by one, individually and personally religious; but by joining them together in a Church or community.

When God says, in the book of Proverbs, "Keep thy heart with all diligence," He seems to ask for nothing but individual, personal, internal religion. Such a thing might be said to one living apart by himself-cut off from all outward means of grace. But when God says of the Jews, in the opening of the prophecy of Isaiah, “Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider," it is clear that He recognises something over and above personal religion, or personal responsibility. He looks upon the whole people of Israel as one man, and calls them by the name of this one man; and though the sin for which He upbraids them was made up of, and could all be resolved into, the sins of individuals, God, in this place, chooses rather to recognise it as the sin of a whole family or Church.

Now let the reader remember that in every place in which God speaks of the Jews as "His people," "His flock," "Jacob," "Israel," &c., He recognises this Church principle.

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In no one case does God, by such terms as "My people," "Mine Inheritance," "Jacob," or Israel," mean certain godly individuals, considered as an invisible or inner Church. He always means, by these terms, the whole visible body or Church.

It is scarcely possible to exaggerate the prominence which this Church principle occupies in Old Testament teaching, for every place in which the Jews or Israelites are called by such collective appellations as "Jacob," "Israel," bears witness to it.1

1 I have discussed at some length the Old Testament "Church terms and their application, in "The Second Adam and the New Birth," chapter v., and in Appendix A. of the same work I have collected together a vast mass of examples of their use.

Again, when Christ says, "Como unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden," His words (taken by themselves) appear to encourage sinners, as individual unitsconsidered apart from any organization or Church—to come to Him; but when He says (John xv.), "I am the true vine". "Every branch IN me that beareth not fruit God taketh away "I am the vine, ye are the branches," -it is quite evident that our Lord recognises something over and above the internal religion of the individual. He considers the individual as belonging to an organization or body; for a branch of a tree, whilst it is in the tree, cannot but be associated with a multitude of other branches which together make up the tree.

In this similitude of the "Vine and its branches" we have a further development of the idea of the union of the people of God in one fellowship. In the Old Testament they were merely planted together, side by side, as in a vineyard. (Isaiah v.) In our Lord's parable they are united in one organization, of which He is the Root or Stem.

Again, the Parable of the Sower may be considered to refer solely to the individual reception of the Gospel by various classes of persons, but the parables of the "Field sown with wheat and tares," of the "Draw-net," and of the "Grain of mustard seed," refer to the thing which Christ was about to establish as being a Church or polity.

Again, when St. James says, " Cleanse your hands, ye sinners," and "Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you," his words may be taken as only recognising the private personal access of each soul to God. But when St. Paul says that " we being many are one body in Christ," and that "Christ is the Head of His body, the Church," it is quite clear that further considerations come in besides those pertaining to each man's individual intercourse with his Maker.

The extent to which Church teaching, and considerations arising from it, prevail in the New Testament, may be judged from the fact that of the thirteen Epistles of St. Paul only one is addressed to a private Christian, and this one is wholly occupied with a matter of domestic interest, and contains not so much as one doctrinal remark. All the remainder are addressed to Churches, or to overseers of Churches.

The Epistle to the Ephesians is wholly based on Church teaching. Every Evangelical privilege alluded to in the first three chapters is supposed to belong to the whole body or Church, as being a part of the Body of Christ. Every practical duty urged in the three later chapters is urged on Church principles, for it is commended to their obedience upon considerations drawn from the mystical union betwixt Christ and His Church, and the coherence of all the members under the One Head.

When it is stated above that we find in Scripture both individual religion and also this great Church principle, it is not for a moment to be supposed that they can be separated.

For what is personal religion? It can only mean the individual submission of each man's soul to God, so that he should receive and realise God's word as the word of his Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.

Now this word of God clearly reveals that Jesus Christ came not merely to make men individually religious, but to gather them together into a kingdom or fellowship, which He deigns to call His Body. He instituted means of grace by which they were to be brought into, or to be continued in, this fellowship, and after His departure, His Spirit, through the Apostles, expanded and developed this Church element of His system.

If, then, personal religion consists in each one recog

nising and realising God's word as His word, then each Christian must strive, heart and soul, to realise the truths pertaining to the fellowship of Christ's body, which occupy so remarkable a place in God's word. If a man

wilfully fails to do this, he wilfully comes short of what God has revealed, and so comes short of that personal religion which God requires of him.

When once God has clearly revealed a matter, then no really submissive, i.e., no really believing soul can try to evade the reception of it on such a plea as that other matters are of more importance. A thoroughly enlightened man will say, "I cannot afford to lose one motive to love and serve God. If I regard my Saviour as the Word,' and the 'Light,' I must hear His every word, and follow His every leading."

If this Church principle be clearly revealed in Scripture, then no service book can be accounted Scriptural which does not provide for its recognition, and especially does it seem appropriate to recognise it when a person is admitted into the Church; or if he be admitted as an infant, then it should be recognised in any formula in which he is to be instructed before he makes his solemn public profession before the Church.

In embodying this Church principle of Scripture in any formulary used at the admission of a person into the Church, it will be found impossible to evade the question, On what basis is the Church founded-on a broad or on a narrow one?

If the Church is founded on the broad basis that all persons professing the faith of Christ, and baptized into His name, are to be accounted as belonging to it; then this must be unequivocally set forth, for in this case the baptized are the Church—or at least are to be accounted the Church so far as this, that they occupy exactly the

same position (as the people or Israel of God) which the circumcised Jews occupied before the coming of Christ, and which the whole body of the baptized Corinthian and Galatian Christians occupied in Apostolic times. On this principle, then, the baptized must all be addressed as responsible for the grace of having been received into the family of God, and for the grace of having been made members of Christ.

If, on the contrary, the Church is established on a narrower or more select basis, such as this,-that none are to be accounted as belonging to it who have not consciously come to Christ and consciously received forgiveness from Him,-then this must also, in mercy to men's souls, be most clearly set forth. In such a case the services used when men are admitted into the Church should unmistakeably declare the truth, that admission into the so-called visible Church is really nothing, and that admission into a more select inner circle, or invisible Church, has yet to be sought. The rite of Baptism should be made to set forth not its own efficiency, but its own inefficiency. It should declare, on the face of it, that so far from being an ordinance in which God regenerates, it is only to be accounted as witnessing to the need of a regeneration, which God almost invariably confers at some other time, and in the use of altogether different means.

SECTION II.

THE TEACHING OF SCRIPTURE UPON BAPTISM.

I now proceed to examine as to whether our Services, especially our Baptismal Services, duly reflect this great Church principle of Scripture.