2

1

3

often as, and as long as, they sacramentally show his death. While the Saviour sat with his Apostles, and apparently before instituting this sacrament, he said unto them, With desire have I desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: for I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves for I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come. And again, apparently after he had instituted this sacrament and his Apostles had partaken of its elements, he said, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's Kingdom. A little after he said, I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. This sitting on thrones and judging, accordiag to his previous promise to them, will occur when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, and all his followers shall inherit eternal life. I suppose, therefore, that the Lord did not mean to refer in what he said, to those few occasions on which, after the resurrection, he partook of food and drink with his disciples, apparently to satisfy them of his own identity; but to that coming and estate of the kingdom of God, and that consummation of the work appointed by him unto his Apostles, and that further consummation of the New Testament in his blood, which he had before explained by the parable of the marriage supper of the King's son; and concerning which the Apostle John, repeating the Alleluias of the redeemed, and relating the glory of the Lamb's wife, and the joy in heaven that his marriage had come-writes, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. Whatever of glory and blessedness is in store for us, is purchased for us by the blood of Christ; and the more perfect our communion is with him in his death, the more complete is our appreciation of all divine things, and the more entire is our fitness for all divine blessings.

5

III. 1. The manner in which this sacrament was adminístered by Christ, and ought to be always administered by his fol

lowers, is set forth with great particularity in the Scriptures. His example ought to be sufficient; but when we consider that everything he did was significant, and that all departures from his example have led to superstition and heresy, we see the more plainly that it is a wise and trustful obedience, which conforms exactly to that example of the Lord. Therefore the bread and the cup are to be taken by him who is to administer the Sacrament, and so separated unto their peculiar end: they are to be set apart from a common to a sacramental use, by the word of God, and by special prayer, thanksgiving and blessing: the bread is to be broken and distributed amongst those who communicate the wine being poured out, the cup is to be taken and distributed amongst those who communicate the bread is to be taken in the hand of the communicant, and is to be eaten by him: the cup is to be taken into the hand of the communicant and the wine is to be drunk by him. At the proper times, and suited to the proper parts of the sacramental action, the Lord's minister should repeat the Lord's words, according as they were uttered: and they who communicate, reverently, waiting on the Lord, and decently exhibiting their mutual fellowship in a common and simultaneous participation, should solemnly and believingly eat and drink the symbols of the broken body and shed blood of Christ Jesus their Redeemer. Though there be two elements, there is but one sacrament: and the power of administration is not joint, but several: wherefore all the parts of the sacramental action that appertain to him who ministers in the place of the Lord, appertain to a single and the same minister; just as in the sacrament of baptism. They who worthily and with preparation of heart, wait upon him who said, This do in remembrance of me; will find his promises fulfilled unto them, to the great peace and edification of their souls. And it may be confidently asserted that the natural effects of bread and wine upon those who receive them physically, are neither better assured nor more explicable after their kind; than the gracious effects of the body and blood of Christ crucified are, upon those who receive them spiritually, after their kind. For this communion is a sacrament of the Covenant of Grace, under the Gospel dispensation, instituted by Christ, wherein by the breaking and eating of bread his broken body and by pouring out and drinking wine his shed blood,

are signified and sealed, together with all the benefits of his crucifixion, unto all who worthily commune.

