wife, have been made the perpetual monuments of God's anger against apostasy; for though they retain a form and visible body, yet like the trees upon the shores of the Dead Sea, not prostrated by the winds nor shattered by the lightnings of heaven, but standing leafless and lifeless, instructive by their desolation and ruin, they are useful only for the sad and terrible lessons which they illustrate.

. This, then, is manifest; that the preaching of christian truth, attended by the influences of the Spirit of God, produces churches; as the seed, quickened into life by the warmth of the sun, produces the plants which grow from them. Churches are not formed by a power exerted from without, but developed from power working within.* As the first church, and the second, and indeed every one, whose origin is described in the New Testament, received its existence and form from the inherent force and working of the spiritual energies of Christianity, so should every church be formed. Wherever and by whatever means the truths of the gospel are received in love, there all needful authority exists for the formation of a proper and valid church of Christ.

SECT. 5. Gradual development of Principles.

From the scriptural account of the origin of christian churches, it is evident that the principles and doctrines which produced them were unfolded gradually, in such an order as to lead naturally to the formation of local associations, or congregations of believers, for the worship of God, and the administration of the ordinances of the gospel. "So is the kingdom of God, . . . first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear."

First, came the prophetic announcement of a new institution about to be established in the earth, with the high dis

* Where the Spirit is, there is the church; this is the principle of the reform: where the church is, there is the Spirit, is the principle of Rome and Oxford; and it is also, though in a milder form, that of Lutheranism. - D'Aubigne.

tinctive name," kingdom of God," or "kingdom of heaven; a name which would raise the expectation that its subject would be separated from the mass of mankind. Our Saviour declared that he had come to establish this kingdom.

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But then he declared at the outset, that all the members of that kingdom must be so changed as to be radically different from other men; they must be made anew, or, in his expressive words, " must be born again." Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Here, then, is not only a new kingdom announced, but a new order of moral beings to compose it.

Significant of this spiritual change, a new, peculiar rite of admission is appointed, is honored by the obedience of Christ himself, that he might fulfil all righteousness,' and is then enjoined on all his followers. During his earthly ministry it is called "the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins," but after his ascension, is found also to be symbolic of his burial and resurrection, to impress on the hearts of believers their obligations to be dead unto sin, that they may walk in a new life.

This inward change and outward rite created a new bond of sympathy and union among the disciples, who now formed a family or community around the Saviour. Though permitted to exercise none of the powers or rights peculiar to a christian church while the King in Zion was among them in person, yet they were united on the same voluntary principle of obedience to his commands.

As a first practical lesson, they were taught that the kingdom of God, of which they had become members, was to be extended by their efforts; made effectual by divine influence. "Ye are the light of the world." Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth laborers into his harvest." Immediately, while the number of his disciples was yet small, he selected twelve whom he named Apostles, or men sent, to prosecute this work. Soon after, he chose seventy others, and sent them forth to the same work.

Christ now invites all, who would find rest and safety to their souls, to come to him. And although he addressed Jews who claimed that the oracle, the temple, the priesthood, and the mercy-seat, were exclusively with them, yet he uses the most decisive and unequivocal language: "Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead: he that eateth of this bread, or believeth on me, shall live forever." "I am that bread of life." "If any man Jew or Gentile thirst, let him come unto me and drink." "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." And when an institution of the Old Testament

comes in his way, he asserts his power to change it. "The

"Here is one

Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath." greater than the temple." He came into the world clothed with authority to set aside any previously-existing divine institutions.

The assertion of this authority was speedily followed by no dubious intimations that the Theocracy would pass away, to give place for the Gospel. Knowing that nothing would so much enrage the Jews as the announcement of this truth, it was gradually made known to his confidential disciples. When Moses and Elias passed away before Jesus in the mount of transfiguration, he strictly commanded that they should tell the vision to no man till the Son of man be risen from the dead. So startling an announcement as that a new form of religious polity was soon to supersede and displace the old, was made with wise caution.

On the other hand, he assured his disciples that the open profession of faith in him which they were required to make, would excite against them the hatred and persecution of the world, especially of that portion who were zealous for an outward form of religion; so that their separation from all others for the purpose of uniting together would be an act of necessity as well as of duty.

When the time of his crucifixion drew near, he spoke with less reserve of the setting up of his kingdom, and the destruction of the existing religious institutions; till finally, as the King of Zion, in literal fulfillment of prophecy, he

made his public entry into Jerusalem amid the allowed and justified acclamations of the multitude.

Immediately after this decided step, he foretold the utter destruction of the city of Jerusalem, and of the temple; the stay, the glory, and the hope of Judaism.

But quickly gathering his disciples around the paschal table, now spread for the last time in its original significancy, he abolished that ancient feast which only pointed to himself, exchanged the bleeding, symbolic victim for the broken bread and the flowing wine, unfurled the cross for a rallying banner, and commanded, as one who had authority to legislate in Zion, "THIS DO in remembrance of ME."

Having abolished the greatest Jewish festival, he next changed the Sacred Day, of which he had declared himself the Lord. His resurrection, the greatest event which the world ever witnessed, occurred on the first day of the week ; ~ on that day he appeared to his disciples, and on that day they of course assembled to worship Him, and to celebrate that ordinance which was appointed to be the standing memorial of his death.

He continued on earth giving "commandments to the apostles, whom he had chosen; to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion, by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." What these "things" were, the inspired writers have not told us, yet one of the first things which the apostles did was to lead the whole church to the choice of one to fill the place of the fallen Judas. If, therefore, their deeds are to be taken as evidence of his "commandments" to them on this occasion, he enacted as a general and universal law that, after his departure persons were to be appointed to offices of labor and trust in the kingdom of heaven, or in the churches, by the suffrages of all the members of a church. This is evident from the choice of Matthias, and the manner of choosing the seven, of whom Stephen was the first.

Then followed the gift of the Holy Spirit upon the church; as if one design had been to indicate that the

whole church, though many members, are to have one mind, and that the mind of Christ, in the setting apart of officers, and in all other things in which the welfare of his kingdom on earth is concerned.

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Hitherto the inspired historian speaks of one church only, "the church in Jerusalem," but now arose a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea, and Samaria, except the apostles;" and "they that were scattered abroad, went every where, preaching, the word." The Holy Spirit owned their preaching, and though no apostles were with them, churches were constituted, and we are soon after told of " the churches through all Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria," and "the churches of the Gentiles."

That each and all of these churches possessed equal powers and rights; that each could lawfully perform any act having an important bearing on the purity, order, and welfare of the kingdom of Christ; in short, that each church had the divine sanction in doing any thing which any other church, or number of churches, or body of ministers, could do, is next evident from the facts recorded of the church at Antioch. This church of Grecians, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, separated, ordained, and sent forth the first missionaries; and when these missionaries had performed their work, they made their report to the whole church from which they had received their commission. When the same missionaries were chosen by the church at Antioch to go to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders, on the question about circumcision, the answer was returned in the name of the "Apostles, Elders, and Brethren," who together composed the church. Thus it appears that a Gentile church, which was planted by men who were not apostles, did, before any apostle had visited them, set apart, commission, and ordain men, to do the same work which the Saviour commissioned his ministers to do.

We next find these churches addressed by apostles, and finally by our ascended Lord himself, as possessing in themselves the powers of organization, government, and disci