THE GIFT OF 
 
 AiksE IIIJ^^K.. 
 
Cornell University Library 
 
 arV17056 
 
 An exposition of tlie Church of Christ an 
 
 3 1924 031 273 208 
 
 olin.anx 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031273208 
 
AN EXPOSITION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CHUECH 0F •CHRIST 
 
 ITS doctrine: 
 
 FORUINS 
 
 A SUPPLEMENT 
 
 TO 
 
 "THE END OF CONTROVERSY, C0NTR07ERTED." 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN J. WHITE. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 LIPPINCOTT, GEAMBO, & CO. 
 
 1855. 
 

 
 iiUNiviiT^c^iryf 
 
 JOHN J. WHITE, 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
 
 Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 
 
 (H) 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 FASE 
 
 IHTSODITCTIOK ix 
 
 Chap, I. Theoet of the Human Eace 17 
 
 II. Of Man in the Fall 28 
 
 III. Institution of the Law 42 
 
 IV. The end of the Law 53 
 
 V. Of the Gospel Dispensation 65 
 
 VI. Op the Church 78 
 
 VII. Of the Church (continued) 102 
 
 VIII. Of the Ministry 121 
 
 IX. Abrogation of the Law 143 
 
 X. Eelics of the Law 161 
 
 XI. Eelics of the Law (continued) 
 
 Of Baptism 172 
 
 Op Confirmation 184 
 
 (TU) 
 
Vm PREFACE. 
 
 Chap. XII. Kelics of the Law (concluded} 
 
 Of the Lokd's Supper 187 
 
 Of Penaucb , 208 
 
 Of Eitheme Unction 208 
 
 Of Holt Obdeks 208 
 
 Of Matrimony - 208 
 
 XIII. Op Faith 209 
 
 XIV, Conclusion 228 
 
INTRODUCTIOJS. 
 
 The salvation of tlie immortal soul is an object 
 infinitely paramount to every otlter considera- 
 tion. "Whatever, therefore, professes to point 
 out the means through which we may attain that 
 great aim and end of our existence, must possess 
 interest for all who are sufficiently awakened to 
 the reality of this truth. I class myseK in the 
 number of honest inquirers Zion-ward; and 
 cannot view with indifference either the theories 
 or the efforts of my fellow-men, to mark out for 
 me the narrow way to life everlasting. I am 
 bound, at the peril of all I value, to judge the 
 doctrine which calls me from the path of my 
 earthly pilgrimage to another and divergent 
 course. If that I tread be not demonstrably the 
 
 (ix) 
 
X INTBOD0CTION. 
 
 sure and the only road to peace — ^if I cannot, at 
 least to my own conscience, give a satisfactory 
 reason for the hope that is in me — if a doubt or 
 a shadow lie upon my faith — it behooves me to 
 try well its foundation, and rest not until I shall 
 have reached the rock whereon my building 
 may abide the storm and the flood. The issue, 
 with me, is immeasurably beyond all that the 
 natural understanding can conceive of life or 
 death. ' 
 
 i- It is with feelings of this character that I have 
 again read a work entitled " The End of Reli- 
 gious Controversy," in order to examine ano- 
 ther, recently issued to refate it, called " The 
 End of Controversy Controverted." The former 
 was written in the early part of the present cen- 
 tury, by John Milner, a Doctor of Divinity in 
 the Roman Catholic Church, and purports to be 
 a friendly correspondence with a Society, of a 
 few individuals, to prove the exclusive claim of 
 his co-religionists to be the church of Christ. 
 The latter also takes an epistolary form, in a 
 series of letters addressed to the Roman Catholic 
 Archbishop of Baltimore, by John H. Hopkins, 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 Doctor of Divinity and Laws, and Bisliop in the 
 Protestaat Episcopal Church. Although pro- 
 fessing to he a refutation of the former, it is so 
 hut to a limited extent. The clainis of hoth rest 
 upon the same hasis of ah outward hierarchy, 
 ordained by, and deseended,-through certain out- 
 ward forms and rules, from Jesus Christ. The 
 dispute is in reality much more political than 
 essential. Both the combatants are acrimonious 
 and unsparing towards their rival communities, 
 yet they mutually recognize the lineaments of a 
 common parentage and close relationship. 
 
 While I accord my meed of praise for the 
 more liberal and enlarged Christian charity of 
 the latter champion, I cannot withhold, even 
 from the fanatic intolerance of the former, the 
 respect which is due tO' apparently legitimate 
 deductions from, conceded premises. I may 
 freely confess that, great as is the ability and 
 research displayed, by the Protestant writer, and 
 overwhelming the testimony he brings to prove 
 the licentiousness and corruption of that insti- 
 tution, which, iowever adulterous, he yet con- 
 cedes to be the spouse of Christ in common vnth 
 
Xll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 his own, I should hardly be won, were I a mem- 
 ber, by his learning or his lo^c, to abandon it; 
 for though the despotic and degraded, it is yet 
 the elder claimant to the throne. These consi- 
 derations, however, I leave to their respective 
 followers and especial opponents, as little affectr 
 ing the position I shall undertake to defend in 
 the following pages. I must reject equally the 
 claim of the Roman Catholic to bow me at his 
 shrine, or destroy me by his anathema, and the 
 more modest invitation of the Episcopal digni- 
 taiy, to consider his organization the true church 
 and Bride of Christ. The portraits they have 
 drawn are sufiSciently true and repulsive, to 
 satisfy an impartial inquirer that great talents 
 and learning have been enlisted on both sides, 
 rather in the defence of error than the search 
 after truth. Without, therefore, entering into 
 an extensive examination of their systems of 
 religion, I propose, in a plain and direct essay, 
 to furnish my fellow-pilgrims with a better 
 guide to attain that assurance which shall effec- 
 tually end religious controversy. 
 
 I have called this a Supplement to the works 
 
INTRODUCTION. XUl 
 
 in question. It is intended to supply what is 
 wanting in both, and what both profess to 
 demonstrate; that ^^ secure, never-failing, and 
 universal rule or method adapted to the abilities 
 and circumstances of all, which our Divine. Master, 
 Ohrist, in establishing a religion here on earth, left, 
 bi^ which those persons who sincerely seek for it 
 may certainly find it." In undertaking to show 
 this rule, I give my full assent to the^ funda- 
 mental premises laid down in both. This will 
 more fully appear in the progress of my expo- 
 sition. All that is necessary now, is to deter- 
 mine and agree upon the common and accessible 
 Btandard,Mto tiy what is disputed, and to prove 
 what may be advanced. Eor this purpose they 
 have used, and I shall use, the Scriptures of the 
 Old and N'ew Testament. By universal consent, 
 these sacred records have been appealed to as 
 the test of Christian doctrine ; and, as common 
 ground, however wrested and abused in their 
 application, they must continue through Time 
 the highest outward authority. 
 
 Both my predecessors have started vsdth their 
 assumed systems of what is called Faith, as con- 
 2 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ceded or established. Neither of them seems to 
 have looked beyond the narrow scope of a pro- 
 selyting missionary for a particular sect of pro- 
 fessors. They stand, alike, the harnessed and 
 obedient servants of organized intellectual des- 
 potisms, which forbid all trains of thought other 
 than in the prescribed channels of educational 
 discipline ; and, as a consequence, their contest 
 is for little else than political supremacy, on the 
 very contracted question of apostolic episcopal 
 descent. I should but partially explain my views 
 on the subjects treated by them, in directing 
 inquiry merely to the opinions of men eminent 
 for sanctity and learning. It is necessary, in 
 order to elucidate the position and the meaning 
 of those who stand as lights and authorities, to 
 take a much more comprehensive survey than 
 either the Eoman Catholic or the Protestant 
 Episcopal writer has attempted. My purpose is, 
 therefore, to trace, in as condensed a manner as 
 the importance of the subject will permit, the 
 position in which I find myself as a descendant 
 of my first progenitor, in order to give more 
 clearly a reason of the hope that is in me of a 
 
INTKODUCTION. XV 
 
 resurrection from the dead, through faith which 
 is in Christ Jesus. I expect, in this way, to 
 reach the issues involved, and furnish the honest 
 inquirer with the means of solving that great 
 prohlem or question presented, viz. : "What is 
 the certain and the only rule or method for the 
 salvation of his never-dying soul ? 
 
AN EXPOSITION, 
 
 ETC. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THEORY OP THE HUMAN RACE. 
 
 The only authentic record of the creation of 
 man,^ is contained in the inspired account of 
 Moses. ^No other exists which deserves even to 
 be ranked as a reasonable tradition or specula- 
 tion. I shall confine my remarks, therefore, to 
 the text as we receive it in the book of Genesis, 
 and endeavor to elucidate that history by the 
 lights and analogies at my disposal. 
 
 The science of Geology has successfully im- 
 pugned the literal construction formerly placed 
 on the statement therein made, that the earth 
 was created in six days. Its ineontestible proof 
 that these days were epochs or stages, separated 
 from each other by vast intervals, can only shake 
 2 * (17) 
 
18 THEORY OP THE HUMAN RACE. 
 
 the faith of the superficial reader. I shall not 
 pause to consider in the outset, the highly figu- 
 rative style of ancient Scripture history, nor 
 dwell on the absolute necessity for large allow- 
 ances on the misty ground between allegory and 
 fact, in reading Genesis and Job. If the lite- 
 raligt, like his kindred who imposed the penance 
 of falsehood on Galileo, will abide in the outer 
 court of bigotry and prejudice, I fear we shall 
 not travel far in a harmonious search after truth. 
 It is the spirit — the true intent and meaning of 
 the writer — which should be the goal; and 
 surely, of all compositions, these most ancient 
 chronicles require the largest latitude of inter- 
 pretation. 
 
 In another department of science — that of 
 Ethnology — a theory has latterly sprung up, 
 which, if^it shall ever become as firmly esta- 
 blished, will constitute a far more formidable 
 barrier in my path. I allude to the doctrine of 
 a diverse origin for^the various races of men. It 
 is, nevertheless, as yet but a mere theory — 
 plausible, it is true, but wholly unsusceptible of 
 proof — and from its nature destined to remain 
 
THEORY OF THE HUMAN RACE. 19 
 
 sucM, however it may enlist the learned in its 
 support. But even here, the array of authority 
 is, in my estimation, very much against it. I 
 dismiss it, therefore, as presenting no obstacle 
 to the reception of the Mosaic account of our 
 parentage — an account which seems to me 
 almost self-evident, as the irresistible corollary 
 of an inquirer, with even no better light or guide 
 than his unassisted reason. 
 
 According to this, God created a single pair 
 of progenitprs for the whole human race. In 
 them He manifestly created their posterity ; for 
 by the act of creation, properly so called, and 
 alone applicable to Him, all the future of the 
 race must necessarily have been involved. There 
 can be no past nor future, however contradictory 
 such an assertion may sound, with Deity him- 
 self, which is substantially- to say that He ^s 
 unchangeable. Nothing imperfect or susceptible 
 of improvement was ever formed by Him. 
 Hence man, the crown of his works, made after 
 his own image, came from the hand of his 
 Maker, absolutely perfect in himself and all his 
 posterity. In scientific language, we use the 
 
20 THEORY OF THE HUMAN RACE. 
 
 term law to signify that liniform series of suc- 
 cessive existences by which the condition of the 
 first beconaes impressed on all that follows. We 
 say that such is the law of the species ; as the 
 animal was originally, so he is now, modified 
 and changed only by the circumstances through 
 which he has passed. The law that regulated 
 the first link in his series of ancestors, is the 
 same that governed tis own birth, although the 
 descendant at this day, may have become a very 
 dissimilar being. 
 
 I therefore lay it down as an incontrovertible 
 proposition, that in the beginning, aU was 
 formed perfect, fixed, and unchangeable forever. 
 Though, as the upholder of the universe, not 
 even a sparrow falls to the ground without His 
 notice, yet nothing ever has or ever will require 
 modification or change as a consequence of 
 God's creation. 
 
 In considering the state of Adam and Eve, we 
 must then regard them as absolutely perfect. 
 First, in the outward material body or habitation, 
 of which the blood constitutes the life and sen- 
 tinel — coursing through every part, nourishing 
 
THEORY .OF THE HUMAN EAOB. 21 
 
 every fibre, removing every effete and excrescent 
 particle, and renewing, in its appointed season, 
 the fabric, as disease, injury, or decay ,inay re- 
 quire, in part and in whole. Next, its immediate 
 and mysterious inhabitant, that wonderful com- 
 pound of perceptions and faculties called the 
 mind or intellect — intangible to sense, yet even 
 more demonstrable than the matter it inhabits 
 and controls — of which reason is the life and 
 regulator. Lastly^ the still more inappreciable, 
 though the true immortal man, known as the 
 soul or spirit, and of which God himself was the 
 life, light, and Lord Supreme. 
 
 The single peculiarity in the creation of the 
 human race, was this — that God formed man 
 "after his own image" — "in his own likeness;" 
 that is to say, being thus, as a three-fold being, 
 made perfect, and ordained to live forever, he 
 was left free and unbiassed in his will. His 
 Creator eo- framed and designed him, that the 
 choice between good and evil was left entirely 
 to himself. Ifothing less than the freedom of 
 will could have made him a probationer and a 
 responsible being — liable, for its abuse, to con- 
 
22 - THEOKY OF THE HUMAN RACE. 
 
 demnation ; and capable of meriting, for its use, 
 the reward of virtue. 
 
 It seems to me a self-evident proposition that, 
 in this particular, the Most High relinquished 
 his prerogative of foreknowledge. To suppose 
 him the Creator, with perfect prescience of what 
 followed in the histoiy of his creature, is to 
 make him the Author of all his woes — ^to believe 
 him the very reverse of good. Nay, it uproots 
 the foundation of moral accountability — of right 
 and wrong — of equity and justice. I have no 
 ground to stand on in my estimate of God and 
 his attributes, if I do not believe myself perfectly 
 free to will as I please. However sophistry may, 
 in proving me the slave of circumstances, en- 
 deavor to demonstrate that I am but an auto- 
 maton of fate, I feel conscious ' of a power that 
 more than answers all which reason can suggest 
 or receive. But I deny the doctrine as both 
 irrational, and without foundation in the Scrip- 
 tures of Truth — which, I trust, will be shown 
 hereafter. 
 
 The narrative of the. inspired vmter states 
 this substantially in the words, "The Lord God 
 
THEORY OF THE HUMAN RACE. 23 
 
 formed man of the dust of the ground, and 
 breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and 
 man became a living soul." * And again : " The 
 Lord God took the man, and put him into the 
 garden of Edeh to dress it, and to keep it. And 
 the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of 
 every tree of the garden thou mayst freely eat : 
 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and 
 evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that 
 thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." f 
 
 In the bold metaphors of oriental imagery, 
 and the.' highly poetic character of the subject, 
 the cliine, and the genius of the author, spiritual 
 conditions and facts are represented ty, and 
 blended with, outward realities. The garden of 
 Paradise is highly typical of what, by a far 
 bolder metaphor, we caU the heart; the trees 
 are still of the same compound — susceptible of 
 a literal, though intended for a spiritual signifi- 
 cation ; but when we reach the fruit, it becomes 
 impossible to doubt the import of the iiarration. 
 The knowledge of good and evil never had any 
 
 * Gen. ii. 7. f Gen. ii. 15 to 17. 
 
24 THEOKT OP THE HUMAN EACB. 
 
 connection with a tree, other than we find 
 throughout the Holy Scriptures — in every part 
 of which moral truths and spiritual conditions 
 are represented by familiar outward objects. 
 
 I ask, then, what other conclusion can be 
 drawn from the inspired history — from its com- 
 mentators in every age — froni the attributes of 
 Deity — and frona the knowledge we possess 
 individually of ourselves and our ancestors, than 
 that Adam, a single man, was created such as I 
 have described, the one. progenitor of the human 
 race; that coeval with, and from him, as his 
 complement, a single female, and in them all 
 their po'Sterity-^stamped irrevocably in the same 
 Divine image throughout all generations forever. 
 
 Let us contemplate the sphere, and the condi- 
 tion of such a being. The creation was abso- 
 lutely perfect. Infinite "Wisdom ordained and 
 appointed the position and course of every indi- 
 vidu:' in the series. The language to the pro- 
 phot Jeremiah, when the word of the Lord came 
 unto him, illustrates this: "Before I formed 
 thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before 
 thou earnest forth out of the womb I sanctified 
 
THEOKT OF THE HUMAN KACE. 25 
 
 thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the 
 nations." * This ordination and appointment 
 could be carried out only by the co-operation of 
 the creature, thus free to choose the path of 
 duty or rebellion. The prophet might have 
 resisted, and so changed the ordination of the 
 Most High. Adam did rebel, and overturned 
 the whole plan marked out and prescribed for 
 himself and his posterity. 
 
 In the position, however, wherein he was 
 created, God would have been the Author of 
 every act, the prompter of every movement. 
 Liberty was given him to eat freely of every tree 
 in the garden, 6xc;fept that of the knowledge of 
 good and evil. The serpent truly told Eve they 
 should be as gods by rebellion, and the result 
 abundantly proved its reality. While the will 
 of the creature was always in subjection to the 
 will of the Creator, one will, and that the will 
 of Omniscience, Omnipresence, Omnipotence, 
 and absolute Goodness, reigned supreme. "When 
 two wills were introduced hj the traiisgression 
 
 * Jer. i. 5. 
 
26 THEORY 0¥ THB HUMAN EACE, 
 
 of that simple fundamental law of ^ obedience, 
 then man became a god to himself — firsts the 
 subtle casuist to bolster up and justify his crime ; 
 next, its terrible avenger in his own blood. 
 
 Does any one suppose it a fanciful theory, 
 that Adam and all his descendants could easHy 
 have maintained the state of original peace and 
 bliss ? That under the Divine government, pain 
 and sorrow would have been unknown, even in 
 this confessedly probationary state ? To me it 
 appears the most astonishing event in real or 
 fictitious chronicle, that he should have fallen 
 from, such a position. My reason is founded on 
 the comparison between the path of a just man 
 now, and then. In the present state of society, 
 nearly all that influences us from without is for 
 evil; then, all from without and from within 
 was for good. 
 
 "When we draw our conclusions from a con- 
 trast between man under different circumstances, 
 and mark the enjoyment of communities emi- 
 nent for virtue and religion — the miseries of states 
 desolated by war, oppression, and crime — when 
 we see how outward health, peace, and prospe- 
 
THEORY OP THE HUMAN RACE. 2T 
 
 rity, follow in tlie wake of humility and self- 
 denial, even under the accumulated infirmities 
 entailed on our physical, mental, and moral con- 
 dition by untold centuries of ancestral folly and 
 crime — can we doubt that, in his original purity 
 and perfection, want, disease, and sufiering 
 would have been unknown? that the probation- 
 ary period of sojourn here would have passed 
 on to its close amid the highest enjoyments, 
 because limited only by Infinite Wisdom to the 
 domain of Virtue? Would not man have 
 dropped this tenement of clay when that proba- 
 tion and its easy triumph were accomplished, 
 without a sorrow or a pang ? I consider such 
 an inference the unavoidable result of even a 
 comparison like that I have last instituted — how 
 much more so, when the records of inspiration 
 show him to be ever the object of an omnipotent 
 Creator's unceasing care. 
 
28 OF MAN IN THE FALL. 
 
 CHAPTEE n. 
 
 OF MAN IN THE FALL. 
 
 In the preceding chapter, I have endeavored 
 to show the condition in which man was origi- 
 nally created. The theory appears to me not 
 only scriptural, but the only possible hypothesis 
 that can be framed, in accordance with what we 
 tnow of his subsequent history and present 
 state. On no other can the sacred narrative of 
 events, most certainly the result of his lapse, 
 and the means appointed for his redemption and 
 final restoration, be satisfactorily explained. I 
 have chosen to dwell but briefly on the subject, 
 not that it is not of the greatest importance as 
 the groundwork of all I have to advance, but 
 because every stage of my subsequent inquiry 
 will add evidence to strengthen and corrobo- 
 rate it. 
 
 The command to Adam v^as positive — "Of 
 
OF MAN IN THE FALL, 29 
 
 the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou 
 shalt not eat, for in the day that thou eatest 
 thereof, thou shalt surely die." In other words, 
 death is the certain penalty of the exercise of 
 thy will in opposition to mine. What death was 
 this ? ISot the cessation of animal existence, for 
 no such consequence followed. To suppose that 
 obedience would have insured immortality to 
 the flesh, is to involve our reason in a tissue of 
 absurdities, too gross for even the credulity of a 
 bigot or a fool. The body of Adam (and this 
 includes the original pair, for "male and female 
 -created he them") was the same before and after 
 his transgression, and, like that of his descend- 
 ants, material; subject while living to physiolo- 
 gical laws, and when dead to chemical change. 
 It must have been, as our own, renewed conti- 
 nually by the assimilation of matter, and thus 
 wholly transmuted through short and successive 
 periods of his outward life. Experiments prove, 
 beyond all doubt, that no atom of the frame I 
 now px)ssesfl, was mine a dozen years ago. Do 
 I therefore question my identity, or that, if living 
 a dozen years hence, my tabernacle of flesh will 
 3* 
 
30 OF MAW IN THE FALL. 
 
 be different from the one I now inhabit ? The 
 whole history of organized matter is that of an 
 incessant and infinite variety of change. No 
 property is so disputable as its ownership — no 
 tenure so slight and so transient as its posses- 
 sion. He, therefore, who regards it, under any 
 circumstances, or in any form, as worth any- 
 thing more than the temporary use its Creator 
 has assigned it, is a fit subject for the tyrannous 
 yoke of superstition and spiritual bondage. 
 
 The death involved in this transgression was 
 spiritual. The soul — the true, real, an& immor- 
 tal man — lost its life, the presence and imme- 
 diate direction of God Almighty. The moment 
 his free-will was exercised in opposition to the 
 will of his Maker, that moment he renounced 
 allegiance, and became a god to himself. The 
 spirit, thus far, through Divine guidance, the 
 supreme governor of his lower nature^ was now 
 subjected to that serpentine and seductive coun- 
 sellor, the unassisted reason of man. The effiil- 
 gence of light, which hitherto had revealed his 
 path, became darkness; and henceforward he 
 must grope in doubt and error, the prey of his 
 
OF MAN IN THE FALL. SI 
 
 follies, delusions, and crimes. He descended to 
 the level of the beasts that perish, but with this 
 awful distinction — of an immortal nature fallen 
 from its high estate, and armed with infinitely 
 superior powers, perverted now to evil and his 
 own everlasting torment. 
 
 Adam (including, as I have said, the first 
 pair^, by his rebellion, was undoubtedly a sinner 
 in the true sense of the term. There is no other 
 instance in which we dare apply the epithet in 
 its strongest signification, because we cannot 
 know the actual relationship between -the-in divi- 
 dual, and his Redeemer. The apostle Paul called 
 himself the chief of sinners, forhe felt the depth of 
 his wretchedness in that body of death, when con- 
 trasted with the abundiint grace he had received. 
 But neither he nor any other man ever knew the 
 measure of Grod's spirit whichas meted to a bro- 
 ther in bondage. Without that knowledgCj he 
 who pronounces his fellow a sinner assumes the 
 prerogative of God. We know, however, that 
 Adam had, before his transgression, the spirit. 
 of Qod in the fullness, . and without- measure ; 
 and, therefore, that he committed the sin which 
 
82 OF MAN IN THE FALL. 
 
 never was, and never can be forgiven. The 
 penalt/i8 now, as it was then, inevitable death. 
 The whole tenor of the Sacred Writings proves 
 this position. Yet, notwithstanding, in the in- 
 finite goodness of his Creator, the means of re- 
 demption and restoration were as freely offered 
 to him as to any of his posterity. 
 
 The word sin is used in two widely different 
 senses throughout the Scriptures. In the one it 
 means, as above, the guilt of transgression in- 
 curred by the wilful offender. In the other, the 
 consequences of the offence upon unoffending 
 parties. It is in the latter sense that all Ms poB- 
 terity sinned in Adam. All are born into the 
 world innocent, it is true, of actual guilt;. but 
 affected by the fall of our first parents in this, 
 that the natural, or merely animal part, has 
 dominion over us. That divine life breathed by 
 the Creator into his nostrils, whereby he became 
 a living soul, is_nowlost; and man is wholly 
 unfitted for the path of righteousness and self- 
 denial. His tendencies are evil ; and, to know 
 everlasting rest and peace, he must be saved or 
 
OF MAN IN THE PALL. 33 
 
 redeemed from the, state in which he enters 
 existeiLce. 
 
