, ''. m .1, f., l\ rr f-A-.tir rr-^.Jt" t. t < * ,i I . Tt . r ., v,c;.5^-^-^^--Xr,. 'kl ., ^\y iv^^.^"';^-. V' '¦,'- -^s ~-^ ¦¦"¦ ,-""/> // // ^, ^- /^r- .^'/'- task is not that of depicting the good the Church, or any portion of it, has done, but the evil effects of her mistakes ; so, in this matter of Luther and the Refor mation, it behoves us to show that whatever good work Luther and his followers accomplished, he and they faUed in healing the Church's breaches, and that the principle that entered at this epoch was one that in creased them tenfold. That Luther's acts were ab solutely necessary at the time to save the Church from being enveloped in the darkest tyranny the world ever saw, there is no doubt ; but still, the principles then introduced, instead of restoring unity and truth, were those that, by bringing into question all ordinances, inevitably led from division to division without end, and to every heresy aud every error. 78 The Church forgets her Calling, ' , Let us retrace for a moment the Church's de-vious Zech. xi. 14. path. She had not yielded to the binding ordinances, as she ought in the days of her youth, and they ceased. She fell into heresy and schism, and then sought to the civil ordinance to rebuUd her. She found that de-vice faU, and turned to an ecclesiastical ordinance of her own invention ; that faUed also ; and then she turned from ordinances altogether to the Bible, and to every man's light uponlt. And so every man just took that part he fancied, and closed his eyes to aU the rest, and quarreUed with his brother because he also had picked out his part of holy writ, and declared it was the whole ! What could come of it but aipiaiii and e-)(j6iiia.Ta. ? The Churches of Rome and Greece had daubed over the lantern of God with thick clay, and now everybody took his own candle to throw light upon the Word that was to direct his path. Another element, another agency, also soon appeared upon the scene. Pro testantism was a spiritual and an inteUectual reality. A spiritual and intellectual antagonist was found to counteract it. Contemporary, -with Luther sprung up. Loyola and the Jesuits. Luther, the champion of the emancipation of the human -will, was confronted by Loyola, the advocate of the abrogation of it. The Pope had contended for submission of the will and conscience ; Loyola now inculcated their annihilation, — " to become as a stick in the hand of a man." At the very time when Luther was writing his work against " Monastic Vows," Loyola was writing his " Spiritual Exercises," the deadliest book that ever defiled with the serpent's slime the spirit of man ; and to which Exercises none ever really subjected himself without deterioration of both spirit and mmd. And the spiritual combating of the and becomes Earthly. 79 Jesuit was tenfold more efficacious in checking, though it could not stop, the Reformation, than the sword of the king, and the fires of the Inquisition. The two elements raged in the Church — Ultramontane obedience, and ultra-Protestant insubordination. Among the Protestant Churches there was one, the Anglican, that shone conspicuous for having preserved more of the old Catholic form, and order, and truth of doctrine, and of sacrament, than all the rest ; because the work of Reformation in her had not been the work of individuals, but of her bishops and priests, under the sanction of the sovereign, and because she had, by God's pro-vidence, been able to retain the episcopate, which most of the others had rejected or lost. But even she had allowed the elements of discord to be sown in her, by permitting those who had no business With her, the Swiss and Genevan CaMnists, to come over and alter and injure the Prayer-book and Articles, which her -wiser and better-instructed bishops, in the reigns of Henry "Vlil. and Edward -VI., had formed for her ; and thus she prepared the way for her rending and dissolu tion also. And again, as the end drew on, another and more fearful spirit mingled in the fray ; namely, that elicited by Voltaire, Rousseau, and such like. Protestantism, indeed, had the tendency to loosen men's spirits from even legitimate bands ; stUl, however, binding them to the Word of God, both to the written Word, and to Christ ; but these men dissolved all bonds. It was a new thing in the earth. Indi-vidual men had been in fidel in all ages ; they had denied, been angry with, or sneered at, Christ ; but this was deadly hatred to Him. There was incredulity enough in the time of Leo X., but 80 The Church forgets her Galling, it was the polished infidelity of the classic, or the con tempt of indifference and affected refinement ; and the infidelity of the seventeenth and first part of the eigh teenth centuries was of the same character ; but what was now evoked was a spirit of bitter scorn and diabo lical hate to God and His Christ, and to His Church and to His Book ; and they were assailed with all the wea pons that sarcasm and subtlety of argument could em ploy. And (though in stating this we are rather antici pating) philosophy and science, speciaUy that of geology, perverted to a wrong use, have since come in to helpj and to eat out the faith of those whose minds were in accessible to the keen sarcasms of Voltaire, and to the vulgar and gross infidelity of Tom Paine ; so that it may well be asked, — If the Lord were to come even now; except among the remnant whom, in the midst of general apostasy, He always reserves for Himself, would " He- 8. ^ '™"' find faith on the earth ? " And that spirit has grown, and diffused itself through out the baptized nations, to an extent that will only be> made manifest when the torch of the last Antichrist shall be applied, and shall fill the world with its flame. * Sixth Epoch. Such was the condition of the Chnrch when the French Revolution broke out; that commencement of the events of the last days, — the first shock of that earth quake which wiU overthrow every established institution of Church and State, and bring in that intolerable reign of Antichrist, which will necessitate the coming of Jesus Christ to deliver the world. and becomes Earthly. 81 Although it is of late years an oft-told tale, it is ab solutely necessary to the elucidation of this part of our subject, that we refer to the prophecies of Daniel and St John on this point. Two thousand five hundred years ago. King Nebuchadnezzar was me.ditating on his bed what should come to pass hereafter ; and God revealed to him what should happen after him, even Dan, ii. 28, to the last of the days, not the latter : la^drav rSiv rif/iipHv. There was represented to him in vision a great Dan. ii. 31. image formed of four different metals ;• the head of gold, the breast and arms of silver, the belly and sides of brass, the legs of iron, the feet and toes part of iron Dan. ii, 34, and part of clay. After this, a stone cut out without hands fell upon the feet of that statue, and broke them to pieces ; and then the whole of the statue and the substances that formed it were broken to pieces to gether, and became like the chaff on the summer thresh ing-floor; and the -wind carried them away, and there was no more place found for them ; and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and fllled the Dan, ii. 31, whole earth. The Lord Jesus Christ is the predestined sovereign of all the earth ; earthly monarchies are an image of that sovereignty. The statue which Nebuchadnezzar saw, imaged to him (as to us all) what those earthly powers should be till Christ the true King should come ; and that from his (Nebuchadnezzar's) time till the coming of the kingdom of God, there were to be four great monar chies. First, that of Nebuchadnezzar and his dynasty ; second, the Medo-Persian ; third, the Grecian ; fourth, the Roman. And the symbols applied to the fourth show that it should exist in three several successive conditions. 1st. In iron, unity and strength ; 2d. In a F 82 . The Church forgets her Calling, divided state, of mixed iron and clay, i.e., separated into many kingdoms, yet these joined to one another, and mingled with the seed of men, i.e., by family and matri- PadreScio. mouial conuexious — por medio de parentelas, — yet not cleaving to one another, as iron wUl not unite -with clay ; * and M. Its final condition and existence in ten kingdoms, symbolised bythe ten toes.- "And in the days of these kings," and not before, " shall the God of Dan. ii. 44, heaven set up a kingdom, which shaU never be de stroyed; and the kingdom shaU not be left to other people, but it shaU break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms," symbolised by the clay, the iron, the brass, the sUver, and the gold, " and it shaU stand for ever." The restoring of the kingdom to Israel, and their establishment as head over all the kingdoms of the * The legs of iron are understood to be the fourth empire, that is, the Roman, stronger than all former kingdoms. By the feet, part of iron and part of clay, it is sho-wn that the Roman Empire- is to be divided, so aa never to unite again. — Sulpicius Severus, Sac. Hist., lib. ii., 0. 4 A.D. 420. " Because thou sa-west the iron mixed -with the miry clay, they shall mingle themselves -with the seed of men, -which sho-w3 especi ally this is no ne"w kingdom distinct from the iron, but the same grown -weaker." — Theod. Jerome says the same, and thought the breaking up into iron and clay had begun iu his time, because of the civil -wars, and the Ro mans requiring the aid of other and barbarous people against other nations. — Jerome on Daniel ii. Some modern commentators interpret the mixing of the clay -with the iron as signifying the mingling of the democratic power -with the monarchical, and as having commenced at the time of the French Revolution. There may be some truth in the idea, but not as to the time, for the Roman Empire was divided long before that by the invasion of the Barbarians, who introduced the democratic element. and becomes Earthly. 83 1 earth, at the time of the second Advent of our Lord, was clearly the idea in the mind of the prophet, when speak ing of the stone cut out without hands. A mountain is Dan. vU. is- the symbol of a kingdom, of authority, of government ; joei va. i, 2, an exalted thing, Christ's kingdom shall flU the whole zeoh, xti, 2. earth. It is here essential to notice that the stone does ^gf^s'^'^is^' not smite the image till it arrives at its ultimate develop- Mi'oahiv.'s ment in the feet and toes. It does not smite it either on ^i-^?? -^ '^^• the head, or breast, or belly, or legs, but on the feet and l-?'^.^^^^' toes. It does not smite it in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, 82 ; zech ' VIU. 22, 23 ; or in that of the Persians, or of the Grecians, or while xiv. le ; isa. .... xxiv. 23. the Roman Empire is in its unity, or even when, broken up and divided by the barbarian irruption, it becomes the iron and the clay ; but when that state of iron and clay resolves itself into its final, its terminating, form of ten. There is no greater mistake than to say, as many have done, that this stoue smote the image at the day of Pentecost, or, as some say, at the time of Constantino, or in that of Theodosius ; it is the old fault we have traced all the way along, of appropriating the things written concerning the Jews to the Christian Church in this dispensation, and, substituting some man for Christ, and saying, " the kingdom has oome," before the time. It is utterly false ; for whether at the day of Pentecost, or of Constantine, or of Theodosius, the fourth Empire still abode in its unity, had not become broken up, much less attained to the predicted conclusion in ten. And, moreover, when the stone smites the image, the whole of the powers that formed its component parts shall disap pear from off the face of the earth. It is idle, therefore, to imagine that the stone has smitten the image ; for the remnant of the Assyrian, of the Persian, and of the Greek, and the broken kingdoms of the Roman, are yet 84 The Church forgets lier Calling, in existence, and oppress the people of Israel. These predicted ten kings and kingdoms have not taken form yet. The germ of them, and the materials for them, doubtless, were introduced when the Roman Empire be came broken up by the irruption of the barbarian tribes, and the clay became mixed with the iron ; but ten they have never been yet. The Protestant commentators, indeed, knowing from Scripture that the Antichrist can not appear till after those ten kings have been mani fested, under the idea that the Pope was the Man of Sin (who, we know, is to lead them up to the destruc- Rev. xvii,, tion of Babylon, and to fight against the Lord), have been obliged to endeavour to find the ten in those bar barian tribes, or in the modern kingdoms that have sprung out of them, otherwise their system would not hold together; but scarcely have any two of them agreed as to which were the ten kingdoms, one giving one list, another a different one ; and no wonder, when those tribes of the invading barbarians amounted to a great many more than ten, as have also the crowned heads in Christendom done. It is a complete faUacy, Rev. xvii. 12. founded on a fallacy; for those kings have received no power with the Beast as yet, nor has that dread being to whom they wiU give their power yet made his appearance. When they and he do come, they wiU be plain enough. There have been also, lately, vain attempts to make out the Roman to be the third, or brazen kingdom, by merging the Medo-Persian in that of Nebuchadnezzar; Dan. V. 28. but this is altogether contrary to Scripture. " Thy king dom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians." Hzrai.2. "Thus Saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me aU the kingdoms of the earth." and becomes Earthly. 85' It is contrary to the tradition of the Jews and of the Dan. viii. Universal Church, and contrary to classic definition, which Hippolytus, '' deAnt,, always, speaking of the Greeks, terms them A^onoi Q-^piov n- ^aXxixiTCiiiiig, and xaXxeoi avBpsg ; and of the Romans, Taproi/, "ferrei." l;x,'c,'82.' 1 - . . 1 . in Homer. We have a reason for noticing this error, as we shaU Herodot. presently show. We come then to the 7th chapter of Daniel, where the prophetic history of these four empires is given to us in another form by the prophet himself. Daniel, also, was thinking of what should come hereafter. Nebuchadnezzar was meditating, in his kingly power, on what was to come ; and he was told what the kingly Powers should be that should succeed him, even for ever. But Daniel was not in royal power ; on the con trary, he and his people were in captivity and oppres sion ; he hoped, indeed, that their captivity should end before many years had passed ; for Jeremiah had spoken of seventy years as its duration. Still his mind must have dwelt much on the dream he had interpreted to the king ; and while pondering these things in his heart, he had his vision given to him also of what was to come to pass hereafter, and to happen to his nation in the last days. And he was shown the four wild beasts, which, one after another, for century after century, should trample down and rend his people ; and " his Dan. vii. is. spirit was grieved in the midst of his body, and his heart was troubled." How perplexing also must have been to him, how apparently irreconcUable, the Prophecy of Jeremiah with what his vision revealed; but both were brought to pass. The people were delivered from Babylon, at the end of the seventy years ; and yet the four empires 86 The Church forgets her Calling, have persecuted and trodden them under foot to this day. So we shall find every scripture, however appa rently contradictory, wUl be reconcUed and fulfiUed to the letter. Daniel in this vision saw the same four empires not in the form of an image of Christ's royal power, com mitted to men whether they used it for good or for ill, but in that of savage beasts, cruel and devouring. The vision to the king had shown that the time of the coming of the kingdom of God should be long postponed, and that four phases of earthly monarchy should intervene. That to the prophet showed that the Jews, God's people, should be oppressed and devoured by those beasts during that long period that should so elapse, and during those successive monarchies, and by the fourth more than aU. And the Christianising of that fourth empire, during a great part of its existence, makes no difference in what Daniel sees as to his countrymen. The Jews, God's people, were to be torn and trampled on by it until the end, whether it was Pagan or Christian. And indeed it is the Christian nations that have for cen turies more Ul-treated the Jews than the Asiatic, or the heathen ; they have tortured them for their faith, or, to extract their wealth; they have shed their blood and banished them, and confiscated their goods ; they have treated them with scorn, contumely, and reproach. And we are taught that a more fearful time has yet to come for them from the fangs of this same fourth beast in his Dan. vii. 23- last hour, the hour of Jacob's tribulation ; and then it Din. xii, shall cease for ever, and the persecuted ones shaU take Jer. xxx j.1. J • ¦ tne dominion. For we must ever remember that whUe, as in aU other parts of Scripture, what is written has reference and becomes Earthly. 87 to the Christian Church also, yet that Daniel was not writing of the Christian Church, but of the Jew. He was seeing and describing what had been told to him in vision concerning his people, — the people of God, the Israel to whom the promise of the kingdom had been made, the only Israel he knew anything about. St John is the one who opens out to the Christian Church what this same Beast shall do to them in the last hour of the last days, and of the glory that awaiteth them after. Daniel sees and shows what he shall do to the Jews, and the earthly power and dominion that await them afterwards ; the Prophecy having a higher appli cation to the Christian Church also, referring, according to St John, to her heavenly power and glory. These four wild beasts, then, were the winged lion, the bear, the leopard with its four heads, and the dread ful fourth, the form of which is not described ; though St John gives us some account of it as it shaU be fully developed in the last stage of its existence. It is not Eev. xiii. 2. necessary to go into any detailed exposition of the divers symbols of these wild beasts, but there are two points to be noticed. One, that the third, or Grecian Empire, was to end in being under four heads ; the other, that as the fourth monarchy in the image of the 2d chapter ends in ten toes, so the fourth of the wUd beasts at the approach of the time of his end appears with ten horns, which are the symbols of ten kings ; so that the two visions run parallel in this respect, as that of St John does also. And as St John gives us to understand there shall be one at the head of, yet different from, those ten who shall set himself against Christ, so Daniel also shows us there is to be an eleventh, another horn, who shall put himself over those ten, and who shall set 88 The Church forgets her Calling, himself up against the Most High, and persecute and wear out the saints ; but that when he and the Beast are destroyed by the coming of the Son of Man, then the kingdom shall be given to Him, and to His saints, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shaU not pass away, as that of the other monarchies shaU; and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, as the others shall. Just as St John shows us the same things, and Christ coming with His hosts to destroy the Beast and the False Prophet, and to take the kingdom and to estabUsh it for ever. The whole of the visions of Daniel and St John testify the same thing, and admit of no mistake, nor of any doubt, as to when the kingdom of God is to come. Whenever the fourth metal of the image is smitten — whenever the fourth beast is given to the burning flame — whenever the Beast and the False Prophet are cast into the lake of fire, then, and not tUl then, wiU the kingdom of Christ and the saints come, whether to Christian or Jew; but when these events do occur, then shaU the kingdom be given to them, each in its place, as we shall see hereafter. These Prophecies of Daniel include the period from the captivity of the Jews in Babylon until the time of their final restoration to their own land, and their exalta tion to the kingdom. The partial restoration of them from the time of Ezra to the fortieth year after the crucifixion of our Lord, was a mere interiude for a cer tain purpose, during which they never were freed from the yoke of the oppressor; and, under Titus and the Romans, they were dispersed again to their captivity, and the day of their sore tribulation commenced, which shaU reach its cUmax under Antichrist and his kings. and becomes Earthly. 89 and only end when the times of their treading down by Dan. xii. the Gentiles are fulfilled. Then shall that be accom- Luke xxi. 24 plished, which the Apostles desired to see, when they asked of our Lord, "Wilt Thou at this time restore Acts i. 6. again the kingdom to Israel ? " The Prophecies of St John, as we have said, show the tribulations to which the Christian Church shall be subjected from the same oppressor. His prophecies are concermng the captivity of the spiritual Israel in the spiritual Babylon ; their day of persecution by the fourth beast, and its last head and his satelUtes, and their day of reigning too. We said, in page 84, that it was of importance to maintain the truth that the third Empire was the Grecian ; and this for the following reason: — If it be not the third, then the prophecy of its terminating in four heads has not been accomplished, for no other has fulfilled that condition but Alexander's Empire. The first Empire of Nebuchadnezzar and his dynasty ended B.C. 538, when Belshazzar was conquered by Cyrus. The second ended when Darius was subdued by Alexander, B.C. 331. Shortly after 'the death of Alexander his empire was divided among his four generals, Lysimachus, who took Thrace and Macedon ; Antigonus, who took Asia, Pergamos, and Bithynia; Seleucus, who got Syria ; and Ptolemy, who got Egypt.* And thus the prophecy, that the third monarchy should have four heads, came literally to pass. Further, it demands special notice, that it was not till the last of these four was subdued by the Romans, that the fourth Empire came. Macedon was conquered by the Romans, * We state these thinga in a comprehensive way, aa is generally done by commentators. 90 The Church forgets her Galling, B.C. 168. Pergamos was bequeathed to Rome by Attains, B.C. 133. Bithynia was bequeathed by Nicomedes, B.C. 74. Antiochus, the last of the Seleucidse, was expelled by the Romans under Pompey, and Syria became theirs, B.C. 65. And Egypt became a Roman province under Julius Caesar, who conquered the last Ptolemy, B.C. 30. And Augustus was proclaimed emperor, B.C. 27. And not till then did the Roman become established as the fourth beast, or empire. We notice these things, first, to call attention to the fact, how hterally what the prophet had said about these four heads of the third beast became true; and therefore we are warranted in saying that, when the time arrives, the prophecies of the ten horns or king doms of the fourth beast will just become as literaUy true, and there will be no mysticism, or more need of guessing who they wiU be, than there was as to those four heads, when once they came into existence. And secondly, because it shows how the Grecian Empire, although its unity was broken, and it thus became divided, was stiU counted by God as the third Empire, tUl the last of its provinces was subdued ; and that then the fourth was established. So that we can understand how, in like manner, the Roman Empire, though it has long been divided into many kingdoms, is still looked upon by God as existing as the fourth Empire, till the hour arrives for its being subdued and annihUated by the coming of Christ and His kingdom, which is to succeed it and endure for ever. Another thing is also to be noted, and it has reference to what we said in p. 83, that although each of the successive empires which subdued that which preceded it was not the empire till it did so succeed, yet it was in a7id becomes Earthly. 91 existence as a kingdom, and gro-wing, and in a state of preparation to receive the dominion; so although the time has not come yet for restored Israel to be the fifth earthly Empire, yet it wiU be in existence in its own land, and be in a state of preparation to succeed to the rule over all. And even the baptized, although trans lated out of the kingdom of Satan into that of Christ, are not translated out of the kingdoms of the emperors of France, or Austria, or the Queen of England, or any other, into the kingdom of God, but are subject to them. It is a great error which part of the Church has fallen into, to say that any priest is over the king, Rom. xiii. or exempt from his tribunals, or from paying him tribute. The kingdoms of this world have not yet Eev. xi. is. become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. We in the Church are ruled over by Christ, but we do not rule the nations ; we obey Him, but we are not yet obeyed. But in order to the full elucidation of this portion of our subject, we must turn from Daniel to the 13th and 17th chapters of the Revelation, where St John takes up the account of the beast with the ten horns, and shows what his relations are to the Christian Church ; whether as the supporter and sustainer of Babylon, or her destroyer; or as the persecutor of Christ's people, and the infatuated resistor of Him when He cometh in His kingdom. We must understand that in these visions of St John, as in those of Daniel, the symbol of a beast indicates as well the head of the empire or monarchy as the empire itself. Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander, Antiochus, Epiphanes, and Antichrist are pointed out as well as their respective kingdoms. The words, king and king- Dan. vUi. 21. 92 The Church forgets her Calling, dom, are sometimes put for each other. "The rough goat he is the king of Grecia; and the great horn Dan. vii. 17, between his eyes is the first king." "These great Maitland, bcasts are four kings ; . . . and the fourth beast shall &a'.,p.w.' be the fourth kingdom upon earth.'' "But neither Theodotion nor the Seventy felt any difficulty, since they translated without scruple, 'The four beasts are four kingdoms.' " We must keep this in mind if we would comprehend these chapters of the Apocalypse; e.g., in vers. 1 and 2 of chap. xiii. it is the aggregate empire, whUe from vers. 4-8 it is an individual head that is spoken of. In chap. xvii. 7 it is the empire, but from ver. 11 onwards it is the individual, who ulti mately heads up the empire.* The Beast in St John is described as having the body of the leopard, his feet those of the bear, and his mouth that of the lion. It has in some way the characters and po-wers of the three previous beasts of Daniel, blended and combined with his own. It has also seven heads. We avoid all dis quisitions on what those seven may signify ; suffice it to point out that St John says, five of them had fallen, that one was, and that the seventh, when it came. Rev. xvu. should only continue a little space (oX/yoi/ — breve tempus). ^''' And then that there should be an eighth {oXdoog — octava est), who is out of the seven {h tuv i-Trrd, — de septem est). Into the question whether this may mean " of the seven," or " one of the seven" (revived), or " out of the seven," we do not enter ; at aU events, it is not " of the * It is evident that the fourth Beast of Daniel and the Beast of St John are identical, although St John enters into more particulars concerning it, and specially with reference to its aots at the time of the end ; for there cannot be two empires which end in ten king doms, both to be destroyed by the coming of the Lord. and becomes Earthly. 93 seventh," as is commonly supposed ; but it is absolutely necessary to mark most strongly that there is an eighth, and that it is that eighth and last head that goeth into perdition, i.e., is "the son of perdition," whom St Paul 2 mess. ii. 3. denominates " The Man of Sin," the a,v6/j,og — ^the lawless one. And it appears from the context of chaps, xiu. 3, 4, and xvii. 8, 11, that this eighth and last head is that which was wounded, and revived again ; is " the Rev. xvh. s. beast that was, and is not, and yet is ; " and is described as ascending out of the bottomless pit ; not " out of the Eev. xiii. 1. sea," as the empire in its continuous sense does. And of this being it is said " that he openeth his mouth in Rev. xai. blasphemy against God ; " and it was given to him to open his mouth to speak great things, and to make war with the saints, and to overcome them ; and power was given him over all kindreds, people, and nations. The dream of universal dominion is at length realised. And all the world shall wonder after {o-riisu) him, not at him, i.e., shall follow him wondering. And he will claim to Rev, xiii, 4, be God, and all that dwell on the earth shall worship him, except the faithful remnant whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. All which exactly corresponds with what St Paul says of the Man of Sin, " who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is 2 Thess, a. 4. called God, or that is worshipped ; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing hunself that he is God." And another, who is called the False Prophet, shall Eev. xui, 11. also appear, and will work such miracles and great signs, even to calling fire down from heaven, as to cause all to worship the Beast, and some image of him that will be made ; and also will compel them to receive a mark, or number, which is the mark, or num- 94 The Church forgets her Calling, 2 Thess. ii. 9. 2 Thess. ii. 9-11. Rev. xiii. I xvii. 12. ber, of the name of the Beast, without receiving which they shaU not be suffered to exist. And this also tallies with what St Paul says, that the coming of the Man of Sin, that Wicked one, shaU be after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and who is to head up the apostasy, amsraeia, (" faU ing away" is too weak a word), when it takes the form of open rebelUon against God and against Christ, deceiving the people with all deceivableness of un righteousness, because they have rejected first the truth and righteousness of God when presented to them, that they might be saved. In one word, a king, a notable seducer, assisted by another seducer and worker of signs and miracles by the power of Satan, shall obtain dominion over all, and will claim and receive from all worship as God ; and as God seals His servants in their foreheads, so will this being, in some way, make aU who so submit to aud worship him receive a mark on their foreheads, which will seal them his. The Beast of St John is identified, as we have said, with that of Daniel, by having the ten horns ; * and St * While St John sees the Beast as he is to be in the last days, when his ten-horned form has made its appearance out of the sea in the times of Antichrist, it is at the same time to be remarked, that he sees him as a whole as Daniel saw him ; and if it be objected that Daniel makes no mention of the seven heads, the answer is, that scriptural prophecy never repeats itself exactly, but when it does repeat a thing it is with additional particulars. Thus the 7th chapter of Daniel supplies details concerning the four empires which the 2d chapter does not. So does St John supply what Dauiel omits. And also it wiU be found that the hou and the bear and the leopard, the Babylonian and the Persian and the Grecian, will foi-m con stituent parts of the earthly powers assembled under, and headed up and becomes Earthly. 95 John gives us the same interpretation of them as the angel gives Daniel, viz., that they are ten kings, and Dan. vU, 24. that these are to receive power one hour with this Man of Sin, this eighth and last Head of the Beast, and not till then ; which again shows the error of the idea of those ten having come into existence at the time when the Roman Empire became divided by the barbarians twelve centuries ago, or at any other period. When ever they come into manifestation, it is the signal that the end of the fourth Beast has arrived ; it is the hour of eleven that is sounding from the clock of doom ; it is the bell that is tolling the knell of Christendom. The old Fathers before Constantine's time knew it ; they knew that when those ten should appear. Antichrist would be near, and that till they arise he could not ; nor could the hour of tribulation which should accompany them arrive ; and which hour they prayed they might be saved from, although too many of them prayed in a wrong way, which was, not that they might be taken Luke xxi. out of that tribulation by the Lord's coming, but by the preservation of the Roman Empire and its emperor. As to who those kings are to be, or what their kingdoms, no one knows, or can know ; the event alone will show. If we had lived on the earth two years before the death of Alexander the Great, we might in the same way have been discussing what the four parts into which his em pire was to be divided should be, and might have per plexed ourselves in vain, as men do now about those ten. A few years after Alexander's death the thing needed no more discussion ; it was patent to all. So, when the ten kings of the fourth Empire come, they will come as in, the ten-horned Beaat in the day when the empire shall assume that form. Rev. xvii. 13-17. 96 The Church forgets her Calling, literally, and as unmistakably, as the Grecian four; there wUl be no room for discussion ; they will be plain to all. The fourth Empire is, we repeat, as yet only in its secondary or penultimate condition ; that is, of being divided into several kingdoms ; the third and ultimate, is about to come. The kingship of the earth, which, at the beginning when Daniel spoke, was in the head of gold, has descended through all its prophesied grada tions to the feet ; the toes will soon take form, but they are not yet. Events are pointing to them ; men have begun to shadow them out, and to publish maps of the re-casting of Christendom ! There are at present many more than ten crowned heads within its circumference ; it needs but a turn, a revolution or two of the poli tical kaleidoscope, to make this conglomerate assume the figure of a ten-rayed star, and the thing is done. When those ten horns come into positive manifesta tion, and receive their power, it is that they may give that power to this eighth and last head of the Beast ; first, that they may fulfil the wUl of God in the destruc tion of Babylon the harlot ; and secondly, that they may, under the same head, fight against Christ and His hosts at the battle described in the Apocalypse, and perish with him in that day. We say that one of the things those kings will have to fulfil, in conjunction with the eighth head, is to de stroy Babylon, as we find it written in Rev. xvu. 16. A vast amount of error has crept into the Church among Protestants by their not having regard to this verse, which shows that Babylon is not to be destroyed by Christ at His coming, but by this Beast and his kings. The Roman Catholic commentators wish to evade its force, by alleging that it was fulfilled by Alaric when and becomes Earthly. 97 he sacked Rome ; but this will not bear examination. What ten kings gave their power to Alaric? How was he an eighth head coming out of the seven ? Rome was not destroyed by him, so that no place was found for her ; is she not the eternal city, according to their own flattering words ? In nothing does that • which took place under Alaric fulfil what is written in this and the following chapters concerning Babylon. And it is from not giving effect to this verse that Protestant commentators have confounded Babylon and its destruction by those kings, with the destruction of the Man of Sin by Christ himself, spoken of in the 2d chapter of 2d Thessalonians. So also they have most strangely confounded the Woman and the Beast ; things which are perfectly distinct in symbol and in fact. There are two separate things in chap, x-vii. ; the woman that rides upon the beast, and the beast that carries the woman. It might as well be said, that a woman on horseback is identical with her horse, as to say that the woman here, and the beast she rides on, are identical. A woman is not a horse, nor a horse a woman ; nor is the Woman in this chapter the Beast, nor the Beast the Woman ; and yet we flnd -wise, and learned, and sober-minded men confounding them. They are not one, but two, perfectly distinct, though for a Rev. xvii. le. whUe in aUiance, till the time arrives when that alliance shall be dissolved in hatred and in blood. There are two symbolised in this portion of Scripture. A woman, ver. 3-6. dressed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup, yet full of abominations, and " having on her forehead a name written, Mystery, Babylon the G 98 The Church forgets her Calling, Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth," and drunken with the blood of the saints and the martyrs, is seen riding upon a scarlet-coloured beast, fuU of names of blasphemy (note, it is the Beast that Rev. xiii, 1, has the names of blasphemy), and having seven heads and ten horns. This Woman is seen sitting on the Beast, and the Beast carries her till he arrives at a definite period, or stage of existence, namely, soon after the ten horns come into manifestation and receive their power; when its eighth head appears, and then the Beast refuses any longer to allow her to ride upon it ; and the ten kings, with their head {jta! r^ @ripm), tum Schoiz. upon her, and hate her ; and shall make her desolate, and naked, and burn her with fire. Besides being seated on the Beast, the Woman is also ^^ev^gXvii. 1, described as "sitting upon many waters;" which we are told " are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." And also, that this Woman " is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth." And further, this Woman is described as " the great harlot with whom the kings of the earth have comr Rev. xvii. mitted fornication," and that "the inhabitants of the ' ¦ earth have been made drunk with the wine of her for nication," — stupefied and deluded by the spirit that has been ministered by her to themjhrough that adulterous connexion. The only true way to understand symbols is to turn to the Old Testament for an explanation of them. Dan. vii. What does a beast symbolise ? An empire ; the civil power, and its head. What does a woman symbolise? A church, faithful or unfaithful. Also, a city connected with an ecclesi astical polity, true or false. A city! Jerusalem, and becomes Earthly. 99 Nineveh, Babylon, &c., are always spoken of in Scrip ture as women ; and whether on coins, or ki statues, the emblem of a city is a woman. What city then is this, seated on seven hills, having rule over the kings of the earth ? The universal testi mony of the whole Church answers — Rome.* -* It is the old tradition from the beginning : " Urbs septicoUis,'' waa her admitted name. All her poeta addressed her aa such: " Septem urbs alta jugis toti quae praesidet orbi." — Propertius ; Ackerman, i. p. 87 ; Numismat. Tab. 57. Her coins also bear the same testimony. And the titles applied to her also were : The Great ; The Mighty ; The Royal Rome ; The .Queen of Nations ; The Eternal City ; The Miatreaa of the World. — Virgil, Mn. v. 60 ; Propertius, iv. 1 ; Hor. Sat. vi. 1 ; Hor. Epist. vii. 44 ; Ovid, Metamorph. xv. 445. And her coins expressed the same. The. Jews' tradition alao ia, that Rome is Babylon. And their common saying is : " TiU Rome be destroyed, the redemption of Israel cannot be accomplished ; " " oum devaatabitur Roma erit re- demptio larael" (Isa. xiv. 4.) — Schattgen., Horsa. Heb. i. p. 1125; R. Kimchi in Abdiam. ; Wetstein in Apoc. xvii. 18 ; Yitringa, 792. All the Fathers of the Ohur,ch held that the Apocalyptic Babylon was Rome. " Babylon," says TertuUian, " is a figure of the Roman City." " The City of Babylon, that is Rome. . . . The kings of tho earth will hate the Harlot," are the words of Victorinua. " They say," says Eusebius, " that St Peter dated his epistle from Rome under the name of Babylon." " Nou ipsam Babylonem quidam sed Romanam nrbem intei-pretantm- quae in Apocalypsi, et in Epiatola Petro, spirituaUter Babylon appellatur," says Jerome. It would only be wearisome to multiply evidence as to the old tradition on this point. BeUarmine, Baronius, and Bossuet are compelled to admit it. " Praeterea Johannis in Apocalypsi passim Romam vooat Babylonem. . . . neo enim alia civitas est, quae Johannis tempore imperium habuerit super reges terrae quam Roma, et notiaaimum est supra septem colles Romam aediflcatam ease," saya BeUarmine. And Baronius : " In Apocalypsi Johannis Romam Babylonia notatam esse nomine in confesso est aqud omnes ; and Bossuet, " C'est une tradition de tous lea Peres que la Babylone de 1' Apocalypse o'eat 100 The Church forgets her Galling, Baron, a.d. 46, 18. Bellarm. De Pont. ii. c, 11. Bossuet,Pra:f, 5§viii,, Rev, xviii. 21. Leo X., Sermon to the Roman people. Feast of St Peter and St Paul. The natural deduction from all this is sought to be evaded by alleging the Apostle only meant to indicate Pagan Rome. Bossuet says, "La Babylone dont St' Jean predit la chute etait Rome conquerante, et son Empire, et la chute de Rome arrivee sous Alaric est un denoument de la prophetie de St Jean." But this wiU not stand examination ; " le denoument" of the prophecy of St John is yet future. Whenever that denouement does take place, Babylon is to cease to exist for ever, and " her place to be found no more." When Rome was sacked and burnt by Alaric, A.D. 410, she no more ceased to exist than Moscow did from A.D. 1812. In stead of that, we find her besieged and taken again by Attila, A.D. 452 ; by Genseric, 455 ; and by Odoacer,' A.D. 476. Upon her own seven hUls has she abode ever siuce ; and, unchanged, still claims the title of the Eternal City, Mistress of the world : " Romanoaque suo de nomine dicit. His Ego nee metas rerum, nee tempora pono, Imperium sine fine dedi," (Vikgil, JEneid, i. 48.) is still her creed ; and still Jerusalem's sacred name " Eternal," is usurped by her. Leo could stiU address her citizens, " Ye are a holy nati&n, a chosen people, a sacerdotal, a royal city ; being made the head of the earth, through the sacred chair of the blessed Peter, that thou shouldst rule more extensively by reUgion than by I'anoienne Rome. Toua les Pferes ont tenu la meme langage. Avec des traits si marques, c'est une enigme aisee ^ dechiffrer que Rome sous la figure de Babylone," &c.— Hyppol. de Antichrist, § 18, c. 36 ; TertuU. Adv. Judssos, c. 9 ; Adv. Marcion, iii. c. 13 ; -Vio- torin. Apoc. Bib. Pat. Max. iii. pp. 4,16-419, 420; Euseb. Hist. ii. 15 ; Hieron. in Ez. xlvii. ; August, De. Civ. Dei, xviii. 20, 22 ; Bel- larmin. De Rom. Pontif. v. c. 2 ; Baron. Annal. a.d. 45, n. xvi. ; Bossuet, Praef. in Apoc. §§ viii. ix. and becomes Earthly. 101 earthly territory." And Pius IX. could boast that his Pius ix., ai- three miUions of Italian subjects had two hundred lo, i848, millions of brothers of every tongue and of every nation. She still sits on many waters. There is. not one feature in common between the siege of Rome by Alaric and the events narrated in the text of St John, either with respect to the city itself, or the individuals who destroy her. We said, secondly, that in Scripture wherever a woman is the symbol of a city, it is a city the centre of an ecclesiastical system. Jerusalem, Samaria, Nineveh, isa,i,; Ezek, Babylon, were all centres of an ecclesiastical polity, and xii,V Hosea iv. 14. were called harlots because they were not faithful and obedient to the Lord, but led men away from Him, and to the worship of others beside Him ; even al though, as in Jerusalem, they might continue to worship Him also. And we said also, that a woman is the symbol of a church, faithful or unfaithful. Indeed this is the chief and most prominent sense of this symbol, both in the Old and New Testaments, whether applied to the people of Israel, to the Jew, or to the Christian. Having thus examined what the symbol of a woman means, we must say a few words on the Beast as the symbol of an empire. We need no argument to prove this to be the meaning of the symbol ; it is sufficient to refer to Daniel. But how is it that the empire can carry and sustain this woman, whether under the aspect of a city, the centre of an ecclesiastical polity, or of a church? It is by the people and their rulers, the civil powers, giving their support to her, acknowledging her as their authority and guide in reUgious matters, sustaining her in her arrogant claims of supremacy, and giving her 102 The Gh%t,rch forgets her Galling, their power to use in persecuting those who will not submit to her, and gi-ving her also the temporal means of existence ; and yet, when it suits their interests, carrying her where they -will, and, in return for what they give her, aUowed by her to take upon themselves Christ's prerogatives in the Church — the Husband's rights. Rev. xvii. Now what is the principal sin charged against Babylon in this chapter ? Other parts of Scripture, indeed, give light upon her sins in doctrine and in practice, — the city of graven images, and of confusion. But this chapter speaks chiefly of one sin, namely, that she is allied in adulterous connexion with the kings of the earth. There is no mention of any one of the points that have filled the Church with controversy and mutual accu sation. The thing here spoken of in such fearful terms of reprehension and condemnation, and as exciting ¦""¦¦ 2, the indignation of God, is, that she commits fornica tion with the kings of the earth ; and, through being thus united to them, she is filled with pride, and says. Rev, xviii. 7. " I sit a queeu, and am no widow," and in the pride of her heart has persecuted God's people. Some indeed have tried to get rid of this by saying, this cannot mean the Church; for as the Spouse of Christ it would be the word, iLoiyiia., adultery, that woidd be used, and not itopnia, fornication; but this will not serve; for ill the Septuagint this word is employed some fifty times when speaking of the spiritual fornication of the Churches of Israel and Judah, who were in covenant with God, and the word is derived from Hederic. •^spva/^a' — quia corpus vendit. We have then to ask, je'r*i.7o.'; What Church is thus described? Is it the Church of Heb. xii. 16. Eome alone ? or is it the whole ecclesiastical system of and becomes Earthly. 103 Christendom, with Rome as the head and mother of Rev. xvii. s. the mischief ? We have only to look back upon the history we have sketched, to see plainly that it is the whole; and to discern why the city of Rome includes and heads up the whole, and how this sinful condition was brought about. The Church was constituted, and ever was meant to continue, a pure theocracy. It is a false claim that priests have made to rule over kings, for the kingdoms of Christendom are not theocracies; but the Church it self should indeed have been so ; and a theocracy is where the voice of God is heard declaring His will in all things through His own appointed channels. He wUl not suffer the voice of man, whether he be king or priest, or the wiU of man, or other organs besides those He appoints, to meddle in His kingdom and in His matters. This is the thing He is jealous about ; and this is the one thing shown out in every figure which He has used. As a woman : Jesus alone her Ruler ; her Guide ; her Protector ; her Provider ; i.e., her Husband. His voice alone to be Ustened to by her ; His will alone to be done in her, and by her ; and His word alone to be ministered to her. She to depend on Him alone for sustenance ; His servants, chosen by Himself alone, to care for and minister to her. His bride ; a pure -virgin waiting for the day of her espousals ; and yet, in an other point of -view, a faithful wffe and true mother. The very touch of man would be an abomination and an insult. As the body of Christ : He alone the head, from whom His life-gi-ving spirit should flow into it, and 104 The Church forgets her Calling, all guidance of it emanate ; having no representative on the earth; it being utterly impossible that He, in that office, could have any representative ; for what man could contain His fulness ? In that body. His order of rule and guidance alone to be observed, namely, that of apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors ; bishops, priests, and deacons ; all these to be the gift of Him self, and holding to Him, the Head ; that He through Eph. iv. 11, them, as joints and bands, might knit that body to- coi. ii. 19. gether, and minister nourishment to it, so that it might increase with the increase of God. He alone, by the uttered voice of the Holy Ghost, to call the men whom He would have for such ministers in and to the body ; and He alone to appoint them, by His proper ordi nance, to their several places and offices in it. He alone to provide for these. His ministers, by means of the tithes and offerings of the faithful, paid wUlingly, and from conscience towards God, and not enforced by law. As a city : she was to be the pattern on earth of the Heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the great King, the -virgin city; compact together, united, surrounded by waUs and bulwarks; and the angels at the gates to admit the penitent, and to exclude the defiler. In the midst of which was to be the temple of God, the place of His true and exclusive worship ; to be offered ac- Ps. cxlviii. cording to God's own way, and to Him alone; and Acts iv. 12. where no image could be tolerated, and no name men tioned but His. And in which city also was Zion, the place from whence the King's rule should come to it ! His rule alone ; no minghng, no confusion, no disorder. As a nation : a chosen generation ; a royal priest hood ; a peculiar people ; separate unto God, and m and becomes Earthly. 105 covenant with Him ; subject to, and obedient to Christ, and to His laws and commandments proceeding from Zion; and observing His statutes, doctrines, rites, sacraments, aud ordinances, unmixed, unadulterated, and unchanged ; keeping all God's holy feasts ; and bringing with a thankful heart their tithes to the Lord in Jerusalem. This was to be the Woman, chosen of the Lord ; the pure, the true, the virtuous, the meek, the merciful, and the kind. This was to be the Body of Christ ; the Anointed, and the holy. This was to be the City; instituted and founded of God; the spiritual Zion and Jerusalem, the city of order. This was to be the people, the Israel of God ; distinct and separate from all ; seen of aU ; known of all ; united and free, in bonds to no man. A people with the law of God ruling in every member. A city in which God dwelt. A body instinct with the life of God. A woman, betrothed, with her heart filled with the image of her Husband, and with longings for His ap pearing ; having in her hand the golden cup of truth, filled with the wine of the kingdom, the life and power of God, wherewith to strengthen His people's hearts in their patient waiting for it, and for Him. Now, we can understand something of what Babylon means ; for she is the very reverse of all this. For what have the mass of the baptized become ? As a people : breaking their baptismal covenant with God, practising aU the sins of the flesh and the ways 106 The Church forgets her Galling, of the heathen; disobedient to Christ's law of love to God and man, and to His last command to be united, and to love one another to the death ; so defeating His last prayer ; broken into a thousand sections, hating one the other ; mutilating, disfiguring, corrupting, perverting His holy sacraments ; poUuting His feasts, or neglecting them; robbing Him of His tithes and offerings; pro faning His name, and given over into captivity to the powers of the world. As a city : a city of confusion and disorder, — where contending parties strive ; and where, instead of one sacred language, every Babel tongue of discord is heard ; none understanding his brother. A city which, having broken down Jerusalem's walls, and thrown her gates off their hinges to the earth, so that every one that defileth can enter as he pleases, — for all God's true discipline is gone, — has built up her own broad walls and brazen gates to the heavens, so that God's messen gers can find no access there. A city where, though God StiU dweUs and lingers (the voice of the angels not Josephus. yet having been heard saying, " Let us depart hence "), His Spirit is grieved and sUent in the midst of it. A city where His worship is profaned and despised ; and where, whUe stiU calling upon his name and offering sacriBce to Him, altars and graven images, material, inteUectual, and spiritual, are set up in every street, and Isa. ii. even in His holy temple itself, where they buy and sell Rev. xviii. the things of God. As the Jews and the children of Israel, and the vessels of the sanctuary, were carried away captive into the typical Babylon of old, so have the spiritual Israel, the children of God, and His true ministries, of which the holy vessels were the type, been carried captive into this Babylon, the mystical and becomes Earthly. 107 antitype ; and are there hindered from serving God in His prescribed form, and order, and perfect way. As a body : the life of God well-nigh extinct in it ; faint, ' languishing, and struggling ; a body, torn, rent, and dislocated ; from the sole of the feet even unto the head, no soundness in it, but full of wounds, and bruises, laa. i. o. and putrifying sores, that have not been closed; for there has been none to bind up, or mollify with the anointing of God ; the ordinance for anointing and heal ing being despised or unknown. As a woman : one who, having forgotten her betroth- ment, and having ceased to look and long for the day of her espousals, or to expect her husband, has admitted others into his place, and aUied herself to men of the earth ; and these, whether kings, or bishops no longer spiritual, have caused their voice to be heard in her; their word (the abomination above all, for the true seed james i. \s is the Word of God), ministered to her ; they have ° ' '' called, and chosen, and place those whom they pleased, and as it suited their interest, to be ministers to her; they have provided the means of her sustenance, she receiving from their hands tithes, and lands, and riches, laying up for herself treasures upon earth, much of which has been wrung from the widow and the orphan, by priests taking advantage of the terrors of the dying. Ceasing to be kind and merciful, she " clothed herself ps. cix. 17. with cursing ; " and while her words were smoother Ps. iv. 21. than butter, and softer than oil, yet was war in her heart, and they were like drawn swords ; and she became the cruel persecutor, even unto blood, of those that with stood her will, of whom many had truly spoken unto her in the name of the Lord, and faithfully testified to her of her sins. And, putting away meekness, she Rev. xvii. 108 The Church forgets her Galling, arrayed herself in purple and in scarlet, and rode upon the Beast, and trode the people under foot. And the cup of gold (for she stUl maintained the forms of truth) became in her hand filled with that which was not the Ps. civ. 15. work of the Spirit of God, cheering man's heart and strengthening it for the kingdom, but was the workings of the flesh ; and with that she has made the baptized Jer li. 7 : nations besotted, and stupid, and blind, and mad ; so that the hope of the kingdom, and aU preparation for it, is the last thing they think of; and their rage and enmity are excited by the very mention of it ; and they go staggering down the road that leads to apostasy, to Antichrist, and to perdition ! As she declined from the hope of her betrothal, so did she become Babylon ; as she became earthly, and lost the hope and wish for the appearing of her Lord, so did her character gradually change. " How is the faithful city become an harlot ! " Deeply must she have fallen : far must she have departed from God's ways, before she could have been given up to the desire -of her heart to become an earthly power, and united to the rulers of this world : " Cursed is he that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm." But the time arrived, as we have seen, when she sought to the earthly powers for their protection ; admitting their interference in the settlement of doctrines, and in the appointment of minis ters, for whose support she accepted their provision and endowments. And now we can readily understand why Rome is in the Apocalypse indicated as the chief offender. At first she was no more prominent than any other of the Churches in this matter; but we have shown in our history how, afterwards, Rome and Constantinople, and becomes Earthly. 109 Rome old and new, became the chief actors in perfect ing the alliance with the head of the temporal power. And it is most worthy of notice that Constantinople is built on seven hills as well as Rome, and that, in point of fact, she was a mere extension of old Rome ; her sister, her double ; and that, after all the struggles between them, it is old Rome that has always had the pre-eminence. The whole Church was, as it were, after a while headed up in these two Patriarchates ; of which Rome was the acknowledged First ; and, led by these two, of which Rome had the Primacy, it was through them, and especially through Rome, that the alliance, once commenced by the Church generaUy, was after wards finally consummated ; — though we shall yet see that the Apocalyptic symbol has special reference to events still in the future ; and the fearful picture then to be presented will be realised in a manner never yet seen, of the shameless Woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, riding the furious beast, and guiding him to their destruction, ere the scene closes on her sinful career; when the very hands she has used against Christ's people slfall be turned against herself. And to keep the power and the supremacy granted by the emperors and kings to Rome in particular, and in a minor degree to Constantinople, and to all the national Churches, and to maintain their wealth and their position in the earth, the whole history of the Church, from the time of Constantine till now, has been one of continual intrigue with " the kings of the earth," with the emperors of east and west, with Pepin and Charlemagne, with the Emperor of Germany, the Moham medan at Constantinople, and the Czar of Russia, equally with the Protestant sovereigns as with the Roman 110 The Church forgets her Galling, Catholic ; wherever the Church has been found, whether as Mother or daughters ; they carrying her, supporting her and her pretensions. She has ridden upon the civil powers and govern ments of the empire, whether previous to its disruption, or after ; and will do so tUl her hour shall come. And Rome has ever excelled them all, as the intriguer for power, and the instigator of persecution against the Jew and against the Christian ; though aU the Churches have done the same, as far as the governments of their respective countries would permit. The Protestant Churches fondly imagined that they had escaped from the sin -with which Babylon is charged, and from her confusion and captivity, when they separated from Rome. They forgot that she is "the mother of har lots ; " they indeed separated from Rome, but it was only to buUd another house in the City of Confusion. True, they purified themselves from many an e-vdl thing Rome had introduced, and broke away the false claim of one bishop to be the Apostie and Ruler in God's Church; but escape from the sin of Babylon they did not ; free themselves from the unholy alhance with the kings of the earth they did not. On the contrary, to shield themselves from Rome, they took shelter under them more than ever, and became more subject to them; and the civU rulers mingled more m the matter of the Church's doctrine, and discipline, and ministry, than before. Let us look, for instance, at the case of the Anglican Church, where the king's minister names whom he wUl for her Episcopal chairs, and where Church and State are so mised together, that she is unable to meet in councU to regulate her own affairs without the consent and becomes Earthly. Ill of Parliament, and to make any enactment -without its concurrent legislation, and where the bishops are not suffered to suspend a beneficed priest, or deprive him of his office, let his doctrines or his life be what they rnay, -without an appeal to the courts of law, and where the ultimate tribunal in all ecclesiastical matters is the Sove reign and the Privy Council. And as to " Confusion," there is a continual contest between the parties in her, raiUng at one another; whUe her priests teach what they please; and men who bring into question every doctrine of the Church, justification, the sacraments, the inspiration of Scripture, the atonement, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment, must be tolerated by the bishops, and are applauded by the multitude. And have the Dissenters from the Established Churches escaped out of Babylon? They too raised the cry, "Come out of her," but they alsp only built other streets of lanes, the work of men's hands, in the suburbs of the City of Confusion and captivity ; they came not into the rule and order of Jesus and His ministries. As the Anglican and other Protestant Churches had only escaped from the hands of the Roman harlot, to fall more helplessly into the power of the king, so the Dissenters have only come out of the hands of the king to fall into those of that power which is fast taking the place of the king, the democracy ; and their ministers have become greater slaves than any, for they dare to say, or do, or teach, nothing but what their masters please. The Dissenters have not healed the confusion ; they have increased it ; they freed not themselves from captivity, they only changed its form. The Church, by the Dissenting principle, has only made another step in her degradation. She has but one step more to make ; 112 The Church forgets her Calling, to succumb to the Beast himself ; and aU that is sym bolised of her in the Old Testament and the New, too terrible to be expressed, wiU be consummated. We have endeavoured thus in a measure to open what Scripture says about Babylon's sin. We know not the extent of it ; we only know that it is denounced in awful terms in the Word of God. The Lord will not have man to interfere in His house. No man suffers another man to interfere with his house, or with his -wife, and the Lord is jealous over the Church which He calleth His bride. The interference of the flesh with the things of the Spirit is an abomination to Him. How does He continually in the Old Testament, by His prophets, denounce the worshipping on the high places ; and more, the worshipping under the cedars, the oaks, the elms, etc. And what were these but types of the Church being exalted in the kingdonis of this world, and of her relation to the princes, the nobles, the rich, and the powerful, whose shelter and protection she has sought. The Lord will have no patronisers of Hia Church ; humble offerers of themselves and of their wealth in His house He accepts and blesses ; but lords over His heritage, priests or laymen. He will not endure. But it may be asked, where, in the midst of this confusion, are the true chUdren of God? If none of the Churches are what they claim to be, the pure and the undefiled, where are God's faithful people? Is there no holy seed? Yes; the type of the ancient Babylon is fulfilled in every point, and in this also, in the antitype. As truly as the tribes of Israel were carried away and becomes Earthly. 113 captive by the king of Assyria, and as the Jews were carried unto Babylon, so into captivity to the kings of the earth and into the mystical Babylon have the tribes of the spiritual Israel, and the priests of the Lord, been carried captive, and the true chUdren and servants of God, are found in every part of her; they to whom the cry wUl yet be addressed, " Come out of her. My people." In every part of her, in the Greek, in the Roman, in the Anglican, in the Presbyterian, and among the Dissenters of every grade, down to the lowest and smaUest fragment that forms the dust of Zion, God's ps. cii. 14. people, priests and laymen, are there, stupefied indeed by the confusion in which they are involved, and hin dered by their captivity in a thousand forms from serving God in His perfect way and order, yet loving Him and stretching out their hands to Him, and striving to attain to Him, and to the heavenly Jerusalem, and with all their heart serving Him, and His people, according to the Ught they have, and to the best of their knowledge and abUity. Not, as we before said, for the purpose of controversy against Roman Catholics, or any others, have we written this. As we have there expressed, it would be more grateful to us to show where each di-^dsion of the Catholic Church has proved faithful where others have failed, and has preserved what others have lost, with aU their claims to our reverence and obedience. But our subject renders it unavoidable that we should show the evils that have resulted from mising together, before the time, the King and the Priest, the State and the Church, under the fatal mistake that the kingdom had come, and that we should, however inadequately, inter pret part of the mysteries of Babylon, and of the Beast. H 114 The Church forgets her Galling, These are the two against which the Word of God breathes indignation. The adulterous wife, and the daring usurper of His throne, shall be the objects of the Prov. vi. 34. vengeance of the Husband and the King ! Who can yet explain all the mystery of the Woman and the Beast? The Church and the world have suffered much from them; but what is tljat which is past to the misery and evil yet, to come from them both, when what is written in the Apocalypse shaU have come to thefuU! It has been necessary to take up many pages in explaining this subject ; for if, indeed, the occupiier of the Roman or any other chair be truly God's constituted permanent Apostle, and Rome or any other be the Lion He has set His heart upon ; or if there be any section of the Church that has retained God's true and perfect form and order ; then all we have to recount, of any work, as now done by God for the restoration of the apostleship to the Chiireh, must be false and delusive. It was, therefore, needful that we should give the fore going explanation, before proceeding to give some account of what it has pleased God to do, in this our day and generation, for the help of His Church. Let us, then, resume our history. We said above^ " Such was the condition of the Church when the French Revolution broke out; the commencement of the time of the end." Why did we say " the time of the end ? " Though the Church had admitted the idea that there would be a long protracted period, probably mUlions of years, before the return of the Lord, yet the Scripture had always said the reverse, and that He would come and becomes Earthly. 115 again quickly to take His kingdom. And although the interval of nearly two thousand years may appear to contradict this, yet in reality it does not. Scripture and the Fathers throw some light on the matter. The- former says, " A thousand years are with the Lord as Rs, xc. 4 : one day." This is the key to what the Fathers say on this point. They held that everything written iu the Old Testament was typical of Christ and His kingdom ;,: and, among the rest, that the six days of creation' during which God worked, and the seventh day on whieh He rested, were a type and sign that there should be six thousand years of weary travail for man and for the world, and that by the time the seventh day, i.e., the seventh thousand years commenced, the Sab bath of the world should have begun by the advent of the Lord having brought rest and peace- to the earth. It is not necessary here to enter into the question whether the Epistle of St Barnabas is genuine or not, as the early date of it is adraitted on all hands. Be this as it may, the so-called Epistle of St fiarnabas sjjeaking of the reason for keeping the Lord's day as a Sabbath day, or day of rest, namely, as a sign of faith in the things to come, and as a type of them, says, " Even in the beginning of creation He makes mention of the Sabbath : And God made in six days the works of His hands, and He finished them on the seventh day, and He rested on the seventh day, and' He sancti fied it. Consider, my chUdren, what this signifies : He finished them in six days. The meaning of this is, ¦tliat in six thousand years the Lord God will finish all things (fftivrsXs;, consummabit).* For with Him one * Archbishop "Wake's note here is : " How general this tradition then -was ! " Vide also Ootelerius' Annot. in Pa. Ixxxix. 116 The Church forgets her Callirkg, day is a thousand years ; as Himself testifies, saying. Behold, this day shall be as a thousand years. There fore, chUdren, in six days, that is, in six thousand years, shall all things be accomplished {consumma- huntur, cuvTsXigSTjSirai). And what is this that He saith. And He rested the seventh day? He meaneth this, that when His Son shall come, and aboUsh the season of the lawless one {avo/Mov), and judge the un godly . . . then shaU He gloriously rest on that Barnab, xiii, seventh day." Hippolytus evidently believed the same, for he said Antichrist would come in five hundred years after Christ. He said this, because he reckoned that the Lord was born in the year of the world 5500 ; and so calculated the sis thousand years would terminate in five hundred years from Christ. This, though a mis- Hippoi, Ex- take, showed that he believed that the second Advent quoted by would be at the end of six thousand years. This tradi- codex, 202. tion cau be traced down to the fourth century.* Lac tantius says : " Because aU the works of God were finished in six days, it is necessary the world should remain in this state six ages, i.e., six thousand years. When that number is completed, a consummation will take place, and the state of human affairs will undergo a reform." LUie other traditions connected with the kingdom, this also in the fourth century died out. Augustme mdeed says " he believed it for a whUe, but that his mind was changed about it, because men had added erroneous notions to it concerning earthly plea sures which the_ saints were to enjoy." Before, he had * Cyprian says, "The first seven days, by Divine appointment, contained seven thousand jeaxB."— Exhort, ad Mart. o. 12. and becomes Earthly. 117 said, " The eighth day signifies the new life in the end August. of the world, the seventh, the future rest of the saints upon the earth ; " and, as we have before remarked, the moment he let go this truth, he fell into many grievous errors, and perhaps did more mischief in the Church in regard to the truth of the kingdom than any other man. There is also another division of time which leads us to the same conclusion. Each of the former dis pensations was of two thousand years : — from Adam to Abraham, two thousand years ; from Abraham to Christ, two thousand years. From analogy, then, we may expect that from the first Advent to the second wUl be also two thousand yearS' — which will thus divide the sis thousand years of the world into epochs of two thousand years each. These two thousand years draw nigh to their close, as do the six thousand of the world ; and their re maineth much to be done in the years that wUl com plete that period. Then there are the dates given in Daniel and the Apocalypse, concerning the duration of the dispersion of the Jews, and the persecution of the Christians, which bear strongly on this point, of which we shall have to speak immediately. Daniel also shows us that the Lord will come, and -will reinstate the Jews, when the times of the Gentiles and their Dan. ii., vH. treading down of Jerusalem are- fulfilled ; and our Lord Si.' 29" " shows us the same thing ; and the times of the Gentiles end with the fourth beast. And the end of the fourth beast is near, when it finaUy resolves itself into the form of ten kingdoms ; and everything gives token that this is about to take place. St Paul also gives us the signs of the times, whereby 118 The Church forgets her Calling, we may know that "the last days" are upon us, and shows us the characteristics of them. The precision of the Scripture is here remarkable. Speaking of two different epochs and phases of the Church, the Apostle uses two distinct terms. In the First Epistle to Timothy 1 Tim. iv. 1. he describes the features of the latter times, ierepois xaipoig, and in the Second Epistle, those of the last 2 Tun. iii. 1. days, es-)(aTa,ig rif/,'(paig ; the prominent feature of the first being the abuse of power in . ordinances, and an undue and superstitious submission to them ; and of the second, a spirit of rebellion against and casting off aU ordinances. The tendency of the teaching of the Church for many ages was to superstition and to ascetic severity — forbidding the use of those things God had given to be received with thanksgiving ; and this led to severity in all the ordinances of life, whether in the Church, State, or family. The Church was tyrannical and super stitious; and all others ih authority followed her ex ample. StiU, notwithstanding much evil proceeded from this, there was yet this good in it, that it kept alive the spirit and habit of obedience, and of reverence and respect to, ordinances ; to king, to priest; to husband, father, and master. But when the principles first m- culcated at the Reformation prevailed, and were carried beyond their due bounds (however much of truth there was in them in as far as they taught men to refuse belief in, or obedience to, what was contrary to the Word of God), their tendency then inevitably was, to lead men to be independent of aU ordinances. It was the principle of "individual responsibility" which came in, and which, however true and good in itself, when counterbalanced by reverence and submission to those and becomes Earthly. 119 over us in the Lord, is fatal when these principles are cast off. This has been encouraged on every side by both religious and irreligious ; and all the modes and notions of modern education strengthen it. It has in fected the blood of Christendom ; and its result must be the dissolution of the body, ecclesiastic and civU, except where restrained by force or self-interest. All that St Paul has described in 2 Tim. iii. is coming literaUy true : " This know also, that in the last days perUous 2 Tim. ui, 1. times shall come : for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incon tinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." Every one in authority feels and com plains that reverence and obedience are departing from servants, children, subjects, and flocks : the spirit of independence and insubordination is becoming universal. It is ministered to by the infidel scorner of all God's ordinances ; it is ministered to by many of the religious teachers, whether Roman Catholic or Protestant (while they profess the contrary), whose instructions have the tendency to lead the people to reject the commands of their bishops and priests, of their kings, of their parents, husbands and masters, whenever it suits their religious will to do so. It is indeed "having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof ; " for ungodliness con sists in casting off the rule of God, not only personally, but in His ordinances, whether in things civil, ecclesiasti cal, or domestic. It is the thing we are most warned against in Scripture. The apostles, over and over again. 120 The Church forgets her Calling, Eph. V. 21 ; bid servants to be obedient and reverent to their masters, iii'. 18-25 ; ' children to their parents, -wives to their husbands, sub- Heb^Sii. ' jects to their kings, people to their pastors, whether i3-'26 f iv. "' those masters, parents, husbands, or kings, are good or iii.' 1^°™' b^d ; submitting themselves to every ordinance of God and man in the fear of God. This is well-nigh the substance of the morality of the New Testament. And, on the other hand, we have the most fearful denuncia tions of condemnation against those that resist autho rity; and St Peter and St Jude warn the Church that 2 Pet. ii. the sin of the last time will be the denying {apwbium, Jude. disowning, rejecting) the Lord, both as SsffToVjjs and Kvpiog, that bought them, denying Him in the persons of those that represent Him in these characters; and that by speaking evil of dignities, ecclesiastical and ci-nl, and bringing railing accusation against them, and choosing their own rulers and guides, " they wUl bring upon themselves s-wift destruction," and "perish inthe Numb. xvi. gainsaying of Core." We pray daUy, " HaUowed be Thy name." The name of God is manifold ; and it is put upon every ordinance; and we are haUowing His name, or pro faning it, in, and by, our personal conduct, not only towards Himself, but towards those who bear any of those various names of His, and who represent them to us in His divers characters, offices, and relation ships ; and we are godly or ungodly as we deport ourselves not only towards Him, but also towards them. The name of the Father is put upon every parent, husband, master, king and lord, bishop and priest; these are aU names of Jesus, they are put upon those that fiU these places in public and in private life. Blessed is the man, woman, and chUd, that reverences and becomes Earthly. 121 them, and renders relative obedience and honour to God and the Lord Jesus Christ, in those who so bear His names, simply because they do so bear those names, and irrespective of their conduct, good or bad ; their reward coi. iu, 24. shall be great in the kingdom of heaven. They that reject, profane, and dishonour those names, under the pretence that the holders of them do not fulfil their duties, shall have the sore displeasure of the Lord rest ing upon them ; and unless they repent, their reward will be according to their work. We are indeed stirred up to press this matter earnestly. It is the key-note of almost aU we have to say for the honour of God and the salvation of man. For what is the burden of this our work, but to show that the con troversy of God with man and devU is for His rule ; — the controversy of Zion, of which all the ordinances of man are an image and reflection, and the ordi nances of God in His Church an absolute representa tion; — and that men should fear and obey Him, and rule for Him, and serve Him, either in the ordinances of the Church, or in those that represent Him iu the social relationships of this life. The Lord is angry with every one who takes upon himself rule not given to him of God, whether in the Church or in the world; and with every one who abuses his place of mle, even though legitimately appointed to it; and also with every one who refuses to submit to rule. Usur pation and insubordination are Satan's sins and Satan's works ; the usurper and the insubordinate are the children of Satan, and share his condemnation. One leads to the other; oppression leads to insubordi nation ; and the insubordinate always end, if successful, in usurping the rights of others, and becoming greater 122 The Church forgets her Calling, tyrants and oppressors than those they have risen against. Refusing to be ruled by Christ, or to be patient under Ul treatment after His example, they faU under the rule of the Dragon, and perish with him. We have thus given some of the reasons for believing that the time of the end draws nigh. It may be said, yea, and it is said by some who love not the thought of the Lord's appearing: " WeU, even if you be right in this matter, and the old tradition of the 6000 years be true, we have one hundred and forty years yet to run before that term arrives ; therefore we need not disquiet ourselves about it." But this proceeds from the preconceived and mistaken notion, that the trans lation, or taking up, of the saints to meet the Lord, is the last instead of the first of a series of transactions. It may be true that one hundred and forty years ha-ye to run their course before the final termination of the present order of things, and the perfect establishment of a new; although we must remember it is written that, "for the elect's sake, those days should be shortened ; " but be that as it may, there is much to do in that time. When the seventh thousand years com mences, all wUl have been accomplished: the Sabbath will have begun, and there must be no work left to be done on the Sabbath-day. The Lord Jesus is not a breaker of the antitypes of the Law, but a fulfiUer of them ; the work must all be finished when the Sab bath morning dawns. We say that there is much to be done in the comparatively short interval that re mains between this our day and the commencement of the millennial dispensation. The first of the course of events is, that the Church should be warned and pre- and becomes Earthly. 123 pared, and the cry of " Behold, the Bridegroom cometh," Matt, xxv, 6, be heard, so that the wise virgins may get their lamps trimmed, and oU in their vessels. And those so warned and prepared shaU be taken out of the Luke xxi, way of the great tribulation, the things that are about lo.' to come upon the earth, which they shall be counted worthy to escape. Then, there is the marshalling of tiie ranks of the Church, caught up to meet the Lord, in order that they may come with Him, for all have to receive, every man according to his works, and to have his place appointed in the Body ; and to have l"'^^ ^'^ their cities assigned to them as they have served Him ; for it is not a disorderly multitude that comes with Him, but a well-ordered host, each one in his rank. How long this will require we know not. Then, there is the appearing of the ten kings and of the Beast in his last form ; there is the destruction of Babylon by them ; also the pouring out of the seven last vials of Eev. xvi, 2. the wrath of God ; * and the time of The Great Tribu lation ; for the taking back of the Jews into their own land is to be accompanied by such tribulation as never Dan, xii. ; was known. There are the taking of the Jews to their 8, 9. ' land, and the dealings of God with them there. There are the doings of Antichrist and the False Prophet, and the gathering of the kings to the great day of battle ; the siege and capture of Jerusalem by Anti- '^^'™' '• Christ ; and the destruction of the Beast and the False Prophet, by the coming of Jesus Christ and His saints. ^^^- '^"¦ * Ho-w can any of them have been poured out yet, when the first of them ia to he poured on thoae -who have -worshipped the Beast, and received hia mark and the number of his name, vfhereas the last and eighth head of the Beast -whom they are to -worship has not yet come 1 124 The Church forgets her Galling, Eev. xix. Then there is the binding of the Dragon in the bottora- isa. Ixvi. less pit ; and lastly, the work of the Jews, whatever that ^^' ^''" may be, among the Gentile nations, to turn them unto Christ. When all these things are accomplished, the Sabbath will begin, and the earth -will be at rest ; for Eev. XX. those that trouble it -will have been cast out of it. The oppressors, the devil, and his men, their time shall have come to an end ; and Christ and His men shall reign. Yes, there is much to do ; and not too much time to do it in. And we repeat, that among t\i6 first of these events is the taking of all who are ready out of the way of the e-sdls that are coming upon the earth. The first act of the great drama of the time of the end was the bursting out of the French Revolution. It was the first blow at all the established order of things in Church and State. What was the occasion of it? What was it the sign of ? The occasion of it was that men in every ordinance of God and man had failed in their duty. It was the sign that the day of retribution had commenced upon them. We have spoken above of the duty of all under authority to be reverent and obedient to those over them in the Lord, in Church, State, or family, altogether irrespective of the merits or demerits of those so over them. But the doctrine of ordinances is a two-edged sword ; it cuts both ways. If men are bound to hallow the names of God and of Christ, in those over them, how much more are they who bear these names bound to haUow them ; and to take heed that they do not profane them by behaving themselves unseemly in them; to take heed that they be not unfaithful in the discharge of aU the duties these names indicate, by -withholding or and becomes Earthly. 125 misusing, perverting, wasting, or dissipating the divers blessings which God would communicate through and by them to those to whom they are the appointed ordinances, or in any way ruling for themselves regard less of the wUl of God. If the responsibility be great on the part of individuals to obey those who are over them, far greater on those who are set to represent God and Christ, is the responsibUity of truly doing so in all their beha-^dour, acts, and words. Por they are set to be the channels of blessings from God ; which they are responsible to minister and communicate to those who, for that very end, are committed to their charge. Into the hands of king and noble and gentleman, of manu facturer and tradesman, of father, husband, and master, of bishop and priest, God commits blessings temporal, and blessings spiritual,* for their subjects, for their tenants and labourers, for their operatives and servants, for their families, and for their flocks. Who can enume rate these ? The righteous, and just, and mercifid rule of Jesus ; power, and wealth, and riches ; the consi derate care of Jesus in all matters pertaining to soul and body ; the nurture and admonition of Jesus : the word and spirit of Jesus ; these are intrusted to them — to each according to his place and office. Recei-ving all these from God, they are bound faithfully, wisely, kindly, to minister them to those intrusted to them by God : and every man standing in any ordinance will receive his recompense of reward according as he has been faithful or the reverse in so doing. Every royal ¦* To prevent misunderstanding, vre explain, that -we do not mean that kings or nobles, and the like, minister the spiritual blessings of the Church ; but every baptized man has hie own place of blesaing in hia intercourse with thoae connected with him. 126 The Church forgets her Calling, throne and magistrate's seat ; every noble's castle and gentleman's mansion ; every bishop's chair and cathe dral; and every parish church and parsonage-house'; and every man in his own house, — should have been a centre of righteousness, and of justice, and of mercy 5, of life, and light, and truth ; of purity and honour ; ofi succour and help in every hour of need, in spirit, in* mind, in body, and in estate ; and every one around them should have looked towards them to receive these things from the hands of all whom God had thu8 appointed to be the dispensers of His blessings to them. Prom every mountain and every hill should have flowedt down rivulets and streams, causing the valleys and plains beneath and around them to rejoice, till every! heart was filled with praise and thanksgiving to the Giver of all good. Mountains and hUls are set, in the providence of God, to collect the rain from heaven, and so send it down again in refreshing streams to the plains beneath. So kings, and landlords, and manufacturers-^ and tradesmen, and clergy, are set to receive from God,i and from the people under them, heavenly and earthly blessings, that they may send them down again to their people and dependants. As a mountain which should dissipate intothe air the clouds which collect around its brow, instead of trans mitting their moisture into the valleys below. So is the king, the landlord, the master of every name, the bishop and the priest, who withholds or dissipates what he receives from God, and does not bless those under him by means of it. Those who had declared that the kingdom hcwi come, were doubly responsible to show out in act, that " the . lxxii. 3. mountains had brought peace to the people, and the andbecomes Earthly. 127 little hills, by righteousness." Righteousness in a steward is to dispense rightly to his master's children and servants the things intrusted to him for them, and every man who is over another is a steward ; and if they who reject the rule of Christ are robbers and mur derers, so they who, either by tyranny or by neglect, do not rule and minister aright, are neglecting and denying Christ, and are robbers and murderers of men's souls and bodies. Who can fathom the depth of the guilt of unjust stewardship in Christendom ? To learn that the failure was great and general, we have just to read the history of the Nations and of tho Church. We know not how great it was, even in those who were endeavouring to do their duty. And nowhere so much as in France had there been such faUure. In that country the corruption in the- Court and in the Church had destroyed the happiness and moral feeling of the people, and the profligacy and oppression of the sovereign, nobles, and clergy, had exasperated them to madness ; while the infidel notions inculcated by Voltaire and Rousseau, &c., had eaten out all faith, and purity, and fear of God. The men of that country groaned under the bondage. There was no one to preach the words of St James to them (who had predicted that this should come to pass in the last days), and say '¦Hherefore" — because you are oppressed, J''™«sv. defrauded, wronged — " therefore, be patient unto the coming of the Lord," "for it draweth nigh." How could any one preach that, when it had been long for gotten ? And Satan said to them, therefore rise, Hll, destroy. And the spirits of devUs entered into them; and they swept king and noble and priest off the face of the earth. 128 The Church forgets her Galling, &c. It was the first blow to the old order of things. It was the first blow to Babylon — the warning of her coming doom; though there was still a space to he allowed her for repentance, it was the first warning to the kings and rulers of every grade, and to every ordi nance. And although not so violently manifested, the course of judgment has proceeded ever since. The Eevolution began, and has never stayed; its principles are undermining aU the kingdoms. The shocks of the Great Earthquake stiU continue; and, although with intervals of rest, throe after throe is felt in every land of Christendom, and will never cease tiU all the present order of things is overthrown, the empire in its ten- horned state is constituted, and " the king over all the Job. xii. 34. chUdren of pride" is manifested to the eyes of aU: and then ! PAET THIRD. THE CHUECH RECALLED TO HEK TRUE STANDING. " Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the vrhich the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with Hia own blood." — Acis XX. 28. " We have also a more sure word of prophecy ; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts."— 2 Pet. i. 19. We have thus given an outline of some of the indica tions that we are approaching the end, namely, the age of the world, — the age of the dispensation, — and the signs of the times. We have omitted the dates of Daniel and St John, as we shall have to speak upon them hereafter. We come now to a sign of a deeper, of a more solemn import. At the end of the two former dispensa tions, two things were to be noted : — one, that, -with the exception of the remnant who lived by faith in God, men had failed to serve God according to the law of their dispensation ; and that consequent judgment came upon them, from which the elect remnant were saved ; — ^the other, that God did send on each of these occa sions messengers to warn the wicked, and by whom He prepared a way whereby they that believed the warning I 130 The Church recalled to might escape. In the first dispensation, men were "under the law of creation, the law of nature, which is that of purity, and righteousness, and mercy, written in the conscience. All had departed from the law. Gen. vi. 11. " and the earth was corrupt, and full of violence" — the two sins against the law of nature ; and God sent the Deluge. But previous to it. He sent Enoch and Noah to preach righteousness, to warn of the coming judg- 2 Pet. ii. 5. ment, and to prepare the way of escape. After the Deluge, men, forgetting the doom that had thus come upon their forefathers, again departed from God, and turned to idols, to worship the host of heaven, and to trust in dead men;* and refusing to Gen. X. 6-8 : obey Him in His command to go on to di-vide the earth, and to subdue it for Him, they stood stUl to buUd the Tower of Babel, which should reach to heaven, — ^to make themselves a name on the earth, — and to prevent division. Men are ever the same in all Zech. V. 11. generations ; and how justly has the name of Babylon Gen. xi. r. been continued to the last ! God frustrated their designs by confounding their tongue (a striking type, alas ! of the schisms of the baptized, who, in aU spiritual Ps. iv. 9. and ecclesiastical matters, do not understand each other's, speech); and they were dispersed; and they went from bad to worse, tiU there were few left that served Him. Then He called Abraham, and made a covenant with him, that he and his famUy, and the nation that should proceed from him, might be His people, and a witness for Him to all nations, that they also might be turned back from their idolatry and unrighteousness to Him. And He afterwards gave to that nation the Law, and ordinances of worship. But they too f aUed m God's * See heathen mythology, passim. her True Standing. 131 hand, and did not fulfil the purpose of their calling, or walk in the law of their dispensation. And God sent the Romans to destroy them. But He did not come suddenly upon them, or without due warning ; — He commissioned John the Baptist to call them to repent ance, and to turn them again to the Law which Moses had given them. And the Apostles prepared a place of refuge, and a way of escape for those that would take heed to the message and warning of God ; and they were saved from the judgment, and preserved through it to another dispensation. ' So now, as we draw near to the termination of this dispensation, we are entitled to expect that God, — who changeth not, and who is always merciful and long- suffering, and not wiUing that any should perish, — will give His people warning of the coming judgments, and pro-vide and point out a way of escape from them. For we, the baptized, have departed as much from the law of our dispensation as ever the Antediluvians and the Jews did from theirs. Ours is not the law written in the natural conscience, nor are we under the Law of Moses ; but we are under the law of Christ, under grace, the law of love ; — of liberty from sin, by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost ; — caUed to be mani- festers of Christ to Jew and Gentile that they might turn to Him. But our transgression has been greater than that against the law of conscience, — greater than even that against the Law of Moses. It has been transgression against the royal law of love — the Mind of Christ; the new commandment given unto us byjohnxyu,; Him, and repeated by the last of the Apostles, that we i4, le. should love our brother better than ourselves, even unto the death ; and against that perfect unity which 132 The Church recalled to He enjoined and prayed for, and which alone cau make the world know that the Father hath sent the Son, and hath loved His people even as He loved Him ! We need not repeat all we have said as to our condition ; we have as entirely failed as the men before the flood, and as the men under the Law, in fulfiUing the law under which we have been constituted. We maintain, then, even if from analogy alone, that God wUl send some messengers to prepare His way, — to give warning concerning the judgments about to come on the earth and on the Church, and also to point out a way of escape. But besides analogy, we have many passages in the Word of God which show. us plainly that such will be the case. No one can read the, third and fourth chapters of Malachi, without see ing that aU that is there written was not fulfilled by John the Baptist, or by our Lord at His first advent. John the Baptist indeed came in the spirit and power of EUas, to be the messenger before the Lord, and to prepare His way ; and the Lord came to bring healing to the worid. But the day when He and His people shaU tread down the wicked under the soles of their feet, — the day that shaU burn them up, and leave them neither root nor branch,— the day of the rising of the Sun of Righteousness with heahng in His wings, shaU only be when He comes again ; and a fortiori, if there was one who came in the spirit and power of Elias to prepare His way, before He came in lowliness and meekness, -will there be distinct mes sengers sent before Him, both to the Christian Church and to the Jews, when He is coming in glory and majesty to snatch away His Church, to re-establish Israel, and to destroy His enemies. And we may be her True Standing. 133 sure that this prophecy of Malachi wiU be fulfiUed iu a double sense, — ^to the Jews by EUas truly coming, Matt. xvU. as our Lord Himself says, and to the Christians by Christian men. Elias cannot come to the Church ; he is not a baptized man ; it will be baptized men, in the power of the Holy Ghost, who must be sent to the baptized. When Elias comes he shall restore all things to the Jew. Those who come to the Christian Church will restore all things to it ; and turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and of the children to the fathers, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. Matt. xxv. shows that there will be a cry to get ready as the time of the marriage approaches ; and that there will be a further and complete fulfilment of the Parables of the in-vitation to the marriage-supper ; and there will be, in a spiritual sense, the same excuses. In the Apocalypse there is special mention made of the First Fruits, a company of sealed ones, who are to be taken away before the rest of the harvest of the earth is Eev. vii. and gathered ; some steps therefore must be taken to seal them and make them ready ; and there is also that much misinterpreted passage, the cry to " come out of Rev. xviii. 4. Babylon." It is evident from the context that this cry is to come immediately previous to the destruction of Babylon ; and not, as men have supposed, centuries before, — an error giving rise consequently to vain en deavours to fulfil it. God's people are to be caUed out of her when her destruction draws nigh, that they may not partake of the plagues that are about to descend upon her. There must be therefore some persons used to call them out ; and as the Christians were caUed out and separated by the Apostles, and saved from Jeru salem's destruction, so now must men be caUed out 134 The Church recalled to from the doomed city, lest they partake in her judg ments. As surely as this took place, and as surely as God sent His angels to bring Lot and his family out of Sodom, so will He send His messengers now to bring those that fear Him, and that sigh and cry for the abominations done in the city, out from it before it is burned with fire. And He wiU find His means of setting His mark and seal upon those who do so cry, that they may be saved from the destroying weapons of the avengers. We are entitled, then, both from the analogy of God's former dealings in parallel cases, and from the words of Scripture itself, such as those we have mentioned, also Isa. i. 26 ; Hos. u. ; Ezra and Nehemiah; Ezek. xliU. 10 ; Jer. i. 41 ; Zech. x. 1 ; Joel ii. and in., &c., &c., to expect that the Lord will do some work in the Church to prepare and to remove His own into a place of safety, previous to the hour of His coming to pour Ps. xdv. out judgment on the apostate ; and that " judgment shall return unto righteousness, and all the upright in heart shall foUow it;" and that He will not all,ow either the judgments that are about to be sent upon Babylon, or those on Antichrist and his followers, to come, without giving men an opportunity of escaping. Nay, it is impossible it should be other-wise. We have cited Hosea U. as one of those passages in Scripture which bear upon this point. Let us examine what is shown us in this chapter. There is a time to come when the Lord wUl bid His servants to plead with the Church, as men would plead with their mother in such a case; to put away her adulteries from her, and return to Him, her true husband, as at the first; and when, as one way of mducing her to do so. He 14, 15. her True Standing. 135 ¦will bring it about that her lovers shall take away the earthly possessions and means of pro-nsion they once bestowed upon her ; and then she shall return and call the Lord " Ishi," my husband, and no more " Baalim," ^°^i"- the many lords she has trusted in ; and the valley of Achor shall be to her a door of hope, i.e., the place of josh, vii. 24. humiliation and confession, and of the putting away of the Babylonish garments ; and then the blessings of heaven shall come upon her, and, through her, to the world. Now, it is a remarkable feature of our times, that in every country the civil powers have been taking away from the Church the things they in former days en dowed her with, and especially by abolishing the pay ment of tithes. The demand in England to abolish the Church-rates is also a case in point. The spolia tion of the monasteries by Henry "Vlii. was not a similar transaction, for it was, after all, not so much a robbery of the Church as of indi-vidual communities, which had grown into an abuse ; but the proceedings of the rulers of Christendom since the French Revolution have been a robbing of the Church itself. As we say above, simultaneously with this work of aUenating from the Church the earthly donations once conferred upon her, some are to be raised up and sent of God to plead with her, as sons would plead with their mother ; and this also has been brought to pass, as we shall now have to recount. Why do we say that a sign of more solemn and serious import, even than any we have enumerated, that the time of the end draws on, has been given to us ? It is thus.Immediately after the French Revolution had come 136 The Church recalled to to its climax, a new sign appeared in the ecclesiastical horizon. The long-forgotten, the long-perverted, the long- denied doctrine of the kingdom, of the coming of Jesus Christ to reign, again revived; the light again burst forth ; the flame of God again set fire to the wood upon the altar ; and it has grown and spread, and wiU spread through all the faithful portion of the Church, till it con sume every earthly thing that hindereth the people of Christ from being ready to ascend to Him at His coming; at the bare mention of which coming and appearing men thirty years ago raged and scorned, laughed and mocked; whUe now thousands of godly men are preaching, and longing and looking for it. How was this brought about ? God put it into the hearts of many of His people to read and study the prophetic parts of His Holy Word, so long neglected, so long misunderstood and misapplied; and they started at finding how far they and the whole Church had wandered from the truth ; how terribly they had beeu misled by their teachers ; how utterly they had mistaken that word ; what false hopes had been cherished; what ignorance of the true Hope; what bUndness had come over the people ; and they put the trumpet to their lips and sounded the alarm. Behold the King cometh ; be ye ready ! And men awoke at that summons, to feel and understand that they were not ready. It is to be noted, that this renewed study of the prophetic Word was not confined to one portion of the Church only, but appeared in various parts. In 1812, Lacunza, a Spanish Jesuit, under the assumed name of Ben Ezra, pubUshed in Cadiz and in South America her True Standing. 137 • his Venida Segunda de Messias en Gloria y Majestad. This work, though tainted by some of the prejudices of the author, and enfeebled also by his fears of the Inquisi tion, yet is a wonderful book, considering that he wrote it unaided and alone. Its principal value, however, consists in its sho-wing that the Church never did condemn the true doctrine of the millennium, as is com monly supposed and asserted, but only the errors which even good men, as well as heretics, had mixed with it. He quoted Fathers and CouncUs on this point. An English clergyman, also, travelling alone in the deserts Lewis -Way, of Syria and Arabia, was led to meditate on this subject, and to search the Scriptures; and he published the result in a series of letters, under the name of Basilicus, which book attracted great attention. Pere Lambert also printed an excellent work in France on the same subject, as did many excellent and eminent men, both clergy and laity, in England and elsewhere, such as Faber, Frere, Cuningham, &c. But the principal step taken in the matter was the assembUng in the house of an English gentleman, about fifty persons, clergy and Aibury. laity, known for their piety, their learning, and worth, for the express purpose of studying together the pro phetic books of the Bible ; and this was done for five years consecutively, from 1826 to 1830. The results of those meetings were published in a book in three volumes, entitled Dialogues on Prophecy. From the pulpit and from the press, the Gospel of the Kingdom began again to be preached and taught ; — that which Peter and Paul, James and John, had preached, and the Church, -with more or less distinctness, for the first three centuries had maintained, once more was heard; that light she had once held in her right hand, though it had gradually • 138 ' The Church recalled to waned, tiU it was quenched in Babylon, once more was waved in the eyes of men ; and they awoke as from a dream ! Another and a marked feature also was now brought into manifestation. As God had put it into the hearts of His servants to study once more the prophecies of Scripture, and had opened their heart to understand them, so now He gave them to feel, and that most •deeply, the evil condition into which His Church had everywhere fallen. They began to see that not one part, or two parts, but that the whole Church was in ruins and captivity. They turned their eyes on Roman, Greek, and Protestant, and were troubled ; they became aware that not only in the other Churches, which each of them had blamed and censured, but that in the particular Churches to which they individually belonged, their con dition was that of having far gone from the ways of God. These men were not in anxiety for their own salvation, for they were walking with God, and loving Him ; they were not even under anxiety for the souls of men, as if they could not be saved in any or all of the denominations into which the Church was broken up ; but they were made to feel for the Church ; they were made to feel how God was dishonoured ; His Spirit grieved ; His work stayed ; His designs hindered; — and then they began to comprehend what is written, " By the rivers of Babylon we sat down, and we wept Ps. cxxxvii. when we remembered Zion," — Zion, the symbol of God's Isa. Mv. 10 ; rule, God's order, God's unity, God's truth ; and then !Ps Ixxiv. ' Ps'. Ixxx.';' they lifted up their voices unto God and cried, and He Ps cii &c •'J. 7 '.' ¦ heard them ; and they prayed to Him for His Church, and He answered them. Oh, the agony of spirit, the strong crying which her True Standing. 139 went up to Him, and the tears which were shed before Him at that time for His Church ! The language of the Psalms and of the Prophets, mourning over the desolations of Zion and the ruins of Jerusalem, no longer uttered without feeling and -without understand ing, became the intelUgent and true expression of the heart. Among these, an Anglican clergyman, one of the most respected by every class as a holy and good man, being grieved at the low estate of religion in the Churches of Great Britain, and at the contentions among them, pub lished a tract, which was most extensively circulated in every part of the United Kingdom, in which he said that the only remedy was, not mutual recriminations and quarrelling -with each other about doctrines, but to strive in prayer to God to restore His Holy Spirit as at the beginning, according to His promise in many parts of Holy Scripture. Besides circulating this tract, this same clergyman went about everywhere preaching this in all the pulpits in England and Scotland to which he could get access, whether of the Established Churches or of the Dissenters. And he nrged upon every clergyman and minister of every denomination to pray to God for the fulfilment of this His promise. And further, he begged that every head of every house that had family worship, would each Monday evening, with his house, make this a special matter of supplication. And in the prayer, — of which a suggested form was put in the appendix to the tract, — he requested the fol lowing words might be used : — " Remember Thy cove nant, 0 Lord. Hast thou not said, ' I wiU pour out My Spirit on aU flesh?' ... 0 grant that Thy Holy 140 The Church recalled to Spirit may enlighten our understanding. May He ' guide us into all truth.' . . . Grant that the bishops, pastors, and all ministers may be filled with the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit. . . . Revive Thy work in all parts of Thy Church. . . . May Thy people be of one heart and mind. . . . ' 0 that Thou wouldst rend the heavens ; that Thou wouldst come down ; that the mountains might flow down at Thy presence.' . . . ' Put on Thy strength, 0 arm of the Lord.' Confound the works of darkness : utterly abolish the idols : de stroy the dominion of Satan throughout the world. . . . Remember Thine ancient people the Jews : Thy pro mises to Abraham and Isaac. May Jew and Gentile be 'one fold under one Shepherd.' . . . May the whole earth be filled with Thy glory. May every knee bo-w to the name of Jesus, and ' every tongue confess that He is Lord, to the glory of God the Father ! ' " Consequently, a very general prayer went up to God from every part of these lands, that He would restore again the presence of His Holy Spirit as at the begin ning. It is evident that neither the author of this tract, nor those who thus prayed, understood what they were asking for. Nor did they intend to ask for spiritual gifts. Their ideas were confined to the conversion of the baptized, the Jews, and the nations. But God knew the meaning of the words they used, and answered them, not according to their ignorance, but according to His designs and purposes. How could the Holy Spirit enUghten our understanding and guide us into aU truth, without the Word of wisdom and the Word of know ledge ? How could ministers be filled with the gifts as weU as the graces of the Holy Spirit, without the gifts themselves ? How could God's people be of one heart her True Standing. 141 and mind without the ordinances to bind them into one ? What have re-vdvals ever done but, while converting men, increase and perpetuate schism ? The " rending of the heavens " and " the flo-wing down of the mountains at the presence of the Lord " will only be fulfilled when that prophesied of in Zechariah xiv. comes to pass. The promises to Abraham and Isaac ; the bringing Jew and Gentile to be of one fold under one Shepherd ; the glory of the Lord filling the earth ; and every knee bowing to Jesus and calUng Him Lord, — these can only take place when He comes. Therefore the Lord answered them in such a way as to make His people learn how to utter these words intelligently, and according to His mind ; and He has gathered a remnant who are using them with a full understanding of their meaning, that all His Church may learn from this example, and be rescued from their false and erring notions, and be taught also how to use them so as to pray aright. Little did he who thus urged others to pray, or did they who prayed, know what they were asking for ; and such was the i cor. xii. i. ignorance that existed as to spiritual operations and gifts, that when the answer came, neither he nor the majority of those that had asked for it would receive it. But that prayer was answered ; and God found those who would receive the answer. But, before proceeding to the explanation of this, it may be well to say a few words upon the sub ject of spiritual gifts, and the manifestations of the Spirit ; especially those of speaking with tongues and prophecy. There are several things in the New Testament whereof the Apostles say to the Church : "I would not 142 The Church recalled to have you, brethren, to be ignorant ; " and it is a re markable and melancholy fact, that it is exactly upon these very points that the deepest ignorance prevails in every part of the Church. Wheresoever an Apostle says, ahik(poi, ob OiXia ii/iag aymTv, or uses an equivalent ex pression, in that very point we may be certain they have fallen into the grossest darkness. And although, since this work of God commenced, many have been enlightened upon these things, yet at the time it began that ignorance was universal. The falling away of the 1 Cor. A. 1. baptized from Christ, as the Israelites feU away from Moses,- — the restoration of the Jews to their own land, and to the favour of God, as a people, that they may be life to the, world, — the comforting of mourners, not by the hope of going to join the dead when they them- . selves shall die, but by the hope of their dead ones, 1 Thesa. iv. raised to life, coming again with Jesus Christ to them, — the speedy coming of the day of God, and the hasting 2 Peter iii. of it, by getting ready for it, — ^these are all instances of .what we afiirm of the ignorance that had come over the Church in all thmgs whereinsoever the Apostles had desired they " should NOT be ignorant." But especially, and more than aU, this is apphcable to the subject of the 12th, 13th, and 14th chapters of 1st Corinthians, which St Paul prefaces by saying : " Now, concerning 1 Cor xii. I. spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant." It is inconceivable the amount of error and misunder standing which has crept into the Church on the sub jects contained in these chapters, and particularly -with respect to the gifts of " speaking -with tongues " and " prophecy." The gift of speaking with tongues has been supposed' to be for the purpose of preachmg the Gospel to the Rom. xi. 12, 25. her True Standing. 143 nations. The gift of prophecy has either been limited to the foretelUng of events, or it has been confounded pj,Qp^' with preaching and teaching, — ^the last being the com- Ts^yi"!-- mon opinion among Protestants. Now there is no e-pidence in Scripture of any gfft of tongues for the purpose of preaching the Gospel. The i JJ'^j^?''- circumstances that occurred on the day of Pentecost are Acts ii, '4. adduced as an instance in which the gfft of tongues was for that purpose ; but the text does not bear this out. On that day there were assembled at Jerusalem devout men of every nation, both Jews and proselytes. These men heard indeed the Apostles glorifying God in their several tongues respectively ; but when the Gospel was preached to them, St Peter spoke to theip in the Jews' language, with which, it is evident from the narrative, they were all acquainted. We must re member that the Jews were scattered among aU na tions ; and that there were Roman, Arabian, and other Jews, as there are English and Italian Jews now ; and these men, as well as those usually dwelling in the- city, came up to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Pentecost. With them came up also many, not heathen men, but proselytes of the gate, for the same pur pose ; and these all, both Jews and proselytes, under stood the language commonly spoken at Jerusalem ; the proof of which is, that they understood St Peter, when he addressed them to explain what had hap pened. And they to whom the Spirit then gave utterance in other tongues (jripaig yXiiagaig), did not Acts x. 46. preach the Gospel at all ; but as Cornelius and his house, when they received the Holy Ghost, did not preach the Gospel, but spake -with tongues and magni fied {iXiiyaXvnvTan) God, they spake of the great works 144 The Church recalled to (rA (LiyaXiiai) of God ; and when St Peter, after explain ing to them from the Prophet Joel the meaning of what they had seen and heard, proceeded to preach the Gospel to them, he did so in no gift of tongues, but in the common language they all understood. There is, therefore, no evidence in Scripture of the gift of tongues being for the purpose of preaching the) Gospel. And accordingly, when we come to the gift spoken of by St Paul in 1 Cor. xiv., we find it is so far from being a gift to preach the Gospel to men, that it is expressly and distinctly stated that it was not given for the purpose of speaking to man at all, but to God. "For he that speaketh in a tongue, speaketh not unto men, but unto God, for no man understandeth icor. xiv. 2. him; howbeit in the Spirit he speaketh mysteries." In point of fact, the Apostles, &c., did not speak in an unknown tongue on the day of Pentecost, bul in kno-wn tongues, and they needed no interpreter. It is e-ri- dent, also, that each of the men who spoke, as in 1 Cor. xiv., did not himself understand what he was saying, for he was to " pray that he might interpret,',' Ver 13. or that some other person, who had another gift, viz., that of interpretation, might do so. If an Englishman speaks French or Spanish to a Frenchman or a Spaniard, he need not pray that he may interpret, for he knows what he is saying ; and the Frenchman or the Spaniard! needs not that any one should interpret to him, for he already understands what has been spoken. It is an absurdity to say that a man received the gift of a tongue to preach to the natives of a country, and then that another gift was needed to interpret to them what had been so preached. The whole context of these three chapters shows that the gift of tongues was to her True Standing. 145 glorify God, by the Spirit making the person inspired say something not to men at all, but to God ; which, though he that was speaking did not understand, God did; while, at the same time, the man's own spirit was edified in the act of such wonderful communion with God; and the Church also would be edified, if what he thus said in the praise of the Almighty was interpreted. It appears also from chap. xin. that it i Cor xiii. i. was in the tongues of angels, as well as in those of men, that those who were thus endowed could glorffy God. But, besides being for the purpose of glorifying God in a special manner, we are told that the speaking thus in a tongue was to be for a sign to those that believed 22°°"^' ""- not, i.e., believed not that God was speaking. The 28th of Isaiah, to which the Apostle refers, throws light isa, xxviii. on this point. It is there said that God would speak with stammering lips and another tongue to the people, but that they stUl would not hear ; and that the scornful men who ruled in Jerusalem would bring the judgments of God upon themselves for rejecting Him thus speaking. So contemptible in their eyes should appear the stammer ing lip of Prophecy, and its repetitions, and the other tongues, the Wipaig jXiigsaig, that they would refuse to acknowledge them to be of God. How is it, then, that this speaking in a tongue unknown to him that utters it, and unknown to those that hear it, is a sign ? and what is it a sign of ? It is a sign that another being, present though in-pisible, and not the man, is speaking; that another has got hold of the organs of his speech ; that another spirit, and not his own, is empowering him, and impelling him to speak words which he knows not the meaning of, yet which are fuU of meaning, as is shown 146 The Chwrch recalled to when they are interpreted. When a man is made to speak in the language of angels, or of men, which he understands not, and knows not what he is saying, while yet the words are full of meaning, then it is a conclusive sign that another person, a spirit, is speaking by him. And the things to examine are — first, whether the man, either in speaking in a tongue or in prophecy, is speaking by a spirit, or simulating? and, secoind, if speaking by a spirit, what spirit ? Is it the Holy Spirit of God, or is it an evil spirit ? For an evil spirit can give to speak with tongues and prophesy, as well as the Holy Spirit of God. And the test of the first is, the character of the man ; whether he is capable of being wicked enough to blaspheme the Holy Ghost by coining words, and pretending to such a gift ; and also, the discernment of those in the Church to whom the office of discernment of spirits is given. And the test of the second is, also, the judgment of those ordinances in the Church to whom it appertains to discern between the manifestations of the Holy Ghost, and the working of evU spirits; as, also the discernment of the other i^cor. xiv. spiritual persons in the Church. While we are on this subject, it is needful also to remark, that the word unlearned {ISiurai), ver. 16, 23, cannot mean unlearned in languages, which would run counter to the whole of the Apostle's argument on the gift of tongues ; but unlearned in Christian doctrine, uninstructed in spiritual things. But there is also another and a deeper meaning, and one worthy of our serious consideration. In every man, even in those most advanced in the knowledge and love of God, there are t^o elements 29, her True Standing. 147 always present — ^two things that may hinder the Lord. One is unbelief, still lurking in the human heart; the other is unwUlingness and unpreparedness to do God's wUl. Even in those who have most faith, there will be struggling doubt; even St Paul could say it was a fight to " keep the faith." Let us not ^suppose we are exempt from, or flatter ourselves we are above, this temptation. How often, notwithstanding all that the Lord has done, and the many tokens which He has given us of His presence and of His power, will the heart of unbelief suggest, — is it of the Lord after all? How often, when men are speaking in prophecy, does the doubt arise, whether, after all, it be of God or not ? And then suddenly comes the sign of the tongue, and a more solemn awe comes over our spirit, and we feel rebuked for our unbelief. But besides this, there is the other and deeper e-vil. There is in us all an unpreparedness, to say the least, if not an unwillingness, to do all God's will. We may think it is not so, but God seeth the heart. Our Lord could say to His Apostles, " I have many things to say johnxvi.i2; to you, but ye cannot bear them now;" and St Paul i co'r in, 2'. could say the same to the Church. Let us be sure then that when God thus speaks among His people in a tongue not comprehended by them. He has something to say to them which they are not yet prepared to receive and foUow. Tongues are for a sign to unbe lievers, in more senses than one. They are a sign to us, not only that God is speaking, but also that He has something He longs to say, but which His Church is not ready for. We are all of us conscious in some degree of that resistance in the human heart, which always withstands 148 The Church recalled to God's will. Let us not flatter ourselves that we are exempt from this failing, any more than from unbelief ; that we have not in us this innate stubbornness and slowness, that love of ease and of the world, which makes us shrink from sacrifice and suffering ; that pride which makes us think we are wise enough already. Let us not suppose that, after centuries of error, we have suddenly attained to perfection. No. The Lord still complains in the midst of us of the hardness of our hearts ; of our slowness and of our self-indulgence. He still bears witness, by the speaking of tongues, in the midst of the most exclusive and solemn assemblies, "that He has many things to say, but that we cannot bear them yet." Therefore, speaking with tongues is both an encour agement and a rebuke ; a present token of God's love and willingness to lead His people on, and of our linger ing unwillingness to be led.* r If men had understood these things, how much of sinful scorn and jesting about the matter of speaking with tongues, since this gift has again appeared , in the Church, would have been prevented ! Concerning the gift of prophecy, just as much ignor ance prevailed as in regard to that of speaking with tongues. Prophecy, in its strict sense, was supposed ¦* The interpretations given to this passage by some of the Fathers, e.g., Theodoret, Chrysostom, Cyril, etc., viz., that those speaking with tongues do not speak unto men, but unto God, because no inhabitant of the country in the language of which the gifted person ia speaking happens to be present, are so abaurd as not to need our refutation. We refer our readers to a pamphlet, entitled, "A Letter on certain Statements in the Old Church Porch" (Bosworth), for an able exposition of the subject of speaking with tongues and pro phecy. her True Standing. 149 to be limited to the inspired foretelling of future events ; and in a lower and a looser sense, it was confounded with preaching, or ordinary exhortation. But the gift of the teacher and that of prophet are totally distinct things. The word of prophecy in the power of the Rom. xh. Spirit, though it may, indeed, be used occasionally to foretell events, is, in the Christian Church, ordinarily, either for the purpose of opening the meaning of the symbols and types, and the interpretation of obscure parts of Scripture, or for edification, exhortation, and comfort; also for prayer and songs of praise in the Spirit, as distinct from all these same things in the common powers of the regenerate, or it may be of the ordained man. But no man can understand what speaking with tongues and in prophecy means, and the difference we have just stated, till he -witness them. No description can give an adequate idea of them ; they must be seen and heard. These things being premised, we resume our history. We said that God found those who, when He answered the general prayer to restore His Ploly Spirit as at the beginning, did not reject, and disbelieve, that answer; but received, and acted upon it. About this time, or just previous to it, several individuals in and near the town of Port-Glasgow, in Scotland, had been the sub jects of remarkable dealings of God in their own spirits ; and some of these people declared, on their death-beds, that the Lord had revealed to them, in -vision and in other ways, that He was about to do a great work in and for the Church, and that a bright dawn was about to arise upon it ; and they fell asleep with these words 1829. in their mouths. Among these was a lady living in the 150 The Church recalled to Isabella CampbeU, neighbouring parish of Roseneath, whose saintly life and glorious death were so extraordinary, that a Memoir of them was published, after her death, by the minister of the parish, which excited much interest among ;re]i- gious people at the time. Among others whose hearts were afllicted about the Church, and who were praying to God for it, and that He would come to its help, was the sister of the above- mentioned person. This lady was dying of consump tion. One Sunday, after she had been lying on the sofa all day praying for the Church, towards evening the Spirit feU upon her, and she spoke "in a loud Luke i. 42. voice" — " KK£pouv9j(f£ ipoivr jjjiyaXri," both in tongues and in prophecy, for more than an hour. She had been unable to speak much from weakness ; now, though she spoke so long and so loudly, it was without any fatigue.* Among the persons connected with Port- Glasgow before referred to, was a family named Mac donald, consisting of two brothers and a sister, known throughout the place for their piety and devotion to God. These also had been agonising in their prayer to God about His Church; but (as one who has written their history says) "the last thought of their heart was to ask for, or expect, any gift of the Holy Ghost for themselves, beyond His ordinary sanctifying grace;" but a few days after the manifestation of power in the lady above-mentioned, the Holy Spirit fell upon them also, and they spake with tongues and prophesied. It must be remembered that these men and women * It is beneath the dignity of the subject we are treating upon even to allude to the attacks made upon this lady in certain publi cations; we content ourselves with simply contradicting them as not true. her True Standing. 151 were as ignorant as the rest of the Church of the nature of spiritual gifts, and had not an idea of the real char acter of the gifts of speaking with tongues and pro phecy; but laboured under the same mistaken notions concerning them as others, as we have before described. Here were those persons, as mistaken and ignorant on such points as all other men, made to speak in tongues to God, and not to man ; and to prophecy in a manner exactly tallying with what St Paul says upon the subject, so as to enable us now clearly to understand those Scriptures about which we were all previously in the dark. Who taught these men and women this — and also gave them these gifts — but God alone ? It is to be remarked, also, as additional proof that the speaking with tongues could not have proceeded from any preconceived notions entertained by these people, that when they received this gift, prepossessed with the general notion, they imagined that these were the tongues of distant nations, to whom they would be called to preach the Gospel. And it was only subse quently, when by others, better fitted for the task, the phenomenon was compared with the plain statement of the Word of God, that it became manffest that they were mistaken. Soon after these things began, the sister of the Mac- donalds, who was lying in a dying state, was raised up by the word of the Lord, through her brother, J. Macdonald, who commanded her, in the name of Jesus Christ, to arise and walk ; and she was healed immediately. The lady also, the first-mentioned as having received m. c. the Holy Spirit, became much worse, and her complaint made such rapid progress, that she was given over by 152 The Church recalled to the doctors, and confined to bed, past human hope of recovery. WhUe she was in this condition, the Spirit directed J. Macdonald to write to her, bidding her, in the name of the Lord, to rise up, and come over from Fernicarry, the place of residence of the family, to Port-Glasgow. She received this message when in bed. The power of the Lord came upon her, and she was healed immediately. She rose and dressed, and went over to Port-Glasgow as commanded. Her mother and the rest of the famUy thought that she was delirious ; but she quietly replied, " No, mother, I am not delirious ; I am healed." And healed she was ; and both the sister of the Macdonalds and she Uved for many years after, married, and had children, and emulated the deceased Isabella Campbell in holiness of life and devotion to the service of God, retaining the gifts of tongues and prophecy to the last.* Several other persons now received gifts of the Spirit, and assembled at the house of the Macdonalds for prayer and the exercise of their gffts. These things, of course, attracted a great deal of attention, and reUgious people went to Port-Glasgow from various quarters to inquire ; and many were convinced that it was a real spiritual work that had begun, and that it was from God. About, the period when all these things were takmg place, God had raised up another remarkable man as a witness for His truth. This was the Rev. Edward Irving, a minister of the Scottish Presbyterian Church * Mr H. D., in whose house the last-mentioned of these individuals resided during much of the latter period of her life, said after her decease, " That of all the persons he had known, none ever lived so near to God aa she." her True Standing. 153 in London, — a man endowed -with extraordinary powers of eloquence, of deep meditation, and of much learn ing. He was one of those who had assembled, as be fore-mentioned, to study the Prophetic Scriptures, and in consequence had earnestly proclaimed the doctrine of the kingdom, and of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ ; and he had published a translation of the Spanish work of Ben Ezra. He had also preached much on prophetic subjects, and on the Incarnation, Baptism, and the Holy Eucharist ; and he had pub lished several works on them, and on the interpretation of the prophecies in Daniel and the Revelation. In some of these works he, no doubt, in common with several others, had maintained that the gifts of the Spirit were the permanent endowment of the Church, which had been lost through her unfaithfulness ; but though in some of his writings he said he did not see why she might not hope, yea, assuredly believe, that the Lord would restore them when He should see good, yet He had in nowise taught His people then to expect their return, nor did he look for this himself, or, pre viously to their appearance in Scotland, and afterwards in London, direct or encourage the people to pray for them ; and it was sometkne even after they had been manifested in several persons in London, that he began with his congregation to do so. Before this he had not even so strongly as some of the other persons among the students of prophecy before referred to, either received the idea, or advocated it, that the gifts should be restored. Several clergymen of the Church of England had preached and written about this sub ject. For instance, see Rev. Hugh M'Neile's sermon, preached 17th October 1830, at Cambridge Heath, and 154 The Church reccdled to pubUshed; the work entitied "The Christian Dispen sation Miraculous," by the Rev. Thomas Boys, etc. We state these things, because much prejudice has been excited against the present work of the Lord, by endeavours to refer its origin to this individual minister, and by asserting that it was all the result of his imagination and powers of preaching. Now, even if Mr Irving had been specially used for this end, this would not affect the reality of the work ; for God might have pleased to begin with him as well as with any other. But as it has been attempted to affix the name of this minister to the work of God in His Church, it has been necessary to say so much upon the subject, and to show that it was not a work to be attributed to the acts of any individual, but to God Himself, through many, and through the chain of those dealings we have endeavoured to describe and to trace ; and that it had commenced, and taken root, and spread, before Mr Ir-ving could or did receive it. Among those who went from various parts to Port- Glasgaw to examine into the matter which had been reported, of the manifestation of the gifts of tongues and prophecy, were three gentlemen from London, Only one of these attended Mr Irving's ministry, the other two were members of the Church of England. These gentlemen became thoroughly persuaded that the work was of God ; and shortly after their return to London, a conference was held with them by several who were interested in the subject ; among whom were Mr Irving and some clergymen of the Church of Eng land. The evidence borne by the persons who had visited Port-Glasgow, was such as to carry convictionj to the greater part of those present. And from this her True Standing. 155 time they began to meet in each other's houses, for the purpose of prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the manifestation of His gifts. These prayer-meetings began towards the close of 1830. On the. last day of April 1831, the first instance of the manifestation of the Spirit occurred, but neither in a member of Mr Irving's congregation nor in his church ; it appeared in a member of the Church of England, upon one also who had never witnessed anything of the kind. This instance was followed by others ; but it was still limited to private meetings, tiU, in October 1831, the voice of the Spirit again was heard in the pubUc congregation through Mr T., who spoke in tongues and prophecy, in Mr Irving's church in Regent Square ; and soon after, through other persons in other congrega tions, one of them of the Church of England, at Chelsea. And now the unpreparedness and unwillingness of those in authority in the Church to receive any such help from God began to manifest itself. The person who first spoke in prophecy in a congregation of the Church of England was an aged gentleman, well-known Mr j. b., in London, and venerated by all. And the clergyman Rev. h. j. o. of the church in which he spoke recognised the gift as the voice of the Spirit, and sanctioned its use in his congregation. But the then bishop of the diocese, on this being reported to him by the clergyman, without questioning the person who was the subject of the spiritual power, said, " Such things cannot be permitted in the Church of England." The consequence was that the individual who had received the gfft was obUged to take shelter under Mr Irving.* * Since the author's death, the editors have obtained » more accurate statement of facta regarding this oaae ; in particular, the 156 The Church recalled to The Scotch Church also began to withstand the work. The Presbytery of London, as referees undef. the trust-deed of the church in which Mr Ir-ving ministered, on the complaint of certain of the trustees that others besides ministers were allowed to speak in the church, decided against Mr Ir-ving for permitting these manifestations of the Spirit in the congregation; and the trustees turned him and his people, with the elders and deacons who remained faithful to him, into the street. It can now be easily comprehended why Mr Irving should have come so prominently before the world in connexion with this work of God, and that men should have affixed his name to it. For although, besides the instance in the Church of England already mentioned, the voice of the Spirit was heard also in other congre gations, yet, from many circumstances, public attention was more directed to the case of Mr Irving's church than of any other. And although this led to the e-vil, that the work which God was thus carrying on in His Church was called by the name of an individual man, yet it was of the mercy of God that He raised up one by whom He could thus protect and foster not only these spiritual people of his own flock, but also those who, cast out by their own proper pastors, and " driven away by them as persons under a delusion," naturally availed themselves for the time of his fatherly protection and pastoral care. Mr Irving himself, by his reputation, eloquence, and powers of mind, was, in the world's eye, by far the most gentleman referred to did not place himself under the pastoral care of Mr Irving, bnt remained throughout under that of his own pas tor, who waa himself ejected. — [Ed.] her True Standing. 157 notable individual connected with this work; and the gffts of the Holy Ghost were pubUcly manifested in his church, and reports published of them in every news paper of the day ; while, in congregations belonging to the Church of England .they were at once repressed. Hence the origin of the term Irvingite, of which Mr Irving, on his death-bed, expressed his abhorrence ; and which has never been for one instant submitted to by any connected with the work. Not that on any account would we appear to avoid acknowledging Mr Irving as one to whom, under God, we and the whole church owe au infinite debt of grati tude ; for none of his day were of more service to the nascent work of God. " Por nobUity of character, holiness of Iffe, faithfulness, and unwearied labour, he has never been surpassed. Never was man better adapted to -win the affections and esteem of all who came within his sphere ; and in nothing has the hand of God been more -visible, in the whole course of this work, than that he never was appointed to any higher office in the Church than that of angel or bishop of his own congregation." We have said that the trustees of the building in which Mr Irving ministered deprived him of it, on account of his sanctioning the exercise of spiritual gifts i cor. xii. i. {'!rvsu//,a,ri7(.Siv) in his congregation, and they and he were ejected from the church in Regent Square. About the same time there occurred a remarkable series of trials before the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. It seemed as ff God was publicly taking proof of His Church, to demonstrate openly the condition she had got into. And there was hardly any other place in Christendom but Scotland, where this could have been 158 The Church recalled to done. For in no other country but in the United Kingdom of Great Britain, whether Greek, or Roman Catholic, or Protestant, did there exist the necessary liberty of speech and action, but the clergy and the poUce would have interfered at once, and by force have imposed sUence, In England, indeed, there was perfect liberty to speak and act, but there was no purely ecclesiastical tribunal that could have touched the matters, or had power to depose her beneficed clergy on account of them. In Scotland there were the needful liberty, and the com petent ecclesiastical tribunal. The first of their ministers whom they brought to trial before the General Assembly was the Rev. J. 0., for preaching that God loved all men, and had given His Son to die for all, and had granted, in Christ, for giveness to aU, that all might repent, and turn to God^ in the faith of His love and forgiveness. He was con demned and deposed. The next was a minister. Rev. W. D., who was deposed for saying that the Scriptures were the rule of faith, as above aU articles and confessions of faith, and that whUe he did not object to anything in the " Scotch Confession," yet he felt it to be his duty to state to his flock whatever he found in Scripture, unlimited by that " Confession." Now took place the trial before the Presbytery of Annan of Mr Irving, who was arraigned, not before the Presbytery of London, but before the Presbytery which had granted him ordination, for teaching that Christ in His incarnation had taken our humanity under the con ditions of the Pall, m order that He might redeem it , from aU that held it captive, and sanctify it, and present ' it without spot unto God ! They declared this to be her True Standing. 159 heresy, and that Christ took the unfallen nature of Adam. And they condemned and deposed him also. They deposed him for maintaining what Athanasius and all the Fathers "had maintained against the Apollin- arian and other heretics, that unless our Lord took on Him our nature as it is. He had not purified and changed it as it is (in Him), but another nature." Athanas, " Our Saviour humbled Himself in taking our body of Disc! i, s ; ' humiliation, and took a servant's form, putting on that thers,p, 241. flesh which was enslaved to sin."* "The Lord came pusey. not to save Adam as free from sin, that He should become like unto him (in that condition), but as in the net of sin, and now fallen, that God's mercy might raise him up -with Christ. Had not sinlessness appeared in the nature which had sinned, how was sin condemned in the flesh? It was necessary for our salvation that the Word of God should become man, that human flesh subject to corruption, and sick with the lust of pleasures. He might make His own ; and whereas He is life and life-giving. He might destroy the corruption," etc. " For by this means might sin in our flesh become dead." " Non alterius naturae ejus caro quam nostra, "¦ nee alio UU quam ceeteris hominibus anima est inspirata principio, quss excelleret, non diversitate generis, sed sublimitate virtutis." s, Leo, Ep. Thus was this faithful servant cast out for endea vouring to elucidate what the Catholic Church had always taught, though the great majority that com- * See also the following testimonies : — Leont. cont. Nest. p. 396 ; Athanas. in Apol. xi. 6 ; Cyril, Epist. ad Success, p. 138 ; S. Leo, Epist. 35 ; vide Library of the Fathers, vol. viii. p. 241, and onwards ; Athanasius' Treatise against Arianism, and Dr Pusey'a notea. 160 The Church recalled to pose it now have, in one way or another, far departed from it, viz., that God sent His Son into the flesh that He might do what the Law had failed to do, and could not do, and what all men had faUed to do, i.e., Rom. viii. 3. to coudcmn sin in the flesh, and f ulfll all righteousness in it. The next that was brought before the Church Court was one of the most venerable and respected ministers in Edinburgh; and this not for aUowing any actual manifestation of the Spirit in his church, as was the case with Mr Irving before the London Presbytery, but merely for alleging that such manifestation ought always to have continued in the Church, and for saying with St Paul, " I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied." And they cast him out also. Thus the love of God the Father, the work of the Son in flesh, and the work and office of the Holy Ghost in the Church, and the authority of Scripture over all the ecclesiastical formulas of any division, of the Church, were publicly arraigned and condemned by a national Church tribunal. And there was not a voice heard from any bishop in Christendom, Greek, Roman, or Anglican, to protest against such wicked ness and such injustice ; for although, perhaps, none would have joined in condemning all that the Church of Scotland had condemned, — and it was a fearful pre eminence she should have, that she should condemn them all, — yet perhaps a majority of the bishops would have assented to that judgment, in one or more of the points thus anathematised. No doubt it must be admitted that, in the heat of controversy, these servants of God may have used ex- her True Standing. 161 pressions which, taken by themselves, and without the context of the explanations given in other parts of .their works, were justly liable to censure; but their judges would not allow any weight to such explana tions ; for instance, in the preface to his work on "Christ's Holiness in the Flesh," Mr Ir-vdng says: — "When I speak of the human nature of our Lord being sinful, I speak of it as it is in the lump, in the mass of fallen humanity, of which Christ took part, and which was sinning in every man but Himself; and I speak of it as He took it, not as He had it." Just as in Luther's works most objectionable passages may be found; yet is he right in the great truth of that justification which he is contending for ; so was it the case in these champions for the truth. But they made them offenders for a word, and cast out the truth and them together. And the consequences of all this remain to be seen yet; though perhaps some of them have been experienced already, in the violent disruption which has since occurred in the Scottish Church. WhUe aU this was going on, the Word of prophecy witnessed continuaUy to the speedy coming of Jesus Christ, calling on the Church to be ready; and also to the grief the Lord had over her as to her condi tion, and as to her unpreparedness to meet Him. The voice of the Spirit also was continually crying for "a Restor, of ^ Ap. and body," accompanied by a call for apostles. Proph. At first no one, not even those who were made thus to cry for a body, understood what was intended ; but by repeated words it was gradually made clear that what the Lord meant to show was, that the only remedy for the evU condition of the Church Universal, L 162 The Church recalled to which we had so much lamented, was the restoration of the foiTQ and order of the Christian Church as one body, as originally constituted, with the ordinances of that body ; the ordinances of Christ for rule, and light, instruction, guidance, and care ; the meaUs, the long lost means of unity and channels of truth, t\z., apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors ; and that by these alone could the rent body be again united, and carried on to perfection, and so made ready to meet the Lord. It is not our purpose to go through aU the details of the progress of the work of God; this would carry us far beyond the limits we have assigned ourselves. But as the work proceeded, those engaged in it found themselves formed into the due order of the Church according to the Scriptures ; and this, not by the laying of men's heads together, or by man's devising, hut by the continual stream of light flowing into the Church from the Holy Spirit, in prophecy, and other ways of His operation. And thus, in due season, did the Lord call twelve men to the apostleship ; and so giving apostles, prophets, evangeUsts, and pastors, and in the particular churches, angels or bishops, priests and deacons, every one in their order. He restored the means of reconstituting the whole body. And by these means every doctrine, and every rite and sacra ment, freed from evU incrustations on one side, and equally evU curtaUments on the other, and from the confusion and contradiction and mingling everywhere existing, having been set in its true place, and united in one harmonious whole, embracing every truth held in every portion of the Catholic Church, and eliminated from every error, there was a true model set up for aU her True Standing. 163 to follow ; and once more a witness for God and for His purpose was again seen in a body, and nof merely in individuals. And this body was constituted, not as separate from the Catholic Church, but as an integral part of it; that order and light might spread from it into every portion of the Church, and pervade it to its utmost bounds. These are bold words ; but we utter them advisedly. And no one can tell how much order, and truth, and light have already gone forth frbm that nucleus into the rest of the Church, and permeated it. Many doctrines and rites that had been obscured have again re-vived since this work began, and those who are rejoicing in them little think how much they are indebted to what God has done amongst us for them. These things were not all set in order or d9ne at once, for there were many lessons that needed to be learned. Prom want of rulers to direct and guide those who had received spiritual gifts, there was at first some confusion and disorder; but if this class at Corinth, icor. xu,, fresh from the Apostle's hands, needed this rule and guidance, is it to be wondered at that these novices in spiritual things should need it now ? There occurred, also, things trying and perplexing. Some of those very people who had been made in the Spirit to cry for a body, and for apostles, when men were called to fulfil that office, were not able to acknowledge them ; and among these were the brothers of Port-Glasgow, who had been so used by God at the beginning of the work, and who, more than any, had in spiritual utterance called for apostles. Another, Mr Baxter, who had received a gift of prophecy, setting himself to judge, and to interpret his own pro phecies, and to act upon his own discernment and i Cor, xiv. 164 The Church recalled to authority from what he supposed to be the meaning of the words, instead of submitting them and himself to the discernment and judgment of others, when things came not to pass as he expected, went back, and declared he had been possessed by a,n e-vil spirit 5 and he published a book giving his o-wn account of his case, which obtained much notoriety at the time. Another, and much more trying case, was that of an American who came to England, pretending to have the gift of prophecy, and who was received by the brethren as having this gfft, but who turned out to be a rank impostor. The lessons needful to be taught by these things were not easy to be learned ; yet they were of great moment, viz., that in the Christian dispensation, prophecy, -with out apostles to rule and guide the Church and all spiritual persons in it, is insufficient to keep the Church from error and confusion ; and that the streams at which the sheep drink are not the defences of the fold ; as was said in prophecy, " Shall not the wolf leap over the streams? can they defend the sheep?" In one word, that prophets, much more merely prophetic persons, i.e., individual members of the flock having the gift of pro phecy, and not set in the ministry, are not, and cannot be, the rulers of the Church Universal, or of the parti cular churches. That lesson had, indeed, been taught by the events of the first three centuries, wherein, though prophecy had continued, error and confusion had entered and prevaUed. If prophecy had been sufficient of itself to have either preserved or restored unity and truth, the Church need not have had recourse to Councils and to the emperor. But we had forgotten this. Con^ 1 Cor, xii. cerning spiritual things we were ignorant. Therefore, her True Standing. 165 r when prophecy was again heard in the Church, we naturaUy thought that when men thus spake by the Holy Ghost in the midst of us, we needed nothing else ; but that this was aU that was required to rule and guide the Church. We took the Old Testament prophets for our example, and not the New. Under the Old Testa ment, the prophet was the chief minister, the lawgiver ; and when the Law was departed from, the law-restorer ; for the Old Testament Dispensation was prophetic. Its whole constitution, purport, and end, was to be prophetic of Christ. It was, therefore, instituted T)y a prophet ; and the last who came to call the subjects of it to repentance was a prophet. But when our Lord Jesus Christ became man, then the mystery of the Holy Trinity was manifest, and then it was shown that, while the blessed Persons of the sacred Trinity are co-equal, they are not co-ordinate ; but that the Son is subordinate officially to the Father, and that the Holy Spirit is sub ordinate officially to the Son, even to the Son Incarnate, the God-Man Christ Jesus. So in the Church, which is set to be the manifester of Christ, and not the prophesier of Him, as the Mosaic dispensation was, the thing necessary to be seen is, not only that the individual man is not to be ruled by his spirit, but that he is to rule it ; that he is not to be carried away by any spiritual gift given to him, for "the spirits of the prophets are i cor. xiv., subject to the prophets ; " and also that all prophets and spiritual persons are to be subject to the apostles and bishops, the rulers in God's Church, the representatives of the Son, the Man, as Ruler ; so that it is as true with respect to the Church as a body, as it is to an individual man, that " he that ruleth not his own spirit is like a Prov. xxv, city broken down without walls." Nor is there, jn 166 Tlie Church recalled to . — s ¦ maintaining this, anything irreverent to the Holy Spirit ; for it is He who gives wisdom in rule to apostles and bishops as much as prophecy to prophets, — ^to each what is needful in his own place wherein he is set by Christ in the body. In fact, we had to learn what St 1 Cor, xii, Paul says in speaking upon this subject, " that the eye (the prophets) cannot say to the hand (the apostles, the guiding hand of the Church), I have no need of thee,'' any more than even the great Head of the body Himself can say to the feet, the lowest member, I have no need of you. And thus, in the New Testament Dispensation, 1 Cor. xii. apostles are set first, and not prophets : " first, apostles; Eph. iv. 11. secondarily, prophets ; " and while the Holy Ghost gives light by prophets to enable the rulers to see their way, yet it is not light by prophets that is to guide the Church; nor are prophets to teach doctrine, or give 2 Pet, iii, 2. orders and commandments ; these are the duties of apostles. Now we say this was not an easy lesson to learn; and it required repeated trials, such as those above mentioned, to teach it to us, and to make us compre hend that prophets are not the waU of Zion or of Jeru salem, though part of the foundations ; and that they can neither rule nor defend the Church ; and that the light that comes through them, while it is indispensable and of infinite value, has to be discerned as to its true meaning bythe ruler, whose office it is to judge whether Rom, xii. 6. the man is prophesying " according to the analogy of faith," and also to set in order what is so revealed. This sufficiently explains and accounts for what was allowed thus to happen amongst us. First, — The Macdonalds not unreasonably supposed they were to be the beginners and guides of an inde- 'her True Standing. 167 pendent work in their own land, and they assembled people for worship, and proceeded to administer the Communion to them, which no unordained man is authorised to do; and although they themselves had been used by the Holy Spirit in calling for a body and for apostles, it is evident they did not rightly appre hend what they had thus been made to give expression to, and so they could not receive the idea when it was realised. Thus, when apostles were called and sepa rated, not having personally witnessed how the work was taking form in London, and looking also for credentials to the office, which belonged to the intro duction of the dispensation, and not to its close (of which matter we shall have to speak presently), they hesitated in receiving them, and were soon after taken to their rest. They had fulfilled their part of the work, they had been faithful according to their light, and the Lord took them to Himself, to await their reward in the day of resurrection. Next, as to Mr Baxter, he was a stUl more complete instance in point. There is no doubt that he had re ceived a great gift of prophecy, but he took upon him self to report his own words, and to interpret them himself ; and of course he was suffered to fall into aU manner of error. The best comment upon the book he published is the pamphlet already referred to, written by one of those engaged in the work, in reply to some very erroneous mz's- statements concerning it in " The Old Church Porch." In this pamphlet the author shows how thoroughly mistaken Mr Baxter was in everjrthing he had said in his book ; and how he had misrepresented almost everything that had occurred, and especially in regard to his own utterances in the 168 The Church recalled to Spirit; and this by writing them down, not at the moment, but some time after they were spoken, running together several that were spoken at different times, as ff they had been uttered at the same time ; and then putting upon them his own interpretation of their meaning, contrary to the interpretation put upon them by others who heard them ; proceeding to act wiffuUy upon them, in spite of the advice given him not to do so ; and even, in some cases, adding words which were not uttered — of course not wilfully and intentionally, but under mistaken impressions as to what had been said. Nothing could iUustrate more than instances such as the above, that whatever gift a man may receive from the Spirit of Christ, unless he wiU take his place in the body, and be ruled and guided by the ordinances set in it for that purpose, he will soon become unpro fitable. The last case, that of the American, was at the time most perplexing; but it was to teach the Church the lesson, that we must uot pass by the first test, stated in page 146, viz., that of the knowledge of the per sonal character of the man professing to have any gift of the Spirit, and so neglect to act according to com mon sense, trusting merely to the supposed discern ment of spiritual persons ; but that we must refuse to admit strangers without personal introduction, which was omitted in the case of this man. Indeed, in accordance with this, we have been taught in many ways that in all things connected with the rule of the Church, and in aU spiritual matters, it is not according to the way or mind of God that we should omit the common precautions of prudence, and of the common her True Standing. 169 sense and reason of man ; such, for instance, as not to proceed to ordain a man directly, because he may be called in prophecy to the priesthood ; but to wait till the judgment of the ruler should accord with the call of the Spirit, that the man is fit for his place, laying hands i Tim. v. 22. suddenly upon no man. Light and judgment were the two things symbolised in the Urim and Thummim in the high priest's breastplate, and one is not sufficient without the other ; there must, in all things done in the Church, be the Ught from God, and the judgment of the man taught of God to have -wisdom and discern ment to use the Ught aright ; both must be in exercise. Thus was wisdom learned by trials, which, though painful for the time, were necessary. And it must be noticed also, that all these things happened before the separation of the apostles, and their being fully set in their places. Let us pause to examine for a Uttle what was the • state of the whole Catholic Church when God thus came to its help, which state has developed itself more and more every day since that work began. We have already shown, that the ecclesiastical system of Christendom is one vast Babylon, or city of confusion, di-vided outwardly into three great schisms, Greek, Latin, and Protestant, besides the Armenian and other Churches , in the East, and the many sects among the Protestants ; and that inwardly it is disintegrated by opinions of every shade, and heresies of every sort. Its various forms of government — Papal, Patriarchal, Episcopalian, Presby terian, and Congregational — are all departures, more or less, from God's way, or substitutes for it. And in aU parts of the Church the powers of the earth have mter- 170 The Church recalled to fered ; in none more than in those who boast most of having freed themselves from the yoke of the earthly ruler. In the West the Bishop of Rome, claiming and exer cising more than apostolic place and functions, and dispensing with Councils, proceeded at length to assert such sovereignty over the Church, as, without consult ing bishops at all as to the truth of the dogma, but only summoning a Council of Bishops at Rome to ad vise as to "the expediency of its proclamation, to dare to proclaim a new and false dogma, the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, that virtuaUy takes the -glory from Christ, as the Holy One in flesh, and changes the Christian faith. And this without one bishop in all the Latin Church having faithfulness to lift up his voice either against the new usurpation of the Pope, or against the false dogma itself; and only here and there a poor solitary priest, like L'Abbe • Laborde, and the four priests at Pavia, and Morgaez in Spain, was to be found, who had knowledge enough of true Catholic doctyine, and moral courage sufficient to protest against both. The Ultramontane theory pervading the whole of the priesthood and the devout laity ; the worship of the Virgin Mary all but come to its climax, and images crowding and defiling every church; the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Christian altar perverted into a sin-offering, and ordinarUy celebrated -without the communion of the people, and the cup of salvation withheld from them when they do communi cate; the whole Eucharistic service itself in disorder and confusion; indiscriminate absolution granted to careless confession without repentance and amendment ; and the doctrine of indulgences and plenary remission . her True Standing, 171 of sin too generally granted for routine repetitions of prayers before images, or for attending certain cere monies, searing the conscience and blinding the heart of the people ; and that of Purgatory, leading them to defer repentance to the term beyond the grave. Add to these, the evil that the Holy Scriptures, that might have opened men's eyes, are all but universally neglected, and even shunned, through the warnings given by the priests of the danger of reading them, and are little studied even by the clergy themselves ; the prohibition of marriage to the clergy, working the effects that are inevitable ; the priests nominated to the cures by the bishops, the bishops by the sovereigns, and the Pope by the cardinals ; without any substantial call from God, or assent of the Church laity, whose voice is silenced as much as that of the Holy Ghost ; the priests under the almost uncontroUable power of the bishops, aud the bishops in many lands appointed to the dioceses by the king, though subject to the confirmation of the Pope ; and the clergy usuaUy paid by the State : — Such are the characteristics which mark this great division of the Catholic Church, showing its need of help and guidance. In the East, the Patriarchs of Constantinople and of Moscow, the one nominated' to his place by the Sultan, the other by the Emperor of Russia ; and their subordi nate bishops also appointed by the civil ruler, and the priests by the bishops ; all equally without outward call by the Holy Ghost, or the assent of the people, and also, as in the West, provided for by the State ; the worship of the Virgin, and saints, and image-wor ship, little differing from the Latin, whUe they think to evade the law of God by limiting their imagery to 172 The Church recalled to pictures; the Scriptures neglected as much as in the Roman Church ; their doctrines in general really much the same in essentials as those of Rome ; their sacrifice too much partaking of the nature of a sin-offering; their absolution as much profaned ; and, both in East and West, the Lord's day equally perverted into a day of worldly pleasure, the day especially of amuse ment. In the Protestant Churches, the Anglican without a central Church authority, and without a Church council free to act; the Sovereign and the Pri-vy Council its. tribunal of appeal ; the bishops nominated to the sees, and even to their office, by the king's prime minister; the priests to their li-nngs by bishops, by the Chancellor of the hour, by lay patrons who have bought the livings, or by themselves, who have also purchased them ; the call of the Holy Ghost to their offices wanting, and the assent of the clergy of the dioceses in the case of bishops (except that which is forced by the king from the chapters of the cathedrals), and of the people of the parishes, in that of the priests ; the almost entire absence of all authority over the beneficed clergy by the bishops, or over the bishops by any one, so that each bishop and priest may well-nigh say what he wUl, do as he likes, and hold any opinions he pleases; the .Church itself, both clergy and laity divided into two parties, having between their extremes every shade of gradation — differ ing in doctrine one from another almost as much as they both do from the Greek and Roman, and ready to separate into two Churches ff they were not mercifully prevented by the cord of the State, which binds them outwardly together, and prevents their meeting in that Convocation which would manifest and consummate their her True Standing. 173 divisions, — too many of these ready to unite themselves to Rome, others to form a Church of the bishops and priests and laity professing what are called Church opinions, and to separate from them all others — and a third party as ready to separate both of these from among them, and to amend the Anglican Prayer-Book (that book which has been such a bulwark of truth and preserver of the Church, and second only to the Bible as a blessing to the land) by altering the Baptismal and other Services, and the Catechism of the Church, by erasing from them every vestige of Catholic truth con cerning sacraments and ordinances ; her funds wrung by law from the unwilling payers of the rent-charge on the farms, or proceeding from the voluntary contri butions of congregations, or from payments for the Uberty to sit in God's house, — all perfectly inadequate to provide for clergy sufficient to take charge of the ever-increasing multitudes of the uncared-for people ; the Eucharistic Sacrifice of the Christian Church (con tained in the Liturgy of Edward -yi., but removed by foreign interference) not formally offered ; communion generally limited to once a month ; no shadow of dis cipline over those who do partake of the Lord's Supper, or over the congregations, the majority of whom, as in the Greek and Roman Churches, never partake at all, or at most once a year at Easter ; all confession and absolution of sin discountenanced ; no restoration of the penitents, who are left to pine in their sins, or at least in the accusations of their conscience for sins that are past ; and the greatest proportion of the inhabitants in every parish almost without true conscience of sin at all, or, if they have any, carried away into the various Dissenting communities which distract every town and 174 The Church recalled to vUlage, and who thus absorb the prmcipal part of the Church's life, and misdirect it. In Scotiand the national Church is Presbyterian ^j!* its government an assembly of presbyters without bishops — presbyters, without call of prophecy to their office, appointed to the parishes by the sovereign, by lay patrons, or by the people, and ordained by their equals ; provided for by funds enforced by law ; with out a recognised altar ; without the Sacrifice ; with communion once, twice, or four times a year, or, it may be, in a few congregations in great towns, oftener ;< almost without worship ; whose churches are places to preach and not to pray in, except as prayer is an intro duction and conclusion to the sermon (as a sign of which, facing the entrance door the pulpit occupies the place of the altar of God and of His table), in whose sermons the baptized are not addressed as if they, were God's children, while of their prayers it has been said that "they teach God, and preach to the people," and where, rejecting the Catholic Liturgy as dead and formal, they can but stereotype the forms of their own minds in the repetition of the same ideas all the year round ; where they have erased from their calendar the old landmarks of the Christian Church, the days of the Nativity, and the Passion and the Resurrection of the Saviour, and Pentecost, the day of the Descent of the Holy Ghost, which vary the services and the medita tions of other Churches ; where they sit to praise, and stand to pray ; and where the condition of doctrine is iUustrated by the proceedings already noticed, directed against the mo.st faithful ministers of the Church. The Free Kirk of Scotiand, as she calls herseff, which broke off from the Established Church A.D. 1843, on her True Standing. 175 the ground virtually that laymen had no right to elect Christ's ministers to cures, yet gave the power of their election to congregations of laymen, and thereby sub stantially put the ministry under subjection to the people, or it may be to one or two master-minds that direct the movement — and whose clergy depend upon the voluntary contributions of the congregations — differs in nothing else from their brethren of the Estab lishment, either in doctrine, in sacraments, or in prac tice. She thus, notwithstanding the aim of her ministers, and their individual sacrifices for what they considered just principles, furnishes, in the light of Catholic truth, only a fresh example of lamentable and unavailing schism. In Scotland, there is also the remains of the old Episcopalian Church, divided also into two parties, on what are termed High and Low Church doctrines. Her doctrines and rites are professedly the same as those of the Church of England, except that some of the bishops and clergy still retain and use the lingering remnant of the oblation of the holy elements on the altar after con secration. But this very question of the holy Eucharist is now bringing into manifestation the discordant ele ments of which the Episcopal Church in Scotland is composed, and the lack of all competent authority or tribunal to settle disputes and decide true doctrine. In Germany, the Protestants are divided into two parties, Lutheran and Calvinist, each under the Presby terian form of Church government. The clergy of the Lutheran division are appointed by the civil governors and other laymen, and provided for by the State. They have more of the form of worship than the Scotch Presbyterian, and an altar and communion table, but no sacrifice. 176 The Church recalled to The French and Swiss national Protestant Churches are very much like the Scotch, and the ministers are paid by the State ; and in France and Switzerland, as well as in Germany, the Protestants are di-sdded one against the other, through vain attempts to mak^ things better; as the Dissenters in England are separated from the Established Churoh and from one another. In Holland, the form of Church government is much the same as in Scotland. In Belgium, the Roman Catholic is the national Church, but the Pro-. testants have free liberty of worship. In Sweden there is less division, for the strong hand of the civil power refuses permission for the exercise of any other than the national religion. In Denmark there is more free dom. Both in Sweden and Denmark it is the king who nominates the bishops, though in the latter there is some approach to the clergy having a voice iu the matter, by their being allo-wed to choose three from whom the king may select one. As to the various other fragments of the body of Christ, the different dissenting peoples, — the broken Ps. cii. 14. stones, and shivered dust of Zion and, Jerusalem, — with much zeal for God, and true desire for His glory, ignorance and fanaticism, conceit and foolishness, and partial and one-sided views of truth, have done their work among them; and confusion and disorder have almost reached their utmost limits. Ever di-viding from one another, and subdividing again,, they only manifest more and more the ordinances for ride and unity to be wanting, and the power of unity gone. Prom one end of Christendom to the other, " BABY LON, Mysteet," is written on the forehead of the Church, the Great Harlot, the Mother of Hariots, and her True Standing. Vll her daughters, and their daughters again. From the mighty Woman of Rome, and her Rival of Constanti nople, down to the lowest conventicle of a country viUage, independent of every control but that of its own petty tyrants, all have departed from the way of unity and truth, and all are in captivity and con fusion. The following conditions of the Church under the rule of men illustrate what we say : — 1. That in which the King, who has no right to rule in the Church at all, is made head and supreme. 2. The Papal, a usurpa tion of the apostleship, and a taking of the place of the fourfold ministries of Christ. 3. The Patriarchal, a useful division of labour, perhaps, if under the central authority of apostleship, but, when independent, or under the control of emperors, only an instrument of schism. 4. The Episcopalian, an inadequate pro-vision for the rule of the Church Universal, or of national Churches, as time has proved, and, as it exists at present, a very great departure from primitive Epis- copalianism. 5. The Presbyterian, also utterly in adequate for the government of the Church either Uni versal or Particular, and as much a departure from primitive Presbyterianism, as modern Episcopalianism from its primitive type. 6. The Congregational, a usur pation on the part of the people ; the opposite end of the scale to the Regal and to the Papal, and equally and more fatally false. 7. Methodism, spiritual indeed ; but ignorant of, and casting off all rule in the Spirit, mingling the flesh with the Spirit, loud and clamorous. 8. The Baptist, denying the seal of God's covenant to His children's children. Turn our eyes where we will, where shall we find M 178 The Church recalled to God's order, God's rule, God's unity, God's love, God's Ps, cxxxvii. truth, or God's power? " By the rivers of Babylon we sat down, and wept when -we remembered Zion !" We have said that both Episcopalianism and Presby' terianism, as they now exist, and as they have existed in the Church for many ages, while they retain the names of, differ greatly from, the original institutions; and we must raake good our words. In primitive times the bishop was not an autocrat over a district large as a province, with hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people under him; hut the ruler of a diocese limited within reasonable bounds ; having associated .with him a council, of presbyters, with whom he was bound to take council in all matters pertaining to his diocese, and by whom, and the other clergy under him, he also took the oversight' of his flock, and of every member of it; they reporting to him all things concerning the people, and receiving directions from him as needed; he thus being made acquainted with the moral and spiritual state and condition of every one committed to his charge, assisted, as he was afterwards when the dioceses got larger, by suffragan bishops. Besides the clergy, always in intimate and immediate relation with the bishop, and with the people, there were the deacons. These, while approved of, and^ set in their places by, the bishop, were chosen by the people; and this because they were to represent their Alex. Ap. interest in the bishop's councU {ffv/j,j3o{iXiov), but not as 88. ' ¦ members of the councU of the clergy, and under his direction to distribulje the Church funds collected from the people to all who stood in need of help ; and whose peculiar duty was to look after the widow and the orphan, the poor and the sick, and see that they lacked her True Standing. 179 nothing.* They, indeed, were also ministers of Christ, and preached the Gospel, and served, as their name imports, in various ways in the house of God ; but their special and distinctive character and office was to be the heads of the people, and the representatives of their interests in all matters, — particularly those connected with the money or provisions offered in the Church, — and to take care that no man starved while his brethren had means where-with to help him. But this original and perfect system, like everything else in the Church, was gradually changed. We find as late as Cyprian, that he, the bishop, being absent from his see, writes to his presbyters for counsel how to act, and says : " I never do anything without consulting Cyp. you." But the bishop by degrees came to govern the Churches without the council of the cathedral, and even diocesan councils in many ^parts fell into disuse. The dioceses grew into such dimensions as to render personal pastoral supervision by the bishops of the individual clergy impossible ; and the parishes grew as Un-wieldy in the hands of the pastors ; while the ruling presbyters sank into the crowd of mere parish priests, or at best kept a well-nigh useless position as Canons of Cathe drals ; and the Presbytery, as a subordinate function of government in the Church, ceased.- And as to deaconship, for many ages it has altogether been practically annihilated. True, the name has been retained, as that of presbyter has, but the deacon's function in the body has long disappeared. The deacon ship now has no reference to the people ; it is only a nursery for the priesthood, and a stepping-stone to that * " They, the deacons, are to care for the poor, making the rich open their hand." — Alex. Apost. Const, can. 20. 180 The Church recalled to office. To be the heads of the laity ; to be elected by them as their representatives, the collectors of their offerings, and the wise and kind distributors thereof ; to appear in any pastoral council on their behalf ; to state the cases of individuals to the elders and bishop; to advocate their rights and wants, and to be the bearers of God's succour to them from the Church in the hour of need ; — all this has long f aUen into abeyance, and God's appointed link of the deaconship between the laity and the priests, and that of the ruling presbytery between the clergy and the bishop, have been broken, and faUen out of the golden chain that bound the Churches to their heads. Bishop, presbyter, deacon ! The ordination to these offices still exists, but in their relative positions, as] the Apostles constituted them at the beginning, they are greatly weakened. We would not be misunderstood, as if we were casting blame on any bishop or clergy of the day. We are not blaming the system, but only foUow ing out our design of showing the condition we are in. The bishops are wearing out their hearts and lives in patient, untiring endeavours to meet the demands on their time and labour which their dioceses make upon them ; as the parish priests and deacons are also doing in their districts. And although the appointment of suf fragan bishops, nominated by, and entirely under the com mand and control of the bishops themselves, and of addi tional subordinate clergy in every parish, would contribute greatly to their relief (but unless the nation will provide means for the maintenance of these, how can they be given ?) — yet here again the confusion we are in would be but the more demonstrated by the result. A bishop of a certain class of opinions appoints coadjutors, men of the same mind with himself. He dies, and another her True Standing. 181 bishop succeeds him of entirely opposite sentiments, — • how are the suffragans to work with him? So that, while this plan would relieve individuals, it would not help in the least to heal our di-sdsions. In England, the little that is left of old cathedral order is being broken up by those in authority, who, ignorant of the true use of it, are destroying the re maining shadow of the presbytery, the canonries and prebends, instead of hearkening to the wise counsel of the Vicar of Newcastle, who some years ago wrote an excellent tract upon this subject, urging that, in lieu of breaking up what is left, they should restore the pre bendaries and canons to their old use and relations to the bishop, and to the bishops their rights and place in the cathedrals ; but his voice bas been lost in the din of popular reformation, and his petition unheeded. The only part of the body where one finds a trace of the old presbytery remaining, is in the Scotch and the Presbyterian Churches ; but, as we said, they also are far gone from the original institution, and are all out of place, ha-ving substituted a council of presbyters to rule without a bishop, in lieu of a bishop ruling with his presbytery. At the Reformation, when there was an abortive attempt made to recover old truths, this was the frag ment of the truth the Presbyterian Churches picked up, viz., that presbyters should participate in the rule of the Church ; and it is the one they pecuUarly stand for, but all distorted and exaggerated. Instead of having their due place under bishops within the limited sphere of a diocese, the presbyters have cast off bishops, under the plea of following the Scripture as only speaking of presbyters and deacons, shutting their eyes not ouly to 182 The Church recalled to Church history, but to the position James held in Jeru salem, and to that of the seven angels of the seven Churches. And then, as if to betray an innate consci ousness that they are not acting according to Scripture in having no bishops ruling over elders, they turn the parish ministers into quasi bishops, giving them unor dained elders and unordained deacons to serve under them in the care of the people ; and so, after all, they are compelled to a sort of spurious imitation of the old method as handed down from the earliest ages of Christianity. It wUl be observed that in-all that we have thus en deavoured to describe, although compelled to point out some of the corruptions of doctrine, we have not dwelt so much upon these as upon the corruptions of Church government ; for, in point of fact, corruptions of doctrine are the consequences of having departed from the Lord's Heb. iii, 6. perfect way of guiding His house. It would aXko be an endless task to write on the corruptions of doctrine and practice in all divisions of the baptized. The Jew, Mohammedan, and Heathen see them plainly enough. The Church's confusion, quarrelling, and divisions, are patent to their eyes ; and as to morals, while doubtless there are multitudes of good Christian people whom they respect and admire, yet Christians are looked upon as the corrupters of the unciviUsed nations with whom they come in contact. When the island of Japan was lately opened again to Christian intercourse, the fear expressed in the leading journal of the day was lest we should corrupt the Japanese heathen ! And the poor Indian chief could say to the American President,-^ " The white man comes, and he brhigs disease and sorrow and death." her True Standing. 183 There was doubtless some truth at the bottom of most of the things contended for by the various parties in the Church. There was a truth in the abstract in the Papal theory, that a centre of authority was necessary ; but this was perverted into a pernicious falsehood when it was said, " One bishop is the ordinance of God for the rule of the Church Universal." There was a truth in Jesuitism when it said, " Subject your spirit, will, Heb.xiii. 17 and conscience to the guidance of your spiritual direc tors ;" but it was pushed into a lie when it said, " Be like a stick in the hands of an old man, have neither mind, nor conscience, nor will, but substitute your direc tor for them." Luther proclaimed many truths ; and to the principles of the Reformation we are indebted, under God, for the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty. He spake truth when he said, " You cannot buy pardon of sin ; absolution cannot be ministered to a man by a printed or written paper for five shillings ; a man's faith is counted to him for righteousness ; a man is justified by faith and not by works ; the Bible is every man's rule, and he must not subject his conscience to another man contrary to what is written therein ; " but all these truths were soon perverted into the asser tion, that there is no ministration of absolution from Christ by His priests to him who repents and confesses his sin,^ — that the Bible is sufficient of itself to the believer, — that there is no need of any guide or spiritual pastorship of the individual, and that the ordinances of God are not means of grace, but only sighs of its having been received in some other way. At the Reformation there was truth mingled with false hood in all the contending principles, which acted on men's hearts, and swayed to and fro and divided the multitude. 184 The Church recalled to All was confusion and alienation from one another. As to the holy Eucharist, one party said it was a sin- offering, the same as that offered upon the cross, — the other, that in it there is no sacrifice at all. One, offer ing several sacrifices at the same moment, in the same buUding, — the other, never intentionally or formally offering any. One, offering the sacrifice without the communion of the people, and when they do administer it to them, withholding half of the sacrament, — the other, having the communion without believing in the sacrifice. One, declaring there is no bread, no -wine, — the other, that there is no Body, and no Blood. Of these, the one unduly exalts the priesthood, and attri butes to it powers God never gave, — the other denies all priesthood in the Church. The one gives indis criminate absolution, even to the impenitent, — the other refuses it even to the penitent. And in all, the liturgies are all out of order, confused, and either corrupted by added error, or curtailed by the suppression of what is ancient and good and true. One, filling the Churches with crucifixes and images, — the other, refusing to have even a cross. One, praying to the dead, — the other, never praying for them. One, claiming the continual occurrence of strange miracles, and visions of the Virgin, &c., — the other, refusing to admit , the idea of any present miracles at aU. One, perverting the Anointing of the sick into Extreme Unction, — the other, rejecting the anointing altogether. One, fight ing for sacraments and contemning the Word, — the other, contemning the Sacraments as means of grace, and contending for the Word alone. One, maintam- ing that justification is righteousness infused, — the other, that it is only righteousness imputed. One, her True Standing. 185 claiming infallibUity, — the other, refusing all authority. One, withholding the Bible, — the other, giving it as sufficient of itself. One, confounding oneness and unity, as if they were synonymous, and denying that any can be members of the one Church who are not united under one centre of Church government ; shutting their eyes to the fact, that as a family or a nation may be torn by intestine hatred and quarrels, and yet be one famUy, one nation, so the Church, though her entrails are consumed by internecine war, still remains one Church, — the other, denying the necessity of manifested unity at all. The confusion is endless, and in every country the Christian discipline of the Church is confessedly gone, and it is impossible to restore it. And everywhere there prevaUs the most extensive demoralization. A new feature has developed itself rapidly within a few years, namely, treachery in those in trust, and in those in employ ; verily, " traitors " is one of the marks of 2 Tim. iii, 4. the day, and the unrighteousness and frauds in all mercantile transactions and in manufactures have drawn forth the bitter censures of the press. * But the worst mark of the times is the increasing infidelity as to revelation, which pervades all ranks of society. In the lower orders it takes the form of the most audacious denial of everything ever made known from God to man ; even to the very existence of the soul, and of any future state. And in the better educated, it is eat ing its cancerous way by the more subtle process, that while men profess to believe the Scriptures, they explain away the substance of the truth that is in them, and * See, for instance, the leading article of the Times of 20th December 1859. 186 The Church recalled to by their sciences of induction and deduction sap the foundations of aU truth. " Moses ahd St Paul did very well for those days of ignorance that are past; now we have wiser men than they, who explain God's mind to us better than they could pretend to do.'' " Moses only adopted a false tradition, when he wrote that God created the world in six days and rested the seventh, and when he promulgated the fourth command ment." " There never was a flood that covered the earth ; and Moses, Ezekiel, St Peter, and even our Lord Himself, did not mean -what they said when they men tioned its occurrence." The creeds are " errors of the fourth century." " There is no resurrection of the body ;'' and " the resurrection is past already to every one who is dead, and it is going on all day, it is a process con tinually carrying on as men depart hence ;" " there is no day of judgment ; " " there is no eternity of punish ment to the wicked;" " eternal does not mean everlasti- ing ; " " the Apocalypse has all been fulfilled long ago ;" " inspiration is common to every one ; Homer and Virgil were inspired just as really as Isaiah or Ezekiel;" " regeneration is not the imparting of a new thing, but the fanning into a flame of that which already exists in all men;" " atonement is not expiation, but recon cUiation only ; " " Christ did not die on the cross to bear the curse of the broken law, but only to show that God could bring up man out of any depth ;" " hell is not a place, — and there is no lake of fire." The " Essays and Re-views," and the -writings of Colenso and Renan, are a fuU justification of aU, and much more than aU, that is here asserted. One more feature of the days we live in, and we have done. No sooner did the Lord begin once more her True Standing. 187 in the Church to make His voice to be heard, and the spirit of prophecy again to be manifested, than the working of evil spirits broke out also on every side. As long as the Spirit of God was sUent, and His mani festations were in abeyance, so long was Satan content to lie hid ; but the moment the Holy Ghost began to work and speak, then came the working and speaking of devils. It began with mesmerism, and its concomi tant "clairvoyance;" and then proceeded to table- turning, spirit-rapping, and necromancy, i.e., conversa tion with the dead, and divination. And these things are unblushingly and openly professed and practised by Christian men in all lands ; those who believe them to be really spiritual, affirming that they are wrought by good spirits ; and those who disbelieve them to be the work of spirits at all, playing with them in their un belief ; the leaven of the Sadducee that is in the latter day, equally leading them to reject the Lord when He speaks, and to play with the Serpent when he speaks ; for they cannot bring themselves to think that a spirit can speak or act at all ! * Such is the general condition of the baptized. And that of the world is this : its population is reckoned at 1300 mUlions, of whom about 800 mil lions are heathen ; 600 mUlions of these belonging to * " Whenever these things appeared, it was a sign of approach ing doom ; it was the sign of a declining age, or of a declining nation. "When the Canaanites practised them, the measure of their iniquity was full. "When Saul applied to the "Witch of Endor, his end was near. "When these thinga prevailed among the Jewa, their day was closing. Let us not permit such amongst us, lest it should become a sign to us of declension and doom ! " — See a tract, 'What is Mesmerism^ &c., Bosworth and Harrison. 188 The Church recalled to the various Asiatic religions; 160 milUons Mohammedan; 5 mUlions Jews ; and 335 millions Christian ; so that, of its inhabitants, one fourth only, even in name, have submitted to Christ ; and this fourth presents to the other three-fourths for their contemplation, example, and imitation, the above aspect of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church ! As surely as the Jews of old failed in showing to the world what God had commissioned them to mani fest concerning Himself and His statutes and ordi nances, that all nations might join themselves to them, to serve and obey Him: so surely has the Christian Church failed to manifest Christ to the rest of mankind, that they might join themselves to it, and serve and obey Him. For these things were needed : one, that the Church should, as one body, manifest to the world the unity, the hohness, the love, the truth, the purity, and the ' righteousness of God manifest in flesh ; another, that they should manifest His indwelling Spirit by the word of wisdom, of knowledge, and of prophecy ; and also His power to overcome Satan, disease, and death. But in all these they have faUed, and for 1500 years no power, comparatively, has been shown. The ecclesiastical authorities have failed in their mis sion to witness for , Christ and to bless men ; so have also the civU governments. A few years ago Donoso Cortes, in the Spanish Senate, endeavoured to bring out the true theory of government ; and his speech attracted the attention of aU Europe. He drew a parallel between the religious and political opinions of men, and showed that there was a strong analogy be tween them. He divided them into four classes, and he her True Standing. 189 attempted to demonstrate the relationship which the political held to the religious, as follows : — Religious. I. Those who believe that there is a God ; that He ia a person ; that He is everywhere present ; that He reigns ; aud that He governs. PoLniOA]:,. Those who believe that there should be a king ; a person ; everywhere present (as it were) by his ofEoers ; who reigna ; and who governa : the autocrat. H. Thoae who believe that there ia a God ; that He ia a person ; that He reigna ; but does not govern all things, but leaves the things He has made to the go vernment of the laws of nature. Those who believe that there should be a king ; a person ; who should reign ; but not govern ; but that the govem ment should be by the ministers of the country : the conatitution- aliat. IH. Thoae who believe that there is a God ; bnt that He is not a person ; but existing in every thing : the pantheist. Those who believe that there ought to be no king ; no person but that rule and government and sovereign authority ia in the people : the republican. Those who believe that there is Those who believe that there no God : the atheist. should be no government at all : the socialist. There was a good deal of truth in what Donoso Cortes thus brought out ; but it came short of the perfect truth, for he himself was not walking in the light of the Catholic Church, but of the Roman ; conse quently his beau-ideal of secular government was analogous to his ideas on ecclesiastical government, namely, a Pope in the Church, an autocrat in the state. 190 The Church recalled to But if he had studied the matter in the light of the Catholic Church, he would have seen that there -wlas another and a better* form than the best of those he mentioned, viz.: — RELiGions. Those who believe that there is a God ; that in the Godhead there are three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit ; the Father indeed a per son, with will supreme ; every where present; reigning, ruling, governing all thinga ; but who, at the aame time, never doea anything without taking counsel with Him who is the "Wisdora of God, His Son Jeaus Ohriat ; who knows all men, their atate, their wants ; and as Almighty God our heavenly Father never does anything without taking counsel with the Son, so in all Hia go vemment of the creatures He hearkena to the voice of Hia Spirit, making known to Him the wants, the groanings, the miseriea of the lowest of Hia aubjects, and alao to the voice of those subjects themselves when they present their petitions unto Him ; and who forces uo man's will; while He punishes the transgressors of His laws. This was 'the true theory of human government, for it was the nearest imitation to the Divine government. This is what Donoso Cortes was groping for, but could Political. Those who believe that there should be a king, whose will should be supreme ; who is everywhere present by his offi cers ; and who governs, as well aa reigna ; whose ministers, by whom he governs, are his minis ters, not the people's ; but who, at the same time, never does, or can do, anything in the kingdom without taking counsel with his counsellors, his peers yet his sub ordinates ; and alao with hia com mons, the representatives and voice of hia subjects ; who also has an ear ever open to the feeblest cry that comes to him from the lowest and meanest of • hia subjects, and a heart to dis cern their wants, even when un- her True Standing. 191 not find. The Churches, properly constructed, were the original model of it. The bishop, ruling indeed, but hearkening to the counsel of his presbyters, and ¦ to the voice of his people in the deacons, and having an open ear to the cry of each individual in the Church. In the kingdoms of the world, the nearest approach to this perfect constitution which men have ever seen, has been, perhaps, in England. The king the secular bishop of his people ; the peers his presbyters ; his deacons the House of Commons. The king's will ruling ; yet controUed - and influenced by these his counsellors, and by the voice of his people; they not able to force his wUl, nor he theirs. They counselling and petitioning that such and such things might be ; and he answering, ff he approved : " Le roi le vent." And, moreover, there were sitting in the council of the elders of the realm, the prelates of the Church, that they might give the light of the Church upon all points ; so that the counsel given might be accordant with the principles of the Christian religion ; and each evening before they proceeded to their deliberations, both peers and commons knelt down and asked God, in the name of Jesus Christ, who is that eternal wisdom by whom only princes rule, and counsellors counsel wisely and well, that He would give them how to counsel the king aright. The theory was the most perfect ever instituted among the nations, for it was the nearest resemblance to God's rule. True, the practical result ever came short of the abstract idea ; still th^re has been in England more per fect rule, combined with more perfect liberty, than in any other kingdom. Other nations tried to imitate it ; but they had not the ingredients. The powerful and 192 The Church recalled to independent Peers and Commons were wanting; and autocrats, or modern constitutionalist monarchies, or re publics, could not do for their countries what the English form of Government had done for England. But even this small approach to the form of good government upon earth is fast disappearing before the advancing waves of that democracy, which in every nation has compelled men to seek the protection of the military despot, and to prefer the rule of one man's vrill to the anarchy and oppression which result from the unruly and uncertain, as well as unjust, will of the multitude. In the first days of the present generation,' it was "the King's Government," "the King's Minis ters," that were"- spoken of by every one ; and men like Chatham and Pitt bent before their sovereign, and ad dressed him in such reverent language as would now be reckoned strange and censurable. A few years passed over ; the spirit of the last days had come in ; and the prime minister of the day did not speak of "the King's Government," but of " My Government ! " A few more years, and the prime minister, although occasionally acknowledging the ministers to be the servants of the Queen, now speaks in the House of ParUament, as if they were " the People's Government," " the People's Ministers ; " and the daUy press declares that they are not the king's ministers, but the people's — not his ser vants, but theirs who pay them, and who dictate to them and to the king ; so that it is no more " Le Roi " (for he can no more say he has a wUl), but " Le Peuple , le vent." And their representatives have clamoured, and at length prevailed, against the wiser counsel of the peers, to make manifest their sin against Christ, by rendering void the prayer that was daUy offered for her True Standing. 193 wisdom in the name of Jesus, by admitting those to take their places in the Parliament who deny His name. The best thing that was upon the earth of earthly rule is failing ; and the lying cry has come up from every side, " Power is from beneath ; power is from the people ;" " Wisdom comes not from God to kings, and through counsellors, but from the people." All the nations are discontented; and the growing weight of debt, and consequent taxation, will render them so still more and more. For the more they with hold their tithes and offerings, the more, as was said by Augustine of old, does "the indictio fisci," the tax- gatherer's schedule, " increase." All forms of earthly legislation and expedience have been tried, and have failed to remedy the evils of humanity, and the in equalities of condition in overflowing wealth and des perate misery. The cry of the oppressed labourer and artisan, and of the poor lost creatures of all ages, "enters into the ears of the Lord," as St James said, " in the James v. last days" it would; and fraud and wrong are so rife, that no man knows whom he can trust, or who wUl betray him next. Yes, the earthly governments have failed as much as the Church has failed. Notwithstanding aU the good both have prevailed to work, and all the evil they have repressed, still the cry of the nations is, from one end of the earth to the other, " Give us a good government — give us good priests ;" " Give us good rulers, and good ministers of reUgion." Then God -will answer them, — to every man according to his ways. To those who kneel down before Him, as Daniel did, confessing d^- i^- their sins, that they have sinned in all the relationships and ordinances of Iffe, as well as their princes, and N 194 The Church recalled to Ps, lxxii. James v. 9. 2 Pet. ii. 10, rulers, and priests, and that they have brought aU this evU on themselves by their departure from God and from His way, there shall come deliverance, and a place in the kingdom, where there shall indeed be good rulers and good priests ; He will answer their cry by sending Him who will come with His saints, and estabUsh good government in the earth. But to the others, who confess not, but who acmse; who '¦'¦grudge," and who " speak evil of dignities ;" who seek not God to raise up good rulers and good priests for them ; but who, laying all the blame of what' is evil upon their rulers, in the pride and rebeUion of their hearts cast down those they have, and choose their own; to such the answer to their cry wiU be, "Antichrist," and "the false Prophet;" and they wUl foUow them, and will say, "Here are the two things we have demanded ; " for " God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie." And why will God do this ? Because they would not receive the truth when it was presented to them. It is because this danger is impending, because, the Deceiver is about to be let loose upon the earth, that God has commenced His work concerning which we speak. Once more ere the Dispensation ceases, and ere the impending judgments burst upon the earth, the Lord restores His true means. His old way of unity and truth, the ordinances of His house ; and He wiU prove His people whether they vwll yield to these or not. It P8,xciv,u, was written of old, "The Lord will not cast off His people, neither wUl He forsake His inheritance. But judgment shall return unto righteousness, and aU the upright in heart shaU follow it." 2 Thess. ii. 11. her Trice Standing. 195 We have given an outline of Babylon's confusion, — confusion in worship, in government, in doctrine, in sacrament, in order, in discipline, in everything. The Church is one vast mass of confusion, and disorder, and strife. Let us now look at the contrast the Word of God presents to our eyes. He has oome to our help, and aU this is healed. The Woman is seen ; but it is no more the Harlot of Babylon, the Mother of confusion, but " the Woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under Rev. xii. her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars;" the Church clothed with Ught, guided by apostles, and walking in the ordinances of heaven; the mother of " the man-chUd who is to rule the nations," that body of men, the children of God, who are about to be caught up to rule and reign with Christ. We have already given a sketch of the various steps whereby this work, of which we now speak, has taken form and order. Let us recapitulate them. The Lord began by putting it into the hearts of His people to study the Prophetic Scriptures, and by that means gave them to see the long-obscured truth con cerning the coming and kingdom of Jesus Christ, and that the time of it drew near. This led to the percep tion of the unprepared condition of the Church to meet her coming Lord. Then men were stirred up to pray, not knowing perfectly what they were asking for, for the restoration of the manifested presence of the Holy Ghost, and the promised Latter Rain, which is to ripen the corn before the harvest. The answer was, that the Spirit began again to speak in tongues and prophecy, as in days of old. The people thus speaking in the Spirit were made, stUl not knowing what they were asking 196 The Church recalled to for, to caU for "a body," a united body; and for apostles, and to declare that the Lord could not work except in and by a body. And then the Lord desig nated men for the apostolic office, and in the manifested power of the Holy Spirit made these men do apostolie acts, such as ordaining, &c. ; and, giving them the gifts of apostles in wisdom and knowledge, set them in the body. He also gave the other ministries of prophet, evangehst, and pastor ; showing to the apostles at the same time, by means of the light of prophecy upon the types and symbols of the Old Testament, especially upon those of the tabernacle in the wilderness, as the true type of the Christian Church in the present dis pensation, the right form and order of the Church itself, and of all its worship and service. And thus all things are in progress to be restored, and put into their proper places.* It is not to be supposed that all these things were brought out and set in order -vsdthout much difficulty and many struggles. The Lord had many lessons to teach His Church, and the painful experiences we have gone through were necessary, not only for ourselves, but for the whole Church. For see what men are doing now, not knowing what they are doing, as we did not when this work began ; everywhere in these and other lands, perhaps soon to be followed by all Christian people, men are, with bended knees and uplifted hands, urging the Alnughty to send down the Holy Ghost and the latter rain. If the answer comes to their prayers, ¦* And this ia the true sign of apoatleship. It is a great mistake to suppose that the designation of certain men aa apostles by tlie Word of prophecy, is the only ground upon whioh the fact of the restoration of apostles to the Church is made to rest. her True Standing. ] 97 they would, without apostles, not know what to do with it. Were the prayers answered according to the desire in every sect, men and women would be found prophesying, not according to the analogy of the Catho- Rom. xU. lie faith, but according to the faith of the sect; and the rendings of the body would be fiercer than ever. And besides this, every false prophet and evU spirit would enter in and increase the confusion. AVithout apostles and the other proper ministers under them, to discern between good and evU, between true and false spirits, and to rule and guide the spiritual vessels, our experience has taught us that the result must be most disastrous. Therefore has God in mercy made us go through all we have experienced, and brought us safely to the haven, that, having learned the needful wisdom, we may be ready to be a guide and help to others. The peculiar gift of the apostleship is not that of miracles, of priesthood, or of teaching, — these things others share with apostles, — but their peculiar gift is the -wisdom to combine in one all things in the Scripture and in the Church, and to hold them in unity. The symbol of the hand signifies their place in the body; they are the right hand of Jesus, by which He guides the chariot of the Church. They only can hold together in unity the diverse ministries of ruler, and prophet, and evangelist, and pastor, who without them would be like the four horses of a chariot -with their bridles off, straining in different directions, as is too plainly seen in all Christendom. In matters of doctrine, it belongs to their office to combine and reconcUe, without com promise or neutraUsation, the various and apparently conflicting statements in Scripture, which iu the absence of apostles have rent the Church in pieces. So also is Tim. ii, 1. 198 The Church recalled to it their peculiar gfft, in the matter of words of pro phecy, to combine those words which are spoken at diverse times and in diverse places, and whieh at first sight might appear contradictory, and to make an har monious whole out of them. To make ourselves under stood, we shall give an instance of this. Two words in prophecy came the same day, one in London, the other at Oxford, both having reference to the services in the Tabernacle as types of the services in the Christian Church, one of which said : " The way to enter the house and upon the service of God was with a song, and then to offer prayers, suppUcations, intercessions, and thanksgi-vings." The other word said : " The way of the Lord for us in entering His house and on His worship, was to kneel do-wn, and to confess, and this to be followed by the word of absolution." When these two words were brought before the ministers, they were perplexed, and they said they were contradictory, When they were brought to the apostle, he at once pointed out that one had reference to the service of the brazen altar in the outer court of the Tabernacle, on which the burnt-offerings were offered, and which was the service preliminary to the priests going into the holy place ; and that the other word had reference to the service of the golden altar in the inner and holy place, into which the priests entered -with a psalm, on which altar were offered the four ingredients of which the incense was compounded, the types of the prayers, supplications, intercessions, and thanksgiving offered in the Christian Church. And it thus appeared that the two words were not only reconcUable, but that it was absolutely necessary to combine them both together, putting each in its proper place, and so the true order , her True Standing. 199 of God's worship would be rightly conducted ; the preh minary service being confession and absolution, which is followed by entrance into God's presence with a psalm, after which are offered the prayers of the Church. The old dislike to apostolic rule which was exhibited in the primitive Church, as appears in the books of the New Testament, we may be sure is still in us all ; and a chief difficulty has consisted in the struggle against this latent dislike. We are not different from other men ; and nothing has shown more the goodness of God, and the truth of the apostolic gift of wisdom, than in His being able to bring out of all the confusion occasioned by ignorance and -wilfulness, the order and beauty of His house, which He has again established. Let us now give some account of the result of the Lord's proceedings with us : — The principal points of dispute that have rent the Church are — the order and way of Church Government, the order of Worship, the Sacraments, and, lastly. Doc trine, especially that of Justification. In the restoration which has been effected by God, we find these things set right ; that which was deficient supplied ; that -which was wrongly added removed; that which was cut off renewed ; that which was confused put in right form and place and order; that which was held in opposition reconcUed. Not that we would be under stood as asserting that these things are fully accom plished, or that we have attained to perfection; — far /rom it. Doubtless there yet remains much to be done, for "the sins of many generations iie sore upon us," and the accumulated evils produced by them are not to be remedied in a day. But let us state, as briefly as possible, what we have 200 The Church recalled to attained to ; and it wUl be seen how the hand of God has been with us in accomplishing what has been done in regard to the points which have so rent the Church ; and how one step in the progress of this work of God has led on to another. The revival of the word of prophecy and of other gffts in the Church has led to the restoration of the ordinances of Light and Government ; and the result of the restoration of these has been the setting 'in order of Churches, and the recovery of the right forms of wor ship, and of all things appertaining to the house and service of God. One of the chief means employed in gi-ving us in struction on the due form and order of God's house and worship, has been by the word of prophecy throwing light upon the symbols and types of the Old Testament, and especially on those of the Tabernacle, in its con struction, and in all its ministries, vessels, altars, sacri- flces, and services ; showing us that the Tabernacle was a type of the Church with its order and services. One great excuse for the darkness that overspreads Christendom, is the ignorance that exists as to the" meaning of the Old Testament Scriptures. No man can understand the New Testament as he ought, unless he study and understand the Old. Vetere Testamenta Novum latet; Novo Testamento Vetus patet. Errors of every description are committed in ignorance, because men neglect the Old Testament. And the ignorance of, God's purpose as to the kingdom, and aU that, apper tains to it, has also chiefly proceeded from this neglect. Now, once more, the Lord teaches us all things con- Luke xxiv. cerning Christ out of the Law, the Prophets, and the her True Standing. 201 Psalms ; not only concerning Christ personal, but also Christ mystical, — His body, the Church. Every part of the Old Testament is a type ; and all the contents of its books are a series of types of Christ, and of the history of the Christian Church, and these require the teaching of God's Holy Spirit to be under stood. When understood, they are found to be an inexhaustible store of instruction in all the things of God, a well of wisdom, a " light unto the path, and a lamp to the feet" of His servants. In order to open the meaning of these types, the gift of prophecy and the ministry of the prophet are absolutely needed in the Church. When that ministry is quenched, darkness on the meaning of the types aud symbols necessarily ensues. And it is chiefly because of the absence of the light of prophecy that we find such blundering and frivolities in the writings of the Fathers, in their endeavours to interpret these portions of Scripture, as well as in the works of all modeirn commentators. And if we now, in the Churches which God has instructed in these last days, can say without lying. We " understand more than the' ancients," it is ps. cxix. not because of any wisdom of our own, but because God has restored, in prophets and apostles, the ordi nances of light and wisdom. Among the typical portions of the Old Testament there is one that attracts attention more than any other, and that is the description of the Tabernacle of Moses, with all its furniture and services. It must strike every observant reader of the Holy Scriptures, that while the history of the creation of the world is contained in two chapters, and only once Gen. i. 2. stated, the description of the Tabernacle takes up 202 The Church recalled to many chapters, and is four times repeated -with the most scrupulous minuteness; thus testifying that the things typified by the Tabernacle must, in the eyes of God, be of infinitely more importance than even the creation of the world itself. It is when we comprehend the antitype, that we comprehend also the importance' of the type. A tabernacle is a place to dwell in ; and the Taber nacle of Moses was a type of the dwelUng-place of God, ieven a type of Christ, and His body the Church. Col. ii. 9. " In Him dwelleth aU the fulness of the Godhead John ii.19, bodily ; " " destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up: . . . but He spake of the temple of His Rev. xxi. 22. body ; " "I saw no temple therein: but God and the 1 Cor. iii, 16. Lamb are the temple thereof;" "ye are the temple Eph. ii. 22. of God;" "an habitation of God through the Spirit;" Rev. xxi. 3. "and the - tabernacle of God shall be with men, and He shall dwell with them." The Tabernacle in the -wilderness was a type of the Church during its passage through this wilderness world in the present dispen sation; the Temple was a type of the Church when finally completed and established in the kingdom in the ' world about to come. The Tabernacle and the Temple were not only places for God to dwell in, but also wherein He was to be worshipped, according to a certain form and order. Moses was commanded to make the Tabernacle after the pattern of things he saw in the mount. The Church is the unage of those things: both the repre sentation of what Christ is doing, and the means where by He carries out on earth what He is doing in heaven for us. The Tabernacle was a type of those things; her True Standing. 203 the Church is the antitype of what the Tabernacle typified. No longer are Christ and His offices typified to us by boards, and pillars, and curtains, and bullocks, and lambs, and goats ; but He and His offices are imaged to us by li-ving men, who, in the power of the Holy Ghost, and according to a definite and appointed order prefigured to us by the rites of the Tabernacle, are doing on the earth the very things Christ is doing for us in the heavens. Understanding this, we at once see the importance of knowing the true meaning of the Tabernacle, not only as a whole, and as generally a type of the Church, but also as to every part of it, even to its minutest detaUs. It, the type of the dwelUng-place of the Most High, and the place of His worship ! We, the Church, the antitype of it, the reality of it ! How awful is the thought! How anxious should we be to examine, first the type in every part, and then the antitype, to see whether we, the Church, are answering to that type in every part. The Tabernacle and its furniture were Heb. ix. the shadows of good things to come ; we, the Church, are the substance of them. Does the substance answer to the shadow? If not, the error must be serious indeed. It has been by opening to us the true meaning of all parts of the Tabernacle, that God has given us to see and feel how far the Church had departed from His ways; and also has enabled us to set things right, so far as they have been set right. And, having thus restored the true form of His Church, and of all the services thereof, He sets the churches thus formed as a model and a pattern to aU the 204 The Church recalled to churches of Christendom, that they may be reformed according to that model. It is the measure of His Tabernacle; and it shaU measure and cut off every Church that will not conform Zech, V, 2-4. itself to it. It shall enter into the house* of the thief who has robbed God, and taken away from His Word, and from Him, the things that were His due in His worship, and the means of sustaining that worship; and also into the house of those that have added to His institutions, and sworn falsely by His name that Isa, xxxiv. their additions were the ways of God ; those who re- 8 ; xlviii. 1. ,1 fuse His true rule, and those who usurp and claim, falsely, rule in His name ; those that worship the host of heaven (the saints) upon the house-tops ; and those Zeph. i. 5, 6. who swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcham (the king). It is terrible to think of, whether we look at Greek, Roman, or Protestant, and see how they aU exceed or come short of that true measure of the house of God. We have said that the old order was restored: for the universal Church, apostles to rule the whole ; pro phets, through whom God gives light upon His Word, and in questions of difficulty; evangelists, to proclaim the kingdom, and to gather unto apostles those who seek to be made ready for it ; and pastors and teachers to prepare the gathered as the body of Christ for that kingdom, to the throne of which they are caUed: and for the particular churches, angels to preside and over see ; with an ordained presbytery to counsel them, and to assist in their oversight of the churches, both of priests and people ; and priests of every grade to help them in the tending of the flocks committed to their * A house ia the symbol of a churoh. her True Standing. 205 charge ; and with the deaconship restored to all its functions, preaching indeed the Gospel, and attending as ministers at the altar of God, but also, and chiefly, collecting and managing the offerings of the people, and caring for them in all their wants, distresses, and afflictions, leaving none to perish or to pine away, unpitied, unheeded, or alone. Oh, if the nations of Christendom had but preserved the Lord's order in His Churches, and the deaconship in its integrity, and brought their tithes and offerings to His house, how different would be the condition of the lost, the ruined, the despairing, desperate, and dying myriads in our streets and alleys ! The churches constituted under the angels and minis ters are limited to reasonable bounds, so that the angel, priests, and deacons can know the personal condition of each member of the flocks ; and the angels are not independent and disunited, neither do they presume to take upon themselves to anathematise one another, nor does one take authority over the rest ; but they are held together in the right hand of Jesus, namely. His apostleship; and receive unity and truth from and through it, the appointed ordinance of God for that very end; while the priests and people receive unity and truth through their angels, the appointed ordinance of God to them ; these two separate orders of ministries, in the universal and the particular Churches, being symbol ised by the cherubim and the seraphim, and forming the covering of the -wings of the Almighty, by which He shields His Church, and in whom the true order of Church government is restored. God changeth not. In all times He rideth upon the cherubim; by them He draws near to men, and men 206 The Church recalled to draw near to Him. And whether by them seen at the Gen, iii. 24. gate of Eden ; by the typical form of them in the Taber- Ezek.i. nacle and in the Temple; by the vision of them in Rev. iv. 7. Ezekiel ; or the living image and reality of them in the Eph. iv. 11. Church, -viz., the four ministries of Christ, — it is from between them He speaks to men, and by them men, in their pubUc services, worship and speak to Him. Nothing has -witnessed more to the early departure from the ways of God in the Church, than the ignorance that has prevailed as to the true signification of the cherubim; such as the various attempts to interpret them arbitrarily, as signifying the four EvangeUste, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John ; or that they repre sent only angelic beings ; or that they are symbohc of attributes of God ; or of the four elements of creation, Now, whatever partial truth there may be in any of these several applications, what concerns man and the Church is that the cherubim, in the Tabernacle and the Temple, in the vision of Ezekiel, and in the four hving creatpres in the throne, as shown in Revelation, are not primarUy symbohc of angelic beings, or of abstract attributes, or of bygone evangelists, but of the four ministries, as exhibited in living men, the symbols and channels of Christ's presence and of Christ's grace to us ; viz., the lion, the symbol of the ministry of nfle^- the apostleship ; the eagle, the symbol of the ministry of the prophet, because it soars up into the light, and gazes into the depths of heaven ; the man, the symbol of the evangehst ministry, which speaks to man as his feUow, and lea-sdng higher mysteries to be taught by others, addresses his reason ajad his understanding, speaking the first elements of truth ; and the ox, the symbol of the pastorship, that ministry which daily her True Standing. 207 treads out the corn of the Word of God for the people, i cor. ix. 9. patiently going its daily rounds among them. Such is the true meaning of the cherubim. That they are ministries fulfilled by men is clear from this, that they join in the song of the redeemed from every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and lead the worship of the Church, and are in the midst of the throne, where no Rev. iv. e. angel can be, and are among the kings and priests who shall reign upon the earth. The mystery of the seraphim differs from these ; they symbolise the ministry of the angels of the particular Churches. Without losing sight of the ministry of the holy angels, we can say, in reference to the ministers of isa. vi. Christ, " Under the shadow of Thy wings do we take ps. ivu. 1. our refuge ;" and, " God wUl cover us with His feathers, ps. xci. 4. and under His -wings (those of the cherubim and the Matt. xxiu. seraphim) shall we trust;" and so shall -we be kept from the snare of the fowler which is about to be set for all them that dwell on the face of the earth ; and from the noisome pestilence, from the lies of the Beast and the false Prophet already so often spoken of in these pages. Many parties in the Church, when told that they have fallen into error, endeavour to reply by saying it is impossible, for has not Christ promised " to be with His Church unto the end of the age," and .that " He would send His Holy Spirit to be present with her to guide her into aU truth," and that " the gates of Hades should not prevail against her ? " Doubtless the Lord has been faithful to His promise and to His word ; but let it be remembered what we said on pages 29, 30, that in everything done in the Church the Lord works by means of some thing or some person that symbolises 208 The Church recalled to what He is doing. Whatever measure of ministration of the cherubim has been retained in the Church, by that has Christ in that measure been present -with her ; but whatever of the ministries has been lacking, neces sarily by so much His presence for guiding has been lacking also. If apostles have not been present with His Church, neither has Christ's presence as Apostle been with her ; if prophets have been wanting, so has His presence as Prophet. She cannot have the presence of her Lord in any specific manner, without those ministers who are the symbols of Him in that specific office. As she cannot have the presence of His body and His blood without the bread and without the cup, and as she cannot have His presence as Bishop and as Priest without a bishop and a priest, no more can she have His presence as Apostle and Prophet without these ordinances. How strange it is, that men wiU maintain what is at variance equally with common sense and with what is plainly revealed ! In as far as the Church has forfeited any of the ministries, which are symbolised by 1 Cor. xii. the hands and feet and other members of a man's body, is her condition analogous to that of a famUy, the head and master of which continues indeed to be present -with them, but who, being deprived of some of his principal members, cannot be of the same service to them and minister ta their help and blessing as before he was so maimed. So it is with the family of our blessed Lord, the Church. He was present. He is present, and He vfdU be present with her to the end of the age, according to His most true promise. He was present with her at the beginning in the fulness of aU His ministries; but she first lost the apostleship. His guiding right hand, and then prophets, who are as the eyes to His mystical 21 her True Standing. 209 body ; and then she boasted falsely, that she had His presence as perfectly as ever. Truly, He has been with her in every ordinance she has retained, — ^in bishop, and in priest, and in sacraments ; but she has not had His presence in the ordinances that have been lacking, and which are exactly those that would have kept her from error and division. The blessed Spirit of truth has indeed been with her, but He could not guide her' into all truth, when the ministries for guiding into truth were absent, and His gifts quenched. So the gates of Hades cannot prevail against her, for the ordinances of life, the Word and the Sacraments, have been with her, and preserved her from death ; but to the translation she has not attained, for the ministries that would have brought her to that have not been present for Christ to work by. But again the lacking members of the body reappear ; and now that He has once more begun to work through them, He will not cease till He has accomplished His purpose of bringing His Church to the resurrection and translation, the Church's blessed hope. Intimately connected with this subject of Church government is that of Tithes as a pro-vision for the priesthood. It has pleased God to de-wse a way whereby His priests shall be provided for through man, and yet be indebted to no man, nor be dependent on any; and that is, by retaining to Himself, when He gave the earth to man, the tenth of its produce, and bestowing that tenth upon His ministers, that they might serve Him without hindrance. Tithes did not come in by the law of Moses. There are certain things that were instituted from the beginning that came not in by the Law, and 0 210 The Church recalled to Gen. ii. 3 ; did uot go out with the Law ; among these are the xxviii. 22. keeping of the seventh day, and tithes. A.braham and Jacob did not invent the payment of tithes, but knew they were God's portion. Both the keeping of the seventh day as the Lord's day, and the paying of a tenth to the Lord, are signs that men are believing in and looking for the coming kingdom, — the seventh day pointing forwards to the millennial rest, and the pay ment of the tenth of their substance being the acknow ledgment that the Lord is King of all the earth, as shall be manifested in that day, and is also the recognition Heb. vii. of the Melchisedec Priesthood of Christ. These are the two things which the spirit of the Last Days has specially assailed. " Abolish the seventh day, and tum the week into a decade, or keep no day at all ; and abolish tithes," — is the cry of the spirit of rebellion against- the Lord. The seventh day is the Lord's, and the tithes are the Lord's ; and in , the restoration which He has effected. He has shown us that the way of provision for the clergy is by every one bringing the tithe of his income, however obtained, and not that derived from land only, as an offering to Him. And this should not be enforced by a law, or paid openly, so that any should know what another offers ; but deposited at the chnrch door, so that it shall remain entirely a matter of con science between each man and God. And the funds thus collected are distributed, not arbitrarily, but ac cording to fixed rules, by the angels and deacons under the direction of the apostles. And thus the priests of every grade, freed from all dependence upon the favour of princes, the endowments of the wealthy, or .the caprice of the people, are provided for by the her True Standing. 211 V Lord from His portion, which none have any right to withhold from Him. The tithes are not for the provision of the poor of the flock; the congregation provide for them by weekly offerings, made also at the church door ; so that no man shall see what any other brings, and thus the left hand knows not what the right hand doeth. The funds so coUected are distributed by the deacons, so that the poor are saved from the necessity of cringing to any one, and receive also their help from the Lord. We have used the word " Priest ; " and it is needful in these days of evil to vindicate the use of that ap pellation, for in Protestant countries the office has come to be well-nigh altogether denied. " There is no priesthood in the Christian Church," is a, common assertion. But this will not stand examination. If there be no priesthood in the Church, then the Lord cannot act in it as a priest, according to the principle already laid down, that He does not act in any capacity except through a man representing Him in it. But the Lord is a Priest, and acts in the Church as such, both from God to the people, and from the people towards God ; therefore there are priests in the Chris tian Church, through whom He fulfils His priesthood. The Lord Jesus Christ, as Head of His body, the Church, does aU that is truly done in it by the Holy Ghost. He is the Priest after the order of Melchisedec ; and He offers in and by His Church continual worship and sacrifice to God. Whatever is done by the Church, or by individuals in it, towards God, is a priestly act, is a sacrifice, and sacrifices are offered by priests. Sacrifice is not limited to the shedding of blood. Jesus ¦Christ offered Himseff as a Sacrifice aU His Iffe, " an Eph. v. 2, Heb. xiii, Rom. xii. 212 The Church recalled to offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet-smeUing savour," as well as the bleeding sacrifice ou the cross, 1 Pet. ii. 9. " Ye are," St Peter says, " a royal priesthood," i.e., of the order of Melchisedec, because ye are one with 1 Pet. ii. 5. Christ, " to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." Whatsoever ye do, therefore, is a sacrifice {6vg!a) offered in the Spirit to God. If a, man offers praise to God, it is a sacrifice, the fruit of his lips ; ff he offers himself, it is a sacrifice ; and when the congregation meet together to worship God, it is a sacrifice; when the body of the faithful are gathered together in the house of God, and offer to Him them selves, their money, their prayer, their praise, it is a sacrifice to God. But although every baptized man is of the royal priesthood, as wUl be seen hereafter in the kingdom, yet every baptized man is not ordained and appointed to perform the priestly functions of the public ministry of the house of God ; only those caUed and ordained to that office can legitimately do so. And these men are priests ; they offer up to God the sacrifices of the Christian Church; they stand at the altar and minister thereat ; they are the living symbols of the presence of Christ as a Priest in His Church ; and they perform priestly functions and acts both from Christ, who mmisters by them to the people, in ordaining, absol-ring, blessing, &c., and from the people towards God in prayers and suppUcations, &c., and especially in conse crating and offering the Holy Eucharist. Why was a deacon, although an ordained minister, never permitted in the Christian Church, from its earUest day, to con secrate the Holy Eucharist, to pronounce the absolution, or the blessing, except that these are priestly acts, and only can be done by a priest, Christ mmistering as a Priest by him? her True Standing. 213 There is a Christian priesthood, and there is a Chris tian altar, at which none have a right to eat who serve the Tabernacle (the Jew), or the altar of devUs (the Heb. xiii. lo. heathen), but only those who are of the royal priest- ^ hood ; and none have a right to minister as priests at that altar, but those who are called of God and ordained thereto. If priesthood depended only upon having bloody sacrifices to offer, how shall we be all priests, as well as kings, in the kingdom after the resurrection ? And as there are a priesthood and an altar, so also there are manifold sacrifices in the services of the Chris tian Church, each one of which had its type under the Law. The services of the brazen altar, and of the golden altar ; the morning and evening sacrifice ; the candlestick ; the table of show-bread ; the feasts of the Sabbath, of the Passover, of the day of Pentecost, of the day of atonement, of the trumpets, and of taber nacles, — all have their antitypes, their double, in the weekly and daily services of the Church, and in her feasts and fasts, to enter into which would require a volume of itself. But we must speak on one subject connected with sacrifice, because it has occasioned a wide breach in the Christian Church, and is causing much controversy in both the Church of England and the Episcopalian Church of Scotland, viz., the nature of the sacrifice offered to God in the Holy Eucharist. Unhappily the sinful perversions and errors on one side, have induced those on the other to deny the truth in this matter altogether. On one hand it is asserted that the sacrifice in the Holy Eucharist is " a repeti tion, a continuance, a renewal " of the sacrifice offered upon the cross by our Lord Jesus Christ, and, there- 214 The Church recalled to fore, that it is a sin-offering, an expiatory sacrifice; and, on the other hand, it is maintained that in the Eucharist there is no sacrifice to God at all, but only a partaking of the consecrated bread and wine in memory of Christ's death and passion. But the earUest records of the Christian Church show that it was ever held by her, that in the Holy Eucharist there was offered unto God a memorial, a representation of Christ's Passion ; and that in presenting unto Him the consecrated sym bols of Christ's body and blood, there was a continually Liturgy. renewed representation made to Him of that "full, per fect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world," " once offered upon the cross, once for all;" impossible to be ever either re peated, continued, or renewed ; the alohe atonement for sin ; the alone sin-offering ; the alone expiation for sin; beside which not all the sufferings of men on the earth, nor the torments of eternity, can expiate sin. Therefore the lifting up of this memorial before God, this mode of bringing before His eyes the precious death of His Son, was reckoned the special sacrifice of the Chris tian Church. And when Trypho the Jew reproached Justin Martyr that the Church had no sacrifice, " and who ever heard, from the beginning of the world," he said, "that ever any man could come before God without a sacrifipe, and you have none ; " Justin did not reply, as too many a modern Protestant would, by saying, Christ abolished all sacrifices ; but he said. Just, Mart, u You err ; we have a sacrifice. The prophets showed Trypho. beforehand that God would aboUsh your bloody sacri- flces ; and that the Christian Church should, instead thereof, offer to Him the Eucharistical bread and the Eucharistical cup ; . . . that bread which our Christ her True Standing. 215 hath commanded us to offer in remembrance of His being made flesh for the sake of those who should believe in Him, and on whose account he was made capable of suffering ; and that cup which He com manded those that celebrate the Eucharist to offer in memorial of His blood. . . . Aud God beforehand de clares, in Malachi i. 11, that all those who, through His name, offer those sacrifices which Jesus Christ com manded to be offered by Christians in every part of the world, in the sacrament of bread and -wine, are accept able to Him. But your (the Jews') offerings, and the offering of your priests. He despiseth." The denial of this primitive tradition, or the per verting it into the figment of an expiatory sacrifice, proceeds from not keeping in mind that whatever our Lord is doing in heaven, absolutely and personally. He is also doing on earth, by means of His Church, symboli cally, though spirituaUy and really. In heaven He appears not as the Lamb being slain, not dying, not hanging upon a cross, but as the Lamb {oig IcKpayp/ivov) " that had been slain ; " ever appearing before God for us, and presenting to Him that body once slain, but now alive for evermore; and that blood, not being shed, but which was shed once for all, in continual memorial to God on our behalf. It is an utter denial of the symbol of the day of atonement to say, that Lev, xvi, when the high priest is gone within the veil the victim is being slain, or that its blood is being continually shed instead of being carried within the veU and sprinkled before the mercy-seat. So on earth in His Church, where what is transacted is the image to us of what is doing in heaven, Christ is not offering a repetition, a continuance, a renewal of the sacrifice on the cross. 216 The Church recalled to 1 but the bread and -wine, over which the words have been pronounced, " This is My body ; this is My blood," and which so have become before God, and to us, the sacramental body and blood of Christ, of the Lamb, once slain, but now filled with life and power for ever more. The Church does on earth, in His name, the spiritual double of what He is doing in heaven, pre senting the memorial of His passion to God His Father; and then recei-ving from Him that which we offer, " we Ignatius. partake of the altar ; " we eat that flesh, and drink that blood of Jesus Christ, " unto remission of sin and unto eternal life ; " showing forth in the whole transaction the Lord's death in the eyes of God, of angels, and of men, " until He come." And as long as this sacrifice is offered unto God on the earth, so long will His judgments be stayed; and when the daily sacrifice is made to cease, and the abomi nation that maketh desolate is set up instead, then will that wrath come forth which is stayed as long as the representation and memorial of the sacrifice of Christ is held up in intercession for man before his justly- offended Maker. Little do the Protestant Churches know the mischief they have done by abolishing this important portion of the Eucharistical service ; and little do they think how much the Church and the world owe to the preservation of the offering of the sacrifice in the Greek and Roman Churches ; for, how ever much these Churches have perverted and obscured the true meaning of it, they could not alter its real character in the sight of God. On the other hand, little do the Roman Catholics know the mischief they have done by their false teaching concerning this rite to their people ; causing them to return to bondage. her True Standing. 217 and to the offering an expiatory sacrifice for sin ; cover ing, thereby, the altar with lamentations, and beating of the breast, and tears ; instead of the Eucharistic sacrifice, the thankful memorial of " one sacrifice for sin done for ever," through which the forgiveness of all sin comes upon them continually, and through which they have a good conscience in drawing near to God, and are Heb. x. lo, " perfected for ever." And not only is it a most important point, that the symbols of the saving passion of Christ, after ha-ving been lifted up before God at the consecration of the holy elements, should be laid on His altar as a memorial before Him, and then distributed for the communion of the faithful ; but it is also right that a portion reserved should be always there, on that altar, pleading ever eloquently, though sUently with God; for which end, at each public service of intercession in the Church they should be speciaUy presented before Him ; and means would thus exist for occasional communion at proper times throughout the week, and for sending the sacra ment, by the hands of the ministers, to the sick and the infirm. Therefore, if it be right to have the holy symbols always on the altar before God, then, to pre vent desecration of them when no one remains in the church, it is needful that some receptacle to cover them be placed on the altar, whether such receptacle be called a tabernacle, or by any other name. This the Roman CathoUcs have preserved, but, as they deprive their communicants of one necessary half of the Holy Sacra ment, so do they, in their reservation, and the conser vation of it on the altar, take away from before the eyes of God the (we wiU not say most important) all- important symbol of the pardon-speaking blood, crying 218 The Church recalled to Heb. xii. to heaveu for better things than that of Abel. The Luke xxii. body wMch was given for us, and offered for us, is Heb. X. 10. indeed there, but the precious " blood of the New Testa- Matt, xxvi. ment, which was shed for many for the remission of Heb ix. 22. sins," and " without which there is no remission," is withdrawn, both from the tabernacle, and from the communion of the Church, and withheld from the sick and the dying. But no wonder they take away that which principally symbolises a sin-offering completed, when they are for ever immolating and offering a new sin-offering. While upon this subject of the oblation of the sym bols of the Passion, we think it right, not for the pur pose of controversy, but to remove all stumbling-blocks, to observe, that the falsehood of transubstantiation has iren^usadv. no place here. With the Church of old we believe and Origen : ' say, " The Eucharist consists of two parts ; one ter restrial, the other celestial." " The material of bread remains in the element consecrated by the Word of Theodoret God." " The mystic symbols depart not from their own nature; they remain in their former substance." Chrysostom. "After the consecration, the natural substance of the Geiasius elements remains." And -vnth Pope Gelasius, "The Manich. sacraments which we take of the body and blood of Christ are a Divine thing, by reason of which, and by means of the same, we are made partakers of the Divine nature ; and yet the substance of the bread and wine does not cease to be." And with the same Ibid. Pope we say : " The dismemberment of the sacrament (by not receiving of the cup) is a huge sacrilege." While, unhappUy, oue division of the Church says "there is no bread, and there is no wine," and the other, " there is no body, and no blood," we, with the her True Standing. 219 Church in all generations, hold that there are two parts in a sacrament, the outward and visible sign, and the inward and spiritual reality; and that, in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, the bread and -wine are the outward part or sign, and that the inward part, or the things signified, are the body and blood of the Lord.* We find throughout the Church contentions as to the various oblations that ought to be made to God in this service. In the ritual as now set in order all these are found, each in its proper place : — 1st, The offering of our substance to the service of God, by depositing at the proper place appointed, named as of old the table of prothesis, the tithes and offerings, and the bread and wine intended to be used in the Holy Sacrament. 2d, The oblation of ourselves, body, soul, and spirit, to God, when the bread and -wine are placed on the altar to be consecrated, to become to us the body and blood of the Lord ; in order that we also, by partaking of the same, may be consecrated to the service of God; and this accompanied with the prayer of offertory. M, The oblation of praise and thanksgi-ving in the preface, according to the ecclesiastical season. Ath, The oblation of the holy body and blood, after the words of consecration. And lastly, A renewed dedica tion of ourselves, in the post-communion prayer, after having received the Holy Communion, accompanied ¦* The great cause of much of the miachievoua discussions and divisions that have taken place iu the Church on this sacred and awful subject, has been the attempt made to define and explain this mystery — the quo modo — instead of being content to state it as a fact, as our Lord Himself and His Apoatlea did. And theae attempts, on the one hand, to deiine a mystery that cannot be defined, have led, on the other, to the rejection of myatery altogether. 220 The Church recalled to -with a prayer that we may walk worthy of what we have received. In every other liturgy in Christendom the Eucharistic service is confused and curtailed, or erroneous matter has been added ; but the service is now put in proper order ; that which in the lapse of ages has been left out is restored ; that which has been erroneously added has been removed. While treating of priesthood and its various functions, we may notice that the proper vestments wherein to officiate in the Lord's house have ever been one of the points of contention and strife. Save in a few of the smaller sects, the whole Church agrees that some vestment is fitting, and that it is not decent for men to minister in the house of God in their ordinary clothes. With the exception of the Presby terians, who have adopted the black Geneva gown, and who have also done away with the altar, also excepting others who use the doctor's black gown for preachmg (forgetting that preaching is also a ministry for Christ), the Church has always rightly decided that white is the proper colour of the garment of the ministers of Christ. But the Church of England has, in her opposition to Rome, discarded the Alb of the Catholic Church, and adopted the deacon's surplice for priests; making no distinction between the vestment of the priest and of the deacon. The Greek and Roman Churches retain the old alb and girdle, and cope, and chasuble, and stole for the priests, although they differ somewhat in the form of them. In the restoration of order in the Lord's house, as vestments form no intrinsic part of worship, being only a matter of propriety, there has been no special Ught given as to what their form should be; her True Standing. 221 there was therefore but one course to adopt, which was to take such as have been handed down as in use in the Catholic Church, appointing to each ministry its proper dress : to the deacon his surplice, to the priest his alb, to the ruler his cope (the sign of rule), to the priest officiating at the Eucharist the chasuble, and to each minister the stole (the symbol of subjection to Christ), of the colour indicating the order of ministry to which he appertains. It is not only unbefitting the dignity and reverence of God's house and service to minister before Him in everyday garments, but, besides, this would be out of keeping with the other symbolical things in the service of that house. As it would not be right, without some light from the Lord, to invent any new dresses, those already in use in the Church had to be continued, each symbolising the place and office of the diverse ministers, the practice being especially re tained, that every man who ministers before God shall be clothed in a white garment, as a sign that men do not stand before Him in their own righteousness, but in the righteoustiess of Jesus Christ, covered by which alone can they appear in His presence. This leads us to another point, that of symbolism, as used in the worship of Almighty God, but which is repudiated by one part of the Church altogether, and by another is carried to an exaggerated and inconvenient extent, and frequently confounded with what is sacra mental, and even alleged to be so. But the Symbolic is not necessarily the Sacramental ; for though there Dujandus. cannot be a Sacrament -without a symbol, there may be a symbol without anything sacramental. A , symbol is a sign, but a mere symbol conveys no spiritual grace. A symbol is simply a means of expressing, silently and 222 The Church recalled to shortly, that which would require a long time and many words to express in language. A shipwrecked man on a raft who sees a sail approaching waves a white cloth, and that little act tells to those on board all the history of his misfortune, and all he stands in need of. And though some profess to abjure symbolism, they really do use it, — they kneel to express God's sovereignty and their abasement ; they stand to praise, because He has lifted them up ; they put on a white robe as ministers of Christ, or a black one as grave and learned teachers. Indeed, everything that is done in the Church is sym bolical, and symbolically expresses certain things pro ceeding from God to us, or from us to God. The Church, therefore, has liberty to continue the use of such things as were given from God Himself from ancient days as symbols to be used in His worship, and which have never been forbidden by Him. Therefore are her priests clothed in white, to express that they appear in the righteousness of Christ, and are covered by it. Lights are used to express in continual, though silent, language to God and man, that Jesus Christ alone is the light of men, and the Author and Giver of all Ught in the Church. Incense is burned to express that we trust in Christ's intercession alone for acceptance of all our ser-vices;* and also our faith that the Holy Ghost Rom. viii. is " making intercession for us with groanings which Heb. vii. 26. cannot be uttered." These are not the essentials of worship, but the fitting accompaniments of it. The Church lays hold of aU creation, and brings it into her * Nothing can more profane or militate against the real intent aud meaning of the uae of incense, than the practice of incensing men, as ia done in some parts of the Chnrch. Ita proper object is God ouly. her True Standing. 223 service to express her heart to God. She multiplies her symbols to help her to pour out her thoughts to God by them, as well as by word, of all He is, and all He is doing for her. No doubt, in this as in everything else, there is danger of men being content with the symbol without the reality, with the outward without the in ward ; just as they abuse doctrine by being content with the inteUectual without the spiritual apprehension of it. But what wUl man not abuse? We must not follow the example of the Reformers, who blotted out and discontinued many of the most important practices of the Church, because men had abused them ; or of those who would blot out " justification by faith," because men abuse it.* In setting in order particular churches -vsdth all their ministries, great assistance was given by the word of prophecy opening the meaning of the symbol of the candlestick in the Tabernacle, -with its seven branches, its knops, flowers, lamps, &c., — so, in setting in order the liturgy and all the services of the house of God, there was also much light given from the sacriflces of the brazen altar in the court of the Tabernacle, of the golden altar of incense in the holy place, and the table of shew-bread in the same. By these it was shown , that before the Church enters upon the service of God, in offering up her supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings, she must commence by confession of her sin, and receive the ministration of the word of * It is a common argument agaiuat the uae of symbola in the worahip of God, especially lights and incense, that the Church adopted them from the heathen ; but the heathen had adopted them from the Patriarcha and the Jews ; they were original institutions of God. 224 Tlie Church recalled to absolution, the antitype of the daily sacriflce of the lamb, morning and evening, on the brazen altar, the slaying of it, and the sprinkling of its blood, &c., and thus, in the full assurance of forgiveness and acceptance, enter upon the remaining part of the service, and into the presence of God, to present her prayers and thanks givings, &c., and to partake of the Holy Communion, the antitype of the table of shew-bread. It was especi ally by light upon the various ingredients that formed the incense used at the golden altar, that understanding 1 Tim ii '^^'^ given of the various forms of prayer, viz., supph- cations, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, so as to set each in its proper place. By the light thus thrown upon these symbols it was seen how far those parts of the Church, which had rejected the old hturgies, and adopted the practice of extempore prayer, not in the Holy Ghost, but in the power of the human inteUect, had wandered from the true ways of God, offering false fire, mingling inculcations of doctrine in their prayers, and adulatory addresses and praises to God (which praises appertain to the previous part of the service) with their thanksgivings ; and how other parts of the Church, although they had retained somewhat of the old liturgies, had mingled and corrupted the incense by offering prayers to creatures. While leaving it open to any minister, when moved by the Holy Ghost to do so, to vary the prayers, and to offer extempore prayers, the Liturgy, now ordered, consists chiefly of prayers, &c., taken from the liturgies of the Greek, Roman, or Anglican Churches, only supplying certain prayers that were lacking, especially those for the speedy commg and kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, which had fallen into disuse ; and those for the perfecting of the Church her True Standing. 225 through the restoration of the ordinances of apostles and other ministers ; and for the gifts of the Holy Ghost, needful to make the Church ready for that event ; also prayers for the faithful departed, that they may have rest and peace, and may speedily attain to the resurrection from the dead ; and lastly, that the Jews may be remembered before God, that the time of their captivity may come to an end, and that they may be restored to their own land. In this Liturgy there is always special mention of, and prayer made for, all the bishops, priests, and deacons of the Catholic Church everywhere, and especially for those of each land and diocese in which the service may be performed ; also, for all kings, especially the ruler of the land ; that all authorities in Church and State may be upheld and blessed, and be a blessing to all under them, and be reverenced and obeyed by those who are so under them. The public offices are : Morning and evening worship, at six o'clock A.M., and five P.M., the first and the last hours of the day ; prayers at nine A.M. and three o'clock P.M.; the Litany every Wednesday and Friday; the Holy Eucharist celebrated every Lord's day, and also, where there are clergy enough, every day ; and ff not, then as often as convenient. Christmas day, Easter, and Pentecost, are celebrated as the three great Feast-days of the Christian Church. Good-Friday is observed as a day of humiliation. The days of All Angels and of All Saints are also observed ; not to give God's glory to angel or saint, but as days of thanksgiving to God for all the mercies and bless ings we have received from Him through them, during all past generations to this our day, and of prayer for P 226 The Church recalled to the speedy resurrection of the saints, that we may be presented to God together with them, and with them enter the kingdom. Concerning faith, we hold the Scripture as the rule of it, and the three Creeds of the CathoUc Church as the expression of it. The terms of communion are, that a man shall beUeve the Scripture and the Creeds, be baptized, and walk in righteousness of life. Concerning sacraments, it is unnecessary to repeat what has been already said upon them, to which we refer. But we believe it to be an essential part of Christian Doctrine, that they are instituted by Christ Himself, in order that He, by the operation of the Holy Ghost through them, may communicate to us the several things they symbolise ; making them Iffe and salvation to the penitent and believing recipient, and judgment and death to the profane and the hypocrite: we not putting our trust in the sacraments themselves, nor in • the reception of them, but in God in Christ working by them; and humbly and faithfully using and receiving them as his appointed means of grace. Concerning God's Word: we believe that the Bible, as always received by the Catholic Church, that is, -with out the Apocrypha, is His inspired written Word; by which all men shall be judged at the last day, and which no man shall add to or take from. That His spoken Word is his mighty instrument, conjointly with His holy sacraments, whereby He powerfully and effectuaUy works for regenerating and perfecting men, and whereby He will raise them from the dead. Concerning ministers : that they are Christ's mhdsters her True Standing. 227 ministers of God, not the Church's ministers ; He by the Holy Ghost ministering by them whether hi word or in sacraments. Concerning doctrine : combining the disjointed frag ments of it, and putting each in its place; and repu diating the falsehoods that have been added to it. It would far exceed the limits of this paper to enter into even an enumeration of its several heads. But there is one subject which it will be good to say a few words upon, — for it is one that has mainly contributed to tear the West asunder, and needlessly divides the High Churchman from the Low, — and that is, the much- disputed doctrine of " Justification by Faith." To arrive at a right understanding upon this subject, it must be premised that in the Church there are two distinct meanings attached by the contending parties to the word Justification, viz., righteousness imputed, and righteousness imparted, and inwrought. It is not necessary to enter into the significations of the different Greek words used in Scripture, neither of the verb Sixoiiou, nor of the two substantives derived from it, bixaiitidig and drxaioKvr}, as this would only complicate the argument ; the sense in which each word has -to be taken in each particular passage depending so mu,ch on the context. Nor will it be necessary to treat of these words as merely signifying pardon, which both parties agree is given to the believer, although fhey differ as to the manner of its bestowal, and the means of its reception. The whole matter is simple enough, if men wUl put away prejudice. There is a day coming, when it is the purpose and intention of God to manifest His chUdren Matt. as the just, the righteous ones, the bixaioi, and by them ' to rule the world hi righteousness. It is His purpose. 228 The Church recalled to therefore, to make them righteous — perfectiy, completely so. And as, to Him, all that He purposes is already accomplished. He looks forward to, He sees the thing as done. " He calls the thing that is not as though it was." He begins His work of mercy and of grace by Rom. iv. 17. counting those righteous, by imputing righteousness to those whom He will finaUy make perfectly righteous. There is none good but One. All righteousness is in God, and must come from God to the creature. Not by man's works, not by the righteousness of the Law, can a man Phii,-iii. «. attain to righteousness ; it must be received from God {lx ®io'!j). But in order that any creature may receive righteousness lx &sou, it is absolutely necessary that all obstacle to his drawing near to God be removed, or how can he come near tmto Him to receive from Him the righteousness he needeth? A sinner cannot approach thus unto God, if his sin is imputed to him. God, there fore, has found the way of removing the impediment. He imputes not sin ; He imputes righteousness to every one Rom. iv. 25. who wUl believe that He has given His Son to die for his sins, and has raised Him again for his justification; - He counts that man's faith to him for righteousness. Abraham believed that God was true, and that He was Almighty ; that He was able to do what He had pro mised, and that He would do it; and that "faith was counted to him for righteousness." And so God counts that man's faith to him for righteousness who believes that God is Almighty, and that He is true ; that is, that He can, and that He wiU, do what He has promised, namely, justify, i.e., pardon; and justify, i.e., make righteous, every one that draws near to Him for that purpose, believing that He has given Jesus Christ to die for his offences, and has raised Him again for his her True Standing. 229 justification, whefieby he is placed in a state of grace and non-imputation of sin, and can draw nigh to God, all hindrance to his return being removed, and receive from Him justification in every sense of the word — ^pardon, remission of sins, imputation of righteousness, and the imparting of the same. Thus all that would hinder the sinful fallen creature from drawing near to God to receive righteousness from Him is taken out of the way ; he is not counted as a sinner though he is one ; his faith is imputed to him for righteousness, though he is not yet righteous ; he is justified by his faith, and is counted among the friends, and no longer among the enemies of God. And the imputation of righteousness, this " justification by faith," does not cease ; his faith continues to be counted to him for righteousness, all through the process of his being made righteous (although too often that process be slow), until the day of its perfection at the resur rection ; yea, and after that, for his faith shall be imputed to him for righteousness for ever. We say, " during the process of his being mnde righteous." Let us ever keep in mind the double sense of the words " justify " and " justification," viz., the imputation of righteousness, and the imparting of it. There are seven ways mentioned in Scripture, or which can be fairly deduced from it, whereby a man is justified. These are — 1. Faith. 2. Blood of Jesus Christ. 3. Righteousness of Christ. 4. Word of Christ, by means of the ministers of -the Church. 5. Sacra ments of the Church, 6. Works. 7. Resurrection. In each of these seven the double sense and power of justification, viz., imputation and impartation, wiU be found in operation. 230 The Church recalled to 1st, Faith. A man's faith is imputed to him for righteousness, whUe to faith only is righteousness imparted. 2d, The blood of Jesus Christ. St Paul, in the same chapters where he urges so strongly that a man is justified by faith and not by works, and that his faith is imputed to him for righteousness, says also, we are Rom.v. 9. justified by the blood of Christ. Through the blood of coi.'i.'ii Christ, he says in other places, we have forgiveness of sins. A man's faith is counted to hftn for righteousness, but in the blood shed for us he has forgiveness of his sins, and it being sprinkled upon him by faith, he is forgiven, and the merits of that blood {i.e., of Christ's life and of His death) are imputed to him ; and, raore over, in the partaking of the communion of that blood there is ,the imparting of righteousness, the power of the life of righteousness communicated to him. Zd, The righteousness of Christ Himself. Strangely enough men have in these days disputed whether the merits and righteousness of Christ are imputed to the believer. Can the head be separated from the body? Did any one ever hear of what a man's head did not being imputed to the whole body, for good or for evil ? St Paul himself runs the parallel between the first and the second Adam in regard to this very thing. The sin, he says, the unrighteousness of Adam, is imputed to all his offspring, to all in him, so that they all die for that sin ; all of whom Adam is the head die, in that all sinned in him. And Adam's unrighteousness ia not only imputed to all, i.e., it is counted to them aU that they sinned in him, but also his unrighteousness is imparted to them, so that it has entered into them, and it worketh in them to all sin and unrighteousness. The her True Standing. 231 original sin, which was taking the fruit of the tree, is imputed to them, and the sentence for doing this, " dying thou shalt die," rests upon them for it ; and also, because the fruit of that original sin which is the entrance of the law of sin into their nature, bringing forth unrighteousness, it is propagated in them, and imparted, as a living, energising principle, to them. The parallel is exact. To all Christ's children, to all who are in Him, to all of whom He is the Head, His righteousness is imputed ; they are accepted in Him, as Eph, i. a, they were condemned in Adam ; they live again in Him, as they died in Adam. Whatever He has won for Him self of honour, and power, and glory, they come into, and share in the same, because of His merits, His righteousness imputed and inwrought ; and as Christ's righteousness is imputed to them because they are the members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones, therefore they live, as they had died because of Adam's unrighteousness ; so also, as Adam's unrighteousness was imparted as an active principle to them working sin, and death, and every evU thing, is Christ's righteousness imparted to them, as a living active principle, working in them righteousness, and everything that is good. The perfect righteousness of Christ is first imputed, then imparted to them ; and " they who receive abundance of Rom. v. grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by One, Christ Jesus ; " " for as by one man's disobedi ence many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous." It seems incredible that any reflecting man can question for a moment that the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ is both imputed and imparted to those who are His ; to His body, the Church. 232 The Church recalled to There is often much disputing on the question ot Substitution, Vicarious, Sacrifice, &c. But perhaps frequently neither party understand as they ought the subject they are treating of. The substitution is that of a new Head to the human race, even God's own Son, made flesh instead of the first head, who lost his standing in creation, and was condemned. God instead of him substitutes Another, who has fulfilled aU right eousness, was made a curse for us on the tree, and hav ing been raised from the dead, has been accepted of God ; and all who wUl come out from under the old and condemned head into and under the new Head, and are baptized into Him, and live by faith in Him, Eph, ii, are accepted in' Him. The sacrifice He made on the cross is the atonement for all their sins. His whole burnt-offering is that which covers the shortcoming of their burnt-offerings ; His sin-offering that which covers their transgressions. The one, i.e., the burnt-offering of Christ, was a. perfect righteousness, which none ever offered but He alone, and which, therefore, the holiest saint that ever walked the earth must have recourse to, confessing his shortcoming ; the other, the sin-offering is that which atones for all the transgressions of His people ; and then they receive from Christ, by the Holy Ghost, the communication of a power which kills the law of sin that is in them from the first Adam ; and enables them to fulfil the righteousness of the Law. Let men quarrel about terms as they will, the effect of all that Adam did of evil is experienced by them the same as ff they had done it personally themselves ; the sentence of " dying thou shalt die " rests upon them ; and the corruption and law of sin that entered into Adam's flesh is found in them. And so in the converse ; the effect of aU that her True Standing. 233 1 Christ did of good is experienced by His children living ; they shall live for ever, and the law of holiness that He brought into flesh is found in them. The evil of the one is counted to all in him, and the effects of it are com municated to ¦ them ; and the good of the Other is counted to all in Him, and the effects of it are com municated to them. Therefore, call it by any other name, ff you will, it is, after all, imputation and imparta tion of Christ's righteousness that Scripture sets before us for our comfort and our salvation. A.th, The Word ministered through the ministers of Christ. Justification, both imputed and imparted, comes to man through the Word. By the preached Word faith is begotten in him; "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God ; " and " he cannot Rom. hear without a preacher;" and he who believes is counted righteous, is justified; "his faith is counted to him for righteousness ; " and, moreover, the moment that living Word enters into a man's heart and spirit, there is a change wrought there, working obedience, which is righteousness in him. And if afterward he should faU into sin, and repent, and confess his sin, the word of absolution again restores to him the imputation of righteousness ; he is counted again among the right eous ; and the power of working righteousness, which had been weakened, is renewed in him; righteousness is not only imputed but imparted. 5th, Sacraments. The sacraments convey justification in all its senses ; i.e., pardon, imputation of righteousness, and the power thereof. They are necessary links in the chain of justification. Although a man is justified by his faith that Christ hath died for him, and that faith is counted to him for righteousness ; although he is Rom. 234 The Church recalled to justified through the bipod of Christ, he has not yet received the power to subdue sin ; he has not received the full meaning of remission of sins {a^ssig a/LO!,prim\ the dismissal of them, the deUverance from their po-wer ; he has not yet been planted in the likeness of Christ's death ; he has not yet entered into all that Christ has done for him. He has by faith taken shelter under the second Adam from the condemnation of the old, and in the name of that second Adam has come before God, and so is accepted ; but there is something more to be done, he must be made one with Christ ; he is not yet dead, buried, and risen with Him ; he must be baptized into Him ; and then he is one with Him ; he is numbered among the Church, that body of Christ to 'which Christ's merits are imputed and His life imparted. He becomes a regenerate man, dead unto sin through Christ's death, alive unto God and unto righteousness through His resurrection. He is numbered, counted among the righteous, and not only forgiveness, but power to dismiss, to put away all sin, and to fulfil all righteous ness, is given to him. So in the Lord's Supper the same elements exist, a continual renewing of pardon and of imputation of righteousness in the midst of many faUings, and of imparting of righteousness by the power of the body and blood of Christ. And there are pardon and life in all the sacraments ot God ; they are not dead forms, but living things, con veying pardon, and power to fulfil the things they represent and declare. &th. Works. Roman Catholic and Protestant, High Church and Low, have fought upon this point more than any other. Luther, at one period of the contro- her True Standing. 235 versy, though he acknowledged afterwards that he was wrong, sought to blot out of the canon the Epistle of St James. But there is no contradiction between St Paul and St James ; the same blessed Spirit spake by Jas. w. u. them both. He does not, ff we may so speak, care about appearing to say contradictory things in the Bible. It is only our folly that would make them contradictory ; each and all of them are necessary in their places ; and, in the links of justification, works have their necessary position. St Paul says the same thing in reality as St James. Having laid down as the foundation, in the most positive and plain words, the doctrine of justifica tion by faith, he proceeds, " What shall we say then?" because God hath done all this for us, because He has given unto us in every sense the righteousness of Christ to cover our unrighteousness ; because He imputes our faith to us for righteousness without our works ; Rom, vi. i. because He justifies us freely through the blood of Jesus Christ ; because He has given unto us, in Christ the second Adam, the free gift of justification unto life ; because He gives unto us in baptism remission of sin ; because He gives us in every way which He can devise imputation of righteousness that we may have peace, and ^he imparting of it that we may have power to do right ; because of all this " shall we continue in sin ? Bom. vi. i ; God forbid!" "Present your bodies a living sacrifice to God." St James says the same thing. Works are not contradictory to justification by faith, either in the sense of the imputation, or of the impartation, of actual righteousness ; in their proper place they are a necessary adjunct to it ; a necessary stage in the scale of our justification. They come in after we have received pardon and life — after we have received the imputation 236 The Church recalled to of righteousness, and the power to be righteous ; then God looks for this, that we bring forth the fruits of all that He has thus done for us. And works do contribute, thus brought in in their proper place, to a man being counted a righteous man, and to his being made so ; and that not in the eyes of men only, but in the eyes of God; and he who does right is accounted by God and man a righteous man ; and he who does wrong is accounted by God and man an unrighteous man, whatever his faith may be, or whatever sacraments he may receive. And good works contribute also to his justification, in the sense of actual righteousness ; for habit is second nature, and every subduing of evU, and every practice of good, is a step in advance towards that perfection to which it is the purpose of God to bring His chUdren. Ith, Resurrection. This will be the crowning act ot . the justification of the chUdren of God. Then shaU it indeed be manifested, that when God caUed " the things that were not as though they were," He was able to perform that which He had promised, and was faithful to do it ; that He began by calling, by counting, men who believe righteous before they were so, and ended by making them so ; that He began by imputing Christ's righteousness to them, and ended by working it in them. Resurrection will perfect this. As long as we are in this body of sin and death, so long do we hinder God from perfecting this work in us. In a thousand Jas. iii. 2. ways we all resist Him. " In many things,'' James the Just could say, "we offend all." We have continual need to take refuge in that blood which covers our shortcomings and transgressions. But when we are risen from the dead, when we receive our glorious body made like unto His glorious body, then we shaU do her True Standing. 237 evil no more, come short no more ; then will God show us forth as the sun in the kingdom of our Father, ha-ving perfectly accomplished the work of our justifi cation. It shall be seen that justification has had, and ever will have, a double, a treble sense; that faith is imputed to believing man for righteousness ; that faith is the attitude and the act of the spirits of the righteous for ever ; that God, through the blood of Christ, justifies (pardons and acquits) those that believe from all the sin and wrong they have done. The Pauline sense (as men do idly talk) of justification shall be seen then in its power ; it shaU be seen, it shall be manifested, what it is for God to justffy, — to justify His elect, who have believed on Him that He had given Jesus for their justification, who had believed that He would keep His word, that He would justffy them. It shall be seen then that faith is counted to them for righteousness ; and that in the blood of Jesus they have the forgiveness of all sin. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? It is God that justifieth. Who shall condemn ? Ah, how glad -will those mistaken brethren be that there is indeed a justification in the sense that St Pau speaks of, as diverse from that of St James, and for which Luther contended, and of which Bishop Davenant's book may be looked upon as the best exponent in the Church of England. And it shaU be seen in that day that Bishop Bull, and that party, of whose thoughts his work is the best ex ponent, were right also. • In that day, when pardon and imputation of righteousness to God's children have come to the fuU, it shall be seen that God has also prevailed to impart to them righteousness to the full, to those who, by faith, have cleaved to Him in the midst of weakness, ' 238 The Church recalled to and shame, and consciousness of guilt, corruption, and evU ; believing in Him that He was able to do what He had promised to do, namelyi^ not only to pardon all their unrighteousness, but to perfect righteousness in them ; to justify them in the second sense of the word as perfectly as in thefirst. Why have the brethren in the Church struck at each other, even unto death, whilst contending about these two meanings of justification, instead of compre hending them both, and seeing that they are inseparable for ever 1 They ought ever to have known that these different steps in justification do not clash one with the other, do not impede one the other, do not abrogate one the other, but that each is a necessary adjunct to the other, the complement of the other ; and they ought always, in the unity of " the faith once delivered to the saints," to have rejoiced together, that to every man who has heard and believed the Gospel, his faith is counted to him for righteousness, whUe his personal righteous ness is yet imperfect ; — ^to have rejoiced that the blood of Jesus Christ justifies him from all sin; that the righteousness of Christ justifies him ; — to have rejoiced that by baptism he is admitted among the congregation of the justified, counted among them, — and that in baptism the spirit of righteousness, the li-nng principle of righteousness, " the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus," freeing him from the power of the law of sin and death, is communicated, imparted to him ; that by the holy sacrament of the Eucharist, pardon and im putation of Christ's righteousness are always renewed and sealed again to him ; and by it the principle of righteousness is afresh imparted, strengthened, and augmented in him ; that ff he faU into any fault, there her True Standing. 239 is always the word of Absolution to restore him to his place among the justified, and to restore the weakened principle of righteousness ; — to have rejoiced that by good works his righteousness and his justified condition are more and more confirmed and strengthened; — and lastly, to have rejoiced that by his resurrection his justi fication wUl be perfected, and that then he will be mani fested to all creation as a creature justified in every sense of the word, — ^his faith then counted to him for righteousness, and righteousness perfected in himself, that he may administer righteousness to others for ever. Let us ever remember what was stated at the begin ning, that the leading principle of all God's dealings with man is to teach all that there is none good but One ; and that the true attitude of every creature before Him is that of humble dependence, of hanging upon Him for all good ; and also, that those who dwell in His presence must be good, for He cannot abide iniquity, and then the whole matter of justification becomes plain to us in all its senses ; and it wUl at once be seen that the Lord counts a man's faith to him as righteousness, not arbitrarily, but because that which is seen in him is in reality the righteous condition of a creature ; it is the opposite of the condition of the devU and of wicked men, who wUl not depend. And thus we have the first mean ing of justification in the sense of righteousness im puted. Then, by the faithful use of all the ordinances of God for that end, we receive the imparting of the Iffe, and power, and principle of all righteousness ; and so in this sense are justified by faith also. And finally, by resurrection ; the weak and fraU fiesh no longer hindering us, but changed like unto Christ's glorious 240 The Church recalled to body, we become perfect in all things, and are admitted to the presence of God the Father, there to dweU in that glory for ever. We have thus dwelt at some length on this point of justification, not by way of expounding the various phases of the doctrine, which are so manifold, but to show how needless has been the rending of the Church by the partial views taken by the opponent parties, The key to the cause of these disputes is what we say, in another place, on the use of negatives in theology. In this point of justification, especially, the introduction of negatives, and of the word " alone," which is no where used in Scripture in regard to any of the means of justification, in its various senses, has produced all the mischief. WhUe it is said in Scripture, that a man is justified by faith without works, it is never added by faith alone ; nor is it said that sacraments alone, or works alone justify. If this word had not been intro duced into the controversy, and men had been willing to put away their negatives, and receive the affirmatives of their brethren, this confusion would never have en sued. And if Rome had received what Luther stood up to vindicate, not contradicting and rejecting it, bnt accepting it in its true sense as one of the most precious truths of God's holy Word, and yet meeting it with the counterpoise of the doctrine of the imparting of righteous ness through faith, and in the use of, and by the means of, all the sacraments and ordinances of the house ot God, the Western schism would never have had places One party in the Church confoimds sanctification with the secoud sense of justification ; but sanctification, or holiness, is a different thing from justification in any sense of the word, whether acquittal, or imputation, or her True Standing. 241 the imparting of righteousness, — and a much higher thing. " Justification is the state of the righteous, sancti- Jeremy fication that of the holy." "Christ is made unto us wisdom, icor. i. so. and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." Concerning the Atonement also, many attempts have been made of late to sap the old faith of the Church on this important point. And these attempts have, in like manner, proceeded from partial and one-sided appre hensions of truth. In atonement, as in justification, there are two distinct aspects, viz., expiation, and reconciliation or making at one. When our Lord became incarnate. He united human nature to Himself, in order to bring back to God that which had fallen away from Him, and had been banished from His presence. To reconcUe that which was at enmity with Him — ^to effect an at-one-ment between God and His creature, man — was doubtless an indis pensable part of Christ's work in our flesh. But this aspect of His work must in no way be confounded with that of His offering, in the same human nature, an atonement, an expiation for its sins, by dying upon the tree. Atonement is unto at-one-ment, but we may not confound the two. The types of the Law again come to our assistance for the vindication of the truth. In the sacrifices under the Law, there were the burnt- offering, the sin-offer ing, the peace-offering, and the thank-offering. These were quite distinct, and typified quite distinct things ; both in the work of Christ Himself, and in that of every Christian man. The Holocaust, or whole burnt-offering, was burned upon the brazen altar in the court of the Tabernacle. The sin-offering was burned without the camp. 242 The Church recalled to The whole burnt-offering was the type of that work of Christ which consisted in the giving up of His whole being ; that continual, unceasing offering, uninterrupted even for a moment, of the whole man, his whole energies, faculties, thoughts, acts, and words, to God ; that devo tion that never wearied ; that worship that never grew cold; that will that never resisted God's -will, or ever hesitated for a moment in doing it ; that understand ing that never was stubborn ; that meekness and self- abasement that never was proud ; that unceasing burnt- offering from the morning of His life till the evening of it, [in the unflagging fire of the Holy Ghost; that whole burnt-offering which He alone, and none other but He, ever offered to God, although it is the duty of every creature ; that worthy offering ; — this is what is typified by the burnt-offering under the Law.* This was one most important part indeed of Christ's work in flesh. But there was another, and a more terrible work than that, namely, the great sin-offering of the day ot atonement, the bearing of the curse for sin ; and which could only be accomplished by Jesus dying upon a tree. It is aUeged by those men who are undermin ing faith in the atonement, that the object of Christ's death and resurrection is to show that He could come into every condition of extremity in our nature, and there demonstrate that God not only could, but would, deliver us out of it ff we trusted in Him. That this was one object of our Lord's giving Himself unto death, and ¦* Much of the wickedneas ot the doctrine of the Immaculate Con ception of the "Virgin Mary, lately forced on the Roman Church as an article of faith, conaists in giving her the glory of having offered this whole.bumt-offering to God. her True Standing. 243 rising again, is most true. St Paul says, " If Christ i Cor. xv. be not risen, our faith is vain ; " there is no proof else that God can and -will raise us from the grave. St Peter says, " God hath raised Jesus from the dead, and i Pet. i. 21. given Him glory, that our faith and hope might be in God ; " that is, that He -wiU do the same thing for us. This is one part of the truth ; but it has nothing what soever to do -with the sin-offering ; with Christ dying on the tree. If it had been only to prove that God can bring us up from death, the Lord might have died in any other way ; but He died upon the tree. The whole bearing of the solemn ser-vice of Good-Friday is to recall to our minds that He was crucifled — hanged on a tree ; that He died, not of sickness ; nor of nature's decay from Adam's sin ; nor by the Roman as Csesar's rival ; nor by the stone of the Jew for claiming to be the Son of God ; but that He died on the cross, on the tree, imder the curse of God, and of the broken Law ; not broken by Him, but by us. And if He had died on the bed of sickness, or under the sword of the Roman, or the stone of the Jew, there would have been no atonement, no expiation for sin ; no sin-offering ; no curse-bearing. There is no other death except that upon a tree to which a curse is attached in Scripture ; and but for His Deut, xxi. dying in that manner, and no other, we should have yet ' been lying under the curse of the Law ; for without that He would not have " redeemed us from the curse of oai, iu. is. the Law, by being made a curse for us," by hanging on a tree. This is the whole gist of St Paul's argument ; and men have come to deny Pauline atonement, as well as Pauline justification. Let us understand. In the Law it is written : " And 244 The Church recalled to Deut. xxi. if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he 22, 23. 1 be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree, his body shaU not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in anywise bury him that day, for he that is hanged on a tree is accursed of God" (or, as in margin, " the curse of God"), " that thy land be not defiled." Christ had offered Himself a whole burnt-offering all His Iffe ; He had also crucified the flesh all His life, in a spiritual sense ; but He had never offered the sacrifice for sin. He had done, and suffered for doing, the will of God all His Iffe ; but He had never borne the curse of God till He hung upon the Tree. It is an awful subject we are writing upon and con tending for. Let us remember that Christ hung there ' as the representative of man. He had made Himselt one -wdth human nature, that nature that in every one but Himself had sinned, and' was sinning stiU, and would go on sinning to the end. And now came the hour in which He was to vindicate His Father's right eous "sentence : " Cursed is he that breaketh the law." At that hour the sin of the world was laid upon Christ, and at that hour the sin of the whole world was con fessed, was acknowledged before God ; Christ, at once the priest and the victim, was there before God, the victim of expiation charged with the sin of the whole Isa. liu. 6. -world. " The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us aU." Andin that dread hour He who saw Nathanael under the tree ; He to whom all hearts are open, and from whom no secrets are hid ; " who needed not that any Johnii. 26. should testify of man, for He knew what was in man ;" He saw all the sin that men had ever done, or would do, from Adam's first ingratitude to the sin of the last man that shall raise his hand against God at the end her True Standing. 245 of the 1000 years ; all that flesh had ever done, and ever would do, in its thoughts, words, and acts, in its wickedness, and corruption, and lust, cruelty and wrath, pride and folly, and wrong ; and He confessed before God, as He hung upon the cross, " This is what flesh does, and this is what flesh deserves, namely, the curse ! " He vindicated not flesh. He vindicated God ; He vindi cated God's law ; He said, " This is what flesh, what man deserves ; " man has broken Thy law, that law is just that says. Cursed is he that breaks the law ; and this is what man, who has done all these things I now see and confess, deserves — to be accursed ; to have the face of God hidden from him ; to be cast out of heaven and earth ; to die a never-dying death, a living death for ever. Besides the fact that in Scripture there is no other manner of death to which a curse is attached, except that of being hanged on a tree, the death upon the cross is fearfully symbolical of the curse upon sin — hung up between heaven and earth, rejected of both, as the unrepentant sinner will be in the day of judg ment and of the kingdom, — a death which is one of torment and shame, and one during which, while the man is being slain, he is yet kept alive ; none other shows out hke it what the curse of the broken law wUl be. And because our Lord thus bore our sins on the accursed tree ; because He bore there the curse of God for the broken law ; therefore, and for no other reason, are we redeemed from under the curse of the Law, our guilt is expiated, and we are freed ! And then we, too, have, each of us, individually, if we desire to be saved, to'fulfll the types of the Law. 246 The Church recalled to We must offer our sin-offering; but how different! Ours is not to be, as Christ's was, by bearing the curse of the broken law, but by pleading before God, that while we deserve it. He has borne it. It is not gene rally noticed, iu reading the Scripture, that the sin- offering of the individual Israelite was not burnt -with out the camp, as was the sin-offering of the great day of atonement, which was the offering made by the high-priest for the whole congregation, but on the brazen altar in the court of the Tabernacle ; the fire upon which was not emblematic of the wrath of God, but of the fire of the Holy Ghost ; which enables us Rom. xii. I. to fulfil the injunction of St Paul : " Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God." When the Lord offered this sacrifice for the sins of all men. He bOre the curse and suffered without the camp,* so fulfiUing the type of the Law, the fire there sjTn- bolising the wrath of God against sin. But, as we have said, the individual Israelite who committed a transgression, brought his trespass-offering, or his sin- offering, to the door of the Tabernacle, and 'having laid his hand upon its head, confessing his sins, the animal was laid upon the altar of burnt-offering, and was accepted of the Lord, and he went away forgiven. So, when we transgress the Law, we go to God to confess our sin ; and He does not say to us : " Depart from Me, and bear the curse you have brought upon yourselves by breaking the Law ; " but He accepts us upon His * When St Paul bids us go unto Christ without the camp (Heb. xiii. 13), it is in the way of bearing thoTeproaeh of men foV serving God, but not of bearing the curse of dying on the tree. Tbat Christ has done for us, and it is unto Him, as having so suffered for na, that we are to go, bearing His j-eproach, as those cast out witb Him. her True Standing. 247 altar, forgives us all, and sends down His Holy Spirit upon us, that all iniquity may be purged out of us as by a consuming fire, and that we may be changed from a fleshly to a spiritual condition, the most acceptable sacriflce to Him that can be offered, and over which the angels in heaven rejoice more than over aU the sacri fices of the righteous who need no repentance. We '^'^^^ '^''¦ indeed have to acknowledge, from the bottom of a penitent and broken heart, that we have sinned, that we have broken the Law ; and that the Law is holy, just, and good; and that God is just, and justified, when He says, " Cursed is every one that breaketh the Law." We deserve to die, to die eternally : we deserve to be accursed : to endure all that the cross symbolised of wrath and curse, and shame and pain for ever ; for we have broken the Law, and brought ourselves under its righteous sentence ; but we plead that Christ has borne it for us. To the man who thus vindicates God's Law, who thus offers his sin-offering, and lays his hand on the head of Him who bore the curse, the true and perfect sin-offering, his sin is taken away. This is our sin-offering ; the sin-offering of Christ was by confess ing the sin of all flesh, and bearing its curse ; ours by confessing the sin of our flesh, but pleading that Christ has borne the curse for us.* * The manner of disposing of the bodies of the victims where the offering had a public character, by their being burnt without the camp, wiU be found stated in Exodus xxix. li ; Leviticus iv. 11, 12, and 21, and (in reference to the great day of atonement) Leviticus xvi. 27. The cases of sin-offerings and trespass-offerings affecting individuals only are provided for in Leviticus iv. 22-35, vi. 1-7, and vii. 1-7 ; and in these the flesh of the victims, instead of being carried without the camp, is appointed to be eaten by the priesta in the Holy Place, vi. 26, 29. There was further this difference he- 248 The Church recalled to And we are called upon also to fulfil the type of the Burnt-offering ; namely, " to present our bodies a living sacrifice unto God ; " to offer our whole being, spirit, and soul, and body, as a continual whole burnt-offeringj in the Holy Ghost, unto God. But as we know we fail in this — and who is there that faileth not ? — we go before God, and confess to Him that we have failed, that we have come short of that service and devotion tb Him ; and we lay our hands on the head of Him who did offer the acceptable and perfect Burnt-offering, and plead it before God, and so are accepted, not according to our shortcomings, but in His perfect righteousness. But as no man who has transgressed the Law — and which of us has not ? — can offer himself as a burnt- offering to God, unless he first offer his sin-offering; so we must confess our sins, and receive forgiveness, or we shall not be accepted of God as a burnt-offering. The atonement of Christ lies at the root of all faith, all true service of God ; for in His holy and precious Blood we have both the Iffe and the death of Jesus Christ, the perfect burnt-offering, and the perject sm- offering, to present to God, and in and by them only we can appear before Him ; for the Law finds a fault in everything else, but it can find no flaw in the obedi ence of Christ, or in His sacrifice. It is to be remembered that even in the burnt- offering the blood had to be shed, the Iffe of the flesh laid down. So our Lord, having come into flesh, always laid down His Iffe as a sacrifice to God. And tween the two classes of cases, that iu the former the blood was to be carried into the sanctuary, and sprinkled before the mercy-seat, and put upon the horns of the golden altar of incense ; but this was not appointed as to the latter. — [Ed.] her True Standing. 249 we also can only offer ourselves as a whole burnt- offering to Him, by always laying down the life of the flesh, " always bearing about in the body the dying of 2 cor. iv. 10. the Lord Jesus." And we must ever keep in mind the difference between the burnt-offering and the sin- offering. While our Lord died daily, and we are called upon to imitate Him in this, yet His thus spiri tually and figuratively dying would never have made atonement, in the sense of expiation for sin ; and therefore, when expiation came to be made. He died literally upon the tree, in which we are not called upon to follow His example, for with that no man intermeddleth : " The redemption of their soul is pre- Ps. xiix. s. cious, and it ceaseth for ever." In the Law, if a man transgressed, he had to offer his sin-offering before he could acceptably offer his burnt-offering ; and he had to offer both his sin-offering and his burnt-offering, before he could offer his peace-offering and his thank- offering. We must confess our sins and receive for giveness, before we can offer ourselves to the service of God; and when we have done so, then we can offer and partake of our peace-offering in the Lord's Supper, and our thank-offering in the Holy Eucharist. How -fatal, then, are the seductive writings of those who have tried to explain away this foundation, and to confound at-one-ment and atonement ; and to direct men's views to that part of Christ's work, both in Him personaUy, and in themselves, which is typified by the burnt-offering, to the exclusion of the sin-offering! What need there is to warn men against their subtlety, that they be not deceived ! While pressing this point, we are not putting out of sight that there are many other aspects of our Lord's 250 The Church recalled to work in our nature, and of His sacrifice, such as the correction and sanctffying of human nature, and the perfecting of it in aU righteousness ; the bringing down of flesh unto death, and raising it in newness of lite and glory : His being an example to all men, and of obedience in all things, and of trust in God under suffering and temptation of every kind, and of God's -will and power to deliver us out of every evil, even death itself ; His being a witness and martyr for the truth, &c., &c. These are all most true ; but they must not be suffered for a moment to obscure, much less to abrogate, the great and chief point of the atonement— the death upon the tree — by which our guUt is cancelled, and we receive our pardon. We have dwelt particularly on this point, because of the fatal progress which the errors we allude to have made within the last few years, and also because attempts have been made to hnpute etroneous senti ments on this subject to those who have been engaged in the present work of the Lord. Lastly, with respect to discipline. It is a lamentable fact, that in hardly any part of the Church is there a shadow of the old discipline to be found. ' There is a hollow imitation of it in the Greek and Roman Churches ; and among Protestants there is either a total neglect of it, or a hard and narrow administration of it, and a refusal of communion on uncatholic grounds. Under the parochial system of .Christendom, espeoially in towns, true discipline is as impossible as pastoral or diaconal care. There is no adequate pro-vision for it; the parishes are too large ; the ministers are too few ; and, unless the people would pay their tithes, it is im possible to find provision for the maintenance of more. her True Standing. 251 In Greek and Roman countries, by the custom of con fession and absolution pre-vious to communion, there is an appearance of, and some approach to discipline ; but -with the majority it is but a resemblance. Absolution being given continually and repeatedly for the same faults, without repentance and without amendment, loses its effect; and the people come to it habitually, and continue in their sins. In England there is no attempt at discipline, and everybody does as he pleases. Society, indeed, has invented a disciphne of its own; choosing to exclude from its pale for certain sins, while allowing indulgence in many others ; ' partial and pitiless in its code, and partial in its administration of it; seeking rather its own protection, than the amendment and salvation of the sinner; but discipline in the Church there is none. And in all countries, in England as well as on the Continent, the priests and clergy find every day that even though they are most desirous to minister faithfully the discipline of the Church, the people of every rank would, almost with one consent, refuse to submit to it ; and they are obliged, therefore, to compromise with them, and do the best they can. In the restored model, the ancient discipline is again seen. Each particular church is di-vided into districts of a reasonable size, and these are placed each under the care and supervision (the smaxo'^Tri) of an elder, -with pastors and deacons to assist him. These are personally acquainted -with every famUy and indi-vidual in the dis trict, and visit them, and know their state and con dition, spiritual and moral, and how to deal with them accordingly. And all, both clergy and people, are under the general oversight of the angel, who pos- 252 The Church recalled to her True Standing. sesses adequate knowledge of them personally; and thus the churches are restored once more to be, what they ever ought to have been, the places where aU sin is forgiven, and where no sin is permitted; and the flocks are able to comply with St Paul's injunction, Heb. xiii. 17. " Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls as they that must give account." And the priests are able to obey iPetv.2,3. St Peter when he says, " Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by con straint, but wiUingly ; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind ; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock." PAET FOURTH. THE END — ITS PEOGEESS AND CONSUMMATION. We have entered thus far into these detaUs, not by way of expounding doctrines, but to show that, at the end of the dispensation, there is a part of the Church thus witnessing for Christ : in form, order, and government ; in ministry and discipline ; in doctrine, in rite, ceremony, and sacrament ; aUd in word, — conformed to Scripture ; paying tithes, and bringing offerings, and walking in holiness and righteousness, upholding and obeying the powers that be, whether in Church or State; offering the daily sacrifice in its true form ; and waiting on God continually in the faith and hope of the coming of Jesus Christ, and of His kingdom, and proclaiming it in every land; and the Holy Ghost witnessing to the same in. the midst of them by the voice of prophecy, once more heard in the Church. God has prevailed to get a people to understand His designs, and to pray for what He wants ; a body not separate from the Church ; no sect, not dissenters, but one with the Church ; feeUng its unity with the whole, and repudiating no part of it ; and, in the name of the whole, as the wffe, the chUdren, the servants of the Lord, no longer ignorant of, hinder ing, and thwarting His plans, but comprehending, entering into, and forwarding them; and praying to 254 The End- Neh. i. God for the accomplishment of them; pleading with God to bring about His purpose, pleading for the Church, with the Church, that she may be ready, This is the chief sign of the end, the greatest that can be given. When God finds a people to pray for a Dan. lx. ; result whlch He has appointed, it is a proof that the time is come for it to be accomphshed. We have already aUuded to the second chapter of Hosea, which indicates that at the time of the end two signs should be seen : one, the plundering of the Church by her rulers, the kings of the earth, who spoU her ot all they had previously bestowed upon her; the other, that this should be accompanied by a direction to some to plead with their mother to put a-way her adulteries from her, and that she return to her Husband as at the first. The first sign is before our eyes. From the French Revolution untU now there has been, even in the most Papal countries, one continuous attack upon -the goods of the Church ; the tithes have been taken from her, and her property Absorbed into the State. In England the tithes have been abolished as such, and changed mto a rent charge, ready to follow the fate of the church- rates, whose doom is sealed. And the second sign is also before our eyes : " Plead with your mother, plead ! " And it is as to our Mother we turn to the Church, and reverently and earnestly plead. In all that we have been saying (it has been a painful task), we may have borne the appearance of bringing railing accusations against, and attacking the Church ; but such has not been our purpose. But how can we " argue" -with her, " plead with her," to " put away her adulteries," without showing them, and the fruit of them? how indue* its Progress and Consummation. 255 her to turn to her Lord, and to His ordinances, without demonstrating how much she has departed from them ? We gladly turn to the more grateful ofiice of showing that she is still our mother, " the mother of us all ; " and of acknowledging all we owe to her. It is one of the anomalies that exist in spiritual things, that we can predicate contradictions of the same body. Thus, as we can at the same time speak of the Church as a -virgin waiting for the day of her espousals, and as a married wife the mother of children, so there are three entirely different aspects in which to view the Christian Church, the whole body of the baptized, each of which is true ; viz., the corrupter of the nations ; the ci-sdliser of the nations ; the spouse of Christ, mother of His chUdren, and guardian of His people. These three are typified to us in the Old Testament by Babylon, Tyre, and Jerusalem. As Babylon, we have seen that by faUing from her heavenly state and hope as to the future kingdom, by lowering herself to become an earthly institution, unit ing herself to the powers of the empire, taking its form, and making herself dependent upon it for support, she became the corrupter of the nations, the source and the scene of all manner of minglings and confusions. As Tyre, the merchant city, the city of traffic, receiv ing a price for -what she gives, she has recompensed the nations and kings of the earth for their pay and pro tection, by conferring the benefit of a civilisation which no heathen people has received. The due place of woman in the house and in society ; the abolition of slavery ; the amenities of social Ufe ; the softening of the horrors of war, the just laws, national and inter- 256 Tlie End^ national, founded on Christian principles ; the liberty ot the subject ; the poor-laws ; the buUding of hospitals, and the establishment of all manner of benevolent insti tutions, &c., &c., — all these may be traced to the influ ence of the Church upon the Christian nations. And we might form a graduated scale of the countries, and show that just in proportion as the Bible is free, and the Christian religion has had scope, there benevolent insti tutions, civil and religious liberty-^ prosperity, industry, and wealth are seen ; and that as the light of the Word is excluded, so do the people descend in the scale of the nations. But even in the lowest of them there is a broad line of demarcation between the Christian and the Mohammedan, or the heathen. Pass over from Tarifa to Tangiers, it is like going from a place of human civilisation into a land of wild beasts ! It is under this aspect that Balmes, Nicolas, Val de Gamas, &c., have so ^eulogised the Christian Church ; but it shows how far prejudice can go, and sectarianism blind the eyes, when they endeavour to limit this effect to the Roman Cathohc Church, to the exclusion of the Protestant. We thank fully acknowledge with these authors the benefits re ceived in every land, in none more than in England, now and at all times, from the Church, as the civUiser of the nations. Yet these benefits are earthly ones ; however precious they may be, they are nothing in comparison to all we, in every land, owe to the Church, as the Jerusalem^ the mother of us all ; in whose bosom we have been begotten unto God ; in whose lap we have been nourish ed and brought up ; who has ministered to us aU ot spiritual Iffe and grace we have received and attained to ; who has preserved to us God's Word, God's sacra- Its Progress and Consummation. 257 ments ; who has taught us all we know of God and of Christ ; to whom, under God, we are indebted for all we have and all we are. Mother, beloved and revered 1 We bow down at your feet ; we know what is due to you, and desire to render it ; we acknowledge your authority and your just claims to all obedience. There is not a bishop, or priest, or minister, that walks the earth, whose place we do not recognise, whose prerogatives we do not admit, whose office we do not honour. It makes no matter to us what unhappy name of division circumstances may have stamped upon you ; that name may deface you, but it cannot blot out the indelible name of the " One Holy Catholic Church " which God has given" you.