knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, rest immeasurably upon him.' (f) It is before his judgment bar that we must all appear, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad; whereof God hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." 3. What less can we say to these things, than that the crown and Kingdom of Jesus Christ appertain to him as exclusively as his cross? He alone is King in Zion-as really as he alone is the Redeemer of Israel. By the eternal purpose of Jehovah— by the unalterable covenant between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost-by the purchase of his own most precious blood-by the ratification of his work by the Father in the infinite exaltation of the glorified Redeemer-by the ratification of his work by the Holy Ghost in his unbroken testimony to Christ-by the willing obedience and joyful suffrage of every heir of eternal life-by his own glorious fitness to rule over and in the Kingdom of God-by his infinite power, and wisdom, and justice in the final judgment of the quick and the dead--by the unsearchable fulness out of which he bestows on his brethren a weight of glory which no heart can conceive, and upon his enemies tribulation and anguish beyond their wildest fears :-by rights and prerogatives so immense, so accumulated, so overwhelming he is the King, the Lawgiver, the Judge, the Lord in Zion ! 4. It is precisely in this absolute and exclusive headship of Christ, and the consecration of his Church to him responsive thereto, that the root of her inward freedom lies; just as it is on her entire separation from the world, that her outward freedom is grounded, and can be made manifest. Nor is the doctrine of her inward freedom barren-any more than that of her outward freedom. Nay, this is before the other: necessarily before it in the order of her life-immeasurably before it in the power of its operation. For without this inward freedom there is no Church of God, to which that outward freedom can appertain. Whereever Christ reigns in the human soul, there the Kingdom of God is set up, even though men and states recognize it only to reject and oppress it. The Kingdom cometh not with observation: it 1 Col., ii. 3; Isaiah, xi. 2. 22 Cor., v. 10; Acts, xvii. 31. is within us-and is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." 5. The manner in which we are personally made free by Christ, has been fully and carefully explained, and the whole process of our deliverance traced. Considering all those who are delivered by Christ as united in the fellowship of saints, and conducted into the glorious liberty wherewith Christ makes his whole people free; we have before us that great company of the redeemed, which is the City of God. Their individual freedom is the result of their personal union with Christ; the aggregate freedom of the whole is the result of Christ's headship over his Church. Their individual consecration to Christ as their Saviour, is the clearest manifestation of their personal deliverance by him their public and organic consecration to him as their only King and Head, is the clearest proof of the organic freedom of the Church. 6. These divine realities are developed in a way, at once distinct and irresistible. The mode of our being and the character of our nature, alike render it impossible for us to exist, in any independent and irresponsible condition-which we might choose, in our folly, to dignify with the name of freedom, and which we might imagine was attainable and to be desired. We have no freedom and can have none-which can deliver us from God, and from nature, and make us independent of those ever-living forces of reason, morality, and providence, which operate within and around us, and amidst which, as a part of them, and not as irrespective of them, we are borne onward to our destiny. We may perish-or we may be saved by Christ: besides which, there is no alternative. We are already under the law and the bondage of sin and death: and from this condition nothing but the law of the Spirit of life, in Christ Jesus, can make us free. In this condition the blood of Christ is efficaciously applied to our souls. The infinite dominion of the Son of God, which pervades the universe with absolute completeness and perfection, becomes unspeakably merciful and loving towards us, and supersedes in us every other dominion. The divine agency by which it acts-even that of the Holy Ghost-is infinitely pure, gentle, ennobling, 1 Luke, xvii. 20, 21; Rom., xiv. 17, 18. 2 Psalm xlviii. passim; Rev., iii. 12; xxi. passim; Gal., iv. 22–31. and efficacious; and the divine truth through which it works, quick and powerful as a two-edged sword, is also sweet, and purifying, and healing, as the balm that is in Gilead. And the company of the Lord's redeemed, who walk in white bearing the symbols of victory, are round about us, every one a monument like ourself of divine grace and glory. Now, is this bondageor is it deliverance ? 