 This second sense of the term sin is implied, 
 throughout the Scriptures, where physical or 
 moral deformity or disease is represented as 
 entailed on one innocent of the original ojffence. 
 The Jews were accustomed to regard it as an 
 equivalent to this state of body and mind. 
 Hence they inquired, in the case of the man 
 blind from his birth—" Master, who did sin, thig 
 man, or his parents, that he was born blind ?"* 
 Andrthat Jesus attached to it the same meaning, 
 is shown when, forgiving the sins of the man 
 sick of the palsy, the scribes charged him with 
 blasphemy. " For^" said -he, " whether is easier, 
 to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say. 
 Arise, and walk ? But th^t ye may know that 
 the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive 
 sins (then saith he to the sick of the palsy), 
 Arise, take up thy bed and go into thine house."t 
 Here, as in every other instance on record, the 
 sins forgiven by outward means, were diseases 
 
 * John ix. 2. t Matt. ix. 5, 6. 
 
34 OF MAN IN THE FALL. 
 
 or infirmities cured.* T-hey were lively types 
 of that forgiveness of sin effected by His spiritual 
 appearance, through regeneration, in perfect 
 accordance with his doctrine — "Verily, verily, 
 I say unto thee, Except a man be bom again he 
 cannot see the kingdom of God."f But of this, 
 more in its proper place. 
 
 That the unchangeable and just God should 
 visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the chil- 
 dren, unto the third and fourth generation of 
 them that hate him, as is declared in Exodus 
 XX. 5, may seem repugnant to our ideas of equity 
 and justice. Ifothing, however, is more certain, 
 in the daily experience of our lives; There is 
 no human being on the face of the earth who 
 has not received more or less of this inheritance 
 from his forefathers. "We recognise the fact 
 continually, in justly ascribing to this or to that 
 
 * The account in Luke vii. 48, does not conflict vritli this, 
 although no outward diseases are specifically mentioned. The 
 plain import of the term sins, under the Jewish Law, is so 
 clearly given by our Saviour in rebutting the charge of the 
 Pharisees, that no language could have been used more to 
 the point, " Whether is easier to say. Thy sins be forgiven 
 thee, or to say. Arise and walk ?" 
 
 f John iii. 3. 
 
OF MAN IN THE FALL, 35 
 
 stock or family, hereditary virtues or vices, 
 moral, mental, or physical. But where lies the 
 responsibility ? Not with the beneficent Crea- 
 tor, who gave, with free agency, his whole power 
 and wisdom to equip his creature for life's jour- 
 ney through temptation. Eejected as he has 
 been from the temple he formed for himself, he 
 still is knocking for admission, and moulding 
 the stubborn nature that refuses him an entrance. 
 It is the very madness of folly to charge* him 
 with the result of rebellion against his authority. 
 Were it possible for man to be restored to that 
 state of perfection wherein he was created, 
 without the dispensations to which he is sub- 
 jected, the goodness of God would undoubtedly 
 accomplish that end. But who dare choose — 
 and the question'is directly to the point — among 
 all the communities of meii, a circle of associates 
 to be banded with throughout Eternity? We 
 hope for better companions ihan we find here — 
 and too well we know that our best assurance 
 against the oppression of our fellows is in the 
 multiplied aflictions of life, and the certainty 
 of its speedy termination. 
 
36 Of MAN IN THE FALL. 
 
 One of the first Gonsequences of the fall, 
 therefore, as appears from the Sacred History, 
 was fratricide — and that, too, under the most 
 aggravated circumstances of guilt. The dia- 
 bolical act of Cain, the first-born in an, has had 
 no parallel in atrocity since it occurred. "We 
 must reasonably suppose that his education 
 could scarcely have been of a character to 
 prompt such a crimje. Por his parents, though 
 doomed to suffering and remorse, had known 
 the joys of Paradise, and experienced sufi3.cienfl[y 
 the results of transgression, to avoid that most 
 unnatural part which such a course of training 
 would imply. 
 
 As we descend in the roU of the generations 
 of men, amid a few redeeming characters re- 
 corded, the universal degeneracy becomes so abso- 
 lute, that we are told, " God saw that the witk- 
 edness of man was great in the earth, and that 
 every imagination of the thoughts of his heart 
 was only evil continually. And it repented the 
 Lord that he had made man on the earth, and 
 it grieved him at his heart."* 
 
 * Gen. vi. 5, 6. 
 
OF MAN IN THE FALL. 37 
 
 We cannot believe that the unchangeable 
 Deity would thus repent, and, in consequence, 
 resolve to destroy man, whom he had created, 
 from the face of the earth, if he had foreknown 
 this result. H^d he retained his prescience, as 
 I have before shown, man could not have been 
 a free agent. That he relinquished this prero- 
 gative, is substantially asserted in the above 
 quotation, where he is said to have repented 
 the experiment — for experiment it was — and, 
 through man's exercise of the free-will given 
 him, in rebellion to that of his Maker, it failed. 
 ' Let no one suppose that he magnifies either 
 the character or the attributes of God, by an 
 ascription of evidently impossible qualities, in 
 violation of the plain meaning of the Scripture 
 account. That it' repented the Lord thsit he had 
 made man on the earth, is positively asserted 
 kere. - The same word, in the same unequivocal 
 sense, is, througliout^ the Mosaic history, fre- 
 quently employed to represent his change of 
 purpose. Does this imply mutation -in the coun- 
 sels of the Most High ? Certainly not. His 
 purposes, in all his dispensations and dealings 
 4 
 
38 OF MAN IN THE FALL. 
 
 with his rebellious, deceitful, and ever-changing 
 creature, are steadfast and immovable. As well 
 may we predicate mutation of the sun, whose 
 rays are quivering in every form through the 
 foliage, the clouds, and the streams. On a true 
 mirror, the orb is reflected in perfect symmetry 
 and never-varying lustre — so, from the creature 
 he formed, would Gad's attributes and glory 
 have shone forth forever without variableness or 
 diminution. But it seems otherwise in the mul- 
 tiform phases necessaiy to reach the endless 
 subtleties and transformations of sin. Thus, he 
 is said to be angry, to be jealous, to hate, to 
 avenge, &c. Yet all is in perfect harmony with 
 his attribute of Love. When we rernember that 
 his spirit strives with man for redemption from 
 sin, as the fondest parent follows an erring child 
 throughout his career of folly, with every pos- 
 sible device, ^;hat may terrify, or lure, or reason 
 him back to virtue, we have a, never-failing key 
 to the sacred narrative. 
 
 The destruction of all that. generation, except- 
 ing only eight, by a God of infinite mercy and 
 love, proves how hopelessly, low the race had 
 
OF MAN IN THE FALL. 39 
 
 suttk j,j;i degradation. I hold it as an axiom that 
 every individual who ever trod the face of the 
 earth, and that every one who may touch its 
 surface herea^fter, has had and will have, all the 
 means specificaUy necessar;^ to the salvation of 
 his and her soul, that Grod, in infinite wisdom, 
 power, and goddfaess, with perifect knowledge of 
 each one's separate wants, cah furnish. With 
 what feelings, then, must I look upon that con- 
 dition of Adam's posterity, which-inad^ it neces- 
 sary, in order to preserve the last flickering 
 spark of life, to strike from around all else of 
 animated nature ! All but these eight were cut 
 off for their wickedness. Their day of visita- 
 tion must, therefore, have passed hy, and spiri- 
 tual life could not be imparted. Their own 
 position v^as hopeless before; and their simul- 
 taneous removal was required for the preserva- 
 tion of the few who yet remained accessible to 
 the influence of the gracie given for salvation. 
 
 After, this memorable epoch in our history, 
 the interregnum was but short in the reign of 
 evil. Again the same tendencies produced in 
 the earth a similar result. It would appear, 
 
40 OF MAN IN THE FALL. 
 
 however, that the desperate condition of the 
 antediluvian race has never since been realized ; 
 and, according to the prontise then given, no 
 similar catastrophe will again occur. 
 
