chosen people then, "predestinated according to his purpose"-" chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world"-are not the individuals whom he did foreknow, but are the aggregation, the body corporate, of the visible organized church, with its threefold ministry, and its ordinances and ceremonies; and he who is united to that visible church is one of God's chosen.

2. The church, as the body of Christ, and as enjoying a priesthood descended by an uninterrupted series of successive ordinations from the Apostles, through bishops ruling over two orders of inferior ministers-the church as a visible corporation related to Christ, is the exclusive possessor of all the grace, and all the hopes and promises of the Gospel; and membership in the church is the only appointed way of salvation. The church, with "its commission deducible in direct succession from Him whom the Father sent to found it," is to be recognized 66 as the witness and keeper of holy writ, the preacher of the Gospel, the conveyer of spiritual life and nourishment, the sealer of the promises." p. 11.

3. The grace and salvation which belong to the church are communicated to individual members in the ordinances or sacraments. Baptism, rightly administered, makes the recipient a member of the church; it removes the guilt of original sin, and of all actual sins up to that moment; it regenerates by the communication of supernatural grace, and thus is the commencement of a new life; hence it is called "the sacrament of regeneration." In the Lord's supper, rightly administered -or, to use the language of the system, in "the eucharist," the bread and wine are not mere symbols and memorials of Christ's atoning death for us; they are a real oblation to God; and it is only by participating in that sacrifice, by eating and drinking at that altar, that the bene

fits of Christ's death can be applied to the individual believer for his sanctification. Eating at that altar, he really and not in a figure-not symbolically only, but in an unsearchable mystery-eats the flesh and drinks the blood of Christ, and thus becomes completely united and incorporated with Christ. In accordance with this theory, our author says that Christ has appointed the sacraments to be to the church "its joints and bands, through which nourishment is ministered, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, from Him, the Head." p. 20.

4. Yet it is not to be supposed that this system formally dispenses with faith, or with a personal experience of the work of the Holy Spi rit on the mind. If we should permit any of our readers to take up such an impression, we should feel that we had misrepresented the system which it is our purpose to represent plainly, but with exact fairness. Be it understood, then, that the system in question does not profess to deny the necessity of repentance, faith, and spiritual renovation, in order to the salvation of the soul. It teaches that "formalists and hypocrites have rested in the visible membership, without the witness of the Spirit in the inner man which is its life." p. 18. It teaches that "redemption through the cross of Christ only," while it is "applied to the individual believer by the Spirit in the ordinances," is " ordinances," is "apprehended by faith alone." p. 20. Its doctrine of grace is the doctrine of "the grace which, transmitted in the church, from the Root, through the branches vitally joined to it by faith, alone enables them to bear their fruit." Our author's theory of religion is, in his own statement of it, "God in Christ; Christ in the church; the church in her offices, ordinances and members; all bound together in one mystic Body, visible in its human. members and sensible administra.

tions, but vivified and energized by the Spirit of truth, holiness and love, dwelling in the whole Body as its Soul, and thereby making it, as a whole, His temple; while in each member He also dwells, according to the measure of the gift of each, thereby making the mortal body of the individual a temple of the Holy Ghost which is in him, which he has of God." "This mystery of grace," says the Bishop, "is the basis of the whole superstructure both of faith and holiness." pp. 20, 21. In other words, faith is indeed essential to justification and salvation; but the church, the priesthood and the sacraments are equally essential. Faith is indeed essential; but faith itself fastens upon the church, entrusts the soul to the authority and legitimacy of the priesthood, and apprehends Christ and the benefits of his redemption, only as they are exhibited and sealed in valid sacraments. A personal experience of the inward work of the Holy Spirit is essential; but the Holy Spirit is given only in the true visible (that is, the Episcopal) church, by a legitimately constituted ministry, through valid ordinances. There is indeed a certain "union and communion of the Head with the individual members," (p. 23,) but it is only a union and communion of the Head with those who are members, not directly of Christ by faith, but of the organized visible church by a participation of the sacraments; and in the words of our author, if you "aim at maintaining the individual access of the believer to his Lord, independently of his connection with him in the Body, [that is, in the Episcopal church,] you isolate him from the fount of blessing, and lead him to broken cisterns that will hold no water." p. 23.

This whole scheme of religion seems to originate in the idea that "the church" which Paul frequently calls a body, and which in several instances he calls "the body of Christ,” (Eph. i, 23; iv, 12; v, 23;

Col. i, 18, 24;) is a visible corpora tion or society, organized after one particular form, and that therefore there is no membership in Christ's body, no vital union with Christ, except by a visible membership in that visible society or body politic. If that idea is shown to be unfounded, it will need but little argument to convince a candid man that the whole system is erroneous. And on the other hand, if that idea is warranted by Scripture, there is a fair presumption that the remainder of the system is not far out of the way.

It is worth while then to inquire, What is the church' which the Scriptures speak of as "the body of Christ"? What does the New Testament mean by church,' in such a connection?

In ascertaining the answer to this inquiry, it is first to be observed that in strict propriety of speech there is no such word as church' in the New Testament. The word church,' or some other word iden tical with it in signification, is found in all the modern languages of Christendom. It is the word which grew up in the middle ages to denote that vast and powerful institution which, centering at Rome, overshadowed the world. It had' at the beginning one definite and unequivocal meaning, a meaning very little differing from that which Bishop Whittingham and those of his way of thinking at tach to the same word now. But at the Reformation, when the Bible was translated into the vernacular languages of Europe, this word was assumed in some translations as the proper word to represent some of the meanings of a certain word in the New Testament. Our common translation of the Bible was made in this way; so that in English the word 'church' is a Bible word, and its meaning in popular use has been modified in consequence of its standing in the Bible. The authors of the Geneva version, which King James's version was designed to supersede,

avoided the use of this word from the dialect of the middle ages, wise ly judging that if introduced into the Bible it would carry something of its own associations along with it. In this they followed the example of Luther, and this was one of the things which made their version unpalatable to the powers that ruled in England. The word 'church,' all redolent of tradition and the middle ages, stands in King James's version, as the word "Easter" stands there, (Acts xii, 4,) to produce an effect upon the reader, which a literal and exact translation would not produce. True, he who reads the English Bible merely as it is, if he will read it carefully, comparing Scripture with Scripture, and allowing the sacred record to be its own interpreter, need not be misled. But he who reads carelessly, presuming that the word church in the New Testament has the same meaning which it has in history, or the same meaning which it has in the conversation or the preaching with which he is most familiar, will easily misunderstand the matter. With this explanation, then, we repeat the seeming paradox-There is no such word as 'church' in the Bible. Neither the Hebrew language nor the Greek, in the days of the Apostles, contained or could supply any word analogous to the word church' in English and in other modern languages. word could not precede the thing.

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The

Pursuing our inquiry, we may next remark that the word translated 'church,' has, in the New Testament, at least five different meanings. 1. There is the original and generic meaning, a meeting,' an assembly,' a congregation,' for whatever purpose, and on whatever occasion. Thus (Acts xix, 32-41) the word is used twice to denote the mob in the theater at Ephesus, and once to denote a regular town-meeting.* 2. The same word is used

* See the New Englander, No. III, p. 398.

to denote an assembly for the wor ship of God under the Mosaic dispensation. Thus (Heb. ii, 12) it stands in the translation of a verse from the Hebrew of the twenty se cond Psalm, (ver. 22,) "I will declare thy name to my brethren, in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee:" the allusion being evidently to the worshiping assembly before the tabernacle or in the tem ple. 3. The same word is used, as the corresponding Hebrew word is frequently used in the Old Testament, to denote the Hebrew nation or commonwealth. "This is that Moses," said Stephen, (Acts vii, 38,) "who was in the congregation in the wilderness," that is, who there led and governed the nation of Israel. 4. The same word is used to denote the meetings or assemblies of believ ers in Christ, for worship, communion and instruction. A word in the most common use, and of the most extensive signification, a word very much like our word meeting,' was most naturally employed, first to denote the daily meetings of the disciples at the temple and from house to house in Jerusalem, and afterwards to denote similar meetings in other places.* Whenever the word is so used, the context always determines the signification, just as the word 'meeting,' in our language, whenever used to denote a religious assembly, is understood without dif ficulty. 5. By a natural transition from the use of the corresponding word in the Old Testament, as one of the designations of the Hebrew nation, the same word congregation' is used in a figurative sense, to denote the general community of Christ's followers, the commonwealth of believers.t

In this last use of the word its precise meaning varies, just as the meaning of the word 'believer,' or Christian,' varies. The 'Christian

* New Englander, No. III, p. 399. + Ibid. pp. 399, 400.

