affection, compaffion, fympathy, cruelty; of defire, whether good or evil, and of wickedness. It is equivalent to heart, to mind, to the affections and operations of both; and is, in this figurative acceptation, applied in various ways, both to God and man.

CALLED. See ELECT.

CHRIST. Meffiah, anointed; invested with an high office; greatly favored. It is an appellation given to the people of Ifrael, &c. It is especially appropriated to Jefus of Nazareth, as being that prophet that should come into the world, and as being anointed, with the oil of gladnefs, above his fellows. Chrift is faid to give, and we to receive from him, that which, by him, God taught the world, or promised to them; thus we receive from him pardon and life, that is, the promife or the hope of pardon and life. Chrift is faid to do what his gospel operates, or has a natural tendency to operate; thus he is faid to guide, to ftrengthen, to comfort us, &c. He is faid to fave and to redeem us, because God, by him, communicated and confirmed that doctrine, the genuine tendency of which is to deliver us from ignorance, and b

fear,

fear, and fin, and to inspire us with zeal, and cheerfulness and activity in the practice of all virtue. Chrift is faid to do, alfo, that which, in the name of God, he promises or predicts: and in general, the prophets are frequently commanded to do, and fpoken of as doing or having done, that which they foretel. In correfpondence with the foregoing obfervations, the phrafes through Chrift, and in his name, fignify the aid of his doctrine; by means of it, with its authority, according to it, in conformity with its requifitions, and agreeably to the rules which it prefcribes. In like manner, we are said to yield ourselves to Christ, to be governed by him, to be formed by him, when we admit and cherish the genuine influences of the gospel upon our hearts and lives. As Chrift is faid to fave and to redeem us, because he was the inftrument of God to convey and to confirm to us that doctrine which is most efficacious to accomplish the deliverance of mankind from error, vice, and fear; fo God alfo is ftiled our Saviour and Redeemer, not only because he is the ultimate author of all good, but because he is the God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, and fent him into the world to bear witness to the truth which he had received from him. In respect of God, there

fore,

fore, Chrift is our Saviour and Redeemer only in a fecondary sense; these appellations belong moft properly, ftrictly, and originally to God. To preach Chrift, is to deliver his hiftory; to publish the doctrine that he taught: originally, to make known to the world what the reporters had themselves feen concerning Chrift, and what they had heard from him; at present, to read to others the history of Chrift and of his doctrine in the New Teftament, or to relate what is found there concerning him, is most strictly and properly to preach Chrift. The blood of Chrift, his obedience unto death; that miniftry his fidelity in which coft him his life. They are faid to be washed from their fins in the blood of Chrift, whofe hope of God's mercy and acceptance is encouraged by his ministry, his doctrine, his death, in which, and through which as leading to his refurrection, his divine miffion, and his fidelity in the execution of it were established; and they alfo are faid to be thus washed, who, by the influence of these things upon their minds and hearts, have been engaged and enabled to break off evil habits, and have been brought to a juft fense of their duty, and to the confcientious practice of it.

Kingdom of Chrift, fometimes, perhaps, the dif penfation of the Spirit, that age of miracles.

CHURCH. Houfe of God, family of God: first, the people of the Jews; then, all Chriftian people. In or among the former, God refided, for a long time, by the fymbols and tokens of his prefence in the tabernacle or the temple. In, or among, the latter houfe, or family, he dwelt, tabernacled for fome time by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, that is, by the communication of miraculous powers, or more properly by extraordinary exertions of his power among them, for the fupport and service of the gofpel. A Church, a fociety of Christians, even a fingle family, or part of one, in a private house.

TO COME, TO COME FROM GOD, TO COME INTO THE WORLD. These phrafes, in fcripture, frequently refer to the miffion of a prophet, and are to be interpreted of his affuming his public character, coming forth in the name of God to exercife his miniftry in the world, and to dif charge the commiflion with which he is invefted. See HEAVEN.

COMMUNION.

T

COMMUNION. Joint participation in any fentiment, action, character, privilege, or enjoyment: approximation; intercourfe. A Communion, a body or fociety.

COVENANT. Mutual agreement or ftipulation, conditional promife. In the language of fcripture it fometimes fignifies abfolute promise or engagement; ordinance, inftitution, appointment, injunction, precept, command. Blood of the covenant: death of an animal, by which, anciently, in fome countries, covenants were confirmed and ratified; the parties imprecating upon themselves a death as miferable as that which the animal ftruck by them, or before them, which they touched, or through the divided parts of which they walked, had fuffered, if they did not mean the things they faid, or did not perform the things they ftipulated: That by which both, or either of the contracting parties, on fuch occasions, give proof of their fincerity, and create confidence in their fidelity; that by which a promife is folemnly confirmed. See HEB. IX. 16. &c. JEREM. XXXIV. 18. &c. GEN. xv. 9. &c. ExOD. XXIV. 3-8, RUTH I. 17. I SAM. XIV. 44. and elsewhere.