 I may here observe that, in regard to the 
 chronology furnished in the. account, and from 
 which the date of man's creation has been cal- 
 culated, I am free to confess my indifference. 
 Even the increased time afforded by the Septua^ 
 gint versioji of the Old Testament, has been 
 proved far too short for the recorded reigns en- 
 graven upon the antiquities of Egypt. To me, 
 it matters little whether or not science shall 
 lengthen out the period of lantiquity with added 
 thousands upon thousands of years. The 
 account ofia vast interval in time, and a mighty 
 extension in population, is too scanty and vague 
 for criticism. A few important facts are given, 
 so mingled in the obscurity of metaphor, that 
 we must of necessity make allowance, in order 
 to reconcile it with known natural laws. But 
 the truth of the narrative is not affected by dis- 
 crepancies in the text. I receive it as worthy of 
 all credence, and am persuaded that in all parts. 
 
OF MAN IN THE FALL. , 41 
 
 when understood as intended, the Holy Scrip- 
 tures will carry the internal evidence of their 
 verity to every mind sufficiently experienced in 
 spiritual things to comprehend the meaning of 
 their writers. 
 
 With these remarks,, I shall dismiss the consi- 
 deration of the state to which man fell by the 
 transgressiojj of the first pair; The remaining 
 history in Genesis, after the account of that 
 impious attempt, in the same worldly-wise spirit, 
 to circumvent Omnipotence. by building a tower 
 whose top should reach to heaven, is devoted to 
 the single family from whom sprang an espe- 
 cially- chosen people. This instructive and 
 affecting narrative, together with that in the 
 wonderful book of Job, affords an almost inex- 
 haustible storehouse for illustration to the Chris- 
 tian traveller, But they are ancillary o nly to 
 the purpose of this work, which is to show the 
 design and scope of the dispensations God has 
 furnished for the redemption . of his fallen 
 creature. 
 
42 INSTITUTION 01" THE LAW. 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 INSTITUTION OP THE LAW. 
 
 To prove the tendency of the human mind 
 towards idolatry and superstition, almost every 
 page of its history may be cited with success. 
 The loss of that revealing Light, by which only 
 God can be known, left Reason to grope her 
 way amid the inventions and contrivances that 
 cupidity and ambition have ever been active in 
 framing, to ensnare and subjugate naan's affec- 
 tions and fears. Hence we behold him, in every 
 age of the world, a prey to the most degrading 
 systems and rites of religion. 'Sot is it the pre- 
 rogative of lofty intellect to have been an excep- 
 tion to the rule. Knaves, it is true, have plotted 
 and schemed successfully for empire over fools ; 
 yet, though the masters of their jugglery, they 
 have never escaped the servitude of a more 
 rigorous tyrant than themselves. They have 
 
INSTITUTION 01? THE LAW. 48 
 
 bound heavy burthens, grievous to be borne, 
 upon the shoulders of their victims ; but even 
 when, in despotic authority, they have lorded it 
 supreme, their own condition has ever been, if 
 self-deceived, more abject than their dupes, and 
 if not, infinitely more miserable under the 
 double yoke of ambition and remorse. 
 
 At the period when the descendants of Jacob 
 were groaning under the taskmasters of Egypt, 
 we have every reason to believe that the world had 
 almost universally lapsed into idolatry. The 
 most forcible illustration may be drawn from the 
 highly intellectual nation which oppressed them. 
 For of all spiritual darkness, can we, from the 
 testimony on record, discover any state more 
 gross than that of a people whose sacred birds, 
 beasts, and reptiles are still embalmed by mil- 
 lions, and whose monuments, the greatest won- 
 ders of the world, were raised to eternize their 
 own corruptible bodies. Yet, at that time, the 
 Egyptians were the most renowned and civilized 
 of nations. From the valley of the Nile, science 
 and learning poured forth their streams upon 
 universal barbarism. They looked down, and 
 
44 INSTITUTION OF THE LAW; 
 
 justly so, upon the far inferior condition of a 
 world around, of which they were the lights and 
 the exemplars. 
 
 It seems to me clear that, in the counsels of 
 Infinite Wisdom, a two-fold design was to be 
 aecomplifihed by the call of the children of Israel 
 from Egypt, and their journeys to the land of 
 Canaan. By the institution of a Theocracy-^- 
 an outward, direct, and visible government of a 
 nation by Jehovah — it was intended, to rescue 
 the world from that gross idolatry into which it 
 had fallen. By the dispensation of the Law, a 
 more general and lasting benefit was to be con- 
 ferred on man — a most lively representation, 
 through a series of types in the outward history^ 
 of that spiritual journey which the soul must 
 take, from its first state of Egyptian darkness, 
 to the promised rest of peace and bliss. 
 
 The government of a nation by God himself, 
 through mediums which men were accustomed 
 to, and understood, is a spectacle unique in the 
 history of the world. I may be told by the 
 sceptic, that this isolated case is no exception to 
 the long train of impostures in its imitation, 
 
INSTITUTION OF THE LAW. 45 
 
 whicli history records. He may reject the mira- 
 cles set forth in the account, as unworthy the 
 credence of a philosophic mind — may refer to 
 natural causes the successful passage of the Red 
 Sea, and the marvellous supplies of water and 
 sustenance to the hosts of Israel in the wilder- 
 ness ; he may ascribe the pillar of cloud by day, 
 and of fire by night, to the oriental custom of 
 leading armies with a blazing beacon in their 
 van ; he may class the Urim and the Thummim, 
 the tabernacle and the tables of stone, with the 
 heathen oracles, the auguries, and the sybilline 
 leaves of antiquity ; he may show, thronghout, 
 a close parallel between the sacred and profane 
 historian, and exhibit the former as but a servile 
 imitator of the latter in his chronicles ; yet, for 
 all this, he cannot overthrow one jot or tittle of 
 my faith in the verity of the sacred records. 
 JSTor is this state the result of a blind and bigoted 
 credulity, that will not listen to, and weigh the 
 evidence with impartiality and candor. Still 
 less do I repose upon the labors of biblical 
 antiquaries, and rest satisfied, with the basis of 
 learning and logical proof upon which they have 
 
46 INSTITUTION OF THE LAWi 
 
 established the authenticity of the Scriptures. 
 To a far higher source I look with confidence 
 for their confirmation' as a true narrative of 
 events which most surely ha|)pened, in ages too 
 remote for much assistance from the glimmering 
 lights and analogies of cotemporaneous histoiy. 
 Without undervaluing, then, the argument 
 drawn in their favpr from the present and past 
 condition of that wonderful people through 
 whom they are derived, I receive them impli- 
 citly, because of the parallel they fiirnish me 
 with what I have myself known. It is in my 
 own spiritual experience that I have found the 
 strongest testimony to their truth. And albeit, 
 in dealing witii their professed believers — espe- 
 cially those who call them the word of God, his 
 exclusive revelation, and the highest rule of 
 faith and practice — I have no need to speak in 
 their defence, yet even these I shall hope to fur- 
 nish with a better ground for their belief. If 
 what I have laid down, and what I shall herein- 
 after advance as predicable of the human race, 
 be not consistent parts of a perfect whole, in 
 which every link is necessary to the series, and 
 
INSTITUTION OP THE LAW. 47 
 
 upon wliich God's plan for man's salvation alone 
 rests, then will this strongest argument for the 
 divinely-inspired character of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures be made, as superficial religionists would 
 consider it, the weakest. 
 
 The immediate object of the Most High in 
 establishing a Theocracy such as is set forth in 
 the Mosaic account, must have been to lead the 
 nations of the earth to a recognition of the one 
 true and living God. By their descent and edu- 
 cation, the Israelites were gradually fitted for 
 the purpose. They were sprung from one whose 
 title, "the father of the faithful," was merited 
 by his ready obedience to a command which, of 
 all others, best illustrates what is always required 
 — the sacrifice of the heart's idoL Through 
 their exalted ideas of this^ ancestry, and conse- 
 quent exclusiyeness, they were measurably kept 
 intact, and their, prinfciples preserved, amid the 
 general superstition of the age. With these 
 feelings, they descended to the lowest depths of 
 bondagfe. They became abject slaves, and were 
 used to rear the detested monuments of pagan 
 worship to the meanest of the creatures that 
 
48 INSTITUTION OP THE LAW. 
 
 crawl upon the earth. It was in this very lowest 
 estate that the Almighty condescended to visit 
 them as a nation — gave them an outward leader 
 — delivered them from their oppressors by that 
 open and wonderful display of miracles — and 
 directed their steps to a land flowing with milk 
 and honey^a land of rest — of which these pro- 
 ducts, as requiring no labor, were the appro- 
 priate emblems. 
 