7. Freedom of the human conscience from all control but that of God-freedom of the human reason from all authority but that of truth-freedom of the human will from all dominion but that of the Ruler of the universe-freedom of the human soul from all subjection but that to its Creator and Redeemer: add to all this majestic freedom-the freedom to use it all freely for all good! This is the feeble expression of that spiritual condition proposed to the Church of the living God-and for which the Spirit of God is able to prepare her. This is the true condition, inadequately expressed, of the visible Church of Christ, which in its free action separates itself more and more from the world, and solicits from all States a complete separation from them, in all her spiritual life and movement. This is the result of the supreme and exclusive headship of the glorified Redeemer, to which the perfect consecration of his Church to him-is her responsive act. It is a freedom of which none are worthy-to which none are competent-unto which none can attain—but the Bride of the Lamb! As to her, the more perfectly her will is swallowed up in the will of God, the more complete her freedom is. The more entirely God's truth obtains possession of her mind and heart, the more thoroughly does that truth make her free. The more constant and pervading the power of God's Spirit within her is, the more assured and enlarged is the liberty of her service and her love. And as to every dependent creature -fallen and renewed by grace-this is the only form of spiritual freedom offered to them by God, or of which their fallen nature is capable. It is the form in which our Saviour Jesus Christ hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.1 8. The present enquiry does not lead us to the particular consideration of the duty of the State, as a divine institute, and that of the civil magistrate, as in his office a servant of God. It may 1 2 Tim., i. 7-10. be observed, however, that the separate ordination of States, is very far from releasing them from the duty of piety towards God from the open recognition of their position, as powers established by him and responsible to him—or from the obligation to respect and protect every other institute ordained by him.' The obligation resting on the State to take note of the Church of God, is in its nature very similar to that resting on the Church to take note of the State; the duty of acting righteously in the sphere assigned by God, is as clear with respect to one as to the other; and the certainty of God's favour, or his displeasure, is equally absolute and efficacious, with respect to both. The God of the Christian is the only God. His dominion extends to all things-his providence directs all things-his will is the rule by which all things are determined. All peoples, all States, all rulers-all that exists, in every relation in which it exists, is his : and so the whole universe is his. For his own glory he created all things for that, he sustains and governs all. The humblest creature is not beneath his regard-and the most exalted is as nothing before his wrath. Whoever imagines that kindnesses or injuries done to the least of his children-are forgotten by him, knows nothing of him. And the kings of the earth who set themselves, and the rulers who take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his Anointed; ought to know that he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh—that the Lord shall have them in derision.2 1 Prov., viii. 15, 16; Psalm lxxxii. 3, 4; 2 Sam., xxiii. 3; Rom., xiii. 1–8. 2 Psalm ii. 2, 4; Matt., xxv. 31–46. CHAPTER XXIII. THE HISTORICAL, LOGICAL, AND SUPERNATURAL ELEMENTS OF THE CHURCH: CONSIDERED WITH REFERENCE TO THE MARKS OF THE TRUE CHURCH. I. 1. Posture of the General Exposition: Marks of the True Church.-2. Elements of the Question of the True Church.-II. 1. The Historical Element: The Sacred Scriptures excluded from this Element.-2. Uninspired History of the Church: Nature and Influence thereof.-3. General Career of the early Gospel Church: Its Fate in the East: The Latin and the Greek Churches and Empires.-4. Career of the Gospel Church, and of the Latin Church, in the West-till our Times.III. 1. The Logical Element: Stated and explained.-2. Its Force when directed by Divine Grace.-3. Sympathy between the inward and outward Life of the Church: Unity through all Generations.—IV. 1. Supernatural Element: Its Vital Supremacy.-2. The total Abnegation of Identity between the Gospel Church, and every Institution, real or possible.-3. Positive Exposition of it, Supernaturally Considered.-V. 1. Infallible Certainty concerning the True Church.-2. All possible Forms of the elemental Idea of Religion, reducible to three: These stated.-3. The First Class reject the Revelation of God: They cannot be the Church of Christ.-4. The Second abuse and pervert that Revelation: Precision of the Rule of Judging them.-5. The Third are the result, and expression, of that Revelation: Their Glory and Blessedness.-VI. 1. Recognition of the Church Visible, universal.-2. Particular Marks distinctive of her: General Statement concerning them.-3. The two ultimate and opposite Foundations: AuthorityReason. I.—-1. I HAVE now traced, in the four preceding chapters, the Church of Christ as it may be considered in its fundamental idea and elemental principles-as it may be considered in its nature and end—as it may be considered as the universal Church visible --and as it may be considered with regard to that spiritual freedom which results from its complete consecration to Christ. It seems to me that this course of exposition brings the whole subject to a position in which we may say we have precise knowledge, and therefore have clear and just views, touching a matter at once unspeakably vast and important. What would follow, if we lived in the first age of the Church, would be to sum up and apply the knowledge thus obtained, to the designation of those universal marks of the divine Kingdom thus displayed, whereby it might |