THE CHURCH ON EARTH,

&c. &c.

In the preceding number I have attempted to establish that the Antichrist is not a something to be hereafter, but is a present reality; that it is not a something foreign to christianity, but is a system linked in intimate connection therewith; that it is, in truth, a false body representing itself to be, and claiming privileges belonging to, a true body. In Scripture language, it is the harlot claiming the position of the lawful bride.

Mr. Thom, in his book upon man's enmity to God, points out the last great exhibition of human enmity to consist in the nonacceptance of God's free gift of salvation and of eternal life in Christ, and in setting up schemes and proposing human means for the attainment thereof. In this opinion I quite concur. This principle of self-justification, in every varied and modified form, especially belongs to the state of things as they exist under the false ecclesiastical system. The whole is opposed to the Gospel scheme. The principle has been derived from notions pre-existing to christianity, and have descended to the present generation, but forms no part of the Gospel. Of this I think we shall be satisfied as we proceed.

I am at present to show that the Church on earth is not a body having an ecclesiastical organisation, but is composed of members of Christ's body in spiritual union, irrespective of a clergy order. Let me once for all state, that the arguments I shall use will

be derived almost exclusively from the Sacred Scriptures. I do not think it needful to prove the Divine inspiration of the Sacred Writings. I am not arguing with men who cast aside the Scriptures in part, or as a whole. I am arguing with men who receive them as being derived from God, and who act upon them, and claim their whole position from them. I scarcely address myself to a school of the present day which teaches the advancement of mankind upon purely philosophical principles, and who think they see in the Scriptures evident marks of weakness, and imperfections, and discrepancies, which belong not to Deity. To such I would say, be not hasty to condemn that which you do not understand. It is not because you grope about in darkness that there is not light, but the spiritual vision is so feeble it cannot see the light. Be sure that when a stream of men have been made successively to proclaim a series of prophetical visions, which have looked into and marked out much of the world's past course, and many of which visions still look into and mark out much of the world's future course, that no other than the Eternal mind could be directing the several writers minds. The philosophical natural mind may find some things that offend its enlarged notions, but let it think it just possible that a book which has been intended for every age, whether ignorant or comparatively learned, may just be the most suitable that could be possibly framed. Philosophers need not to be told that a very false conclusion may easily be arrived at by the absence of an apparently inconsequential reason. If man were omniscient, and, while knowing all things, had the capacity to grasp them at one time, then may he conclude that his judgment would be unerring. The God who has permitted declarations of natural things suitable to past ignorance, is the same God who declared, through the man Daniel, that "knowledge should increase." God knew how the world and all things therein were framed, but He did not think it proper to shock the minds of all bygone philosophers by declarations of things contrary to the evidence of their senses. They

saw, as they thought, that the earth was flat, and He did not think it needful to tell them, contrary to the evidence of their sight, that the earth is round. The Scriptures were written, not to teach the great truths of nature, but they were written to teach, in every age, a knowledge of the God of nature, to bring man into communion with Him. And so of the devils cast out from the afflicted by our Lord, the current opinions, when every mountain and every valley were peopled with invisible life, were not to be shocked by declarations fitted for more advanced knowledge. The purposes of God were to be fulfilled, and who shall declare the means unsuitable? In mercy to weak man God addressed his ignorance, and shall God be cavilled at for this? He had many things to say, but men were incapable of receiving them (John xvi. 12). Are the declarations with regard to the devils cast out positively untrue? Are we so thoroughly acquainted with spiritual existences as to determine the limits of their operations? Shall we cast aside the overwhelming testimony in favour of God's handiwork in every page, because a few things jar upon our intellectual conceits? God forbid! God forbid that we should refuse to listen to His voice, because in some matters He addresses us as little children, instead of, as we conceive of ourselves, great tall men.

In order to elucidate the great truth for which I contend, it will be needful to examine the Scripture declarations with regard to the Church. We must make our minds familiar with all her features, so that a counterfeit may readily be distinguished. It is in this way only that no cheat may be passed upon us. If we do not know what belongs to her, how shall we know what does not belong to her. If we content ourselves with only a sidelong glance, we may easily have another than the true foisted upon us. My labours will serve but very little purpose unless my readers will be content, nay anxious, to scan carefully every feature.

There are not two Churches in union with Christ, and divines do not present two Churches for the consideration of their

auditors. They are too wise for this. Though they do not present two Churches, they present two conditions of the one Church, and to which conditions they apply the terms militant and triumphant. The way in which the term militant is employed I shall show hereafter is wholly a mistake. The Church is in one sense militant, but in the sense in which they employ the term she is not militant. The Church is ever triumphant, on earth as in heaven. The gates of hell have never, and shall never prevail against her.

The two conditions in which divines represent the Church, have led, though not in words, yet in fact, to the creation of another and a rival Church. Divines recognise the Church in union with Christ under the term mystical; but besides this Church they say there is a Church ecclesiastical founded by our Lord, and which is only another condition of the one Church, and which they call militant. The mystical Church, which some divines call the universal Church, they admit is composed of all the elect and chosen of God, both they who are here and they who are in heaven. The militant Church, or Church ecclesiastical, they say is a condition of the Church, with an ecclesiastical polity, and with large promises and gifts, founded by our Lord.

About the Church mystical we are agreed; about the Church ecclesiastical we are not agreed-Churches ecclesiastical there are, but the Church ecclesiastical there is not. I declare that the Church in union with Christ is one and indivisible; that it is composed of members in heaven, and members here in the flesh; that the members here in the flesh have large promises made them, and large gifts bestowed upon them. It will be suggested by divines, Oh, he is meaning what we mean by the Church mystical. True, I mean the Church mystical, but I mean also the Church in its living reality on earth. To this Church every promise applies, and to no other; and this Church is perfectly independent of any ecclesiastical government.

Before we look into the several features of the Church, it

will be well to consider the present general aspect of nominal Christianity.

Spread over nearly the whole face of the globe are men styled Christians. These exist in separate and independent bodies. Some in large, others in smaller communities. Some in full possession of a whole country, others mingled with, and within, Pagan and Mohammedan nations. The Gospel has spread from Judea to the outermost bounds of the earth. The little stone has become a mountain, and is enlarging until it shall fill the whole earth. This Christian people, composed now of some out of every land, exist as they did in the first ages of Christianity, in communities, or separate Christian bodies, and which are called Churches. Among these bodies varied opinions obtain upon the subject of the Church. Nearly all admit there is the Church mystical, the elect of God. Many concur in confounding with the Church mystical a Church ecclesiastical, and claiming for the latter that which belongs only to the former. These Churches believe themselves to be branches of that which is emphatically styled the Church, and thus claim privileges which belong to the Church. One leviathan corporation claims to be the Church. This I have shown is the polluted one of Scripture, the false one usurping the place of the true. The wickedness of this usurpation is apparent. But there are some that do not go the whole length of claiming to be the Church, and yet retain enough of the great falsehood as to lead them to style themselves branches of the Church; and by this appropriation claim to themselves privileges which do not belong to them as ecclesiastically-founded corporations. They may have members to whom, individually, the promises apply, but to them, as whole bodies, the promises do not apply.

I have to request that my reader will dismiss for a time that he or she is a member of an individual Church. Let it be considered that the subject we have in hand addresses itself to all; not to an isolated member of a Church, or concerns itself with the temporal