* Every priest and every minister who has received his ordi- ¦* "We would say a word here on the name " One Holy Catholic and Apoatolic," by whioh the congregationa of those who believe in the present wprk of the Lord are designated. It bas been errone ously imagined that this name has been appropriated by them, as if it peculiarly belonged to them, and that they aaaerted, or thought, themselves to be exclusively the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. Nothing can be a greater mistake. We repeat every Sunday : " We believe in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church ;'' and we have sufficiently shown in this treatise, that we believe this to be the whole body of the baptized, in the presenb as well as in past, and future generations. If it be asked then, ' ' Why do these oongr^ations use this designation ? " the anawer ia simple. In this, and in every country, either for statistical or police purpoaea, the Government aaks of every assembly for church worship, " Of what Churoh are you members ? " Unfortunately, the answer of every one, without exception, demonstrates the state of division and sectarianism they are all in, for the answer of all is : " We are members and a, congregation of the Church of England;" "the Church of Scotland," the "Eoman Catholic," or some other name of separation. The present work of the Lord not being sectarian, bnt a protest against the sectarianism that B 258 The End- nation or his appointment from you becomes thereby a holy ordinance of God ; and every man you have baptized is our brother ; a member of that body which is the Church, the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. It is as our mother we plead with you. We grieve, our faces burn with shame, our eyes run down with tears, that we have to trace, generation after genera tion, century after century, fault upon fault, because thou hast forgotten our Father's -will, hast wandered in thine ignorance, and stained thyseff ; and we are sorrowful and afflicted, and are bowed down ; we would not appear as thine accuser before either God or man, but as thy confessor, thy intercessor; we would plead with God for thee, as we plead with thee. We pray thee to have mercy uppn thyself, and upon thy children. We would not put dishonour upon thee, nor casta stone at thee ; we would not rob thee as thy false lovers are robbing thee ; nor put forth a hand to cast down a single stone of thy building, which thine enemies would raze to the foundation. We are sorry to speak a word of blame ; we would that we could say nothing but what was in thy praise. Try us ; thou shalt find us the most dutiful, the most obedient, the most tender, the most true of all thy chUdren ; but we cannot join fixiata, and for the healing of the diviaions, we oannot adopt any name of separation. We therefore can give but one reply to the queation, " Of what Church are you a congregation, or members ?" namely, that by which the Church haa designated herself in one of her creeds ; " We are members of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church." And these are the only congregation's in all the world, who do make sueh a reply to the question put by their respective Govemments. Its Progress and Consummation. 259 with thee in that which we are ashamed to mention when coupled with thy name. We must, we do, beseech you, put away all that is reckoned by the Lord adultery with man ; return unto thy Husband ; His name is ISHi, not Baali ; turn thou unto Him ; and thou shall find Hosea ii, i. it His name. What does He say to thee, but what He said of old to her who betrayed Him first ? " Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, yet return Jer. iii. i, is, again to Me, saith the Lord." " Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree ; and ye have not obeyed My voice, saith the Lord. Turn, 0 backslid ing children, saith the Lord, for I am married unto you. And I will take you, one of a city and two of a family ; and bring you to Zion.'' Alas ! she was but a bond-woman, and her penalty was scourging, not death ! but thou art Jerusalem the Free 1 and the doom of the free-woman, who is an adulteress, is death and the burn ing fire 1 Lev. XX, 10. But it is no threat we would use to thee ; the time for that is not come, though it be at the door. We plead, we threaten not. When those that now plead with thee are removed and gone, there will a sterner message come, a stern voice of command from heaven, saying, " Come out of her, my people ! " That voice Eev. xviii, 4. has never been heard yet ; men have forestalled it and mistaken it; it wUl .soon be heard in its dread reality. But while we threaten not, yet we warn ; we point to what is coming, and cry. Awake, awake ! The clouds are gathering on the horizon ; the day of trial is nearing ; come under the shadow of the wings of 260 The End— Him who will cover you ; the time fast approaches, when the controversy of Zion will be determined, whether God's rule and the means of it, or the rule of Satan and the ordinances of hell, are to be estabhshed on the earth. Which side will you be on? The powers of earth and hell are about to combine in their last effort to prevent the accomplishment of God's purpose. Long have the tares and the wheat been growing together in the world ; and in the Church, long have the chUdren of God and the chUdren of the devil been mingled together in Babylon's confusion; but the time of separation for the latter has commenced ; the time of the world has not come yet. Oh, the gradations that will mark its progress! First, they whose loving and willing ear catches the first faint far-off sound of the Bridegroom's footstep, s. Sol. ii. 10. of the voice of the Beloved saying, " Rise up, my love, my dove, my fair one, and come away." And such need no threat 'to quicken their steps, but spring to their feet at once, and lift up their heads and look. Second, those whose lagging hearts, stiU hoping for good from the things that be, stUl clinging to those institutions they have fondly trusted in, whereby to subdue the earth to Christ and to themselves, -will , need the spurring threat : " Come out of her, or thou shalt partake of her plagues." And next, and last, those who, blinded to what is written, and deceived by their enmity against ordinances, can see no antichrist but the Pope, and will gaze with admiration on the real Antichrist whUe he is rising, until, their eyes being opened by his blasphemies and claim of worship, they wiU spurn that claim, and prove in the midst ot such trials as none have witnessed yet, how they still Its Progress and Consummation. 261 love God and Christ, and that they will worship the Lord alone. But who can tell the perils, the anguish these will have to pass through 1 The Lord has said that He will send fishers to fish for His people, and Jer, xvi. is, hunters to hunt them out. They who refuse to be gathered by the net of the Gospel of the Kingdom, and the ordinances of God, they shall be hunted out by Antichrist. Happy shaU they be who are wise and have listened to the voice of love ; or even those who shall be forced out by threats, and who wait not to be hunted out by violence. Happy shall they be, who shall be counted worthy to escape the things that are coming upon the earth, and who shall be kept /rom Luke xxi. that hour of temptation, which is about to try all them lo.' ^^^' '"' that dwell on the earth, and not be found among those who shall have to pass through the great tribulation, which they might have avoided if they would have hearkened and believed. " Two shall be in the field. Matt. xxiv. one shall be taken, and the other left ; two shall be xvii. sk-ss. grinding at the mill, one shall be taken, and the other left ; " — " two shall be in a bed, one shall be taken, and the other left." Look at the fields, and let them teach you. The harvest begins, and the ground is covered with sheaves, and also with corn uncut. That which is first ripe is gathered ihto the barn in all its golden glory ; but a change comes, the weather breaks, the sky is covered with clouds, the deluging rain descends, — that which is in the barn is safe from harm •; of that which is out much is lost and perishes, and is never gathered in at all ; and that- which is, although it be secured in the granary at last, yet it is never like the other that was taken away before the storms began ; it will never be equal to it in quality, condition, or 262 The Endr— value, — although saved, it is inferior to the other. In every harvest there are gradations ; and the symholg of both the Old and New Testaments point out that there is to be a " first-fruits," and then the remainder of the harvest of the earth. And the New Testament shows us that those who are so gathered as a first- fruits attain to a position, and learn a song which none Eev, xiv, i. others can ; and that these are they who, undefiled by the sin of the harlot churches, are virgins unto Christ, not monks and nuns, nor unmarried Israelites in the letter and after the flesh, but virgins in the spirit; and also, that there is to be a great and abundant harvest gathered afterwards unto God; and finally, a gathering of the wicked, to be trodden in the wine press of the wrath of God. Ps, xxvi, 8, Well may we pray, " Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men," among the congregation of those who shall be trodden under foot in that day ; but gather me among those, who can say, " Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honour dwelleth ; " even Zion, the place of God's rule, and the habitation He has desired. The things, then, that remain to be done, as far as can be gathered from the Book of Revelation, though we do not profess to give them in their exact- order, or to explain them, are these : — The carrying on and per fecting of the work of the Lord in His Church, for the gathering and ripening of His first-fruits ; the prepar ing of them to be taken out of the way to be with Him on Mount Zion ; and the further work for the salva tion of all His people ; which work He wiU carry on through all its stages tiU the very last of His elect shall be delivered. What those stages may be, it Its Progress and Consummation. 263 would be presumptuous for us to speculate upou. We have only seen the beginning of that work ; how, and by whom, it may be carried on to its completion, we commit into His hands. The Church has to be warned and made ready; and those who sleep in Christ shall be raised first; and the living who remain till His coming, and the dead who are thus made alive again, shalj be caught up together to meet Him in the air, before He descends unto the earth. The fourth empire has to assume its last ten-horned form. The Man of Sin, the Antichrist, the eighth and last head of the Beast, has to appear, and with him the False Prophet. The Two Witnesses have to perform their task ; Babylon Eev. xi. has to be destroyed by the Beast and his ten kings ; Eev. xvi. the seven Vials have to be poured out ; and whatever part of the Apocalypse in the chapters which precede the Vials, that may yet remain unaccomplished, will have to be fulfilled. Then wUl be the gathering of the hosts under Antichrist, and the False Prophet, to the great day of battle ; the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ -with aU His saints ; the casting of the Beast and of the False Prophet alive into the lake of fire, and the slaying of those that follow them ; the binding of Satan in the bottomless pit ; the conversion and re-establishment of the Jews and the tribes of Israel in Palestine, who, although partially restored to their own land previously, wiU not acknowledge Christ until they see Him ; then the thousand years' reign of peace ; and at its termination the last rebelUon of the nations ; the casting of Satan, the great enemy of God, into the lake of fire, where the Beast and the False Prophet are ; the Great White Throne ; the general resurrection of aU who were not counted worthy to attain to the first 264 The End— resurrection ; the destruction of the last enemy, Death ; the Great Day of Judgment-; the passing away of the heavens and earth that now are, and the formation ot the new heavens and the new earth ; the consummation of all things ; and the Eternal Kingdom of God. The common mistake made even by those who^have some knowledge of, and belief in, the advent of onr Lord, is that necessarily most, ff not aU, of these events, even down to the destruction of Antichrist, are to take place before the removing of any of Christ's people out of the way ; whereas this removal is among the first of them.* It is this that causes the uncer- isa. xxvi. tainty of the time, and the necessity for watchfulness, We know not how soon those first-fruits we have spoken of wUl be perfected, and taken out of the way of the things that are about to come to pass ; we say not hqw, or where; therefore let those who love the Lord be ready 1 Let not any one prevent himself from being ready, by looking upon, or by being engrossed with the good that is doing. That good should be doing every where in the Church, is, ff we are approaching the tune qf the end, the very thing we should expect to see. It Satan is putting forth his power to gather his hosts, wUl not the Lord do the same ? Therefore we may be certain that whUe wickedness and infidelity abound, faith and works wiU abound also ; and the only thing -we would say to men as a caution is, do not let these signs be misused by you, so as to make you think that * How these sealed ones are to be shielded from the evils that are about to come, and the manner of their being taken out of tlie way, or the place of their hiding, it is not for us to define ; suffice it for US to know that the Lord haa bidden ns to pray that we may be among that number (Luke xxi. 36). Its Progress and Consummation. 265 they are the marks of a great reformation among the baptized, and of the prolonging of the time ; but, on the contrary, know it is the Lord hastening to accom plish the number of His elect. Do not be among those who, either in the affairs of this world, or in the things of the Church, reject the message to come to the Mar riage Supper, because, either in the temporal or spiritual sense, you have a wife, or a farm, or a yoke of oxen to Luke xiv. is. attend to. Attend to them indeed ; be found diligently fulfilling your place and duties in the world and in the Church ; if the Lord were to come to-day, this is the attitude in which to be waiting for Him; but do not suffer them to prevent you from expecting and wishing for that coming.* This, then, should be the attitude of every faithful man in the Church, that, without presuming to deter mine the times and the seasons, or to fix a date for that hour which no one knows but the Father, yet opening his eyes to the signs of the times, and to all that indicates the approach of Christ, and of Antichrist, and accepting God's warning, he should make himself ready, and seek to be among the wise virgins who have oil in Matt, xxv, their vessels with their lamps. We say things indicate the approach of Antichrist. We probably see the be ginning of that great revolution of the political system, which wUl resolve the present constituent parts of the old Roman Empire into ten, which wiU usher in the * " O Almighty God, grant that those necessary works wherein we are engaged, whether in the affairs of Thy Church, or of this world, may not prevail to hinder ua, but that at the appearing and advent of Thy Son, we may hasten with joy to meet Him, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end." — Prayer, Forenoon Service, Advent- Week. 266 The End- appearing of the eighth and last head of the empire, who is emfihatically called " the Beast from the bottom less pit," the Man of Sin, the Lawless One, the Son ot Perdition, the heading up of the Mystery of Iniquity, and Captain and Leader of the Apostasy, who shall consummate the wickedness of man. The heart sickens at the thought of humanity, ot man, rising up into such rebellion and insolence to wards- God, our Father and our Lord. If these things were not foretold in Scripture conceming this man, they would appear to be impossible. We can under stand men, led away and blinded by the lusts and corruptions of the flesh, committing idolatry, adultery, murder, &c., and showing all manner of pride, vanity, and folly, or even to proceed, as at the French Revolu tion, ih the darkness of their minds, to deny the exist ence of God; but to dare to do what this man will attempt, would, ff it were not written, pass all belief. Yet, if we examine into the matter in the light of what we have said in the beginning of this treatise, we shall in some measure comprehend how, and why, such things are to be. We must remember that man is set to manifest and make clear the great and chief truth of all ; viz., that there is none good but one, and that is God ; and that the creature that wUl not live by faith and dependence on Him must perish. We must remember that the earth is the place where God's rule, God's kingdom, is to be shown out; and that Satan's principal object has been to oppose this purpose of God, in regard to the throne and kingdom of Jesus Christ upon the earth. We must remember that two things must be mani- Its Progress and Consummation. 267 fested in man; one, the goodness of God; the other the wickedness of the creature, — that, left to himself, and unsustained by God, he can be capable of any atrocity. As the mystery of godliness, God manifest in flesh, has to be consummated in the Church, so the mystery of iniquity, Satan working in flesh, has to be consummated in it also : — Christ, the doer of the will of God, and Antichrist the adversary to His will. These two mysteries have both to come to the fuU ; one in the faithful, the other in the apostate. iTim.iii.i6;2 TJti6ss ii 7 We must remember also that the earth is the place wherein the controversy of Zion — whether God shall rule or not, whether the creature shall submit to Him or not, whether it can rebel against Him with impu nity or not, — is finally to be determined. True, there is to be a battle in heaven between Michael smd his angels, and the devil and his angels, and the devil and his angels shall be cast out ; but the deciding contest will be upon the earth; for Satan, cast out of heaven into the earth, will make his great effort against God, by stirring up a man to oppose himself against God, and against 2%e Man, God's Man, Christ Jesus. Man, who was meant by God to subdue all things unto Him, shall, in Antichrist, set himself up against God, and, claiming to be God, shall head up the rebellion against Him ; and in the doom of that man shall the power ^ omnipotent of God, and of God's Man, Christ Jesus, to subdue all things unto Himself, he first seen, in casting him, and the lying Prophet who works with him, alive into the lake of fire, prepared for the adversaries, the devil and his angels, a thousand years before the devil himself. Keeping these things before us, we can in some measure comprehend why the Man of Sin, the Lawless One, wiU appear. 268 The End- All these things are greatly connected with and dependent upon the reception or rejection of those whom God sends to warn and to prepare. The mystery ot iniquity is dvofi,!a, lawlessness ; refusing to submit to God's law and rule, and to render unto Him true worship, devotion, and service. The mystery of godli ness is Christ rendering that obedience, worship, and 1 Tim. iii. Service in human flesh. The mystery of godliness is that God should come down to the limits of a man. 2 Thess. ii. The mystery of iniquity is that a man should dare to PhU. ii. r. usurp the attributes of God. Christ emptied Himselt 2 Thess. ii. for the glory of God ; Antichrist fills himself with evil power, that he may exalt himself against God. The mystery of iniquity has long worked in the Church ; it began early; it has developed itself until the baptized have .become what they are ; and the airadTasia is about to be manffest.* * One of the great mistakes made by the interpreters of prophecy, in the earlier days of the Church, was to suppose that the Apostasy should consist in the Roman Empire becoming divided, and falling away from its unity. They at that time could not conceive tho idea of the Apostasy taking place in the Church itself. Cyril was the first who perceived the real meaning of the passage. The things that were happening in the Church in his day opened hia eyes, so Cyril, Jt-rus. tliat he could say the falling away of 2 Thess. ii. is "falling away Cate^chis. {j.^^ ^t^^ truth, and from the right faith, and choosing the evil and not the good." And while they were right ao far, that the Man of Sin could not oome till th6 unity of the empire ahould be broken (for till the ten kings appeared he could not), yet to make the division of the empire into the ten the Apostasy, instead of the indication of the time of the Apostasy, was a very groaa error. So alao aeveral of them uae language as if they expected that, -instead of Antichrist heading up the Roman Empire in ita last ten-horned state, the empire was to disappear, and be succeeded by a fifth, of whioh Antichrist was to be the head. But thia ia altogether contrary to Its Progress and Consummation. 269 Because it is so, God is giving, and now offers, before the apostasy breaks forth, an opportunity to return to Him and to His ways, by raising up apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors, the teachers of truth and righteousness, the restorers of His true order and service isa, i, 26. and of just judgment. But this effort on God's part being too generally rejected — and when was not God's message of mercy rejected? — and the mass of the baptized refusing to come out of their disorder into God's order, from their idolatries manifold into God's sole worship, according to His way of being worshipped, and not their own; refusing that ministry that would have turned them from disobedience to the wisdom of the just ; the Law- Mai. iv, 6. less One will justly be let loose upon them ; and they who would not receive the way and means of being perfected, that is, Christ in His four ministries, will either, when faithful (as many will be), have to pass through the fiery ordeal of contending with Antichrist, or, where incurably unrighteous, will be given up to 2 Thess. a. strong delusion to believe a lie, and wUl receive the Man of Sin. Refusing Christ, and Christ in His ordi nances, they wUl receive Antichrist; and obeying him and following him in his rebellion against God, they wUl perish with him.* " Many imagine that, when Scripture, which declares the fourth to be the last of the oppresaing kingdome, and that the fifth is the Idngdom of Christ. * Here, alao, there waa another error in the interpretation of the primitive expoaitors; they limited thia following of Antichrist to the Jews, little foreseeing the condition the Christian people would arrive at. No doubt multitudes of the Jews will be deluded also, but it is not of the Jewa, but of the baptized, that St Paul and St John speak aa apostatising from the faith and believing in the lie. 270 The End- Babylon is destroyed, the Church's troubles are ended; but such dreams wiU be rudely dispelled; the worst trials of the Church, far from being ended, have theu to come. Por in that day of unequalled trouble, be sides death, and perhaps bodily torment, there wUl be the torture of sickening doubt, withering and racMng despair. The grounds of faith -will be so obscured as to render argument hopeless, the counter evidence apparently so overwhelming as to place aU opposition in the light of wUful blindness. For that counter evi- ceisus. dence, as the Pagan long ago remarked with triumph, wiU appear to defy refutation ; the only safety wiU be in refusing to behold or to listen. If they say, ' Here is Christ,' believe it not ; if they say, ' He is in the desert, or in the chamber,' go not forth. In former persecutions there has ever been an easy answer to the blasphemer ; but now it will be a man's first difBculty to realise the faith for which he is called to suffer.* Intellect, miracles, the course of Pro-vidence itseh, all will appear to be ranged on the side of the delusion; to doubt it -will seem unbelief, — ^to receive it, an act ot required submission to the Giver of reason. Por in that day Christianity will seem to the world to have been a dream. They wUl wonder, unless all power of wondering should be absorbed by the object of universal wonder (Antichrist), how, for so long a time, a system could prevaU, in their estimation so manifestly false, so deservedly exploded. In their new Messiah they -will, in their o-wn estimation, both perceive what Christianity ought to have been, and learn by the contrast what it * Is not geology, or rather, are uot the deductions from it, leading rapidly to this, and to the fulfilment of 2 Peter iii. 5 ? Vide Baden Powell'a Christianity without Judaism. Its Progress and Consummation. 271 was not. For when compared with Antichrist's tem porary success, our blessed Saviour's mission will appear to have been a failure." ..." Antichrist has even now his forerunners, who declare openly, that ' the assent of the human race is the divine testimony to a divine mission.' . . . The principles that appear now to be hastening the downfall of Babylon, are of a nature to bring on with almost equal rapidity the coming of Antichrist. Man, in the opinion of these modem rationalists, having grown in wisdom and experience, now requires a revelation suited to his augmented powers. The Old Testament, they admit, might have been well enough adapted to the exclusive spirit of the Jew ; the New to the unlearned simplicity of the early Chris tian. Popery suited well enough the darkness of the Middle Ages ; the half-sceptical, haff-superstitious creeds of the Continent have hitherto met the require ments of modern times. Something is now demanded that shall be felt to spring from the heart of man him self, something that reason will suggest, and common sense accept, that shall reveal to man the di-vinity within ; shall raise him from the dust of creeds and systems, and shaU emancipate him from those fetters which the ignorance and timidity of former ages have cast around him. . . . But though the craftiness of Antichrist may lead him to employ such arguments, his pride will not suffer him long to appeal to such; he wiU hasten to set hunself up above every god, and wiU open his mouth against the God of gods, even against His name. His tabernacle, and them that dweU in heaven. . . . ' He doeth great miracles.' Upon this Rev, xiii. passage the Church has ever kept her finger, noticing with imdisguised dismay that the very words used to 272 The End- describe the Saviour's miracles are likewise apphed to those of Antichrist. Some writers have proposed a qualification, but in vain. St Paul speaks of 'all power, and signs, and lying wonders.' Even the word lying, on which they have built their hopes, does not occur in the other passages ; therefore we are .forced to conclude, that even if unreal in essence, they vrill he proof against detection by human vision. ' The Falae Prophet will call down fire from heaven, and vrill de ceive those that dwell on the earth by the miracles Eev, xiii. which he hath power to do in the sight of the Beast.' ' At these miracles the non-elect, then on the earth, shall wonder ; ' that is, they shaU be deceived. The elect also would be deceived, but it is not possible!;' and for that reason alone they stand. The Church, has long desired to know, how near a doubt will be suffered to approach the mind before it is repelled by the stem front of the eternal purpose. On this subject the first Gregory thought deeply; and if it may be said with out disparagement to his faith, his courage quailed at the prospect. He says, ' WhUe the elect behold with horror such signs and miracles wrought by the ministers of Antichrist, even they, though despising life, will feel a mist of uncertainty rising in their hearts. For as, through its miracles, its imposture flourishes, so, in some degree, does their stedfast vision grow dim Therefore, by the influence of his lying wonders,: a shadow of doubt wiU obscure the sight of the righteous i and in the hearts of the elect, at the sight of the terrible Greg. Max. miracles, a dark thought will gather form and substance.' in™'' Compared with the history of our Saviour's life, faith and unbelief will appear to have changed sides. What it was blasphemy to say of the first, it wiU be soul- Its Progress and Consummation. 273 saving truth to think of the second ; ' He truly hath a devil, and is mad,' He lives and reigns by the operation of Satan. Le Haye says, ' Has Satan never done such things before ? Did he not, when power was given him to tempt Job, cause fire to descend from heaven in the sight of men?' 'The fire of God!' ex- job Lie, claimed the messenger, not knowing what was done, or what Satan intended. ' And did not the same devU once give sense to an image of himself, and cause that it should speak when the serpent uttered deceit ful and death-bearing words? ' The heaven-sent mes- Le Haye in At)oc xiii sengers (alluding to the two witnesses) must not be baeked by miracles alone, but by every word of God. The same Scriptures that foretold good things of Christ, have declared bad things of Antichrist. Seen by this Ught his very miracles will resolve themselves into a fulfilment of prophecy ; the great signs and wonders by which he will think to style himself God, will stamp him ' Man of Sin ; ' f or ff he did no miracles he would not be the Antichrist of prophecy ; if that prophet caUed down no fire from heaven, he would not be the False Prophet of the Apocalypse. " For such a one, the way is fast preparing, by the efforts now made to pantheize our race, and to represent . the intellect of man as the evidence of indweUing divinity. ' Ye shall be as gods,' said Satan at the first. Ye are as gods, Satan begins to say, preparatory to teaching one man to say, I am God." * Mait. Apost. Since the time of the Reformation there has been no prophetic greater mistake than that committed by many exposi- con^'Son, tors, of confounding the Pope with this Man of Shi. ^^- *''^"*^*- ¦* How the Essays and Beviews, Colenso, and R^nan, have de veloped this sinoe Maitland wrote ! S 274 The End- No doubt, notwithstanding all the good the Pope has effected in different ages, and all that is good and trae which the Roman Church has preserved, there is too much of what is Antichristian in the Papal system. For in what does the Mystery of Iniquity chiefly con sist? In opposing one principal feature in the Mystery of Godliness, which is, that God (the Son) should, for the glory of the Father, and the good of man, come down to the limits of a man, and act within those limits: the counterpart in the Mystery of Iniquity being that man should dare to usurp and assume the attributes ot God. The Papal is so far Antichristian, as it does certain things of this nature. For a man to allow himself to be addressed as " Dominus Deus," to be adored, leven with relative worship, or in any sense, sitting on the high altar of God ; to vary God's sacra ments ; to change God's laws ; .to give dispensation tor things forbidden ; to order things not commanded ; and to pronounce judgment before the time as to who are to reign in glory with Christ ; these, doubtless, are all assumptions of prerogatives that belong to Christ alone; but still they have all been done in His name, and by one claiming to be His representative and vicar. But when Antichrist comes, he claims to be Christ, to, be God, to exact and receive worship and obedience tor himself. The great contrast between Christ and Anti- Phil. ii. 7. Christ is, that Christ emptied Himself {murh eximai), and 2 Thess. ii. abased Himself for the glory of God. Antichrist //& himself with evU (spiritual) power, that he may exalt himself against God. The Papal is fleshly rule over the spiritual ; Antichrist is evU' spiritual rule over the unruly flesh that has rejected the spirit of Christ and Christ's rule in apostles. Its Progress and Consummation. 275 Exclusive of Roman Catholics, there is a section of the High Church party that cannot see or believe that the Pope is Antichrist in any sense, because their ten dencies are to priestly tyranny and domineering, and to superstition. The Lo^ Church generally cannot see the Antichrist to come, the "Avof^og, because their ten dencies are to avo/^la, lawlessness. The zeal for rule and order, not according to knowledge, blinds the one, and the zeal for liberty, not according to knowledge, blinds the other. Those men who in the present day are writing volumes upon volumes to prove that the Pope is the Antichrist, and that the destruction of Babylon is the destruction of Antichrist, are leading their followers into a fearful de lusion ; nay, they are preparing them to receive Anti christ as Christ; for if the Pope be (as they teach) the Man of Sin, and the Papal system the Antichristian, then, as it is plainly written that he, and it, are to be destroyed by the coming of Christ Himself, he who destroys Rome and the Pope must be Christ; and as Babylon is to be destroyed by the Antichrist, they who believe these writers must receive him as Christ, or at least be ready to welcome him as one sent from God. The responsibUity of these men is very great, and they are working more mischief than aU the declared enemies of the truth. In the work of the last Antichrist there -vnll be a fearful mocking of the work of the most Holy Trinity. Christ, the man, working always by the Holy Ghost to bring glory aud worship to God the Father, and yet worshipped Himself, and gathering a host of men, the congregation of the just, to render unto God aud to Hhnself obedience and worship ! Antichrist, the man. 276 The End— working by the evil spirit to get worship to the Dragon and to himself, and gathering a host of men, the con gregation of the wicked, by the power of evU spirits, to give that worghip and obedience ; and as Christ has His ministers to witness for Him, and to bring men to God and to Himself, so wUl Antichrist have his minis ters, who shall bring men to worship and serve hun and Satan. The chief of these will be the False Pro phet. Who this False Prophet is to be, time alone will determine. Many commentators have of late con founded him with the other beast, the Man of Sin. But there is a manifest distinction ; the one arises out of the bottomless pit, the other out of the earth; the one is the object of worship, the other works miracles to cause him from the pit to be worshipped and his Image ; not the image of the False Prophet, but ot the Beast. This False Prophet being symbolised hy a Beast, indicates that he has temporal power as well as spiritual. Perhaps something might be said on this, but it is better to avoid speculations. Ben Ezra says it will be the Roman priesthood. Perhaps he is not far wrong ; but let us not limit the apostate priests to Rome alone. Satan, it is said in the twelfth chapter, drags down to the earth with him a thkd part of the stars. But even although there may he a body of priests who- will work with the False Prophet, the analogy from the other Beast makes it evident that there will be an individual at their head, who is, far excellence, the False Prophet who shall do these things. No living man knows as yet, either who the Man of Sin, or his False Prophet, wUl be. Neither does any Eev. xiii. 16, one yet know what is the meaning of the ¦ %?s', the '* 666, the number of the Beast; what is his mark or Its Progress and Consummation. 277 his name. Wisdom as to this will doubtiess be given from the Lord to His people in that day when it shall be needed. Perhaps to a certain extent the old guess of Irenaeus {Lateinos) is the best that has been made ; for this Beast wiU be the last head of the fourth, or Latin Empire ; but there is a mystery in this number and name far beyond this. There is a glimmer of light thro-wn upon it in Scripture, viz., that while seven is God's number of completeness, and of His day, six is that of man, and of his day and time. Irenseus says, "666 is the true number of chapter thirteen of the Lib. v. Apocalypse ; and that it is an essential part of the meaning, for Antichrist will sum up the sins of the 6000 years typified by the six days of the world." And Antichrist will be the completion of man's wicked ness. Nebuchadnezzar's irnage was 66, threescore aud six, but this is 666. If it has been an abomination for kings to make images of gold, by meddling with the sacred things of God, and making decrees inthe Church; how much greater will be the abomination, even that " which maketh desolate," when this fearful man shall issue his decrees, abolishing the daily sacrifice, and all worship but that of himself ; and command all men to bow down to that image which he and his False Prophet shall set up. Many guesses have been made in all ages as to who this Antichrist should be, where he is to be born, &c. At the very beginning they wrote things about him, such as that he was to be a Jew, of the tribe of Dan, born in Babylon ; which they had no warrant for. This idea seems very much to have arisen from their attach ing a literal in the place of a symbolical meaning to the sealed ones of the seventh chapter of Revelation ; sup- 278 The End— posing these to be the twelve tribes of the literal, instead of the spiritual Israel, and in which seaUng Dan is left out. Such speculations sprang also from the refusal of the primitive fathers to admit the supposition of the Church passing into the apostasy ; and from their wish ing to palm all the predicted e-vil and wrong upon the Jews, whUe they, appropriated all the honours to them selves ; and so they could not believe that Antichrist might be a baptized man. In our day, likewise, there have been many specula tions in regard to individuals who have appeared to fulfil in part some of the things written. But while some of these may have been, like Antiochus, a sort of pre cursors of Antichrist, a foreshadowing of him ; yet it requires but a small exercise of common sense to decide that his appearance is yet future, although the world Matt, xxiv. may be heaving in the birth-throes of his coming, as it is in the birth-throes {udivuv) of the man-chUd. The ten kings and the last head of the Beast havmg come into manifestation, their work will be to destroy Babylon. The powers of the empire that have so long supported her, and been her strength, -will, on assuming this new form, fulfil God's mind ; and, after sustaining her for a while, will kill and bum her with fire. God's people who are everywhere held captive in her, having been called out of her, she becomes filled with devils, Eev, xvui. 2. and unclean spirits. That which was meant to be the temple of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit having been grieved and quenched, becomes the habitation of devils ; and in one day her destruction cometh. In 1852, just before Napoleon with a strong hand put them down, the French socialists were saying one to the other, " Chaque homme qui porte une soutane mourra dans un jour." They Its Progress and Consummation. 279 little thought they were using the very words of Scrip ture. But the spirit of the Beast is in them ; and that which will destroy the. Harlot is gathering strength each day. At the first French Revolution, the spirit of hatred to the priesthood was confined to one nation only ; but now it has spread into all countries, and that which was then an abscess that gathered and burst in one limb, has since been spreading into the whole body ; and, when it comes to a head the next time, it will indeed be death. The scenes that occurred in France in 1793 were a foreshadowing in one nation of what will be consummated in all, when the time comes ; only, then it was an outbreak of popular madness, but this wUl be the work of kings and of systematised wickedness. And here let us particularly impress upon all who study Scripture, and especially upon those who would confound Babylon and the Beast, that the first is to be destroyed by the Beast and his subordinate kings, whUe the Beast is to be destroyed by the coming of Christ personal. Babjdon is not to be destroyed by Christ personal, though it is true that it is God who destroys her ; but He will do so by the hands of the kings. But the Man of Sin, of 2 Thess. ii., who is the Beast of St John, is to be destroyed by the personal coming and appearing of Christ Himself. We said on page 129, that we should make some re marks on the subject of the dates of Scripture as applied to the present times. There are two theories concerning those dates ; one, that the days spoken of in Daniel and Dan. xh. r, St John are literal days ; the other, that in prophetic, or Eev. xi. r-, symbolic language, a day signifies a year ; therefore, ' ' that 1260 days means 1260 years, and a "time" signffy- ing a year, three times and a haff make also 1260 pro- 280 The End— phetic years ; but then those who so think are obliged, in order to come to this result, to make the year consist of only 360 days, or a lunar year of twelve months of thirty days each ; and so the forty and two months ot the prophecies come also to make the same number of 1260 days. But there is ground for this, inasmuch as, whether we take these dates to mean days or years, in order to make the times, tinie, and a half, that is, three years and a half, equal to the 1260 days and the forty- two months, we must make the years lunar years, and the months lunar months. Concerning the first theory, namely, that these times are literal days, it is certain that it is a true one ; and that if men had not fallen into the error of making the Pope the Antichrist, they would never have thought ot denying it. Making the Pope to be the Antichrist, they could not admit a literal application of 1260 days as the period of his existence ; and were compeUed, therefore, to deny that they could be hteral, and must solely mean a day for a year. All the old Fathers from the earliest times agreed in this, that these days meant literal days, during which Antichrist should exist in the plenitude of his power; and this doubtless will be the case. But then comes the question. Is there no truth in the application of a symbolical , and mystical meaning ot these 1260 days to Babylon? Of late some have been very violent on this point, and, whUe justly vindicatmg the true and literal meaning of the dates as applied to the time of the literal Antichrist, they entirely deny that there can be any truth in a mystical meaning of them as applied to Babylon ; and challenge men to bring forward any proof from Scripture, that a day is ever said to re- Its Progress and Consummation. 281 present a year. Now, this is going too far ; for froni various passages in Scripture, the use of a day to repre sent a year may be fairly argued. The 9th chapter of Daniel, notwithstanding the denial of this class, makes use of the term " weeks," the word being in every translation of the Hebrew rendered weeks (Sept., i^do/id&ig ; Vulg., hebdomades) ; and the seventy weeks in the passage are made to signify 490 years. The passage in Hosea -vi. 2, whUe it literally applies to our Lord rising the third day, does also appear to relate to the restoration of the Jews to God's favour in the third millennium from the time of their casting out. And in Ezekiel iv. 6, a day is in express terms used to represent a year. It is, therefore, no straining of the Scripture to say that the period of 1260 days may, without losing sight of the literal meaning, be figuratively and symboli cally applied to a longer period. The question then arises. Have those who have applied the 1260 days in a mystical sense to Babylon been altogether wrong? The Scripture, while it has but one literal interpretation, has often many appli cations of a less direct kind ; and the Holy Spirit gives to the people of God to apply them to existing circum stances. That the Pope is not the Antichrist of the last days (leyjiraig TifjApaig) has been sufficiently demon strated ; but is not the Papal system, so far as it is Papal and not Catholic, the head of the Antichristian system of the latter times {vgripoig xaipoTg) ? Is it not that - in which are, found those marks which St Paul has denounced as Antichristian, and apostatising i Tim, iv, i. {a,-7rosTfiffovToi.i) from the faith? If it be so, then have those who have applied the 1260 days as years to the existence of that system been entirely in error? If 282 The End- so, it certainly is remarkable that, at the times they calculated, the first blows against the entire system of Babylon have been struck. They calculated that from the date of the edict of Justinian, which set the Bishop of Rome over all the churches, and which ex empted bishops from the jurisdiction of the civil tribunal, -viz., A.D. 533, the time of Babylon's power would be 1260 years, which ended in 1793, — the year when the National Convention decreed that the Christian reUgien should be abolished, and the year also of the slaughter of the priests. The other date from which this period is calculated, is that from the decree of Phocas, A.D. 606, confirming the authority of Rome, from which 1260 years carry ns to A.D. 1866 ; but Fleming, who wrote, A.D. 1701, judged that they would be prophetical years, and not Julian, and so would end in 1848, — and in 1848 there was another great blow struck at Babylon, and at the established order of things. Modern criticism has thrown a doubt upon the sub ject of those decrees of Justinian and Phocas, and asserts that those parts of them which confer this authority on Rome are forged interpolations of a later date ; but especially as to that of Justinian, the scope of the evidence is in favour of the aUeged decree, being corroborated by other parts of the Pandects, and by his other acts and letters. The matter is of no great conse quence, for calculations on these ddtes do not affect the truths we have been writing upon ; but it is only fair to state what can be said on the subject. But this far is certain, that all agree that in Justinian's time a great change took place in the position of the Church ; and that the exemption of the bishops, leading to that of Its Progress and Consummation. 283 all the clergy, from the jurisdiction of the ci-vil power, was the first act of setting the Church above the State ; and it is certain that in 1793, as we have already shown, the first terrible blow was struck at her, which was repeated again in 1848, and which work remains yet -to be consummated in the day when the kings will destroy her altogether. What the intermediate process is to be, who can say ? Every year brings out some fresh phase in her position in regard to the kings of the earth, who are yet supporting her. It may be, and it is more than probable, that immediately previous to her extinction she may have a short period of augmented power and influence granted to her ; that she wUl put forth that power, and the powers of those she rides upon, more terribly than ever ; and that the blood of the saints will stain her garments once more for the last time, so that, as it was said of Jerusalem of old, it wUl be said of her, " In her was found the blood of prophets and of Eev. xviii. saints, and of all that was slain on the earth," before ' her retribution come. If these chapters of St John refer more particularly to what is to happen at the end, then it is indeed to be counted upon that the Mystery of Babylon, and her cruel work, will be manffested more fearfully than has yet been. The beast and his ten kings having fulfilled the destruction of Babylon, it wUl become manifest that they have not fought against her from any 'love of Christ or of truth, but from enmity against Him and it, by their turning against Christ Himself and the remnant of His people. And we would warn all who love the Lord, against joining themselves to those who seek to destroy the estabhshed churches, or the established order of thinga 284 The Endr- as existing between Church and State, whether in Roman or Protestant countries ; to pull them down, or to separate them, or to rob them. Notwithstanding their thousand faUings, they are still God's witness in their respective countries. The enmity of those who are now assailing Rome is excited, because she is, with all her faults, a -wdtness for God's authority, and for the principle that authority is from God. God, in the Christian dispensa- tiou, does not employ His people to use the sword against Ps. xvii. 13. those whom He wishes to punish, but the wicked : " the wicked which is thy sword." The Jews He did use against the Canaanites, for they represented the Law, and the Law destroys ; but the Christians represent the Gospel, and the Gospel saves and does not destroy, Therefore it is the wicked whom God will use as His sword against Babylon ; and although, indeed, the apostles and prophets, and all good men with them, will rejoice over her, when God avengeth them on her who Eev. xviii. has SO long corrupted the earth, and done violence to the truth and to them that followed it, yet they remem- Ps, xciv. ber that " vengeance belongeth unto God," and that Matt. xxvi. "all they that take the sword shall perish withthe Eev. xiu. 10. sword," and that their part is patience, faith, endurance ; besides, that, till God calls them to come out, their pre sent duty is to uphold all priests, as well as all kings, by their prayers. It is necessary that we should say a few words on the contents of the 12th chapter of Revelation, since the events described therein belong also to the times we are treating of. We have there a woman represented in vision, but how different from the woman of the 17th chapter! Clothed with light, and walking in light, and the stars Its Progress and Consummation. 285 of light circling her brow ! Combining all the ordi- Oen. i. u, nances of heaven, the Church is seen as the faithful one, the Mother of the Man-chUd who is about (og fiiXXii) to rule the nations. AU the Fathers agree that this is a vision of the Church (though some of them make strange confusion by the errors which they have added) ; and they had a very general perception that the history of the sun-clad woman and her seed is that of the Church, just previous to, and in, the times of Antichrist. At a later period some of them, while continuing to apply this vision to the Church, intro duced the Virgin Mary as the primary subject of it. This error may be traced to Epiphanius, A.D. 400, who making a guess and interpreting the symbol UteraUy, says, " that, seeing the uncertainty of her (Virgin Lib. iii..t. Mary's) later history, for anything known to the con trary, she may be the woman flying into the wilder ness." Some make it to be the Jewish Church, with the twelve patriarchs round her head, giving birth to Jesus Christ, or to His body the Church. Some say that it will be the Jewish Church restored in the last days. And some, that it will be a Christian Church formed of converted Jews in Judea in that day. But none of these interpretations can stand a moment's consideration. For when did either the Virgin Mary or the Jewish Church flee into the wUderness (what ever that may mean) for 1260 days, or three years and a half, whether we take that period to signify three jj^ xii. e and a half hteral years, or 1260 years ? What hap- ¦'*• pened to the Virgin Mary? or what happened to the Jewish Church, at the termination .of A.D. 1260? It is an absurdity, and needs no refutation. So also as to the speculation that it may be the Jewish Church 286 The End— restored. For every one of the expositors is obUged by the context to confess, that this vision is to be realised before, and during, the time of Antichrist; and therefore it is quite clear that what is pointed at cannot be tbe Jewish Church restored to God's favour and converted to Christ ; for before the Second Advent of our Lord there can be no Jewish Church, but only the Christian Church, in which there is neither Jew nor GentUe known. And, moreover, if the Jewish people and nation were converted to Christ before His Second Advent, then they would all be translated and caught up to meet Him at His coming, and so there would be no Jewish nation left on the earth, which woidd render void all the prophecies concerning them and their future position among the nations. And as to the last of this series of errors, viz., that it is a small Judaic Christian Church in Judea that is to be clothed with the sun, and to have the twelve stars round her head, and that her child is to rule the nations, it is only needful to mention it, that the un reasonableness of it may be seen. Having disposed of these futile imaginations, let us examine the true meaning of the symbols of this chapter. We before said that the Church could be regarded (spiritually) under two aspects at the same time ; one, as the faithless and corrupt harlot, the other as the faithful mother of God's chUdren. There has been a measure of truth in that which many have contended for, namely, that the real existence of the Church is an invisible one, .and its unity spiritual; and that those are the true members of it who in all ages have been united to the Head, the Lord Jesus Christ, and Its Progress and Consummation. 287 to one another, in the power of the Holy Ghost. This, no doubt, has been the case ; and thus has the Church ever been the mother of those who, in the aggregate, wiU form that one body that shaU rule the nations, here symbolised as the man-child.* But while this is true, there is, a specialty of time in regard to this vision. As in the 17th chapter, while the Woman and the Beast are both seen in their general history, and from their earliest existence, tiU the time of their de struction, yet has that chapter' a special reference to a certain definite period of their career ; so this 12th chapter, while it may show the Church in all genera tions, has special reference to a certain period of her history, and that period is, as above mentioned, that which immediately precedes and accompanies the Antichristian time. And then she is seen with the crown of apostleship round her head, and as bringing into manifestation that body which is to be cau,a:ht up Bev. n. '27. ^ n TT. -1 1 1 1 TT T^-, . Matt. xiii. to God and to His throne, and whereby He will rule 40. , , . , Cant. \\. 10. the nations. J * Thia symbol cannot mean the Lord Jeaua Chriat personal, for the man-child here brought forth is immediately previous to a term, or period, of 1260 days, whioh cannot in any way be predicated of the firat year of the Christian era, or of the year 33, when the Lord ascended into heaven. -)• Irenseus and Victoririus both agree in the above interpretation. " The flight of the woman into the wilderness ia from Antichriat, and the casting of the Dragon out of heaven by Michael is at the beginning of Antichrist." Methodius says the same: "The woman clothed with the sun is our Mother ; a certain power existing by herself, apart from her children, . . . This power ia the Church. . . . It would teach you nothing if I were to explain thia to mean the natural bii'th of Chriat ; for the myatery of the Word'a incarnation waa completed long before the Apooalypae was written ; and John propheoiea about things that are, and that are to come. And 288 • The End— The earlier Fathers saw more clearly the meaning ot the symbol than those who came after. Stanley Faber Vol. iii. 117, says, in his " Sacred Calendar of Prophecy : " — " In the symbolical language of the ancient prophets, the birth of a man-chUd denotes the setting apart of a com munity from the great general mass with which it was previously commingled ; whUe the gestation and labour- throes which precede it refer to the difficulties, trials, and troubles, of whatsoever description they may be, which precede the setting apart the community in question. Such, then, is the abstract import of the birth of a man-chUd ; but, in the present vision this allegorical phraseology has a special and particular relation to Christ ; for the man-child is described, like Christ Himself, as one who shall rule all nations with a rod of iron. Hence, as Mede observes, the man-child must denote Christ in some sense. But he cannot be the literal Christ ; because such an application is not consistent with the language of Scripture, which inva riably represents our Lord as the Husband, not as the Son, of His Church ; " or with the chronology of the prediction, for the literal Christ most assuredly was not born at the commencement of the latter 1260 years (or days). If this be so, " then it wiU plainly foUow that the birth of the Apocalyptic man-child must denote the setting apart of a faithful Christian Chriat, bom long before, waa not snatched up to God's thi-one as aoon aa brought forth, lest He should be devoured by the serpent; but He was born and came down from the throne of Hia Father for thia very pm-pose, that He might roughly handle the Dragon, and give him battle in the fleah. You must allow, therefore, that this woman is the Church travailing with, and bringing forth, her ran somed onea," Its Progress and Consummation. 289 ecclesiastical community from the great mass of God's true worshippers : that henceforth, safe under the care of an almighty superintending Providence, it might bear witness to the Gospel in its corporate or collegiate capacity, while there maining mass out of which it was taken should do so only individually and unconnectedly." Is there not good ground to believe that the work which we have seen commenced, and in a measure manffested, has some reference to the things here sym bolised? If apostles and prophets have again been restored; ff light has been given, specially concerning that kingdom of which the sun is the emblem, such as had not been given for ages, if ever ; if the ordinances of rule and of righteousness in things of heaven, and things of earth, have been again seen ; ff men are being made ready by God's ordinances to be caught away unto Christ ; ff the Church is striving with birth-throes Bev. xii. 2. {di&ivo\iea), such as she has not ever before experienced ; if, at the same time, the world also is in the commence ment of its birth-throes, its dpxh oioimv, which wiU ^att. xxiv. bring forth the Antichrist, and which the 13th chapter of Revelation shows is to accompany the birth-throes of the Church, — is it presumptuous to say that'we are approaching that time when the symbol of this (jhaptei; shaU be realised? And let it not be thought that because the twelve stars round the woman's head sym bolise the Apostles, therefore there can be no apostles now. John the Baptist, as a prophet, complemented the work of Moses the prophet ; and ff the stars mean the first Apostles, that is no reason to forbid that that office should be seen in exercise now at the end of the Dispensation. On the contrary, we have reason to expect that there should be a complementing and bring- 290 ' The End— ing to a close of the work of the first twelve. are twenty and four elders who sit round the thronei; and that is a symbol of something worthy of the Church's consideration. It may be more than ques tionable, whether twelve of them signify the twelve Patriarchs, seated* in the highest place, and excluding Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We observed at the commencement, that the vision of the 4th chapter of Revelation could not be fully manifested till the completion of the body of Christ; and this is fairly to be deduced from the 5th chapter, where the twenty-four elders, and the cherubim, the symbols of .the rulers in the Church in glory, and ot the four ministers of Christ in it, day, in their song, that they have been redeemed unto God by the blood of Christ, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation ; whence it may seem that the number ot those who are symbolised in that vision has not been completed yet. The vision of the 4th chapter showed the perfect thing first^ and as it will be seen when all is accomplished ; and then the following chapters proceed to show the successive steps to it. We may have seen the beginning of these things; who can tell all that the Church wUl have to go through yet, before that birth be completed ? It is when the war in heaven, mentioned in this chapter, takes place, and Satan shaU no longer be Job i.e. allowed either to appear before God, as " the Accuser Eev. xii. 10. of the brethren," or to hinder the Lord any more in His Church by his spiritual operations in the invisible, but is cast down to the earth, — ^it is then that his malice will be stirred up- more than ever to use the earthly powers outwardly against the Church ; and then indeed Its Progress and Consummation. 291 will the powers of the empire be urged on by him to do their worst ; and he wUl bring up its last Head and its ten Kings to do his -work, and seek to crush the Church out of the world. But the Lord will not leave Himself without -witnesses against him. He will raise up His " two Witnesses ; " and the Beast from the bottomless pit shall fight against them, and slay them ; but only to Eev. xi. 3, r. his own destruction. The same mistake, of making the Pope to be the Eev. xi. 3-12. Antichrist, has led to the writing of much that is absurd and erroneous as to those Witnesses. They have been interpreted to be the Waldenses and Albigenses, the Holy Scriptures themselves, &c., &c. But like the Beast and the False Prophet, they have not appeared yet. And as no one knows or can say who the Beast or the False Prophet is to be, so no man can say who those two Witnesses are to be. The old tradition is, that they are to be Enoch and Elijah, and the idea came in early ; but it is no better than a guess, and without any scriptural foundation. It is most true that Elias will come to the Jews, as it is prophesied by Malachi, and confirmed by our Lord Himseff ; but that does not prove that he will be one of those witnesses ; and the reason given by TertuUian why they should be Enoch and Elijah, namely, that all men must die, — and there fore, as Enoch and Elijah were both translated without dying, they -will have to come to be slain by Antichrist, that they may die, — is without any force, as many men will be exempted from dying, and will be changed at the Lord's coming. Marcella puzzles Jerome with this question : " If all must die, even Enoch and Elias, how can those be said to die who are to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air ? " and well might she ask it ; 292 The End— and Jerome evades the question, and gives.- no reply, The Vulgate reading of 1 Cor. xv. 51 is, Omnes quidem resurgemus sed non omnes immutdbimur ; but it is against aU authority; and St Paul, both here and in 1 Thess. i!B,i intimates that we shall not all die. It is evidently tot an apostolic tradition ; for at first they only spoke of Elias as one witness, and added Enoch afterwards The text advanced from the Vulgate in favour ot Enoch being one of theim, is a false translation trom Bcciesiasti- the Apocrypha: Henoch placuit Deo, et translatksM CUS, xliv. 16. T, ,. 