 The inhabitants of this land were idolaters, 
 and, like the -cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, 
 doomed to extinction from their own vices, if 
 not sooner destroyed. Instead, however, of fire 
 and brimstone from heaven, the Lord overthrew 
 them by the appointed hands of his chosen peo- 
 ple. Of some, total extermination was required. 
 Others were spared, but only as hewers of wood 
 and drawers of water. But throughout the 
 history, their wars and their oppression, their 
 barbarous practices and their relentless extermi-. 
 nations, are directly referred' to the command 
 of God. No stronger instance occurs than the 
 conduct of Samuel towards Agag, a helpless 
 
Df&TITUTION OF THE LAW. 49 
 
 prisoner, whom the prophet hewed in pieces 
 before the Lord in Gilgal.* 
 
 I have endeavored to show the position in 
 which fallen man stands to his Maker, and the 
 absolute necessity, in order to follow him in the 
 devious courses he'has chosen, that means should 
 be specially adapted to the ends iii view. Nor 
 can I doubt for a moment that in all these cases, 
 where the attributes of Deity seem to conflict, 
 that the very best result for- each individual was 
 exactly that so decreed in the counsels of Om- 
 niscient Wisdom. 
 
 As above surmised, the first design in thus 
 instituting a Theocracy, was to exhibit to a world 
 of idolaters the fact 0^ ^ nation under the direct 
 and visible guidance of Jehovah. It is true, 
 most certainly true, that God was worshipped in 
 ^irit by many others, who bowed down to wood 
 and stone, and material olyects, that world over. 
 In their ignorance, their honesty gave them 
 acceptance in his sight. But the tendency of 
 false theories is ever to blind and bewilder, to 
 
 * 1 Sam. XV. 33. 
 
60 INSTITUTION OF THE LAW. 
 
 ensnare and enslave. Although at that period, 
 and at every period before and since, each man, 
 woman, and child, has had the never-ceasing 
 care and counsel of Israel's unslumbering shep- 
 herd — although salvation is an individual work, 
 in which none can intermeddle -between man 
 and his ^Redeemer — yet the condition of the 
 world required that public outward testimony to 
 the existence and exclusive' majesty of the God 
 of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Hence, in every 
 stage of its progress, this public testimony was 
 rigidly required of the Theocratic common- 
 wealth. The spoils, the symbols, and the prac- 
 tices of the heathen were forbidden, under the 
 severest penalties ; and all intermixture that 
 might weaken its strength in maintaining it, 
 became an offence of the greatest magnitude. 
 
 Notwithstanding this immediate direction of 
 the Most High through its leaders, manifested 
 by a constant display of signs and wonders, the 
 children of Israel were a stiff-necked and rebel- 
 lious people. During their wanderings, the out- 
 ward tabernacle of God, with its visible sheki- 
 nah, and at subsequent periods, the gorgeous 
 
INSTITUTION OF THE LAVf. 51 
 
 -temple containing the memorials of their deli- 
 verance, proved insufficient to fix on them the 
 importance of this high and solemn trust. It 
 was because of the hardness of their hearts, that 
 the scale of morality inculcated in their law was 
 necessarily low — that their religious rites were 
 adapted from the prevailing customs of heathen- 
 ism — and that a continual outward display of 
 God's power, presented irresistibly to their 
 senses, was required. 
 
 The second, and as I conceive by far the most 
 lasting benefit to the world designed by the 
 institution of this Theocracy, was a series of out- 
 ward types. In these, through a language intel- 
 ligible to the minds of all, the progress of our 
 spiritual pilgrimage from the bondage of sin to 
 the perfection of that state whence we are fallen, 
 was admirably illustrated. . 'No man acquainted 
 with the history, and having made advances in 
 the way to Zion, can fail to recognize a close 
 resemblance between these types without, and 
 the spiritual anti-types within. The sacred 
 narrative has accordingly furnished an inex- 
 haustible storehouse to every subsequent age. 
 
52 INSTITUTION OF THE LAV. 
 
 and received a confirmation from the righteous 
 in every generati&n. 
 
 I have attempted to shovsr the position occu- 
 pied by man in relation to his Creator, both 
 before and after his transgression. The conse- 
 quences of that sin have been exhibited in his 
 loss of the divine life, and constant tendencies 
 to evil. The means of his redemption and res- 
 toration are, I conceive, set forth, both from the 
 testimony of Scripture writers, and its obvious 
 parallel to our spiritual experience in that dis- 
 pensation of the Law. I shall therefore proceed 
 to develop its conclusion, and the benefits it has 
 conferred. 
 
THE END OF THE LAW. 53 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE END OF THE LAW. 
 
 That outward. Theoeracy, the history and the 
 scope of which constitutes the principal theme 
 of the Holy Scriptures, was, from its origin, 
 destined to pass away. As its termination ap- 
 proached, indications were presented, by pro- 
 phetic teaching, of a higher and more glorious 
 dispensation. I shall not follow, through the 
 inspired writers, that continuous chain of pro- 
 .phecy foreshadowing its culmination and close. 
 Nor do I esteem it of any consequence to advert 
 to the separation of the children of Israel, and 
 the eventual narrowing dawn of what formed 
 originally the promised seed of the patriarchs, 
 to a comparatively small remnant of the stock. 
 The bulk of that race became idolaters, and the 
 public testimony to the existence of the one true 
 God fell, in later times, to the especial care of 
 5* 
 
54 THE END OF THE LAW. 
 
 the Jews. In tliem the prophecies were to he 
 fulfilled, and the Law, as a Divine ordinance, 
 ended. 
 
 I proceed, therefore, from the Old to the New 
 Testament, in order to illustrate as well what 1 
 have deduced from the former, as to exhibit the 
 plan of redemption there partly evolved, hut 
 explained and enforced in the latter. These two 
 great sections of the Bible are complements of 
 each other, as necessary for mutual support as 
 the dispensations of which they treat. In 
 speaking thus of its parts, I must repudiate the 
 idea that I attach importance to what is called 
 the sacred canon of the Scriptures. On this 
 point, the disputants first mentioned are not 
 themselves agreed; nor is it to me of conse- 
 quence what books are admitted or rejected by 
 ecclesiastical councils or biblical critics. I can 
 -accord the text no higher authority than its own 
 evidence furnishes, and its writers claim for it. 
 The excellence of the Sacred Scriptures is deri- 
 vative, and by no means equal. Yet I persuade 
 myself that the commentaries offered in their 
 use will prove me second to none in the high 
 
THE END OF THE LAW. 55 
 
 estimate I place on them as a whole. Were I, 
 however, called to discriminate by being com- 
 pelled to choose one single book from the collec- 
 tion, as pre-eminent for the matter, the style, 
 and the importa,nc6 of its silbjectj that book 
 would be the gospel of John. 
 
 This beloved disciple, and companion of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, commences his account, like 
 Moses, with the Creation. "In the beginning" 
 is the starting point with both — the one to depict 
 the outward, the other the spiritual creation. In 
 what beginning ? We cannot apply the idea to 
 God, who was ever the same as he is. It is 
 therefore the beginning, in the account of the 
 evangelist, of the spiritual creation of man. 
 " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word 
 was with God, and the Word was God." "In 
 him was life; and the life was the light of men."* 
 Is not this in full accordance with the statement 
 of Moses, that God breathed into man — the true, 
 immortal man-^the breath of life, and man be- 
 came a living soul ? As I have before shown, that 
 
 * John i. 4. 
 
56 THE END OF THE LAW. 
 
 life of God was the light of man, until, by rebel- 
 lion, he lost it ; and, in consequence, his light be- 
 came darkness. In the next verse, the evangelist 
 tells us " the light shineth in darkness, and the 
 darkness comprehended it not." He then intro- 
 duces John the Baptist, the forerunnsr of that 
 Light under the Law, and proceeds to state that 
 the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, 
 as the starting point of his narrative. 
 
