can he see the impropriety of presenting the brilliant diamond of another, rather than a duller one of his own preferring to expose himself to the charge of mental barrenness, rather than impair the strength of his argument, or weaken the force of its application. Such gems, however, have been introduced sparingly; and they have been honestly acknowledged. From modern writers the author has derived but very little help; and, as not one has written largely on the main subject of this Treatise, he has been left to his own resources. The authorities which he has consulted on kindred topics are HOOKER, CHILLINGWORTH, USHER, BARROW, CHARNOCK, BATES, HOWE, and their predecessors, contemporaries, and successors. On all questions of Ecclesiastical Policy, as well as Christian Theology and Ethics, he has studied these great masters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and should their writings have given a direction to his thoughts, or a force to his reasonings, he will rejoice that he has not studied them in vain. With modern theorizers, whether Puseyite on the one hand, or Rationalistic on the other, he has not the smallest sympathy; and, regarding the authority of tradition and reason as secondary and subordinate in all matters of faith and practice, he would " ASK FOR THE OLD PATHS," and take for his motto, "THUS SAITH THE LORD," and, "THUS IT IS WRITTEN." GREAT BRIDGE, WEST BROMWICH, CHAPTER VIII.—THE HOLY EUCHARIST IS THE DIVINELY APPOINTED SYMBOL OF FELLOWSHIP WITH THE CHURCH, BUT NOT SUBVERSIVE OF OTHER TESTS :-SUCH AS A "FORM OF SOUND WORDS," THE CHURCH- MEETING, AND THE CLASS-MEETING......... 189 CHAPTER IX.-THE PALPABLE INCONSIST- ENCY BETWEEN THE LIVES OF NUMEROUS PROFESSORS OF RELIGION AND THE REAL IMPORT OF THAT PROFESSION, IS THE CHIEF HINDRANCE TO THE "INCREASE CHAPTER X.-THE CONVERSION OF THE A VISIBLE CHURCH; AND NO INVISIBLE MEMBERS. CHAPTER I. THE CHURCH IS A DIVINE INSTITUTION. "WHO could found the Jewish and Christian Church but God? Who could support, govern, influence, and defend them, but Himself? Communities or societies, whether religious or civil, may be founded by man; but God alone can build His own Church."-Dr. ADAM CLARKE. THE Jewish Church was a Theocracy. Passing over the church before the flood, and during the patriarchal ages, we cannot but have remarked, that the ancient people of God, who formed the nation of the Jews, were chosen out of the world, and placed under the immediate and visible government of the Most High. Abram, a Syrian ready to perish," was called from the house of idolatry, to be a witness for Jehovah. He became a sojourner in the land of Canaan, and left behind him a numerous family. "But there arose a mighty famine in that land;" and B The the seed of Abraham, including Jacob and his family, were led by a series of the most mysterious, but remarkable, providences into Egypt, where they were preserved from perishing. On the accession of a king to the throne of Egypt, "which knew not Joseph," the chosen people of God became the victims of slavery and oppression, and the Egyptians their mighty and capricious lords. But when oppression wrung from the Israelites, groaning under their Egyptian taskmasters, the agonizing appeal to Heaven, Moses the servant of God was sent, and the day of deliverance began to dawn. A series of events took place, by which their redemption from their state of bondage in Egypt was at length achieved. judgments of God upon Pharaoh and his subjects. compelled them to give tardy release to their captives; and the hosts of the Lord, after prolonged slavery and ignominious depression, went out from the land. They assumed their separate form of national existence; they were gathered together into a compacted body, as a holy and peculiar people; they received the special and permanent institutions of heaven; and "the Lord was their Lawgiver, their Judge, and their King." The Jewish nation formed the Jewish church; the entrance into the church was by natural birth; every Jew was a member of the church; but the founder of the church was the Lord of the universe. "For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts |