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self instituted. The Church can never, with safety to itself, entertain any object distinct from that which our Saviour has specified. This is its vocation and office;-to inculcate upon all that this world is a transitory scene ;-that there is "a day appointed in which God will judge the world by that man whom He hath ordained;"-that Christ is "our prince and our Saviour, to give repentance unto us, and remission of sins."

Whatever blessings the Church may confer on present society, and these are undoubtedly real and important, still, we must remember that these are only indirectly obtained, and that the object immediately aimed at, is, not the promotion of men's wordly interests, but of their eternal welfare.

Again, we must remember that the means which our Saviour permits us to employ, are definite and restricted. He does not tell us that we are free to employ every means which, as human beings, we may have it in our power to wield. He

does not authorize us to use coercion or other worldly instruments for compelling or inducing profession. What the Church has to seek, is, not profession, but real belief; not conformity, but conviction. Our Saviour described with precision, and by this description has marked out for us, both the end and the means to which every Christian Church is limited.

That He did mean to draw this limit, which is

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the natural inference from the most obvious sense at least of the words employed, is further confirmed by his actual prohibition, in other places, of any means beyond persuasion. And these prohibitions were conveyed under circumstances which give them peculiar point. It was when an Apostle was actually using violence in defence of Him and his religion, that He commanded him to "put up his sword, for," said He, "all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword,"* (that is, they who used the sword for Him should be debarred from his protection.) And again, it was when He was actually accused of designing to assume a jurisdiction in the affairs of this world, that He gave the distinct reply, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews;" (that is, on this supposition He would have permitted them to fight in His defence;) "but now is my kingdom not from hence." And the spirit of our Saviour in this respect was fully understood by his Apostles.

Matthew, xxvi. 52. † John, xviii. 36. The remarkable words that follow should be attended to. "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." Our Saviour not only defines the object He held in view, but also restricts the means to be employed, in this passage, exactly as we have collected from the commission in St. Matthew.

"Though we walk in the flesh," said St. Paul, "we do not war after the flesh; for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal."* But he was employing, at this very moment, the weapon which his faith assured him would be " mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds." "I beseech you," said he, "by the meekness and gentleness of Christ."

The charter conferred by our Saviour on his Church was evidently held in view by the framers of our Articles. The nineteenth Article, for instance, is an exact transcript of it. "The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men" (of believers) "in the which the true word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly administered, according to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same." This is all that our Church would admit into its definition; judging, I suppose, that this alone is declared by our Saviour to be essential to the constitution of a Church. They seem not to have thought themselves at liberty to travel beyond the exact expressions of their Master. The other regulations prescribed by the Church were adopted not as essentialst but as things ad

* 2 Cor. x. 31.

"Because the only object which separateth ours from other religions, is Jesus Christ, in whom none but the Church

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visable with reference, as St. Paul directs, to decency, order and edification.*

It is not wise, certainly, for a Church to deviate unnecessarily and without strong reason, from any practices which we know the Apostles used, even though it cannot be proved that they actually enjoined them as matters of universal and lasting obligation. And amongst these we may place the appointment of the different Orders of ministry which our Church has adopted after the example of the Apostles.

Thus you are aware that the Apostles used the ministry of deacons, and also the ministry of a higher Order denominated elders, or presbyters, or, as we have translated the last word, priests.

This arrangement the Apostles found established in the Jewish synagogues; and probably one reason why our Saviour may not have enlarged upon the ecclesiastical constitution of Christian-communities, was, that He knew they had a sufficient model already in existence, presented by the consti

doth worship; we find that accordingly the Apostles do every where distinguish hereby the Church from Infidels and from Jews, accounting them which call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to be his Church. If we go lower, we shall but add unto this certain casual and variable accidents, which are not properly of the being, but make only for the happier and better being, of the Church of God, either in deed or in men's opinions and conceits."-Hooker's Eccles. Polity, Book, § 68.

Rom. xiv. 19; 1 Cor. xiv. 40.

tution of every Jewish synagogue.

A synagogue, when its members were converted, became a Christian Church, possessing already an adequate constitution for its own government, and needing no change in that respect.

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Now even from Sacred Scripture, and without recurring to other sources of information, you may collect an important feature in the constitution of their synagogues; to which, designedly, I have not as yet adverted. In addition to the inferior Orders of ministry there was always a superintendant, who exercised jurisdiction over the rest. For instance, in the 5th chapter of St. Mark (as also in the 8th chapter of St. Luke) Jairus is mentioned as a Ruler of the Synagogue. The same office is noticed also in 15th chapter of St. Luke: (14th verse:) again in the 18th chapter of Acts, Sosthenes and Crispus are spoken of, each as a Ruler of the Synagogue; and many other parts of Scripture might be referred to.

Now this species of Church government seems to have been generally adopted (in the Churches of Jewish Christians, continued, rather than introduced) by the Apostles. We have evidence in the Epistle to Timothy, that to him was intrusted the chief government of the Church at Ephesus. Authority is expressly assigned to him

* Vitringa and Lightfoot supply abundant information on the constitution of Jewish synagogues.

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