Part 54

19-22 Without the faith and confession of this [Auto-modernized] , no one person belongs to [Auto-modernized] that church. I know not what is now believed, but I judge it will not yet be denied, that the external formal cause of the Church of the New Testament, is the confession of the faith concerning the person, offices, and grace of Christ, with what is of us required upon that [Auto-modernized] . In what sense we assert these things will be afterwards fully cleared.

That the Lord Christ is thus the foundation of the church, is testified to [Auto-modernized] , Isaiah 28:16: "Thus says [Auto-modernized] the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation: he that believes [Auto-modernized] shall not make haste." It is among the bold inroads that in this late age have been made on the vitals of religion, that some, in compliance with the Jews, have attempted the application of this promise to [Auto-modernized] Hezekiah. The violence they have offered in this [Auto-modernized] to the mind of the Holy Ghost, might be evidenced from every word of the context. But the interpretation and application of the last words of this promise by the apostles, leaves no pretence to [Auto-modernized] this insinuation. "He that believes on him shall not be ashamed" or "confounded," Romans 9:33; x. 11; 1 Peter 2:6; that is, he shall be eternally saved -- which it is the highest blasphemy to apply to [Auto-modernized] any other but Jesus Christ alone. He, therefore, is alone that foundation which God has [Auto-modernized] laid in and of the church. See Psalms 118:22; Matthew 21:42; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17; Acts 4:11; 1 Peter 2:4; Ephesians 2:20-22; Zechariah 3:9 But this fundamental truth -- of Christ being the only foundation of the church -- is so expressly determined by the apostle