 This account is thus explanatory of the gos- 
 pels of Matthew and Luke, from which we learn 
 that Jesus Christ, of the lineage of David and 
 Abraham through his reputed father, was con- 
 ceived of the Virgin Mary by the power of the 
 Highest, and born into the world in a manner 
 unlike the genesis of every other child of the 
 human family. It therefore necessarily follows, 
 from the premises I have laid down as drawn 
 from the Mosaic account of man's creation and 
 fall, that the being thus introduced must have 
 differed from all the posterity of Adam. He 
 had, in common, a maternal ancestry up to the 
 same source, but no Hke father. He was not, in 
 consequence, affected with all else, by the origi- 
 
THE END OF THE LAW. 57 
 
 nal loBS of the Divine nature^ farther than in the 
 body and the mind, which, to a limited extent, 
 may have been derived from his mother — how 
 far, it would be presumption even to conjecture. 
 The body, that is, the man seen of the Jews, as 
 we outwardly see each other, was prepared of 
 the mother; but the immortal, spiritual man, 
 was directly of the Highest. Hence he was 
 properly and truly called the Son of God — " God 
 so loved the world, tha,t he gave his only 
 begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him 
 should not perish, but have everlasting life." * 
 
 The" whole historicar account shows that he 
 " was in all points tempted like as we are, yet 
 without sin."t That, though he never diso- 
 beyed, " yet learned he obedience by the things 
 which he suffered : and being made perfect, he 
 became the author of eternal salvation unto all 
 them that obey him." J "We must therefore infer 
 that he could have disobeyed and fallen, as 
 Adam and Eve did. I do not care to speculate 
 on the consequences which might have followed, 
 
 » John: iii. 16. f Heb. iv. 15. f Ibid, v. 8, 9. 
 
58 THE END OF THE LAW. 
 
 but it seems sufficiently clear to my mind, that 
 the terrible results of the first fall would have 
 been equalled, if not exceeded. I sgeak thus in 
 view of the little that has been accomplished in 
 the work of regeneration, after that only perfect 
 outward display of the attributes of God has 
 been exhibited to man. 
 
 The Apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Gala- 
 tians, has in a few words set forth the whole 
 object of the legal dispensation. Chap. iv. — 
 " Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a 
 child, diftereth nothing from a servant, though 
 he be lord of all : 
 
 " 2. But. is under tutors and governors until 
 the time appointed of the father. 
 
 " 3. Even so we, when we were children, were 
 in bondage under the elements of the world : 
 
 "4. But when the fullness of. the time was 
 come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman 
 made under the law. 
 
 " 6. To redeern them that were under the law 
 that we might receive the adoption of sons. 
 
 " 6. And because ye are sons, God hath sent 
 
THE END OP THE LAW. 59 
 
 forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, cry- 
 ing Abba, Father." 
 
 I have stated before, in substance, that the 
 object, in the counsels ,of Infinite Wisdom, of 
 that Theocratic institution, was evidently two- 
 fold: the first, that it should serve as a powerful 
 testimony to the existence of the one true and 
 living God; the second, that thereby a repre- 
 sentation might be furnished in a series of out- 
 ward events, of what every - soul must, to a 
 greater or less extent, experience in its wander- 
 ings from its fifst heritage of bondage and sin 
 to that state of rest, in which, becoming the 
 son of God by adoption, it can truly cry "Abba, 
 Father." 
 
 The Law given through Moses, was binding 
 on none but the nation fpr whom it was insti- 
 tuted. With some of the fundamental com- 
 mandments of morality and religion,, it contained 
 much that was adapted only to a state of great 
 spiritual blindness and hardness of heart. 
 Hence it was outward in all its parts — in its 
 prescriptions, its penalties, its institutions, and 
 its ceremonies. In its public rites, it was mo- 
 
60 THE END OF THE LAW. 
 
 delled on tte customs and habits of tlie age. 
 Its sacrifices, its.priests, its forms, its rituals, were 
 adapted to the modes of thought then universal. 
 Yet, though outward and temporary, it bears 
 upon it the eternal stamp of Divinity in this — 
 that while answering its immediate requirement 
 as a code of legislation for a peculiar people in 
 an age of national idolatry, it speaks, in its series 
 of types, throughout all time to the church mih- 
 tant on earth, a language known and recognized. 
 
 The last of this series was the man so long 
 foreshadowed, and thus miraculously introduced. 
 He fulfilled and ended the Law as a divinely 
 authorized outward institution. In him was 
 perfected the whole design, %nd displayed the 
 fullness of the Godhead bodily. 
 
 I say this, not because it is substantially so 
 written by the Apostle, but of the absolute 
 necessity of its admission by every soul that has 
 travelled through the Law into the Gospel dis- 
 pensation. The Jews looked for him, but re- 
 jected him — for the very plain reason that their 
 eyes were blinded^ their hearts hardened, and 
 their hopes placed upon outward demonstra- 
 
THE END OF THE LAW. 61 
 
 tions. In the state of a Eoman conqueror, he 
 would doubtless have been received as their 
 Messiah. As an obscure carpenter, although 
 showing his claim by the strongest outward 
 testimony, the miracles which carried proof to 
 their senses, he was despised and put to death 
 by his own nation. 
 
 With what I have above advanced, my induc- 
 tions from the scripture history of the original 
 and subsequent state of man, with the means of 
 his restoration, may be brought to a close with 
 an exposition of the character of Jesus Christ as 
 it is' represented by himself. In answering his 
 disciples, who requested him to eat, he said, " I 
 have meat to eat that ye know not of" — "My 
 meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and 
 to finish his work."* And in reply to Philip's 
 request to show them theTather: "Believest 
 thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father 
 in me ? the words that I speak unto you, I speak 
 not of myself: but the Father that dwellcth in 
 me, he doeth the works." f 
 
 * John iv. 32, 34. f Johjl xiv. LO. 
 
 6 
 
62 THE END OF THE LAW. 
 
 The whole tenor of Ms sayings and doings is 
 but a continuous corroboration of the fact, that 
 in all things he did the will of the Father— that 
 he never exercised Ms own, and presumed to 
 know godd and evil for himself — that he could 
 of his own eelf do nothing.* 
 
 In the gospel of John, his beloved, and we 
 have every reason to believe, most consistent 
 disciple, the first doctrine preached by him is 
 that of regeneration: "Except a man be born 
 again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."t 
 Yet although Tae said, "Ye which huve followed 
 me in the regeneration," he never required nor 
 experienced it himself. He was the Son of God 
 from the beginning — the true heir — the pure, 
 perfect and undefiled temple of the Highest — -a 
 man made under the Law, the crown and close 
 of all its types — ^the incarnation — the only out- 
 ward manifestation of Deity in the fullness. 
 
 "He that hath seen me," said he, "hath seen 
 the Father j" J yet he told the Jews, "Ye nei- 
 ther know me, nor mj' Father ;"§ and subse- 
 
 * John V. 30. t Ibid, iii. 3. 
 
 i Ibid, xiv. 9. i Ibid, viii. 19. 
 
THE END OF THE LAW. 63 
 
 quently gave the reason in his query and answer 
 — "Why do ye not understand my speech? 
 even because ye cannot hear my word." * 
 
 To those who can now hear his word spiritu- 
 ally, or in other phrase, "the hope of the Gospel 
 which was," and is "preached to every creature 
 which is under heaven," f there need be no fur- 
 ther illustration of that great typical manifestar 
 tion through whom life and immortality were 
 brought to light, and salvation purchased for a 
 fallen race. To those who cannot, I must com- 
 mend the subject as one worthy of all their 
 patient inquiry and prayerful consideration, and 
 as of the highest importance to their everlasting 
 welfare. False theories in religion are perni- 
 cious in the extreme. Although it is true that 
 God accepts a man for that which he hath, and 
 not that which he hath not, yet we are all more 
 or less accountable for the opportunities pre- 
 sented, and their right use. The day of the 
 Lord's visitation comes equally, though diverse- 
 ly, to every man ; and blessed is he whom nei- 
 
 * John viii. 43. t Col. i. 23. 
 
