office bearers, whose office is ordained, defined, and limited by God himself, and every one of whom must have a personal vocation of God to his office, attested by the election of some particular congregation, and by ordination by a Church court. It is a government in the hands of Presbyters--Elders.

(b) The second principle is, that this power and government are in their hands, not severally and man by man, but jointly and when they are met as a tribunal, and constituted as such, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Head and Lawgiver of the Church; all authority being in and from Christ, and all efficacy in and by the Holy Ghost. As having such a government, the Church is a commonwealth, and its government is by tribunals composed of a plurality of Presbyters, Elders.

(c) The third principle is, that these Presbyters, Elders, are all of one order, all equal in dignity, rank, and authority as Rulers; but that order is divided into two classes, of which one labour in word and doctrine and are stewards of the mysteries of God, in which additional functions all of this class are also of equal rank, authority, and dignity one with another, the class to which each particular Presbyter belongs being determined by vocation and ordination; and every tribunal of the Church is constituted out of some of each class of Presbyters, Elders. The tribunals of the Church are neither clerical nor laic: they are all Presbyterial.

(d) The fourth principle is, that the whole visible Church of Christ, is one Church, and might all be embraced under one administration. Its division into national and denominational Churches, is a necessity arising under the actual course of Providence, and is neither avoidable, nor of itself hurtful, under the Gospel dispensation. The division of a particular denominational or national Church into smaller parts, such as congregations, Presbyteries, and Synods, is by the ordination of God, and so far from breaking its unity or efficiency, consolidates both. The congregations with their tribunals are the elemental particulars of the government; and each one possesses a part of all possessed by the whole Church. Their union constitutes the Presbytery with its tribunal over those composing it; the union of Presbyteries constitutes the Synod with its tribunal over those composing it: the union of all constituting the universal council, the General Assembly of the whole Church with jurisdiction over all.

The principle of representation begins with the vocation of the office bearer by the congregation, and vitally pervades the whole system. The government of the Christian Church is a strictly limited Representative Government, in the bosom of a free, spiritual commonwealth.

2. The erection of such a government as this at the very dawn of ancient society, and in the midst of Asiatic despotism; the perfect development of it in the heart of the Roman Empire, by a portion of one of its conquered provinces; the wide dissemination of it through the earth, in utter disregard of every form of human tyranny; its perfect preservation throughout centuries of gross darkness and universal oppression; its reappearance wherever it had been apparently extinguished; and the august spectacle it now presents throughout the earth: all combined exhibits one of the most striking phenomena in the career of the human race. It has withstood everything, through all ages, from within and from without, before which everything else has perished. It cannot perish as long as it is true to Christ, the Son of the living God, who made it and pronounced it invulnerable even to the gates of hell, so long as it is built upon him. All that it has yet accomplished, and all it may hereafter do, for the temporal amelioration and the spiritual regeneration of mankind, is due only to him who is over all, God blessed forevermore. Of itself, and considered merely as the form through which the Church acts, it appears to be capable of producing, in the highest degree, those two opposite results which are the perfection of all government; namely, the highest individual development, and the highest united efficiency. But what gives it its great glory and power, is that God has made it the instrument of diffusing through the Church, and of bestowing on men through her, the benefits of those inestimable Gifts, to the explanation of which this Fifth Book is devoted; amongst which Gifts, Office Bearers and the Government in their hands, must be ranked as not the least.

THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD,

SUBJECTIVELY CONSIDERED.

ARGUMENT OF THE GENERAL CONCLUSION.

THE general demonstration, according to the conception I have of the Knowledge of God subjectively considered, and according to the method I adopt in the statement of that Knowledge, seems to me to be concluded at the end of the preceding Book. The following chapter, therefore, has two objects, and is divided into two parts. The first object, to which the first large division of the chapter is devoted, is to point out the fundamental nature of religion and of salvation: to disclose the absolute and universal identity of Immanuel, with true religion and with salvation: to explain the nature of the covenant of Grace, and its relation to the nature of God, and to the possibility of true religion in man: to disclose the manifestation of that eternal covenant, in the creation and progress of the Kingdom of God in this world, from the first proclamation of the covenant to the present time: and to exhibit the actual point reached in the manifestation of the covenant, and in the progress of the Kindom of God under it. The second object, to which the second large division of the chapter is devoted, is to disclose-in brief-the further manifestation, and the consummation of the covenant of Grace, and the further progress, final triumph, and eternal state of the Kingdom of God: which is attempted, not at all in the way of prophetical interpretation, but wholly as matter of Christian doctrine. In doing this, a general and condensed survey is attempted, of the chief of those infinite future realities, which the Scriptures connect with the person, and work, and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ; and their relation to the Godhead-their effects upon the created universe, especially upon this earth—their relation to the Church in its Gospel, its Millennial, and its Eternal state—their influence upon the mortal and the immortal existence of the human race, considered as a whole and as individuals, considered as united to Christ and as without Christ-and finally their relation to the second coming and Millennial Reign of the glorified Redeemer-are all sought to be disclosed in so far, as in the present state of Knowledge, light can be thereby thrown upon

the future manifestation, and the consummation of God's eternal covenant. The chapter closes with a short statement concerning the Son of God, and saving Knowledge of him. Two ideas pervade the whole. The infinite Grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord:-the end thereof, infinite Glory to God, and eternal Blessedness to his restored universe and his redeemed creatures.