revealed in it_.――But to go no farther; I shall only add, that as yet, I know no better way of thinking or acting, than as above, with regard to the universal _fallen state_ of all churches: for fallen they all are, as certainly as they are divided.
*And all that is wanting to be removed from every church, or Christian society, in order to its being a part of the heavenly _Jerusalem_, is _that_ which may be called its _own human will_, and _carnal_ wisdom; which is all to be given up, by turning the eyes and hearts of all its members, to an inward adoration, and total dependance upon the supernatural, invisible, omnipresent God of all spirits; to the inward teachings of Christ, as the power, the wisdom, and the light of God, working within them every good and blessing which they can ever receive, either on earth, or in heaven,