community' may mean the community of those who are known and recognized as Christians. So it is obviously to be understood in the passage, (1 Cor. x, 32,) "Give none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the [church] congregation of God,"—all men be ing comprehended by the writer in the three classes of Jews, Gentiles or pagans, and Christians. So in the three passages, (1 Cor. xv, 9; Gal. i, 13; Phil. iii, 6,) in which Paul speaks of himself as having "per secuted the [church] congregation of God;"-he had been the enemy of all who bore the Christian name. So in another place, (1 Cor. xii, 28,) Paul says that "In the [church] congregation," that is, among Christians, "God has appointed some to be, in the first place, apostles, secondly, prophets," &c. These are These are all the clear instances of this shade of meaning which occur to us. To these we may add the doubtful instance (Rom. xvi, 23,)" Gaius, mine host, and of the whole congregation," where the apostle may mean to commend the hospitality of the well-beloved Gaius, either as exercised towards the members of some particular congregation, well enough known to those whom he was addressing, or as exercised towards all Christians. But let the sacred writer be speaking of Christ's followers, not as such in outward profession and recognition, but as such in spirit and in truth, and then if he has occasion to use the word in question, it assumes a higher and more spiritual tone. In such a connection, it denotes that great spiritual community of chosen, redeemed, forgiven, sanctified souls, of which Christ is the founder and redeemer, and in which he is the prince or head. This, and not any outward organization, is the true kingdom of Christ-the kingdom of God; it is Christ living and enthroned in the regenerated hearts of ransomed men; it is God in Christ reigning in the

grateful and obedient affection of those whom he has reconciled to himself. It is a community, a kingdom, a congregation on Mount Zion, which includes all those whom God has chosen from eternity to be his own, and whom in time he calls by his word and renews by his Spirit. This is "the church" by the progress of which is " now made known to the principalities and powers in heavenly places"—that is, to the angels that rejoice over one sinner that repenteth," the manifold wisdom of God."

This is "the church" in which glory is given to God "through Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end." This is "the church" the relation of which to Christ is like the relation of the bride to her husband, and which Christ "loved, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious [church] assembly" of redeemed and sanctified ones, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing." This is "the church" which is "the body of Christ," and to which Christ is "head over all things."

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It may be here observed that almost every instance of this particu lar use of the word is found either in the epistle to the Ephesians or in that to the Colossians-epistles, the whole scope of which is removed very far (quam longissimè) from such topics as the outward institutions of Christianity. To that man who imagines that "the church" spoken of in the Scriptures as "the body of Christ," must be a visible body politic, a certain organized corporation, we say, Read those two epistles carefully, see what it is that fills the apostle's mind, analyze his arguments and the various combinations and successions of his thoughts, and then judge whether the congre gation of which he speaks is not identically that of which he speaks in the epistle to the Hebrews, (xii,

22-24,) "Ye are come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and congregation of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speak eth better things than that of Abel." Who will tell us that such language as this describes a certain outward corporation, with its prelates, its priests and its ordinances, a corpotion which includes such men as Leighton and Usher only by a principle which excludes such men as Watts and Bunyan, and which has a place for Henry Martyn only by shutting the door against Gordon Hall and Robert Morrison.

That "church," then, which is Christ's body, is none other than the universal community of penitent and believing souls. Another inquiry connected with the subject is,-In what sense is that church Christ's body? It is a body only as the individuals are united by some principle of unity. What is the unity, by virtue of which a countless multitude of individuals, scattered among all nations, and living in successive ages, are the one body of Christ? That principle, on the theory of the Episcopalian, or, as he loves to call himself, the Churchman,-is the principle of unity in outward organization; it is the principle of subjection to the divine institution of prelacy, the principle of outward communion with a certain priesthood through operative sacraments. On this theory, as exhibited by "church" authors of standard reputation, the essence of the body of Christ, the uniting principle by virtue of which its many members are one body, is just the difference between Episcopalianism on the one hand and Presbyterianism or Congregationalism on the other hand. It is Vol. I..

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just that which, to borrow terms from the dialect of that party, distinguishes all "Churchmen" from all "Dissenters." It is just that which Bishop Onderdonk and Bishop Doane have in common with the Archbishop of Paris and the Patriarch of Constantinople, and to which Dr. Alexander, Dr. McAuley, Dr. Merle D'Aubigné, and the missionary Goodell, have no title. It is just that which unites (!) the Anglican, the Roman, and the Oriental branches of the one complex and discordant "Catholicity"-one but manifold, and which separates them, not from each other, but from every body else. This one "Catholic" body-the unity of which, with all its boasted visibility, is about as metaphysical as the unity of three monarchies, two of which are at war with each other, and both with the third, is the one body of Christ, by virtue of its outward and " perpetually visible" unity; and it is Christ's body, because Christ loved it as a corporation, and gave himself for it as a corporation, and endowed it as a corporation with sacraments, priesthood, prelacy, and the grace that is thus administered. Such is the 'church' or 'high church' theory. According to the opposite or evangelical theory, the church, the congregation or community of Christ's disciples, is Christ's body, because all who belong to it belong to him, and are individually and personally united to him. It is their union with him which unites them with each other, and makes them one body; and it is not their formal union with each other in one visible body, which unites them to their Savior. Christ is the vine and his disciples are the branches, (see Christ's own statement on this point, John xv, 1-10,) every individual believer is united directly to him, as the branch to the vine,-not indirectly, as the branch to the root, through the trunk; and the unity of the branches is nothing else than the