2. With respect to each individual Christian, this sacrament is the means of a most solemn, gracious, reiterated, and irrevocable dedication of himself to God as his God, and to the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour. In return he receives from God pardon, holiness, light, strength, comfort, peace, and joy through the divine ordinance, word, and Spirit. For the crucified Saviour in all his past work, in all his present power, and in all his future glory, is sacramentally assured herein, to the penitent and believing sinner, on whose behalf is God's eternal Covenant of Grace, and under it the New Covenant which is a testament in the blood of Christ. With respect to the whole company of believers, who are the Church of the living God, the Bride of the Lamb, and the Body of Christ, we see how this and every other gift of her husband and Lord, who gave himself for her; consecrates her to himself, and separates her from a world lying in sin and under the curse of God. She had the promise of her Saviour, the constant revelation of the will of God, and the presence of his Spirit, before she had any permanent sacrament. With the covenant of promise in Abraham, came circumcision and her own visible and separate existence; with the covenant of sacrifice in Moses, a covenant in the blood of beasts, came the passover, and the written word, and her more complete, and ordered, and separate Church state with the New Testament in the blood of Christ, came baptism and the Lord's Supper, the complete and permanent revelation of the will of God-Christ incarnate, crucified, risen, and glorified, the Spirit poured out, and all the ordinances of God, and all the ascension gifts of Christ, peculiar to the Gospel Church. All the time it is the elect of God, the Bride of the Lamb, the Body of Christ, the Church of the first-born whose names are written in heaven: and all are proofs of eternal, unalterable, unsearchable, divine love for her. These are sublime and infinitely fruitful truths. Upon the foundation they establish, the whole doctrine of the Church must rest. Whatever will not endure to be built on them, can be no portion of the house of God. Whatever they subvert, is divinely subverted. They guide us, from all that concerns the humblest believer considered as a member of Christ, onward through the whole question of the Church, to the highest generalization that

concerns the kingdom delivered up to the Father on the Lamb's Book of Life: illuminating the entire career of the Church, from the beginning to the end. As soon as we let them go, we are lost in darkness, amidst the innumerable revolutions of opinion, and the interminable disputes of men, concerning things with regard to which no opinion is of any value, and about which no man can know aught of any worth, except as divine light is shed upon them. Amongst all the benefits which Christ's faithful ministers could confer on his Church, none could compare with a successful effort to recall her completely to these grand and simple truths, the perversion of which has cost her so much.

CHAPTER XXXI.

OFFICE BEARERS IN THE GOSPEL CHURCH: AND THE GOVERNMENT IN THEIR HANDS.

:

I. Office Bearers, and Government in their Hands.-1. Considered in their relation to all Society and to the particular society called the visible Church of Christ.-2. As appertaining to the Church, they appertain in a still higher sense to Christ.3. Fundamental principle of the Divine Origin and authority of both, commensurate with the existence of the visible Church: proved and illustrated by the example of the Apostolic synod of Jerusalem.-4. The Divine Example of that synod particularly considered; and the Fact, the Nature, and the Perpetuity of Church Government demonstrated.-5. The Office Bearers who constituted it: and first of the Apostles considered as uniting in the Administration of the government they had formed.-6. Of the Elders-in whose Hands the Divine Government of the Christian Church is permanently and exclusively lodged-II. 1. The actual origin of the Christian Church, its Government, its Office Bearers, and its Tribunals: Its particular congregations, and the Tribunal in each.-2. Progress and development of the Government: Nature, Organization, Divine Authority of Tribunals Presbyterial, Synodical and Universal.-3. The Nature of Church Power as delegated by the Mediator: its relation to his Offices of Prophet, Priest, and King: the fundamental distinction in its Nature and Use, as the Power of Regimen and the Power of Order.-4. The Perpetuation of Office Bearers and Government in their hands, by Vocation of God, immediate and mediate.-III. 1. Other Office Bearers; Prophets, inspired and temporary.-2. Deacons : Divine Authority, Nature, and permanence of their Office.-3. Evangelists: Divine Authority, and peculiar Nature of their office.-IV. 1. Summary of the Fundamental Principles of Church Government.-2. The Phenomenon exhibited in the Origin, Development and Progress of such a Government.

I. IN the preceding chapters of this Fifth Book, I have endeavoured to explain the chief gifts of God to the Church of Christ, which I had attempted to demonstrate in the Fourth Book. In the first place came God's supreme gifts to the Churchnamely, his Son, his Spirit, and his Word. Then the great Ordinances which he has bestowed on her, namely, the Sabbath, the Sacraments, Instituted Worship, Discipline, and Evangelization of the world. And then, on account of their immense importance, the two Sacraments of the Gospel Church have been separately discussed. What remains, is to demonstrate the Office Bearers ordained by God in the Christian Church, and the Gov