7 -f • ¦ 1 - ,• m Paradisum, ut det gentibus pcenitenttam; whereas!, in the original it is irjTodiiy/iai ytiramag raTg ys ke ay's, " being an example of repentance to (all) the generations^'' not "that he may give repentance to [the natioiis.'' Aid TertulUan's second reason for their death,- viz., "thatlhy their blood they may extinguish Antichrist," is also an erroneous one ; for it is not they, or their blood,) whicli extinguish him, but the coming of Christ Himself, Other guesses have been made, such as that Moses and St John will be those Witnesses, — Moses, because Ms John xxi. 22. bddy was not found, and St John, because of our Lord's words to St Peter concerning him: but all these iar? equally without any ground of authority. Therefore, -without venturing to affirm who will mi be those Witnesses, any, more than to guess who will be, all that can be said about them is, that they have not yet appeared, that their day and work are future. When they do appear, the Man of Sin and his followers will not be deterred by them, notwithstanding all the super natural proofs they wiU give that they are sent from God. And when the time of their -witnessing is con cluded, he will slay them ; and what is written con cerning their dead bodies lying unburied, and their Its Progress and Consummation. 293 resurrection (whatever that may mean), will be ful filled.* And Antichrist, by his lying wonders, wUl prevail with the majority of men, to cause them to disbelieve in the signs and wonders done by God. Nothing will arrest him in his desperate career ; but (the people of God being at last all removed out of the way) his judgment and that of those that follow him .begins, and the seven angels pour out the last vials of ^^''^ '™- the wrath of God upon them. We are here again com pelled to notice, what -we slightly mentioned before, the great error there has been in supposing that these vials have any of them been already poured out. The very first of them is accompanied by a grievous sore on those who have the mark of the Beast, and who have wor shipped his image ; and the fifth is poured out upon the Seat of the Beast. How, then, could this have been done, when as yet that mark has not been imposed, or that image made, or the Beast set upon his Seat? These erroneous interpretations have proceeded from the same source as many others we have pointed out, -viz., from imagining the Pope, or the first Napoleon, to have been the eighth head of the Beast. ' During the sixth vial, evil spirits will go forth out Bev. xvi. is. of the mouth of the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet, working miracles, to gather the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to the great day of , the battle of God Almighty. And here again we ask, How can these evil spirits have gone forth, before the Beast, and the False Prophet, out of whose mouth they are to * Many absurdities Jiave been written about the death, resurrection, and ascension of the two Witnesses, as applied to the Albigenses, etc. ; bnt they proceed from the mistake that these -witnesses iiave already appeared. 294 The End— proceed, have come into being? And where are the miracles they have worked, or are working ? No doubt there are abundance of evil spirits working — deceiving and beguiling — by clairvoyance, table-tunung, > necro mancy, and such like; but mh-acles! where are they! No ; these things are yet to be. And Scripture at last brings us to the two closing scenes of the mysteries of godliness and of iniquity, which have worked in the Church from the beginning. The consummation of the mystery of godliness is the resurrection of the dead, and the change of the Hring saints, and their translation unto Christ ; after which is the marriage of the Lord and His Church ; and finally, His and their manifestation in glory. The consumma tion of the mystery of iniquity is open battle against the Living God and Christ personal, and the casting of the Beast and the False Prophet alive into the lake of fire. The two mysteries come to their respective heads. The Lord's work issues in resurrection-lffe to a certam body of men, a thousand years before it reaches the rest even of saved men, and in a glory far. above the condition of the latter; and in an eternal union with Christ, of which the marriage union of man and wife is only a faint symbol. Satan's work issues in the lake of fire to some, a thousand years before the rest of hst men, and even Satan himself, for whom it was preparedi'are cast into it, and in a pre-eminence of shame and torment for ever. For it is written, that when the Lord hath judged the great Harlot that corrupted the earth, then Eev. xix. the time of the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wdfe hath made herself ready. And who is His -wffe ? The Church ; she who was Its Progress and Consummation. 295 long ago foretold and spoken of in the 45th Psalm, and in the Song of Solomon ; the Queen at the Lord's cant. vi. o. right hand; the One, the chief aljove all the rest, be cause she alone is baptized -with the Holy Ghost; in all things made like unto her Lord ; one -with Him ; raised from the dead at His coming, or changed in a moment ; caught up to meet Him, that she may work with Him ; and glorified in spirit, soul, and body, like unto Him, and filled with the Holy Ghost and all the power of God. Then shall be seen the difference be tween those who, faithful to .their baptism and to their Lord, shall be counted worthy to be among that blessed number who shall be congregated unto Him at the day of the First Resurrection, and those who, ha-ving broken their covenant and joined themselves to the Harlot, shaU be left in their graves till the time of the general resurrection, or who, having j oined themselves to the Apostasy, shall be congregated unto the Beast, Eev. xix. 21. and shall perish by the sword of him that sitteth upon the horse. For those who have been faithful to Christ, as Husband and as Lord, as Priest and as King, shall enter into the chamber of glory with Him ; they shall be gathered to the marriage supper of the Lamb ; they shall receive the reward of the kingdom ; they shall be made priests and kings; whUe those who have made themselves members of that harlot, and not repented, cannot enter into the bridal chamber; and they who have apostatised from Christ and rebelled against Him, and sought to take the kingdom from Him, the chief actors in that rebellion, instead of entering into the chamber of glory, shall go into the lake of fire; and their followers, instead of sitting down at the marriage ver. 17, is. supper of the Lamb, shaU become themselves the viands 296 The End- oi the other supper' of the -vengeance of the Great God,' and the fowls shall feast upon their flesh. For the Man of Sin, the Lawless One, inflamed by Satan with rage and pride, shaU think to be able to withstand Christ; and shall gather all his. i armies, Eev. xvii, ; beaded by his ten kings, and the kings of the whole Eev. xvi. 14 ; " • 1 1 T 1 J ¦ 1 . xix. 19. earth, to make war with the Lamb, and agamst > him that sitteth upon the horse. He shall have succeeded in gathering the whole earth, and shalL have taken his Isa, xiv. 13, seat as God ; he wUl have invaded Judea, and " set 25 himself on the mount of the congregation in thei sides Dan. xi. 45. of the north." Then the indignation of thei Lord comes up into his face. 'When the impious man hath set himself as God and king on God's holy hill of .Zzore, then-he hath consummated his wickedness, the patience and long- suffering of the Lord are worn out ; He cometh to Isa. XXX. vindicate His name. His throne. His kingdom. "Behold, ^''^^' the name of the Lord cometh from far, burning with His anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: His lips are full of indignation, and His tongue as devouring fire;" "And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lig-hting down of His arm, with the indignation of His anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering and tempest, and hailstones. For through the voice of the Lord shaU the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod;" Isa. Mu. " f°i' t^^ ^^J of vengeance " is in His heart. He comes, ^¦*- as described in the 19th chapter of the Apocalypse, riding on the white horse, foUowed by the armies ot heaven, symbolised as riding on white horses also. But they fight not; " He treadeth the wine-press alone;" Isa, ixiii. 3. His vesture is dipped in the blood of His enemies.* * The miaappUbatiom by commentators of this 63d chapter jof Its Progress and Coiisummation. 297 The Beast, the Man of Sin, and the False Prophet who Bev xiv 20 ; worked miracles for him, are taken, and are cast alive {ZSivrtg) into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. As Dathan and Abiram and their company went down Eev. xix. 20: alive into Hades (YSivrig ilg uiSou), so shall these go down Numb. xvi. 30-33. alive into the fiery lake, its first inhabitants. " For isa. xxx. 33. Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared: He hath made it deep and large; the pile thereof is flre and much wood ; , the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it." The breath ing of the Lord upon His people is the Holy Ghost and John xx. 22, life eternal; but His breathing upon His enemies is a 2, Thess. u. consuming fire ; for He shall consume him with the spirit of His mouth, and destroy him with the brightness of His coming. Those that follow the Beast in this unholy war are " slain with the sword of him that sat Eev. xix. 21. upon the horse, -which sword proceeded out of his mouth; and all the fowls were filled with their flesh." It is not said that these are nowr cast into the lake of fire, but that they are slain ; and the fowls eat their flesh, and they are sent to abide in the prison-house of spirits tUl the day of judgment, like other men. But the Beast and the False Prophet are cast alive into that lake, where the devil himself is not cast for a thousand years afterwards ; they are the first-fruits of heU, — of the congregation of the lost ; — as those who are then ver. 7-9. with Christ, and united to Him- on that blessed mar riage-day, are the first-fruits of heaven, and of the congregation of the saved. How strange it is that the Church, the Lamb's wife, should, as a body, have for- Isaiah to our Lord's crucifixion, instead of to the epoch of the 19th chapter of Revelation, is another instance how the gospel of the kingdom had been forgotten; 298 The End^ gotten, ceased to hope for, care for, prepare for, and look for this day, this bridal day! How have her teachers eaten out the faith of it from the hearts of men by addressing individuals as the Lord's brides; by applying the passages in Scripture which speak lot the Lord's wife, to the Lord's mother; by fiattering nuns that they were the Lord's brides ; and by tellmg men that the hour of death was the consummation of their union' with Christi Whereas the Lord's wife is the Church, one body ; formed of many indi-viduals, of all the baptized who shall attain to the resurrection from the dead at His coming; or who, if alive, shall be changed and translated, with those who are risen, into His presence ; the true " Queen of heaven," who shall sit with her Lord on the throne, ruling over all, governing all, nearest to Him, dearest to Him; the sharer of His glory, honour, dominion, and power ; the dispenser of grace from Him to all : He receiving all from God, and gi-ving to her ; and she receiving aU from Him, to give to the inhabitants of the earth, and to all the hosts of heaven. This is your calling, 0 ye baptized, which ye have forgotten ! You have forgotten the Queen's place, the Queen's throne, and have thought to take the servant's place in the house of your Lord, and to be content with it. But now again God is calling you to the knowledge of your true place, and to the preparation for it. The destruction of Antichrist and his abettors hav ing been accomplished, the false bringers of a miUennial rest to the world, and the false bringer of light to him, being sent into a place of tossing fire and darkness, whUe those who took arms for them against the Lord Its Progress and Consummation. 299 are destroyed by the sword, — Satan, the adversary of Christ, who from the beginning rebelled and instigated men unto rebeUion, is himself now seized and bound by the Angel of the Lord, and cast into the prison of the Rev. xx, bottoEoless pit ; where he is to be confined for a thousand years, and shall deceive the nations no more tUl the thousand ySars be fulfilled. Many extravagant notions in the Christian Church have we had to recount in the course of this our painful history ; but perhaps none has exceeded that of assert ing that these thousand years have already come, during which Satan has been bound, so that he should not deceive the nations. We have seen that the whole Church was once filled with the idea that Satan was bound at the Incarnation of our Lord, and that the Millennium terminated at A.D. 1000 ; others have main tained that he was bound at the Ascension of our Lord ; others, that the thousand years were during the Middle Ages, and that he was loosed when Luther came ; others, that a thousand years does not mean a thousand years, but all the period from the resurrection of the Lord to the end of the world ! Was Satan bound when he bruised the heel of the Seed of the woman, and urged Judas to betray, and the Jews to crucify Him ? Was he bound when St Paul complained of being hindered by him, and told us to put on the whole armour of God, that we might fight against him ? or when St Peter bade us watch and be sober, for that he went about like a roaring Uon seeking whom to devour? Was he bound when he taught Ananias and Sapphira to lie to the Holy Ghost, gave power to Simon Magus and Elymas the sorcerer, and inspired the Pythoness of Philippi ; or when his evil spirits leaped 300 The End— upon the powerless exorcists ;and overcame'them ? Was he bound when he stirred up Nero and Domitian to endeavour to quench the Christian Church in blood? Has he- been bound in Africa, in India, ih China, in Turkey ? Have none of the nations been deceived by him, when three-fourths of the world are worshipping devUs ? Was he bound at the time when, according to the prophecy, " men shoiild depart from the faith, giving heed to .seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils ;" " for bidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats?" Was he bound in the French Revolution? Is he bound when he is yet in the heavens, the prince of the power of the air, abiding the day of the war between Michael and himself, when he shall be cast out of heaven into the earth ? WUl he be bound when he persecutes the Woman ? or when he raises up Antichrist, and gives him his power and great authority, and his miracles to the False Prophet ? Will he be bound when the e-vil spirits go out from him to gather the kings to the great day of the battle of God Almighty ? One only wonders that men should imagine such things, or argue so irrationally. To deny the existence of the Evil One, or attribute all the' atrocities done on -the earth to the inere unaided wickedness of man, one can understand ; but for any who profess belief in the Scriptures, and in the existence of Satan, to say that the deceiver of the nations has been bound in the prison- house, because the ten persecutions of the Roman emperors terminated, or because of the comparative civUisation of the Christian nations, or for any other reason, passes all comprehension. No ! it is an event yet to come, and, it cannot come till the enemy has accomphshed his crowning work. of, stirring up the Man Its Progress and Consummation. 301 of Sin to rise against God, and has persuaded the world to foUow him. Then shall he be laid hold of, and bound, and cast into prison, and he shall be shut up ; and for a while the earth shall be free from his presence. And it will remain to be seen what men Eev. xx. wUl then do, for there is one lesson more yet to be learned. The usurpers of the kingdom of Christ, Babylon and Antichrist, being both swept o,ut of the way, and Satan, the opposer of it, being bound in prison, the Lord, -with His saints, takes the kingdom. The Prophecies of Daniel are accomplished ; the fourth empire, with its ten horns, and its other horn with its blasphemies and persecutions have come to an end ; and the time for " the kingdom to be given to the saints'' has arrived at last. And who are the saints ? There are two different categories of these : the Christian Church, and the Jews. 1st, The Christian Church perfected and glorified, composed of all those who, if asleep, have been counted worthy to attain to the First Resurrec tion, or, if alive, have been changed, and with the others taken up in their bodies to be glorifled with the Lord in the heavenly Jerusalem — " Blessed and holy is Eev, xx, 6. he that hath part in the First Resurrection," they " shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years ; " and 2d, the Jews in their place in, the earthly Jerusalem, restored to the favour of God, and set over the nations. Although the First Resurrection is named now in this 20th chapter, it is spoken of as a thing concluded ; for as, when the Lord comes to destroy Antichrist, all His saints come with Him, therefore they must have been raised and taken up to Him, or they could not come with Him. It is 302 The End— incumbent on us he-re to say a few words on the sn of the First Resurrection, for there is a general impres sion that the belief in it rests solely upon this passage. But this is a great mistake. The truth of a resurrec tion of some at a different time from that of the general resurrection is e-vident from Scripture^ independent ot this passage in the Apocalypse. Omitting the passages from the Old Testament Scriptures, sustained by the promises of which the Old Testament worthies, as St Heb. xi. 35. Paul says, suffpred, and served God, in the hope of obtaining a better resurrection, we wiU state as briefly as may be the conclusion to which we are led by the words of the Lord and His apostles. Luke XX. 36. Our Lord makes a distinction between the resurrec tion which some shall be counted worthy to attain to, and some not. St Paul says there is a resurrection Phil iii, 11. " out from among the dead," to attain which he strove "" with all his might as the prize to be gained. He also expressly tells us, that while as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive ; yet it shall not be all 1 Cor. XV. at once, but " every man in his own order ; Christ, the flrst-fruits ; afterwards ihey that are Christ's at His coming." It is particularly to be remarked, that wherever the resurrection of Christ, or of His people, is spoken of in Scripture, it is as a " resurrection from the dead ; " and wherever the general resur rection is spoken of, it is the " resurrection of the dead." This distinction, though preserved in many instances in 'the English translation, is too frequently omitted ; but in the Greek the one is always coupled -with the preposition ix, out of, and the other is -with out it ; and in the Vulgate it is rendered by a mor- tuis, or ex mortuiSi as distinct from resurrectia mortu- Its Progress and Consummation. 303 orum — de entre los muertos {Spanish). In Rom. vUi. 11, " The Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead," it is ix vexpSiv, a mortuis. So in Rom x. 7 ; Eph. i. 20; Heb. xiU. 20; 1 Pet. i. 3, 21. So Lazarus was raised ix vexpSiv, John xii. 1, 9. Our Lord, in His reply to the Sadducees, made the distinction between the general resurrection of the dead, and the resurrection which some should be counted worthy to attain to. The children of this age (a/Sivos) marry,. but they who shall be accounted worthy to attain that aiSiv, and the resurrection from the dead {avaerdgeug r'ng ix vixpSjv), shall not marry (Luke xx. 34, 35). St Paul, when he spoke of a resurrection to which he pmi. iu. 8-11 strove to attain, and to which he was with all his might pressing forwards, as the high prize to gain which he was agonizing, and for which he counted aU else loss, as ff one preposition was not enough to indicate his meaning, uses it doubled, iig rriv s^ocvderaffiv rrin ix Schoiz. vexpSiv, " Si quomodo occurram ad resurrectionem, qu» vuigate. est ex mortuis." If St Paul had been looking only to the general resurrection, he need not have given him self any trouble, or made any sacriBce to attain to that ; for to it all, even Judas and Nero, must come ; but to attain to the First Resurrection, he had need to press forward for the prize of that caUing. And thus in his argument for the resurrection in 1 Cor. xv., when he speaks of the resurrection generally, he speaks of the resurrection of the dead {avdsraarg nxpZi) ; but when ver. 2, 21. he speaks of our Lord's resurrection, it is ix vsxpZv, from the dead. And he marks the time when Christ's people shall be raised from the dead, namely, " at Christ's coming," " every man in his own order : '' 1st, Christ ; 2d, Christ's people ; 3d, all the remainder, at ver. 23-20. 304 The End- some other period, which he terms "the end," when the last enemy, death, is to ¦ be destroyed, put an end to. And it follows- as a matter of course, that if those who are Christ's are to be raised from the dead at His coming, and ff He comes previous to the destruction of Antichrist and to the Millennium, this flrst resur rection must be at least a thousand years before the general resurrection. That this period is a thousand years, is the additional light we get from- this 20th chapter of Revelation. From all Scripture -we gain the knowledge generally, that they who have beeh faithfiil to God from the beginning of the world shall be raised from the dead at Christ's coming to take the MngdOm ; and from the passages we have cited, and from other parts of Scripture, we gain the knowledge that those also who are Christ's rise before the rest of men ; bnt we gain no information as to how long before the rest. But this chapter supplies that deflciericy ; it is a thou sand years. If there be no millennial reign, the doctrine of the First Resurrection yet remains, as established from Scripture ; but ff there is (as there undoubtedly shall be) a millennial reign, and that brought in by the personal Advent of Christ, then the First Resur rection, the resurrection out from among the dead, is one thousand years at least before that of the ol Xomoi, the rest ; for it must be when He comes. In Adam all die ; in Christ all shall be made alive {^miroiti' StjeovTCii) ; but every one (each man, 'ixaang, unusquis- que) in his own order ; tt,ira,pyfi, first, Christ : eVffraj some two thousand years after, they that are Christ's ; iira,, then, one thousand years at least after, the rest of the dead; for they (0/ Xonfoi rSiv vexpZv) are not made alive, do not live again, tUl the thousand years are Its Progress and Consummation. 305 finished. We say, " one thousand years at least," for that is the time of the millennial reign; but, as we before observed, Christ's saints have to be raised before that reign commences ; for they come with the Lord when He comes to establish that reign on the earth ; and must necessarily, therefore, have been caught up to meet Him some time previously. Given that they that are Christ's are raised at His coming ; that He comes at the commencement of the MUlennium ; that the last enemy, death, is not destroyed till after the Millennium ; the conclusion is inevitable that the First Resurrection must be a thousand years before the Last. Thus we find all Scripture, Old and New, agrees on this point, that there is a First Resurrection, the mark of the goal, the prize to be won by those who run so as to obtain it. Strange it is, that the Church should have so lost sight of it, and even spoken of it as a heresy, and striven to explain away the words, " First Resurrection ; " the Roman Catholic applying it to the soul going to heaven when separated from the body, the second resurrection being that of the body itself ; the evangelical class making it the regeneration of the soul in the present life. Extremes meet : all alike have lost sight' of the true meaning of the words, the plain and simple meaning of them, — the peculiar hope of the Christian Church. But how could Babylon keep in mind, or hope for, the First Resurrection, which strikes at the root of all her false hopes of reigning over the earth in the present body and before the coming of the King ? for the First Resurrection and the Kingdom are indissolubly united. We say that this First Resurrection ever should have U 306 The End— been the prominent and peculiar object of the Christian's Eom. viii. hope. The hope of all creation is deliverance from the vanity to which it has been subjected by Adam's fall; the common hope of all men is resurrection from death; the hope of the Jew is resurrection from the dead at Messiah's coming, and the first, the highest place among the nations ; the hope of the Christian is the First Resurrection and the glory of Christ, the first, the highest place among all creatures whatsoever. The Church shares in the common hope of the creature and of all men, i.e., to be freed from the bondage of corrup tion, with the redemption of the body ; she shares with the Jew in thfe hope of being raised from the dead at the coming of the Messiah ; but she has a hope far beyond them all, which is to be changed into the body of glory, Ez. xxxvii ; and to share with her Lord in His exaltation and power, and with Him to reign over all ; and yet this is the hope she has forgotten.* Intimately and inseparably connected with the point of the First Resurrection is the millennial kingdom ot Christ; that intermediate stage between the present * Those who wish to investigate the subject for themselves, can refer to the following paasages : — Dixpu]) with the preposition ix. — 1 Oor. xv. 12, 20 ; Rom. x. 7-9 ; viii. 11 ; Col. i. 18 ; Eev. i. 5 (Ix is in Text. Recept.) ; Col. ii. 12; Eph. i. 20 ; V. U; Heb. v. 7 ; xiii. 20 ; 1 Pet. i. 3, 21 ; 2 Tim. ii. 8 ; Matt. xvii. 9 ; Luke xvi. 31 ; xx. 35 ; xxiv. 46 ; Phil. iii. 11, 21 ; Gal. i. a ; 1 Thess. i. 10 ; 2 Tim. ii. 8 ; Rom. iv. 24 ; vi. 4, 9, 13 ; vii. 4 ; viii. 11 j x. 7, 9 ; xi. 1.5 ; Acts iii. 15 ; iv. 2, 10; xiii. 30, 34 ; xvii. 31 ; xxvi. 23 ; Mark ix. 9, 10. The disciples knew what the resurrection of the dead waa, but not what " the resurrection from the dead " meant. 1/ix.pau without ix. — 1 Cor. xv. 12, 13, 21 ; Heb. vi. 2 ; Matt, xxii' 31 ; Acta xvii. 32 ; xxiii. 6 j xxiv. 15, 21. Its Progress and Consummation. 307 dispensation and the one in which the new heavens and the new earth, the eternal kingdom of God, shall be established. But before we proceed with this, it is requisite we should speak as to the subject of the restoration of the Jews, including all the nation of Israel, to their own land and city, and to the favour of God ; and also as to their place in the kingdom, which is different from that of the glorified Christian Church, but is as necessary to the purpose of God in the kingdom as that of the Christian Church itself in her place. There is no greater source of error than the culUng out of all the passages in the ancient prophets which speak of the triumph and glory of God's people, and applying them to the Church in the present dispensa tion, while all the passages that are full of reproaches for unfaithfulness and of threatenings of judgment and condemnation are left to the Jews. We cannot do this ; we must take all or none. But the truth in regard to this matter is, that those prophecies, as all the Old Testament prophecies, have a double application, first to the Jews, then to the Church. The Jew and the tribes of Israel were a type of the Christian Church. If we could interpret their history aright, we should read our own, and see that ours is an exact double of theirs. If we take a piece of lead and fit it on to any piece of carved work, it will be the exact counterpart of the mould, its double. What ever they did we have done ; whatever has been done to them, or will be, the same things have happened or will happen to us, — though in a different fashion or way. 1st, The Israelites were individually circumcised, the token of the covenant, and the sign that they were 308 Tlie End— separated from aU flesh to be God's people, and sepa rated from the sinful practices of the nations. But they did not keep that covenant ; they rendered void its sign, mingled themselves again with the nations, and did what other (uncircumcised) men did. So the Christians are individually baptized, the token of their covenant to be dead to the body of sin, aUve to God in the spirit, and separate unto God as His people. But they have also turned to do what other (unbaptized) men in the flesh do, and to walk in their ways. 2d, The Israelites were baptized as one nation and one body into Moses, in the cloud . and in the sea, that, cut off from the Egyptians and from Egypt, they might no more be in bondage to them, but be free to serve and obey Moses, their leader, and commander, and lawgiver, and be led by him into the promised land, I Cor, X. But they turned back into Egypt in their hearts, rebelled against Moses, made a calf, turned to idolatry, &c. So the Christian Church is, as one body, baptized into Christ, separated from bondage to the flesh and to the powers of the world to obey and serve Him, their leader, commander, and lawgiver, to be led into the heavenly kingdom. But they have turned back into the flesh, from which they were delivered, and under the powers of the world, have rebelled against Christ, and been 1 Cor. X. guilty of spiritual idolatry and fleshly wickedness, and self-indulgence, &c. 2)d, The Israelites were brought into the wUderness in order to be taken through it into the promised land ; they doubted, distrusted, and disobeyed; they grieved God forty years in the wilderness, and fell in it. So the world is the wilderness to the Christian 1-11, Its Progress and Consummation. 309 Church, through which it should have pressed to the kingdom, the true promised land ; but it has not done so, and has disobeyed and grieved God, and fallen, in the same way. 4:th, The Israelites passed into the land ; but they learned the ways of the heathen, and became mingled with them. So the baptized were brought as one body to be a separate people, but soon mingled with the world, admitted it, unconverted and unchanged, into the ¦Church, and learned its ways. oth. The Jews and Israelites were brought into the typical kingdom, when it was estabhshed among them, by David and Solomon ; but they and their kings turned against God, disobeyed His laws, and joined themselves to idols. So the baptized were brought into the kingdom of God's 4ear Son, and His kingdom was established among them, but they and their rulers have broken God's laws, and foUowed their own inventions. 6th, Because of all this, the tribes of Israel were delivered over into the hands of the king of Assyria ; and the Jews, including those at Jerusalem, where the priests were, and in Zion, where the ruler dwelt, were carried away captive into Babylon. So the whole Christian Church, laity, priests, and bishops, have been carried captive into the mystical Babylon. 1th, In the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, there was a partial deliverance from Babylon, and a restoration, in a measure, of the true order of God's worship, a relaying of the foundations, and a building of the walls of Jerusalem. 310 The End— So in the Christian Church, there is an analogous thing; a partial deliverance, a restoring of the true order of worship, a relaying of the foundations, and a buildiug of the wall of defence. ith, The Jews, though thus partially restored, were still, as a people, under captivity and hindrance • by the powers of the empires ; and at last, for rejecting Christ and crucifying Him, they were given up to be destroyed by the Romans; but a faithful renmant passed over into another dispensation. So the Christian Church, notwithstanding this par tial restoration, are all still hindered by the earthly powers; and because the majority will reject Christ in His restored ordinances, they shall be destroyed by the head of the Roman Empire and his hosts, and the faithful remnant shall pass over into another dispensa tion. Mai. iv. 5; 9(A There was an Elias-work to the Jews; there Matt, xi. 14. , „ 1 ,, shall be a still more positive fulfllment of it to them previous to their flnal restoration and establishment in the kingdom. There must be an Elias-work in the Christian Church, previous to its final restoration and establishment in the kingdom. In everything the type and the antitype go double. Therefore there can be no greater error than to be partial, and to take the favourable parts of Isaiah, &c., and apply them to the Christian Church, and not the unfavourable also. So also, it is an equal error to apply the promises of triumph, prosperity, and glory, either to the Christian Church or to the Jews during the present dispensation, and before the Second Advent of the Lord. Its Progress and Consummation. 311 Isaiah wrote to the Jew, and of the Jew, literally and specially; though in spirit he wrote to the Christian, and of the Christian. The censures to the Jews, and their judgments, were to be fulfilled during the present dispensation ; the pro mises and prophecies of their glory shall be accomplished when Christ comes again. So those censures are equally applicable to the Chris tian Church ; and her judgments (temporal) shall be during this present dispensation ; her glory shall be when Christ comes a second time. It was from the early Church so soon forgetting the distinction between the relative places, in the kingdom, of the Jewish people, and of the Christian Church, that many mistaken notions arose, and erroneous statements were made, respecting the things which should take place during the Millennium. It is astonishing how soon after the death of the Apostles the Church seems to have ceased to care for the Jews as a people, — as the people of God though in disgrace ; how soon, put ting them out of mind, they became blinded to all the promises and prophecies of their future restoration, and began to appropriate to theinselves things said in Scripture concerning the Jews; confounding the pro mises to the earthly Jerusalem with those to the heavenly. This may appear at first sight to have been a small evil; but, ff examined closely, it will be seen to have been the beginning of the divergence from the true doctrine of the kingdom, — the germ of substituting earthly for heavenly rule and position. Por though, at first, whUe thus in error applying to themselves the things which appertain to the Jew in the kingdom, the Christians still kept in mind the coming of Christ and 312 Tlie End— the MUlennium, yet they soon proceeded to change the hope of that coming and kingdom into a behef that the prophecies were to be fulfiUed in the present dispen sation. And so we may say that the chief error ot Babylon took its first rise from the Church disregarding what St Paul said to them, that he would not have Eum, xi. 26. them ignorant that the blindness that had come over Israel was only in part, ancl for a time ; and so they became wise in their own conceits, thinking that they were to reign over the earth now, and cover the earth with the knowledge of God, and subdue all the natioiB to Him, Jews included, before the Lord should come. But now this conceit has been taken from us, and God has revived again the knowledge of the doctaine ot the kingdom ; and we are no more ignorant that the Eom. xi, 7, Jews have only been hardened {i'rcopoJSTieav) for a time; and we are able once more to pray to God in the right way for their restoration, and to distinguish between the promises that apply to them, and those which belong to the Christian Church. To cite the passages in the Scriptures which declare that the Jews, and the ten tribes of Israel, are to be restored to their own city, and that that city being rebuilt shall became the ecclesiastical centre and the metropolis of the earth — (the great error of the Papacy has been to imagine that Rome was to be that centre) - — and that from Zion and Jerusalem shall proceed the Law and Word of God to the whole world — would be to quote one-half of the Bible. These things are plainly and positively stated ; and also that, though, for their sins and for their rejection of Christ at His first coming, the Jews should be dispersed as a nation, and their city xxi. 24. and land trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times Its Progress and Consummation. of the Gentiles, spoken of by Daniel, should be fulfilled ; Dan. vu. yet that they then shall be gathered from all the nations where they have been scattered, as well as the long lost tribes of Israel ; and Jerusalem shall be rebuUt on its own hill never to be again destroyed ; and the Israelites shall become the first people of the earth, and the supremacy being given to them, aU the prophecies and promises made to them and to their forefathers, Abra ham, Isaac, and Jacob, of happiness, prosperity, and earthly glory, shall be fulfiUed, and in them all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. Very early, we repeat, did the Christian Church for get all this, and begin to despise and to hate the Jew. And as soon as she became allied to the imperial powers, not only did she forget all she owed to the Jews, and all that God had said respecting them, but, shutting her eyes also to what God had said He would do against all that should persecute them in the hour of their adversity, she urged on the civil rulers to heap disgrace and oppression upon them. Like Edom of old, obad, ; the Christians triumphed over their brother Jacob in the 5 ; jer, 1, i'. day of his calamity, and shed his blood ; and because they did so, their blood shall be shed. And when the direful tribunal of the Inquisition, that instrument per fect in wickedness in the Christian Church, was insti tuted, their fierce hatred found its vent ; and the Jews were made to feel what Christian men could do to Christ's kindred after the flesh, whose are the promises, and of whom Christ came. If anything marks Rome as the antitypical Edom, it is the cruelty she has ever shown to the Jews ; and if she manifests some little symptoms of relaxation now, it is perhaps from the innate consciousness that the hour of retribution is 314 The End— Eom. xi. nigh. The warnings of God here given specially to the Church at Rome have been disregarded; a deaf ear has been turned to them ; in this, as in much besides, that corrupt Church has trampled upou what St Paul said to her, for which there must be a terrible retribution. In the present time, the Protestant,- erring in the opposite direction, would do away -with God's dis pleasure against the Jew altogether, and, making no distinction between Jewish and Christian men, is begm- ning to admit them, into the legislature and magistracy of the countries, and to " mingle them among the nations." The Romanist has forgotten that, though not in the favour of God, the Jews are still under His protection. The Protestant forgets that, though kept by God for their fathers' sakes till the hour of their repentance and of their restoration to His favour, yet ' that His displeasure still rests upon them, and that the time of their tribulation, instead of being ended, has yet to see its worst. All parties, Greek, Roman, and Protestant, also spend their energies in unavailing efforts to convert the Jews as a people to the Christian faith during the present dispensation. The setting up of a Protestant bishop at Jerusalem is worse than an abortion. It has only served to show still more plainly, in the city that is predestined to be the centre of unity, the disunion ot the Church. It only required this to consummate, as it were, the manifestation, in the eyes of the Lord, ot the disunion and divisions of the baptized. In Jerusalem, the city of God, there have been for a length of time the representatives of the Eastern and Western sects, contending, often unto blood, for the possession of the Its Progress and Consummation. 315 tomb of Jesus Christ ; and now they have added an Anglican bishop to the others. Perhaps this is one of the most significant things that have occurred, to indi cate that the time has come for Gpd to put an end to the state of disunion. Now His eyes are offended by the contending parties that have rent His Church thus appearing before Him in His own city, each of them, instead of preaching the Gospel of the kingdom to the Jews, in order to gather out the elect remnant from them previous to His coming, seeking to con vert them as a nation, and to absorb them as such into itself. That the Jews will be restored, is one of the plainest and most positive predictions of the Bible. " The Deut, xxx. Lord thy God will gather thee from all the nations ' whither He hath scattered thee, .... and will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it." " Behold, I wUl bring again Jer. xxx. is, the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwelling-places, and the city shall be builded up on her own heap, .... and ye shall be My people, and I will be your God." " Therefore they shall come, and sing jer, xxxi. in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, .... and they shall not sorrow any more at all.'' " And I will cause the captivity of jer. xxxiu. Judah, and the captivity of Israel to return, and wUl ' ¦"*' ¦^'¦• build them as at the first ; . . . . again there shall be heard in this place .... in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, .... the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, and the voice of them .... that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. Por I wiU cause to return the captivity of the land as 316 The End- zech, ii, 10, at the first, saith the Lord." " Sing and rejoice, 0 daughter of Zion : for, lo, I come, and I wUl dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shaU be joined to the Lord in that day, and shaU he My people." " And the Lord shall inherit Judah His portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem Zed), viii. affaiu." " Thus saith the Lord ; I am returned unto 3-5, 7, 8. ^ Zion, and wUl dwell in the midst of Jesusal^m: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth, and the moun tain of the. Lord of hosts the holy mountain. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, there shall yfet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls play ing in the streets thereof." . ..." I wiU save My people from the east country and from the west country ; and I will bring them, and they shaU dwell in the midst of Jerusalem and they shall be My people, and I will be their God in truth and in righteousness." Zech. xiv. " _^n(i men shaU dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction, but Jerusalem shaU .be safely in- isa. ii, 2, habited." " Out of Zion shall go forth the Law, and Zech. xiv. 9. the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." " And the Lord shall be King over all the earth ; in that day w^^sa"' there shall be one Lord, and His name one." " And it Ixvi, 23. .shall come to pass that every one that is left of aU the nations which came " (with Antichrist) " against Jeru salem, shall even go up" unto Jerusalem " from year to year, to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to Micah iv. 2, keep the feast of tabernacles." " And many nations shall come, and say. Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God ot Jacob ; and He -will teach us of His ways, and we Its Progress and Consummation. 317 will walk in His paths." " And they shall beat their isa. ii. 4. swords into ploughshares, and their spears into prun ing-hooks ; . . . . neither shall they learn war any more." These are the promises made to Judah and Jeru salem ; and, as St Paul says, their restoration shall be to the world as " Ufe from the dead." Their faU has eo™- "i- n, 15. been mercy to the GentUes, by its being the cause of God turning to them " to take out of them a people Acts, xv, u. for His name ; " but when this purpose is accomplished, and the full number of these is come in, and the apos tasy of the majority of the baptized has provoked God to break them off ; then will He turn again to His ancient people, and graft them in again ; and fulfil all His promises made to them and to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; and their reconciliation shall be life to the whole of the rest of mankind ; for " in them shall 'all the famUies of the earth be blessed." As we have already observed, it was through shut ting her eyes to these plain prophecies concerning the Jews and Jerusalem, that the Christian Church was led to confound the promises made to them with those that appertain to the heavenly Jerusalem ; and that her teachers were made to speak foolishly about the wives and children of glorified men (who neither marry nor are given in marriage) in the streets of the heavenly Jeru salem ; and that haughty Rome was made to take to herself the title of " the Eternal City,'' and to struggle in vain to recover the city of Jerusalem out of the hands of the Moslem. For the city has to be " trodden do-wn Luke xxi.' 24. of the Gentiles till the times of the GentUes be fulfiUed." There will be a partial deliverance of the city, and a partial restoration of the Jews to their own land ; but 318 The End- it is only that they may come under the hands of Anti christ; it is only that they may be brought into the fire of that tribulation which is to come upon them to the uttermost, as a chastisement for their sin, and pre sumption, and impenitence, and for the purifying of that remnant that will be left after being brought through that hour of temptation, such as there has not been since the world began. It is commonly thought that these words of our Lord were fulfilled at the siege of Jerusalem under Titus ; but if we compare Dan. xii,, Zech. xiv., Jer. xxx. 7, &c., we shall see plainly that the siege of Titus was only the commencement of that long day of trouble which has to come to its climax under Antichrist. It is evident from Scripture that the restoration ot the Jews and of the ten tribes to the land of Palestine, is in successive stages ; one pre-nous to the second coming of Christ; and the other after that event. The first' will be a partial restoration, and by natural means, and by the devices of man; the second will be total and complete, and by the mighty hand of God. There will be a partial restoration before the Advent of the Lord, because in the interval between the taking away of the First-Pruits and the Lord's descent unto the earth. He has many deaUngs to take with His ancient people, and because it is certain that Antichrist comes up with aU his hosts to fight against Judah and Jerusalem ; and it is at that moment, when he has Zech. xiv. taken the city, that the Lord appears for the deliver ance of His city and people, and for the destruction of Antichrist and his hosts. They, the Jews, wiU have returned in great numbers to their own land, but not converted ; the majority of them being evidently hard Its Progress and Consummation. 319 and impenitent in heart. It has also been the opinion of the Fathers, and it is probably a true one, that many Jews will be deceived by Antichrist at first, and believe him to be Messiah, and receive him as such ; but that many also will refuse submission to him ; and conse quently he will come with great fury to tread down their land and city; and it is then the time Jeremiah and the prophets speak of as "the time of Jacob's jer. xxx, 7, trouble'' will take place; and the majority of them 8,9.' shall perish in that great tribulation, and only a third of them be brought through it. And it will be then, in that hour of agony and dis tress, when all hope seems gone, when Antichrist shall have attained to the summit of his success, that the Lord will appear on their behalf. He comes, and all His saints with Him. His blessed feet shaU stand zech. xiv. 4. again on that mountain from which, before His gazing disciples, He ascended. He stands again on His own earth, which He has redeemed by His blood ; His and His people's enemies flee before Him, and are driven away into destruction ; and He shall be King of all the earth and give the kingdom to His people. It is then the Jews shall be converted unto Him ; then, and not tiU then, will they believe that Jesus is the Lord ; when they see Him " they wiU mourn, as when one mourneth zech. xh. for his only son," — ("Blessed are they who have not xxiii! 39. ' seen and yet have believed!") — and "they shall look upon Him whom they have pierced-" Then shall they repent, and beUeve, and be converted, and shall be His people, and He their God ; and then shaU all the remainder of the Jews, everywhere scattered abroad, be brought to Judea ; and the long lost ten tribes shall be Ezek. made manffest, and brought back also ; and they shall '™'"' 320 The End- become one nation, and be no more divided ; and then shall they, having thus become one, and been restored' Isa. Ixvi. to the favour of the God of Israel, be established as the first of the nations ; and they shall go forth to all the ends of the earth, and be the instruments in the Lord's hands of subduing all the nations unto Him; and His millennial reign shall begin. And not only shall the nations be at peace ; all creation shaU be at Isa. xi. 6-10. rest; it is God's Sabbath. " The wolf shall dweU witb the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young Uon and the fatling to gether ; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed ; their young ones shall lie down together : and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain : for the earth shall be fuU of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people ; to it shall the GentUes seek ; and His rest " (His Sabbath, not -His sepulchre) "shall be glorious." The Lord's day, the true Sabbath, wUl have come. If it be asked, Where is then the Christian Church?' If all these promises are to the Jew, and to the earthly Jerusalem, what becomes of the Church, the Lord's bride? High, far above all, seated with Him in the Eev, iv. 6. midst of, and round about. His throne, where none can attain but only they who have believed in Him, and suffered for Him and with Him, are those who form the heavenly Jerusalem, the true dwelling-place of God. He shall ¦indeed dwell in the midst of the earthly Jenh Its Progress and Consummation. 321 salem; the temple of Ezekiel will be seen, and His glory revealed in it, and He will dwell among them, Ezek. and the inhabitants thereof shall see His glory ; and '"^™' ¦ His Spirit shall be in them according to His promise ; but in the heavenly Jerusalem it shall be a visible indwelling, a manifested glory; the bodies of those who form that city shall be in glory and majesty like unto their Lord's; they shall be seen to be "members of His Eph. v. so. body, of His flesh, and of His bones;" and that the power, and might, and glory of the Lord are theirs. That city that lieth four-square, whose being is sym- Eev. xxi. bolised by gold and jasper, and every precious stone; whose foundations are, not the twelve Patriarchs, but the twelve Apostles of the Lamb ; and at whose gates are the angels of the churches ; — on it are written the names of the twelve tribes of the spiritual Israel ; as those of the literal Israel are on the gates of their Ezek, xiviu. ., 31. city. We can form only an indistinct idea of the relative positions of the heavenly and earthly cities and peoples. The earthly city and people shall be what Rome has aimed at; the ecclesiastical and regal centre of the earth. The people shall be separate and distinct from, isa. u. ; and pre-eminent over, all the nations. The city and ze'ch. xiv.' land shall be a centre of light, and rule, and blessing, to all the world. But over that city shall be the heavenly city; the palace of the King and His court; and from that Zion shall come the orders of the King to the Jews on the earthly Zion; and from them to the nations. The Tabernacle and the Temple contained the type of this state of things. The Most Holy Place where God was revealed in glory; the Holy Place wherein the priests oflSciated ; and the Outer Court. X 322 The End- In the Kingdom, the heavenly Jerusalem wiU answer to the Most Holy Place ; the Jews, in the holy city, to the Holy Place ; and the nations, to the Outer Court. The glorified, the channel of communication between Christ and the earthly : God to Christ ;, Christ to His body, the Church in glory; the Church to the Jew; the Jew to the nations; man to the creature. We can catch a glunpse of the wondrous scale; God, the Source and Giver of aU; Christ, the alone worthy receiver of all, distributing to His Church, the minister of aU, to convey to the Jews, the chiefs and rulers of all the earth ; and they to the nations of the world, Isa. XXX. 26 ; the rulcd. Peace and order, law and righteousness, ixv'J'is. ' and blessing, descending down to the lowest creature, and to the earth itself. Foolish objections have been made as to the literal fulfilment of the promises to the Jews at their restoration, of the fertility of their land; and men, in their thoughtlessness or unbehef, argue that because now the sand of the desert clothes it, and it is barren and unfruitful, it must needs continue so; but when the time comes, the Lord will show that as He can, for the wickedness of the inhabitants, turn "rivers into a wUderness, and water-springs into dry ground, and a fruitful land into barrenness," so can He turn " the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into water-springs," when His people return to Him. We are often asked, Cui bono ? What shall we, the Church, or the world, gain ~by the Lord's coming! That men surrounded by sin and sorrow, labour and death, and pain and war, by evil men and e-vil spirits, should ask such a question, is indeed strange! The Desired of all nations shaU come. We have before said, I's, cvu, 33-36. Its Progress and Consummation. 323 the universal cry of the oppressed kingdoms — (and who can tell the amount of misery that exists even in the most prosperous and most free ?) — is, " Give us a good king and a good priest ; " and the cry that goes up from the ends of the earth shall be granted. But when it is granted, -will they respond to the gift thus conceded? will man at last be grateful? more grateful than Adam, more grateful than the Israelites, more grateful than the Christian Church ? There must be one lesson more, one crowning lesson more, to prove that no outward circumstances, no external favours from God, will keep the creature from falling. One lesson more; one conclusive proof to convince all intelligent beings that there is none good but One ; and that they who will not live by faith upon Him, and be sustained by Him, each in his measure and place deri-ving from God that which is necessary to sustain him, must fall away from Him. Men often ask, what is the MiUennium for ? What ever other reasons there are for it, this at least is one : man shall be placed in the most favourable circum stances, — all oppressors in Church and in State ha-nng been removed from the earth, — Satan and his evil angels bound in the prison, — there shall be a blessing upon the earth, and upon the elements and seasons, such as has not been since the Pall ; death, though not abohshed, isa. ixv. 20 : yet shall be restrained ; and, as far as we can see, those 2^'-_ j^"" only -vnll die who sin wUfuUy, and the days of man will ^°™' ^'*' be extended to the length they were before the Deluge. Christ and His saints shall be reigning, so that all rulers, great and small, " the mountains and the little Ps. lxxii. hills shall bring peace to the people by righteousness," and also, as the priests of God, shall teach all people 324 The End— 16, the truth, and lead them up to the true worship of God! Surely all men wiU now turn unto God with all their hearts, and wiU love, and fear, and obey Him? Alas, it will not be so! Multitudes wiU prove themselves never to have been converted in heart to Him, or show that their love has been a transient flame. The haters of the Lord remain unchanged; many portions ot Scripture tell that they will only feign submission nnto the Lord; and this always when there is reference to the period of His second Advent, as 2 Sam. xxii. 45, 46 ; Ps. xviU. 44, 45 ; Ixvi. 3 ; Deut. xxxin. 29 ; or, as in one case, to what would have happened if the Jews had themselves yielded obedience to Christ, Ps. Ixxxi. 15 {vide the marginal rendering of these passages in the English version).* They yield only a feigned obedience, or a temporary and passing one, and thus they lie unto the Lord. And this probably will be made manifest by what is hinted at in Zech. xiv. The nations that are spared from the destruction that is to happen to those who are found congregated with Anti christ at the siege of Jerusalem, and the battle ot Zech. xiv. Armageddon, will have to " come up year by year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, at Jerusalem." At first, probably, surprised and overwhelmed at the majesty of the Lord and at His power thus put forth in the destruction of His and His people's open enemies, and at all the wondrous effects of His coming, and the abundant blessings that will ensue from it, they will troop up year by year to render their worship and their ¦* Vulgate — " Alieni mentiti aunt Mihi " — "mentientur Tibi inimioi tui." Sept. — K«i ipivaoiirat as oi 'i^Spoi aou — viol aAAw-f'W s-ij/euiroitrsci fioi. Its Progress and Consummation. 325 thanksgiving unto the Lord ; but by and by they will get accustomed to His goodness, and become indifferent and careless ; and so, ceasing to come up as commanded, they will gradually fall away; and disregarding the chastenings of God, as indicated, ver. 17-19, they will become ready for the Tempter when he is loosed again. The good and just God does nothing arbitrarUy. He will have a reason for, and will be justified in letting Satan loose upon the nations once more. And then, too many of them will prove that their hearts had not been changed ; that they are still " the children of the stranger," or of the enemies that came up against the people of God in the days of Antichrist. They will prove the ingratitude and instability of the creature by again listening to the Adversary ; and again they wUl rise up in mad rebeUion against God, against Christ, and His saints, and His city, the place of rule, and try once more to sweep them from the face of the earth. Eev. xx. 9. But the fire of God shaU come down from heaven and devour them ; for it is written,- that at the end of the thousand years " Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, Eev. xx. 7-9, and shall go out to deceive the nations that are in the four quarters of the earth ... to gather them together to battle ; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp " (the citadel, ¦na.piiJ,^oXr\\i) " of the saints about, and the beloved city." Some have fallen into the mistake of confounding this rising of the nations against the Lord with the invasion of Judea by Gog, in Ezek. xxxviii., but the circumstances are quite different, and the titles, Gog and Magog, are in this 20th of Revelation only used symbolically. It will now have been made manifest for the last 326 The End- time, and fully and completely, that nothing but faith, and dependence upon God in Christ, and His grace coming out from Him into the creature in answer to that faith, can preserve the creature from f alUng ; that not original goodness of creation ; not the natural law written in the conscience; uot the written law; not Christ present by the Holy Ghost ; and not even the personal presence of the Lord Himself ruling and reign ing in righteousness with His saints as kings and priests, can make any good, or keep them good; but God only, dwelling in them, through their faith and dependence upon Him in Christ Jesus our Lord. And then, there having been thus completed and perfected all that, on this point as well as on all others, God has designed to teach, and to convince men and angels of, through the Creation, the FaU, and the Redemption ot man, at last the end wUl have come. At length Satan, the Dragon, the old enemy, the ad versary of Christ, the insubordinate, meets his doom. He is cast, no more into a prison to be again loosed, but, flnally and for ever, into that lake of fire, where, let it Eev. XX. 10. be again noted, " the Beast and the false prophet are;" ver. 15 of the 3d of Genesis is accomplished, "The Serpent's head is bruised." And now the Almighty God is revealed m all His majesty and power. Whatever sight of God in Christ may have been vouchsafed to men on the earth during the MiUennium, stiU it has not been this. But now He Kev. XX. 11. is seen on the great white throne, and the heavens and 2 Pet. iii. 10. the earth flee away at that presence ; the very elements are dissolved. Some have it that this would make a third Advent of our Lord ; but it is evident that His presence, witji Its Progress and Consummation. 327 that of the heavenly Jerusalem during the MiUennium, is a veiled one ; and that this is a sudden revelation of Him in all His majesty, outraged once more by this wicked rebellion of the nations He had so blessed during the thousand years, consequent on which is the summon ing of all to appear before His judgment-seat. He was present with them, but His glory was only -visible to those of the heavenly Jerusalem, and to those who came up to worship Him in the earthly Jerusalem ; and He was blessing them by guiding and ruling all their affairs, through the instrumentality of His glorified saints, com municating with the earthly rulers ; but their ingrati tude provokes His manffestation unto judgment; and when He is so manffested, the guilt-stained earth and heaven cannot abide His presence, but flee away. It is not a third coming, but a full manifestation of Him in His majesty and glory. Up to this time Christ has been still acting as Mediator for sinners between God and man, and the earth and unconverted men have been spared. Now the time of the end is come. The last of His enemies must be destroyed, and the kingdom of God be perfectly established; that Christ having sub jected all to God may continually render up that kingdom i cor. xv. so subjected to God for ever. ^*' We must reconcile this passage of 1st Corinthians with other parts of Scripture, which declare that the kingdom of Christ shall have no end, and be everlasting ; and the way is simply this : Till the end come {riXog, the isa. ix. 7 : perfect thing), God's will is not done in earth as it 24 ; Luke^i. is done in heaven ; He is not all in aU ; there are stUl i. {, many who are not really and in heart subject to Him ; therefore Christ has stUl to exercise, even to the end of the MiUennium, His intercession as Priest, that they 328 The End— may be spared. And until God has subdued all the earth to Christ, He cannot render up that kingdom to God as an acceptable offering in which He can have all His will done. But after all the enemies and opposers of God have been subdued in the lake of fire, nnder Christ's feet, the devil and all evil angels, and all evil men, and death, the last enemy and opposer of Him who is life, and when all on the earth, in the new earth and heaven, are at length really lovers of and obedient to Christ, and through Him to God, then shall the Lord be able to render up that kingdom in obedience to God and the Father; and His will shall be done on earth as in heaven, and He shall be all in all. Some have supposed that the conflagration and dis solution of the elements, and the consequent reformation of them into the new heavens and the new earth, will take place at the beginning of the Millennium, but this is impossible ; for then would there be sin, and sor row, and clamour, and death in that new earth, where, Eev. xxi. 4. it is written, " that God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any ij^or, XV. more pain;" and again it is written, "the last enemy that shall be destroyed , is death ; " all which, we see, is to take place at the time when the great white throne is set, and when the rest of the dead, who live not again till the thousand years are finished, are raised from death to judgment before that throne ; and it is then the heaven and earth flee away and are changed. Now death cannot be destroyed before the end of the MUlennium, for men die during its continuance, and a violent death to multitudes closes its period. Nor can Its Progress and Consummation. 329 all men be raised to judgment at the commencement of the Millennium ; for then, who would be the rest that are not to be raised till it has expired ? There fore it is clear the last enemy is not destroyed till that time ; nor can the new earth, in which there is to be no more death, nor pain, be, till death is de stroyed. No doubt there are some difiiculties in reconciling 2 Peter in. and Isaiah Ixv. 17 -with the sequence of events in Revelation ; for what St Peter says would lead us to suppose that the conflagration of the earth is to occur immediately when the Lord appears ; and Isaiah, that the new heaven and earth are to be estab lished immediately when Jerusalem is rebuilt and re stored. But surely, in the course of our studies of the prophetic parts of Scripture, we have seen enough to show us that it is the Lord's way to cause events to be so stated as to appear to run together, while in reality they are separated by a long interval of time. Who could have supposed that between the accomplishment of the flrst portions of the 22d Psalm, and the 53d of Isaiah, and their concluding verses, more than eighteen hundred years should intervene? Or that the words spoken by our Lord in Matthew xxiv. and Luke xxi. should require the same time for their fulfilment ? So must it be in the case now before us. St Peter even gives the key to the explanation, when he says, "One' day is with the Lord as a thousand years." Not that probably he himself understood this. It must ever be remembered, that to no one apostle or prophet was all light given. St Peter wrote what the Spirit dictated to him as to the general fact of the day of the Lord, and of the world being destroyed by fire when t 330 The End— He should come, as it had been before by water,, and of its being renewed. St John and others show us more of the details of what precedes and what follows that destruction and renewal ; and the series of events that occur in the day of the Lord, during the interval that is to be between the first revelation of Him to His saints, and its final consummation in the new heavens and earth. To understand Scripture we must combme all together. And so with respect to the passage in Isaiah. It is prospective, and inclusive of the whole time from the rebuilding of Jerusalem to the constitution of the new heavens and the new earth. Some, not without reason, suppose there wUl be a partial conflagration, and that part of Europe will he submerged by volcanic flre, and become that lake of fire which is spoken of in Isaiah Ixvi. 24, and xxxiv. 9, 10, This may be probable ; but it will not be the fulfilment •of what St Peter and St John speak of, which embraces the whole earth. We need not trouble ourselves to inquire, how the Jews and the nations are to be preserved and continued whUe this is taking place. God wUl flnd His own way of bringing to pass what is written. It is when the thousand years have expired, and when Satan's career has ended and the grea-fc white throne is set, that the resurrection of " the rest of the dead " takes place ; that is, of aU the human race who were not counted worthy to be raised frm the dead when Christ came. These all now "Hve again." The sea gives up the dead that have slept beneath its waves ; the earth gives up those it has covered ; death and Hades give up their dead, i.e., Its Progress and Consummation. 331 both body and soul. And death and Hades are cast into the lake of flre. Perhaps there may be e-vil angels who have the power of death and Hades, who are cast into the lake ; but, be that as it may, death and the place where the spirits of the dead were confined, have no more power over Adam and his sons. And if any are condemned to die, it is to another, and a second death ; for from the first death Christ had rescued them all. Who are they who are condemned to the second' death ? All who are raised from death at this general resurrection ? All who were not counted worthy to be raised at the first resurrection? By no means. We are told that then all those raised at the last shall be judged by the things written in the Books, and that then also the Book of Life is opened, and only those whose names are not found therein are adjudged to the second death. What a wide door for God's mercies is opened here ! No man is condemned to the second death for Adam's sin. All men were indeed sentenced to the first death in Adam for Adam's sin ; and, ff Christ had not redeemed them from it, that death would have been eternal. But He did redeem man kind. Men talk idly who argue that He only redeemed the elect. " As in Adam all die, even so in Christ i cor. xv. shall all be made alive." And none are condemned to ^^¦ the second death, but those who have brought that dreadful sentence on their own heads by wifful sin and crime against God, and man, and their own conscience. We are told the following certainly are adjudged to it : " The fearful, and unbeUeving, and the abominable, and Eev. xxi. murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idola ters, and all liars," these are not found in the book of 332 The Endr— Eev. iii. 5. life ; their names have been erased. But myriads of the sons of Adam wiU be found written in that book, who, not being counted worthy to take their places among the rulers of the kingdom, were not raised at the First Resurrection, but now find their places among the subjects of it, among the nations of the saved. Among these wiU be the countless number of the chUdren of all nations, who have died before com mitting sin. The Church, iu its ignorance of the king dom, its forgetfulness of it, and of the gradations of position in which men, " every man in his own order," are to be placed in it, did not know what to do with the children of the unbaptized, or what place to assign them. They saw they were not of Christ's body, and so could not reign with Him ; so they invented tor them a limbo of their own ; something neither heaven nor earth nor hell ; neither darkness nor light ; neither happiness nor pain. Many of them even included in this the children of Christian parents who might die before . they could be baptized, thus putting the chil dren of baptized parents, unbaptized by accident only, on a level with those of unbaptized parents. But 1 Tim. ii. 6.; Christ hath ransomed all, "to be testified in due time;" and that time will be at the resurrection of all ; when it will be made manifest, that'ff any are not suffered to abide on the ransomed earth, and among ransomed men, it is because they have brought upon themselves a sentence to a worse and second death, from which there is no redemption. And thus all who are then raised from the dead, and -who have not by their sins forfeited that Iffe restored, shall dwell on the new earth for ever; not as the rulers of it, but as the rukd; not the kings of it, but the subjects ; not the priests of Its Progress amd Consummation. 333 it, but the worshipping congregations. And in that new heaven and in that new earth there shall be no more death (the last enemy that shall be destroyed from off the earth is death) ; neither sorrow nor cry ing out {xpavyrf) ; nor shall there be any more pain. Those things that Satan brought into God's world shall by God be put out. " And there shall be no Rev. xxU, s. more curse." The promise to the seed of Abraham shall be fulfilled: '¦'¦All the families of the earth shall be blessed in him;" "the leaves of the tree of life shall be for the healing of the nations : " God shall be all in all : " His tabernacle. His dwelling, shall be with men." There is, however, some change as to the heavenly Jerusalem in the new earth, making its situation dif ferent from what it had been during the Millennium. The heavenly Jerusalem shall then be on the earth ; Rev xxi, 10, 24, 26. the nations of the saved shall walk in the light of it ; and they and their kings shall bring their glory and their honour into it. God's kingdom is then indeed established on the earth, and His will done on the earth as in heaven. God's Zion and Jerusalem, His habitation. His desired rest, is at last attained to ; and shall be settled firm and immovable ; all nations shall be blest in Him, and " all nations shall call Him ps- ixxu. 17. blessed," and " His servants " " shall reign for ever and Rev. xxii. s. ever." Some imagine, that because it has been shown from the Scripture, that there shall be a miUennial reign of Christ and His saints, therefore the reign of Christ will end at the termination of the thousand years ; but this is a mistake. The Millennium is only the first part of that reign, which is to endure for ever. That there Rev. xxii. 5. 334 The End — Its Progress and Consummation. are some circumstances during the millennial reign which differ greatly from those of the eternal kingdom is e-yident from what we have set forth. The mysteiy of the seventh day is shown out during .the MUlennium which is indeed to be a day of rest, and an accomplish ment of that type; but the mystery of the eighth day is fulfilled in the eternal kingdom; The Eternal Day when God's purpose is fully completed, and when the state of things at length made perfect, shall have no end. PAET FIFTH. CONCLUSIOHr. We have thus brought our work to an end. Let us recapitulate what we have endeavoured to establish. The purpose of God is to make Himself known to all His creatures, by being manifested in His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord ; by His Son becoming man, and establishing His throne. His kingdom, on the earth. The desire of His heart is to see the day when this shall be accomplished. He created the earth, and man, for this end. Satan, refusing to submit to this the declared wiU of God, set himself to oppose and hinder it. He tempted Adam and Eve to disobey God; and they, and through them the whole world with them, fell into Satan's power ; and they brought upon them selves and their descendants a sentence of sorrow, labour, and death, on the earth a curse, and misery on all the creatures. But God's purpose was not hindered by their Fall, but advanced; it became the very means of manifesting forth His character, power, and glory, in a way which nothing else could have done. God was not stayed in His purpose by the sin and ingratitude of man ; He persevered in it. And He 336 Conclusion. told Adam that He would send One, who should deliver him, and his race, and the world, out of the hand of Satan, and bring all back into the hands ,of God, and yet establish His kingdom on the earth. The gospel, or good news, of this coming One, in Whom all the earth should be blessed, and of the kingdom of God, thus made known to Adam, was con tinually, from that time, the theme of all God's com munications to man ; and His manner of bringing it about was gradually developed to His people, as is recorded in Holy Scripture. All the Old Testament saints liyed and died in the faith and hope of the coming of Messiah, and of the kingdom of God; at Whose coming they should be raised from the dead to partake of it. When our Lord .lesus Christ came the first time. He did not accomplish any of the promises thus made to the Fathers, or fulfil their hopes and expectations. He came then for a different purpose, viz., to suffer and to die, to work out our redemption, and pay the price of it. The New Testament saints took up the same faith and hope as to the coming of Messiah to raise them from the dead, to partake of the kingdom. The Church was instituted to bear witness for that kingdom, and to prepare all those who would receive their message concerning it to be its kings and priests. The Church was endowed with the gifts and powers of the Holy Ghost, that she might adequately witness for that kingdom ; not by preaching it only, but by Heb, vi. 6 ; showing forth an earnest of its powers, " the powers of the world to come;" the Holy Ghost, by the word of prophecy, and other spiritual gffts, witnessing with the Conclusion. 337 word of the preacher, and the testimony of the Church, that the proclamation, the gospel of the kingdom is true. The constitution of the Church, also, was a fore showing of the kingdom, by ha-ving therein the three orders of ministry, bishops, priests, and deacons, in their four classes (the forms of the cherubim), apostle or elder, prophet, evangelist, and pastor, both in the Universal and the Particular Churches. The Church for a certain period kept the faith concerning the coming kingdom, but gradually lost sight of it, and perverted it iuto a kingdom in the heavens, or over the earth now. As long as the Church proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom, so long did the gifts of the Spirit remain with her; and as the faith and hope of the kingdom waned, so did the manifestation of the Spirit wane. And when the Emperor became Christian, and the Church took up her position in the earth, and ceased to look for or to preach the kingdom, then the gifts of the Spirit ceased also ; and especially the voice of pro phecy was sUent. This continued (with occasional outbursts of the pro phetic gift, which were soon quenched from want of any one to rule and foster it) till the time of the end drew near, indicated by the first outbreak of the French Revolution. Then God put it into the hearts of His people to study the prophetic portions of Scripture, and by this means restored the knowledge of the true doctrine of the kingdom; and the hope of it revived. The preaching of the gospel of the kingdom reappeared ; and the voice of the Holy Ghost, speaking with tongues and prophecy, T 338 Conclusion. was again heard, witnessing to the truth of what the preachers were proclaiming. The result of this has been the restoration of the four ministries to the Church, in order to make those ready who will believe; and with this the work of which we have in part set forth the history in these pages. We have shown, also, that in the begintiing the Apostles were the means by which the Lord introduced into the Christian Church unity and truth ; that they had great difiSculties to contend -with in the churches they had gathered and established ; but that whUe they lived they were to the Church the fountain of unity, order, and sound doctrine. When apostles ceased in the Church, and the churches came under the hands of bishops without apostles over them, the bishops endeavoured to preserve unity and truth, but were not able. They soon began to dispute with one another ; and at last Arianism entering in, di-vision became maiufest. At this crisis the Emperor became Christian; and bishops thought that in him they would find the re medy .for the evU, and appeahng to him, they besought him to summon a CouncU, and then to enforce the decrees of that CouncU ; thereby virtually putting hun over all the bishops. This endeavour to restore by force, and the arm of the civil power, the lost unity and the damaged truth, instead of effecting this end, issued in the great schism of the East and West. For they being two rival Romes, their several bishops strove for the supremacy ; and, being supported by their respective emperors and kings, the result was the irre- Conclusion. 339 parable breech between the Greek and the Latin Churches, and their mutual anathemas. The placing of the Emperor over the bishops not ha-dng succeeded in restoring unity and truth to the Church, but having increased the mischief, the next devise was to put one bishop, not only over all bishops, but over all emperors and kings, and over all men; which thing, although it had been long working in the West, was not fully constituted till the time of Gre gory VII., who proclaimed himself to be a priest upon his throne, whom all priests and all kings were bound to obey. This, instead of restoring unity and truth, brought on the state of things manifested in the sixteenth century, when every one was complaining of the corruptions of the Church, and crying out for reform, and councUs and kings were struggling with the Pope to have it accom plished. And although in Leo the Tenth's time it'appeared as if he had prevailed against them, and the assembled bishops were adulating Leo, as ha-ving restored unity and truth ; yet the great schism between the Greek and Latin Churches had been widened by the result of the CouncU of Florence, and the whole Church was filled with evil. The placing of a bishop over the Emperor having failed to restore unity and truth, another and a contrary device was to be tried. Not one man's mind and con science ruling and guiding aU, but every man by his individual conscience and mind, with the Bible in his hand, was to restore unity and truth. Luther appeared, and proclaimed this remedy to the Church. The result has been the divided sects of Protestantism. 340 . Conclusion. The time of the end now drew on. The first act of it, the French Revolution, took place. God induced men thereby to read the prophetic Scriptures again, and by that study taught them that the kingdom was near to come ; and He then restored the old means, the only means, God's means, of unity and truth,— Eph. iv. 11. apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors. But the' Church generally will not receive these restored ordi nances ; therefore Antichrist shall be let loose upon them. I We have shown also how the Church, by becoming united to the kings of the earth, became one vast Babylon ; the leader of the offence being Rome, Old and New ; though all have foUowed her, mother and daughters. We have shown the difference between Babylon and the Man of Sin, and that he is yet to appear, and that when he is revealed he wUl destroy Babylon. We have sliown that the kingdom of God is to come when Christ comes the second time, and that His king dom wUl be established when the Fourth or Roman Empire is brought to its end. We have shown that this Fourth Empire was to exist in three states or stages ; — 1st, that of iron, unity ; 2rf, that of iron mixed with clay, i.e., in a divided state ; and 8(i, and last, under the form of ten kings, who have yet to arise, and that when this takes place Antichrist shall appear. We have shown from the signs of the times, and from the age of the world and of the dispensation, that there is reason to believe the time of Antichrist draws near. We have shown that some are to be counted worthy Conclusion. 341 to escape the dreadful time of misery and fear that is about to come upon the earth, and who, being sealed by the hands of apostles laid on them, shall in some manner be removed out of the way, and kept from the great tribulation ; according to our Lord's words to the Philadelphian Church, and according to the symbol Rev. iii, lo. in the Apocalypse, of the 144,000 sealed ones; while, Eev. viis-s,- xlv. 1 ¦ xii. the man-chUd being removed, the remnant of the 5, o, i7. woman's seed, the Church, is left to the persecutions of Antichrist. We have witnessed of what the Lord has done amongst us, and giving generally an account of His work, and its results, since the voice of prophecy was again heard in the Church in 1831. We can do no more than bear witness of what we have seen and heard. Men ask us for miracles as a proof that the work is of God. We can only answer by ap pealing to what He has done; and that by this His work He has restored the means of unity and truth,— of unity in the truth. But we would fain, for the sake of others, say a word upon the demand for miracles as a proof that a work is of God. If we examine the Scriptures we shall find on what occasions miracles were given, and when not. Whenever the question to be decided was, " Who is the Lord?" then God showed by miraculous operation that He is the Lord. When Moses was sent to the Israelites and to Pharaoh, it was necessary to prove " "Who was the Lord ; " for the Israelites doubted, and Pharaoh boldly put the question, and God answered them both ; to one, by works of power on their behalf, and to the other, by such works to his destruction. 342 Conclusion. When a new dispensation was given, with new laws, then miracles were given to confirm the mission of hun (Moses) who gave those new laws. But when God sent messengers to His people that professed to believe on Him, and to acknowledge He was the Lord, to recall them to His known ways and law;s, which they had de parted from, then He vouchsafed no miracles ; but only the word of the Lord came to certain indi-viduals, bid ding them to go to His people to call them to repent ance. Miracles were done by Elijah and EUsha; be cause the question then again had to be decided among the apostate Israelites, " If Jehovah be the Lord, worship Him ; if Baal, worship him.'' But the prophets that were sent to Judah, who still professed, in the midst of all their idolatries, to acknowledge the Lord, and to preserve the form of His worship, did no miracles. , And when the end came, and John the Baptist was sent to the Jews to recall them to the Law of Moses, and not to introduce a new law, not to change a dis pensation, but to sum up an old one ; when he was sent to a people, who, although filled with hypocrisy and unrighteousness, still professed to believe that John X. 41. Jehovah was the Lord, " John did no miracle," only the word of the Lord came to him to this effect — " Go and call this people to repentance, — to return unto the Law given by Moses, — for the time of a change is at hand." The present work is exactly analogous to that ot John ; it is a call to. repentance. When there was a claim to the name of " Lord " in the person of Jesus Christ, then that claim was confirmed by miracles. When the Apostles were commissioned to introduce a new dispensation and to change the Law, then miracles Conclusion. 343 were given to confirm their mission ; but now that at the end of this dispensation the word of the Lord has come to certain persons, telling them to go and call His people to repent for ha-ving departed from the ways and laws of God in His Church, as introduced by the Apostles and then confirmed by miracles. He gives no miracles ; except the sign the Holy Ghost gives that He is with these men, namely, the speaking with tongues and prophesying, the evidence that it is the Word of the Lord that has come to them. For these servants of the Lord are not sent to institute a new dispensation, or to change the law of the Church, or the priesthood ; but they are sent to bring men back to that which the Lord by his Apostles introduced at the first. They are not sent to a people who are denying or doubting who the Lord is ; they are -sent to those who profess to acknowledge, to believe in, and to obey Him ; and God puts that profession to the proof ; not by miracles, but by setting before them the truth, to see ff they -vsdU follow it. The proof of their mission is, not miracles, but the truth. If God has given to them to comprehend and combine the whole of the truths of God held in division in all the churches, and to separate that truth from error ; ff He has enabled them to put Churches into the right form and order, as an example to all ; and if those Churches are walking in holiness and righteousness, not separate from the Church, like other sects, but holding the unity of the body ; ff those Churches are pleading with the whole Church as their mother, to turn from the ways of Babylon to God ; if they are giving warning to the whole Church of coming events and the coming Antichrist, and showing the way of escape ; if 344 Conclusion. they are proclaiming the near coming of the Lord,- and the way to prepare for it in holiness and truth ; — thej; are the witness of God to the Church, and they require no miracle. There will indeed soon come a time when miracles from God shaU again be granted ; but why ? doubtless because then the question will again, in some way, he blasphemously mooted, "Who is the Lord?" andthe Eev. xi, 6. Lord wUl, in that hour of need, enable His witnesses who are faithful to Him, and who proclaim " Jesus Christ is Lord," to work miracles. The work going on at pre sent is not to witness that Jesus is the Lord, but to bear testimony that the word has come to them to bid the Church to prepare for His appearing. But now there are no miracles as men ask for them. Cures, healings, works of mercy from God to believers? Yes, many ; we can cite hundreds of them ; but miracles to the baptized, as a proof that God is speaking to them, He vouchsafeth not. Manifestations, gifts of the Spirit ? Yes, there are the tokens of His presence, " the Spirit of Truth ;" and the baptized can hear Him if they wUl. There are the means of unity ; the mmis- tries of the Lord. There is the ivord of truth in their mouth ; there is the voice of the Spirit of Truth ; there are the Apostle's hands to seal those who will be brought into the unity of truth. And we can only answer men who ask for miracles, by bearing witness to them of what has been done ; and of the word of the Lord that has come to us, and which we have obeyed and followed. There is a kindred point connected with this subject; which may be adverted to. Men often say, " To be an Apostle a man must have seen the Lord." Yes, at the Conclusion. 345 beginning of this dispensation, when the Apostles had to witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and that He, the Lord, had risen from the dead, it was an indispensable • requisite that those thus sent not only should have the power of miracles, but that they should have seen the Lord. It has been denied by some that miracles are a confirmation of mission ; they certainly are ; but the ¦question is, whether there can be mission without them ; Heb, u, 4, and all Scripture shows there can. But as Moses saw God, and John the Baptist did not, but was sent upon his mission -without seeing Him ; so the Apostles now sent have not seen the Lord. They are not sent to unbelieving Jews and GentUes to witness for the resurrection of Christ ; that is not their work ; their work is to call men who profess to believe in the resurrection of Christ, to the contemplation of their own resurrection, or the equivalent, translation, and to prepare them for it. Therefore they have not seen the Lord ; but He has called them to fulfil the office of showing to the Church right order in all things, " to turn the Luke i, ir. hearts of the fathers to the children, and the dis obedient to the -wisdom of the just," and " to prepare His way before Him." We can only, we again say, bear witness of what has been done, of which we invite men to partake. It is not an abstract question, whether such things ought to be or might be ? but whether they are orjare not ? Here. is a fact before men's eyes, that many have spoken in tongues and prophecy ; and that the issue of that and of other deaUngs of the Lord has been the calling of apostles and the setting of them in the Church, from whose work have resulted order and righteousness. It is for others to say, whether they wUl receive this testimony or not. For those on whom 346 Conclusion. the charge of carrying out this work is laid, their judg ment is with the Lord. They have followed and obeyed what they have believed to be His voice, and the end of it has been that they have learned his ways ; and therefore we invite e-very baptized man to partake of the same mercies. Still further to ob-viate objections, we would point out that this work is not sectarian, as it is too frequently asserted to be. When St Paul was going away, what I Tim, iii. he Said to Thnothy was, in substance, — " Take care of ' ¦ the Church of God till I return." Now, let us suppose the case, that St Paul had tarried so long that every body believed him to be dead, but that after a consider able time he had suddenly returned, and found Timothy, Titus, and Mark, and all the bishops whom the Apostles had ordained, dead, and their successors all separated from and quarrelling with one another, as they are now, and the Church in the condition she is in — What would he have done? The only thing he could have done would have been to try to reform the Church, by instruct ing such as would hear him as to what the true form and order were, and setting such as would believe him in that true order; aijd then by calling upon aU the rest of the baptized to conform themselves to the pattern. He would have set a true model before them, and have called upon all to follow it. Would his work have been a sectarian work, or the churches he thus reformed a sect ? Certainly not. His work would have been for the healing of all sectarianism, and the churches so formed a protest against the sects. Such, then, is the nature of the present work. Paul has returned, not personally, but in those who represent his office; he finds the successors of Timothy, and Titus, and Mark, Conclusion. 347 hating one another ; he finds the three leading bishops of Christendoni, Rome, Constantinople, and Canterbury, at deadly variance ; he finds the Church one mass of confusion in doctrine and in practice ; he begins by setting some iu proper church order, and instructing them in true doctrine and practice ; not by inculcating anything new, but by clearing the old truths, and com bining them into one ; and he says to all others, — " This is the true form and order of that house of God which I charged Timothy and all his brethren to keep, but which you have not kept ; turn, then, and come into that order, fall into rank again." Therefore this is no sect, but a protest against the sects of Christendom, and ff they will receive it, the healer of their sectarianism. Why are all others sects ? Because they are a division of the Church, separate from their brethren in the other sects, none of them holding- all truth pure and un mixed, but every one of them refusing some truth held by the others, and mingling the truth they have kept with error. The work of the Lord is not sectarian. By it no part of the baptized are repudiated ; it recognises them all as of the Church, as entitled to all its blessings, and subject to all its responsibUities. In it are acknow ledged the ordination and appointment of all their priests and ministers. It receives all the true creeds of the Church, and all its sacraments and true doctrines, and combines into one all that is elsewhere held in separation. No baptized man from any part of Chris tendom can come into one of these churches, without finding there whatsoever he has held, and can bring one text of Scripture to prove ; but he wUl find what ever has been held, and for which cannot be brought 348 Conclusion. either the word of Scripture or true tradition, repudiated and refused admission there. The greatest part of the confusion in the Church has come in from the use of negatives. We may take it as an all but umversal axiom, that whatsoever any Christian man affirms, and can bring one text in Scripture to support, his affirma tion is true, and ought to be received by his brethren; but whenever he uses a negative, and denies what his brother can so affirm, he is in error. The Unitarian (if he can be denominated a Christian) affirms that onr blessed Lord was a man like unto ourselves, an example and a pattern unto all other men, and a martyr for the truth of God, and his affirmation is true ; he denies that Jesus Christ was the Eternal Son of God, and that He died on the cross as an atonement for men's sins, and his negatives are falsehoods. The Baptist affirms that a believer should be baptized; he denies that a believer's chUd should be baptized. The Cal vinist affirms that there is an election of grace; he denies that God loves all men ; and that Christ died for all. The Arminian affirms that God loves aU men, and that Christ died for all ; he denies that there is an election of grace. The High Churchman affirms that there is a priesthood in the Christian Church, that sacraments are not bare signs, but the means of con veying the grace they signffy, and that justification by faith means the imparting of righteousness; he denies the other sense of justification by faith, and stigmatises it as Lutheran or PauUne. The Low Churchman affirms that a man is justified by faith, and that his faith is counted to him for righteousness, &c. ; he denies that sacraments are anything more than signs of grace, received beforehand, and independent of Conclusion. 349 them. He (the Low Churchman) affirms that there is a preaching of forgiveness by the blood of Christ to faith ; he denies that there is any ministration of forgiveness through absolution by a priest to the penitent confessing his sin. He affirms that there is a ministry from Christ ; he denies that there is any priesthood in the Christian Church. He affirms there is communion in the Holy Eucharist ; he dgnies there is any sacrifice. Further, a considerable party has lately arisen, who affirm that atonement signifies reconciliation, but deny that it sigmfies expiation by -vicarious suffering by dying on the cross ; who affirm that the suffering of the sinner is for his amendment, but deny it is for judgment eternal. Some affirm the coming of Christ is spiritual, but deny that it is personal. Some affirm there wUl be a general resurrection, but deny there wUl be a first resurrection. The Episcopalian affirms that bishops are the proper governors of the dioceses ; he denies that presbytery forms part of that government. The Presby terian affirms that presbyters are a constituent portion of the government of the Church ; he denies that bishops are. In all these instances the affirmations are true, the negations are erroneous. Each of the parties should receive from his brother the thing he affirms, and then there would be peace ; they each refuse to do so, and there are war and di-vision. But it may be said, that there are affirmations by some of the sects that are not true, such as transub stantiation, that we must worship images or saints, that the Virgin Mary was conceived without original sin, &c. Doubtless these affirmations are made, but 350 Conclusion. they lack the requisite words of Scripture to support them, nor can they be fairly deduced from Scripture or just tradition. Therefore these, and aU such-like affirmations, unsupported by the Word of God, and opposed to it, are not to be^ received ; for their recep tion has been as much the cause of the divisions and confusion in the Church as the negations we have mentioned. When the Lord has beg^n to work, the false affirmations, as well as the mistaken negations, are refused admittance. And so, while each man, from every sect, can in this work find the truth he has believed, he will not find the error he has hitherto mingled with it. No, it is no sect. The binders are restored,- and Jer. u. 9. " Babylon might be healed " ff she would. But she will not be. When did men ever yield to what God would do? Therefore must all that is written be fulfilled, which we have sho-wn is about to come to pass ; and to the knowledge of .which, and of her high destiny, we seek to recall the Church, that she may be prepared for it, and at length attain to it. The Church has done much to forfeit her high calling; Ps. xciv. but God changeth not ; " The Lord will not cast off His people, neither wUl He forsake His inheritance." He has found His way of causing " judgment to return unto righteousness, and all the upright in heart shaU follow it." He cries, " Who will rise up for me against the evil-doers? who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity," against those that frame mischief by a law ? Those who have understanding wiU turn to Him -wdth these words of confession in their mouth : " All men haye sinned against God, by disregarding the witness of their own conscience, by disobedience to His Conclusion. 351 known will, and transgression of His laws. And we who have been baptized into His name, and made members of the Body of Christ and partakers of the Holy Ghost, are especially bound to confess our sins -with penitent and contrite hearts. Por we have all broken the vows made in our baptism; we have all disregarded the unity of the Church; and, distracted by diverse winds of doctrine, and divided into many sects, we are incapable (except we repent) of recei-ving the full blessing of God, or attaining to the perfect stature of Christ. Moreover, we have not held fast the hope of the coming and kingdom of our Lord, neither have we purified ourselves as He is pure. We have grieved and well-nigh quenched the Holy Ghost, the earnest of our inheritance; we have preferred the institutions of man to those of God; and they who should have been • the salt of the earth, are themselves become corrupt ; the sins of many generations lie sore upon us, and have provoked God to consume us in His anger ; yet hath He not forsaken His inheritance, neither shall His promise fail for evermore. Although our sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Only let us acknowledge our great iniquity." And again : " Although God hath brought life and immor tality to light by the gospel, giving unto us, through Jesus Christ, the remission of our sins, and the adop tion of sons, yet we have not been steadfast in the grace of our baptism, nor in the hope of our caUing. We have resisted the motions, and hindered the manifesta tion of the Holy Spirit. We have been unmindful of the unity of the body of Christ. We have forgotten and lightly esteemed the ordinances, given at the be ginning for the perfecting of the saints. We have not 352 Conclusion. served the Lord with a perfect heart, nor continued in brotherly love. The hope of His appearing and king dom hath faded among those who are called by His name. We are found " (as a body) " entangled with the world, and overcome of evil. Nevertheless, nnto this hour are we spared. Our heavenly Father still regards us in the pitifulness of His great mercy. He would raise us out of the low estate into which we have brought ourselves, and vouchsafe to us" (as a body), " through the mediation of His Son, an abundant entrance into His kingdom. Wherefore let us humbly confess our sins, and implore His forgiveness." * To those who thus feel what the sin of the Chiireh has been as a body, and confess it, there shall be light and guidance and deliverance from the evil to come. One word more, and we have done. The Sth chapter of Isaiah shows what our duty now is. It shows what God has done for the Church; and what she has become ; and makes mention of the con sequent judgments about to ensue. Ver. 10. The whole Church, like the ten acres of the vine yard, should have yielded the fuU increase. Ten is the number of the kingdom ; and every Church should have yielded its bath of wine, its ephah of wheat {i.e., its fuU complement of men filled with the joy and power of the kingdom, and who should be of that corn Ps. xxii. 16. which wiU feed the world with truth), to be gathered into the wine-store and into the garner of God, to make glad the heart of men, and to be their food and strength in the next dispensation. But through their sin and failure the whole, instead of ten baths and ten ephahs each, the fuU measure, 100, only yield m * Liturgy, Morning aud Evemng Exhortationa to Confession. Conclusion. 353 bath and one ephah each, or 10 in all, the Lord's isa- vi, 13. tenth, the Lord's remnant, which He has reserved for Himself, or we should have become like Sodom and isa. i, 9. Gomorrah. Our business, then, is to gather what yet remains of this the Lord's portion, and to take care that we belong to it ourselves. They who form this tenth, "the Lord's portion" of the baptized. His elect, have been gathering throughout all the dispensation ; we now have only to complete the number. We do not know how near may be the perfecting of that number. We invite men to belong to it. The Lord's portion is His inheritance ; and when He has attained to get these — His tithe. His first-fruits — then the harvest of the earth will follow, and the world shall be fiUed with plenteousness and joy. And, for fear of misapprehension, let it be clearly understood that this present work of the Lord is not for the purpose of disturbing any in the place in the Church or in the world which they now occupy, but to strengthen their hands in the fulfilment of their duty, by thus making them acquainted with the pur pose of God, for the accomplishment of which the dead wait, and which the living are called to partake in; that every bishop and every priest might instruct his people concerning these things, and warn them, and make them ready. John the Baptist did not call priests or people to leave their places, but to return to righteousness. Such is the nature of the present work. When the call is heard to "come out," it wUl be from Eev. xviii. 4. heaven, whatever that may mean. In the meantime, whUe the Lord seeks to make known how far is the departure from the ways of God of all the baptized, Z 354 Conclusion. yet would He strengthen every rnan in his place till the time come; not displacing any, but strengthening and comforting every bishop and every priest in every part of the Church, by giving them to see how the Lord recognises their position, and helping them in it, by gi-ving them light and understanding; and every layman also in his place ;, and by causing prayer to be made for them, as is done in the daily Liturgy and Services of the Church ;^this is the present work, Many have believed and received this work, and have abode in their places. Some, indeed, have had to leave their places, for' it has been necessary, from the very nature of the work, that it should be so, or it could not have been carried on. Like the ass and its colt which the Saviour had need of, and therefore He sent and took them, so has He been obUged to take some now from among the churches for His purpose; and the answer to them who say, "Why do you do so?" is, " The Lord hath need of them." But it is not neces sary that all who believe what God is doing should leave their present positions ; rather, in many cases, it is more profitable that they should remain where they are, and" proclaim the coming of the Lord, and the matters connected with it which we have set forth in this treatise. If, for bearing this testimony, their brethren cast them out from among them, as has been Matt, V. 10. the case with some, happy are thev ; for it wiU be John xvi. 2. ^, , , ' i, i .< J ' seen that men have put them out for the Lord's sake, although perchance they think it not. But faithfulness shall receive its reward. How long this present stage of the work will con tinue, it is not. for us to say. Several who have taken part in it have, in the course of nature, been removed ; Conclusion. 355 and among them some of those called to the apostle ship. But still the time of apostleship remains, the work of healing and of mercy. When that is closed then will come harsher and more bitter things. God, in His infinite mercy, would now bring all His people and His ministers out of their disunion, and reconcile them to Himself and to one another in the truth. If they will not yield, tribulation must effect what love and truth could not ; and the men who would not be dra-wn into unity by truth, -will be driven together by persecution. PAET SIXTH. ADDENDA — ANSWEES TO OBJECTIONS. Since the foregoing pages were written, several objec tions to the present work of the Lord have come to the knowledge of the writer ; but those objections them selves show that the nature of this work is not under stood. The first to be noticed is, that apostles cannot be needed now, for bishops are apostles, having been called by that title in the primitive Church, though they dropt it afterwards out of humility. If bishops were called apostles in early days, it is strange that we do not hear of it till the fourth and fifth centuries, when the Pseudo-Ambrose and Theo doret first mention it ; while Ignatius expressly says he Epistle ad. did uot Command the Church at Rome as Peter and om. u. . p^^j ^^^^ ^^^ ^,|^^^ were apostles, implying he himself was not. And even Theodoret admits that although bishops might have been caUed apostles for a while, the name was soon limited to those who were apostles indeed. And Ambrose also makes the same distinction between those who were really apostles, and those sent by apostles to the Churches. Chap. ii. Bingham writes to the same purport. He says many think that in a large and secondary sense the title of Addenda — Answers to Objections. 357 apostles was given to bishops before the name bishop was appropriated to them. In a tract lately published in support of the theory that bishops are equal to apostles,* it is caUed an un manly quibble for Dissenters to affirm that, because they were called by the same name, bishops and pres byters were originally of the same rank ; surely, it is equally a quibble to affirm, that apostles and bishops were originally of the same rank, because bishops had the same name with apostles. Indeed, who ever dreamt of reckoning Timothy or Titus or Mark in the same category with St Paul and St Peter? or the Seven Angels of the Churches in Asia with St John who ruled them ? par in parem non habet potestatem. The passages quoted from Scripture, to the effect that others are called apostles besides the Twelve and Paul and Barnabas, are irrelevant, and do in no way support the assumption of the co-equality of bishops with apostles, for in all the instances cited, they were either apostles from the Churches, i.e., sent from the Churches to St Paul, or those sent by the apostles to the Churches, as Timothy and Titus were. In 1st Thessalonians, what does St Paul mean when he uses the plural ? Does he there mean to include Silas and Timothy in the same rank with himseff ? Inverse 18 of the 2d chapter he uses the word we when speaking only of himself, — " even I, Paul." It is not true that St Paul ever looked upon Timothy as in the same category with him self. Did Timothy send Paul about, or did St Paul send Timothy? Did Timothy write epistles to St Paul, or St Paul to Thnothy? It wdU not bear exa- * A Few Plain Words about Apostolical Succession. 358 Addenda — Answers to Objections. mination.* It is said bishops ¦ are coadjutors of apostles. No doubt in one sense they are ; a pres byter is a coadjutor of a bishop, but the bishop is his director and superior. Timothy and Titus were not coadjutors of the Apostle Paul as being of the same rank as the apostle, but as his delegates. " FeUow- labourer," "fellow-servant," do not necessarily imply men of equal rank. All ministers are " fellow-labourers -vnth Christ." Therefore, supposing that bishops in a secondary sense may be called apostles, they are still subordinate to The- Apostles. Matthias was not a successor to the fallen apostle Judas ; he was the substitute for him who had forfeited his place, and who shall never rise in the resurrection to sit on one of the thrones over the twelve tribes of Israel. Paul and Barnabas were not ordained to be apostles by what is said of them in the 13th of Acts ; they were then separated unto their work. Further, with regard to the assertion, that there is no necessity for apostles to the Church, because of the exis tence of bishops who are apostles, and that all men have to do is to obey their bishops ; the evident answer is, the necessity for the restoration of apostles seen in the divided state of the bishops themselves. Who is to reconcUe the bishops of Rome, Constantinople, and .Canterbury ? Another objection at first sight appears plausible, viz., that the present work is a schism. "You are schis matics ; you are erecting another altar." But this is begging the question. If it be the Lord who has -* 'Vide Dr Wordaworth'a explanation of this paasage in hia com ment on lat Theasaloniaua i. Addenda — Answers to Objections. 359 called certain men to be apostles, they cannot be schis matics. If it could be shown that they were not called by the Lord, they would themselves admit that it was schism, though unintentional ; and confessing their sin, would be the first to flee from it. But ff they are ap pointed to the office by the Lord, then they have autho rity to ordain men to the ministry ; and, as there is but one altar, and one priesthood, theirs is not a rival altar, nor are they schismatic priests. In the case supposed at page 346, of St ,Paul return ing to churches which he had left under the care of Timothy, and, finding them fallen into great disorder, proceeding to reorganise some of them to serve as models for the rest, would he be a schismatic for so doing? Would he be originating another priesthood, or setting up another altar ? Would he not rather be the healer of all schism, and the shower of the true form of the altar, that is, the true way of God's holy worship ? Again, it is said, "We see you have all truth with you, that you know more of God's truth and ways than any others ; but why have you a separate assemblage ? Why not say these things in the Church of England, Scotland, Rome, &c. ? The answer is short, — the Churches wiU not let us! Either the work must be nipped in the bud, the voice of the Holy Spirit be sUenced, and the work of God be brought to an end ; or there must be separate assemblages where His voice can be heard, and the Lord's wiU and plan made known and carried into operation. It has been asserted also, that the result of this work is to supersede the existing authorities in the Church. But it is quite a misunderstanding of its nature, so to speak. This stage of the Lord's work in the Church de- 360 Addenda — Answers to Objections. dares present mercy, not judgment. Those engaged m it put forth no commands ; they only offer God's mercy. They interfere with no obedience ; they would strengthen all obedience. No man — bishop, priest, or layman — need leave his place because he receives this work, or God's help and truth through it. If what they teach be truth, then it can harm no man to receive it, and to be freed by it from schismatic principles and from error. It wiU only enable him to fulfil his duty in his place better than before. If indeed his brethren cast him out for that truth's sake, happy is he. John the Baptist superseded nothing; he only called to repent ance for departure from God's way. It may be said that John the Baptist, though he called upon the Jews to return to the law of Moses, set up no form of worship. No, for although the Jews were divided into sects, they had not set up divers forms of worship ; and the work of John the Baptist bears only an analogy to the pre sent work. Let us dwell on this point for a moment. As we before noticed, each dispensation has its o-wn laws : the first had for its law that of conscience written in the heart. This every man that comes into, the world has by nature, although a counteracting principle, that of the law of sin, came in by the Pall. It is the work of the Creator Spiritus, and not that of the Spirit as the Eom, ii, 14, regenerator ; and by it every man will be judged. Whoever corrupts, or injures, or does violence to his neighbour, breaks this law ; and he knows he does ; his conscience tells him so, as wUl be seen " in that Day." The Antediluvians broke this law ; and the whole earth was filled with corruption and violence. God sent Gen, vi. 11- Noah, the eighth preacher of righteousness, to teU men Addenda — Answers to Objections. 361 they had done this ; and to repent, and to return to the law of conscience. They refused, and the Deluge swept them off the face of the earth they polluted. But the small remnant who Ustened to Noah were passed over in safety, to become the nucleus of a new order of society in another epoch of man's history. The next dispensation was the giving of the Law of Moses ; not superseding the law of conscience, which still remained, but adding to it further light as to what righteousness was, and the way of duty to God and man. The Israelites fell away from that law and broke it, as well as the law of conscience. When the time came to change the dispensation, God sent the greatest of all the prophets, John the Baptist, to call the Jews to repent, and to return to the Law of Moses. As a people they would not ; and, after the Church of Christ had been set up, there was provided a way of escape for those who would ; and the remnant who did believe and repent were passed over in safety into another dis pensation, also to become the nucleus of a new order of society in another epoch of man's history, whUe those who refused were destroyed by the Romans. In the Christian dispensation, men were brought under a new law. The old laws were not abrogated ; the law of conscience remained; and the written law remained, condemning those who broke it ; though those who believed in Jesus Christ were lifted up from under it by being brought into a higher condition, through Eom. vh.; being dead in the flesh and alive in the spirit, and thus enabled to fulfil both laws — to listen to the voice of conscience, and to love God with all their heart, and their neighbour as themselves. But there was a new law given by our Lord Himseff, and repeated by St 362 Addenda — Answers to Objections. John ; not merely the old law that had been from the beginning, to love God and your neighbour, but to love your brother in the Church unto the death. The only commandment given to this dispensation, as pecuhar, John XV. 12- was to the Church, — " Be you one, and love your ii. 6-10." '^ brother better than yourself, even unto the death." And ff the Antedilu-vians broke the law of conscience, and the Jew broke the law of conscience and the Law of Moses, so, most assuredly, have we not only broken the law of conscience and that of Moses, but we' have also broken the peculiar law of this dispensation, the law of Christ. Our very names of division, adopted by every party in the Church, testify against us. The time of the end of the dispensation draws nigh; and God sends to His Church His messengers to call to repent ance for this peculiar sin, and to tell men to return unto unity, and provides the means for it, namely, apostles and prophets. Por what is it that di-rides Christendom: Disputes on doctrine, and on Church forms. The Lord gives, therefore, the only means that can free men from these divisions and disputes, -viz., the ordinances of light and judgment. And they who will hearken to them, and repent before God for the chief and peculiar sin of this dispensation, and confess it, ceasing from vindicating each his own party, saying, — " We, the Church of Greece, or the Church of Rome, or the Anglican Church, are not guilty in this matter," and wUl confess the common sin of all the Church, and of their own Church in particular, they shall find mercy, and be passed over, by some means which God will provide, into the next and coming dispensation, to become, with the saints who now sleep, but who shah be raised up at the First Resurrection, a nucleus of a Addenda — Answers to Objections. 363 new order of society in another epoch of man's history ; Hosea xiii. while those who refuse must meet the bear and the xiii. '2. lion, the Antichrist and his day. There are many who call on the baptized to repent of their sins, as men breaking the law of conscience and the written law, but do not call on them to repent of the aggravation of those sins as done by baptized men, members of the body of Christ ; and much less to repent of breaking the law of Christ, the law of unity ; and those who do call on men to repent of breaking this law, are deceiving others and themselves by untrue and impossible ways of remedying the evil, such as universal submission to the Pope, the vain hope of a General Council, &c. Let no man deceive himself by looking at the good that is doing in the Churches, either in England or elsewhere. Many imagine that, because the Lord is moving His servants everywhere to exert themselves, therefore they will finally prevail against the evil. But while they are converting one man or one famUy, thousands are being born into the world, even in Christian lands, whom they can never reach ; and thousands of those they do reach are rejecting their efforts. They mistake the matter. The two opposites, good and evil, are coming to a crisis. Satan is rnustering his hosts, disseminating his principles. God is preparing His people to be saved from anti christian principles, and from Antichrist himself. The chief difficulty the Lord has is to make His priests understand this. They seek, indeed, to serve God and to do their duty ; but they will not, for themselves and their people, let go their hold of the world as it is, and lay hold of the world about to come ; therefore there must be a great shaking. . Heb. xii. 27. 364 Addenda — Answers to Objections. Finally, there is one feature in this work of the Lord which has always accompanied any work of His at the end of a dispensation. Many parts of Scripture speak of the failure of the Church to accomplish the work of subduing the earth unto God, and declare that Isa. xxvi. 18. at last she shall come unto the Lord saying, " We have wrought no deUverance in the earth, neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen. The Lord sent His Twelve at the first to bring the Jews to Him; and when they refused. He called out Paul and Barnabas, the nucleus of a Gentile apostleship, and sent them to the GentUes, to gather out a people for His name. At the end of the dispensation it is seen that the majority of those so called out have apostatised from Him. The Lord, therefore, restores apostles for two purposes,: one, to give warning of His coming, and of the end of the dispensation, and to prepare a remnant to be delivered from the wrath about to come; the other, that they may return to the Lord, Who first sent apostles, to say to Him, in the name of the whole Church, " We have not prevailed ; we have failed ; we find the resistance of man too great; we have wrought no deliverance; come Thyself and do it." And the answer of the Lord Ps. Ixxxii. is, " I will ; the first resurrection shall take place ; ' Thy xxvi^is,^!!). dead men shall live ; together with My dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust, for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out her dead.' " There are none but the apostles, and the churches under them, who will say this ; every other section of the Church is saying in their heart to the Lord, " We shall do it yet. True, we have hitherto faUed ; but there are better hopes now, and many symptoms of success. Give us more time, more money, Addenda — Answers to Objections. 365 more men, and we shall bring the whole earth to Thee yet." The apostles and those with them confess the failure. And now men are judging the Lord's -work by the apparent want of success which accompanies it, and the death of some of those called to the apostle ship. But this is for want of consideration of what we said above. When did the means the Lord used ever succeed in recovering a dispensation that had failed ? If they did, the end of it would not come. He succeeds at the beginning of a dispensation. He created man with the law of righteousness in his con science ; but Enoch and Noah did not bring back the men of that dispensation to righteousness. He gathered His people Israel under Mo^es and under His Law; but John the Baptist did not succeed in bringing back the Jews under the Law of Moses. In the beginning of the Christian dispensation He established a Church in unity and truth, with the Law of Christ ruling them. Apostles and prophets, though restored now, will not succeed in bringing back the Church to unity and truth. Therefore the dispensation has to be changed. It is perfectly impossible to bring back a fallen dispensation, for each dispensation has its own limits of time. This age is not to be prolonged for ever, in the vain hope of enabling men to effect that which they have entirely f aUed in doing ; and to make void the lesson to angels and to men, .which this dispensation, as every pre ceding one, is designed to teach, namely, the faithless ness and faUure of the creature, and that the Lord alone is the UnfaUing One. But it is ever to be re membered, that though those sent by the Lord at the end of a dispensation do not persuade the men under it 366 Addenda — Answers to Objections. to return to its law, yet they do prepare and make ready a faithful remnant of God's people to enter into a new one about to come. With regard to the removal of some of those called to be apostles, it is a point on which something might be said ; but it is better not to speak of what is not clearly revealed. No one can tell what the next stage of the present work may be. The first Apostles did not cease their work, when some of their brethren were removed from the midst of them. It is perfectly impossible, in a treatise like this, to explain everything, or to answer every caviUen; nor can any spiritual work be judged of by the intellect of man. Indeed, it is a great objection to printing on this subject, that we are obliged to cast before men holy and spiritual things, which they may be quite unprepared to comprehend, and to speak of these, the highest ,of all the mysteries of God, to some who may be yet ignorant of the first principles of the Gospel of Christ; but we have given these Addenda to meet, and if possible to remove, the objections made by even good and holy men to the present work of the Lord. We conclude by again declaring that, far from this work being for the purpose of superseding any of God's ministers in any part of the Church, it is for their strengthening, sustaining, and upholding. Oh, let them indeed continue their work ! and, ff the Lord should come immediately, be found, as many as are so doing, faithfully and manfully working at their post, struggling to meet the advancing evU, to beat it back, to maintain Christ's cause, to " fight the good fight of faith," and preparing their people for the Day of the Addenda — Answers to Objections. 367 Lord. Let every man, priest and layman, be found, when the Lord comes, doing his duty as unto the Lord in the place where he has been set : only let him not suffer the engagements of duty to shut out from his mind the thought of the Lord's coming, or cause him to doubt, that God can and will send some to the help of His people before that day. Commercial Printing Company, Edinburgh. VALF UNIVERSIT.- LIBRAR r 3 9002 08837 6760 '^ ' ' ft J A V' f 1 ^f.)) Jl .< I H III 'J »' l\ m^^ k