64 THE END OF tHE LAW. 
 
 ther wilful ignorance, nor weaknesSj nor super- 
 stitious fears, stall divert into the by-lanes and 
 crooked paths of outward formality, and crimi- 
 nal ease ; wlio shall not surrender his judgment 
 to lus fellow-worm, and travel a road which 
 must lead to destruction or to peace, with less 
 interest and discrimination than common pru- 
 dence would furnish in any decision on worldly 
 matters. " This is life eternal, that they might 
 know thee tjie only true God, and Jesus Christ, 
 whom thou hast sent."* The Jews knew nei- 
 ther, because of their wilful blindness and hard- 
 ness of heart ; they crucified the Son, although, 
 as he declared, they knew not what they did, 
 and thereby brought down the just judgments 
 of Heaven, in their destruction as a nation. He 
 who will not open the heart to receive him in 
 the way of his coming, may find, too late, that 
 he too has crucified the very Son of God. 
 
 * John. xvii. 3. 
 
OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 65 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 
 
 The great benefit we derive from the Wstory 
 of that chosen people, to whom the Almighty 
 gave, through his appointed instruments, out- 
 ward laws and ceremonies, is, as above stated, 
 in the spiritual application of the instructive 
 types therein furnished the traveller Zion.- 
 ward. 'So other nation but that had a govern- 
 ment, both political and moral, emanating 
 directly from the Most High. It did not, there- 
 fore, bind the Gentiles, though it affected, more 
 or less, their principles and practices, as holding 
 up to view, amid their multiform idolatry, the 
 ceremonial worship of a people to the one true 
 and living God. . By the advent of the Messiah, 
 in whom the whole was to be fulfilled and 
 ended, the Law, as a Divine institution, was 
 merged, and thereafter " a better covenant esta- 
 6* 
 
66 OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 
 
 blished upon better promises." Not tliat tlie 
 covenants or tlie dispensations of God are twain 
 or cliangeable ; he is ever the same in his design, 
 but condescends to meet the low estate of .his 
 creature, and to veil his effulgence from the 
 spiritual vision not yet fitted to receive it. The 
 Law was therefore the precursor of the Gospel 
 — the schoolmaster to lead to Christ — in its spi- 
 ritual application. Its outward rites and cere- 
 monies were iypical of great and essential truths. 
 It " made nothing "perfect, but the bringing in 
 of a better hope did ; by the which we draw 
 nigh unto God."* 
 
 I have endeavored to show that the Law of 
 Moses was, to us who are not bound by it, typi- 
 cal and figurative. It was given because of the 
 hardness of heart which could receive nothing 
 better. It was prescribed for a chosen nation in 
 an age of general and most debasing idolatry. 
 It conformed to the commonly received notions 
 that superior beings, like fallible men, were to 
 be propitiated and rendered favourable by offer- 
 
 * Heb. vii. 19. 
 
OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 67 
 
 ings. But offerings to the deities of the invisi- 
 ble world have ever been^. from that of Abel 
 down to the holocausts of Polynesia, of victims, 
 inferior or human. In view of the low condition 
 in which man enters the world, a being of mere 
 animal instincts and desires, it is not surprising 
 that he should estimate his idols by his own 
 standard. And hence it is that gifts and in- 
 cense, springing from that in him which would 
 bribe and flatter, have been his spontaneous 
 votive dedications. In the dispensation to the 
 children of Israel, this universal practice was 
 sanctioned, but made subservient to the great 
 object, as typifying that perfect sacrifice of a 
 pure heart, which is indispensable to the fol- 
 lower of Christ. 
 
 I need not use an argument, nor make a quo- 
 tation, to prove that the Law, as a public divine, 
 institution, ended-^by the one great sacrifice on 
 Calvary, when the veil of the outward temple 
 was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. 
 All professing Christians assent to this fact. But 
 I shall not, I fear, find the same acquiescence in 
 the assertion that but few, very few compara- 
 
68 OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 
 
 tively, have ever reached the Gospel dispensa- 
 tion, even in public profession. The same ten- 
 dency to substitute anything as an offering to 
 the Creator, which will save alive the strong 
 will of the creature, has caused him to borrow 
 heathen and Jewish rites to inaugurate, as the 
 substance of religion, under the sanction of what 
 he calls Christianity. 
 
 The Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ, *' is the power of God unto salvation to 
 every one that believeth." * The Apostle who 
 thus defines, declares that it, i. e. the " hope of 
 the gospel," "was preached to every creature 
 which is under heaven."t This is substantially 
 the same with John, who saw " an angel fly in 
 the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gos- 
 pel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, 
 and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, 
 and people, saying, with a loud voice. Fear God, 
 and give glory to him : for the hour of his judg- 
 ment is come : and worship him that made hea- 
 ven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains 
 of waters." J 
 
 * Rom. i. 16. + Col. i. 23. % Rev. xiv. 6, 7. 
 
OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 69 
 
 The Gospel thus preached to every creature, 
 being the power of God unto salvation, was not 
 of man, nor by man. It is the same life which 
 was " the light of men, and which shineth in 
 darkness : and the darkness comprehended it 
 not." * This same power of God is the Com- 
 forter, even the Spirit of Truth which Jesus 
 promised his disciples; "whom," said he, "the 
 world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, 
 neither knoweth him : but ye know him ;. for he 
 dwelleth with you, and shall be in jfOU."t It is 
 the same power which Paul declared is to them 
 which are called — "Christ the power of God, 
 and the wisdom of God." J To follow, however, 
 the synonyms, which all mean the same, would 
 be to copy the most of John's Gospel, and much 
 of the Epistles, and-^ther books of the Holy 
 Scriptures. The terms all agree as to the sub- 
 stance, whether Chri«t speaks personifying God, 
 as the Word from the beginning ; or concerning 
 his church, as the head and leader; or the 
 Apostles mention it as Christ within, the Holy 
 Ghost, and by other names. 
 
 *Johni. 4, 5. + Ibid,- xiv. 17. J 1 Cor. i. 24. 
 
70 OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 
 
 It is the same power which Adam lost hy 
 transgression, and in consequence died spirita- 
 a%. In the account, this state of death is again 
 represented by his expulsion from Eden, and 
 that lively type of the soul's regeneration — the 
 cherubims and a flaming sword which turned 
 every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. 
 Under this flaming sword — the word of God — 
 quick and powerful, piercing even to the divid- 
 ing asunder of soul and spirit, must man pass 
 to regain the tree of life. In other words, he 
 must be born again — ^be baptized with the Holy 
 Ghost and fire to consume aU but what is pure, 
 in order that he may come into the Gospel dis- 
 pensation, which is beyond Adam — the state of 
 Christ, who never fell. 
 
 This power, or inspeaMng Word of God, has 
 ever been dispensed to each and every individual 
 severally, however low his state, until the day 
 of visitation has passed over, and all hope of 
 redemption is lost. It was the spiritual rock 
 that followed Israel in the wilderness, and of 
 which they drank.* However subject to the 
 * 1 Cor. X. 4. 
 
OF THE aOSPEL DISPENSATION. 71 
 
 outward la-w, yet they were individ'ually ac- 
 countable, with all other men, for what they had 
 severally received. Some, both before and after 
 the institution of the Law, as is testified of 
 Abraham, saw the day of Christ, and w^re 
 glad.* But by far the bulk of every age and 
 generation, from the fall of Adam down to the 
 time in which we live, never reached the inner- 
 most sanctuary of the spiriiual temple. They 
 have voluntarily dwelt in the outer court, saying 
 to some outward guide in the language of con- 
 duct, as did the Israelites formerly to Moses: 
 " Speak thou with us, and we will hear ; but let 
 not God speak with us, lest we die." f 
 
 The Apostle Peter illustrates this ' doctrine, 
 when, in addressing those who had obtained 
 like precious faith with him, he recounts to them 
 what he saw upon the mount of transfiguration, 
 and the voice he heard from the excellent glory, 
 "This is my beloved Son, in whom I ain well 
 pleased,"- and adds : 
 
 " "We have also a more sure word of prophecy ; 
 
 * John viii, 56. f Ex. xx. 19. 
 
72 01' THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 
 
 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 : 
 
 "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the 
 Scripture is of any private interpretation."* 
 For, as he states in the next verse, "the pro- 
 phecy' came not in old time by the will of man: 
 but holy men of God spake as they were moved 
 by the Holy Ghost ;" and it necessarily follows 
 that it is not of private interpretation, or by the 
 will of man, but by the same spirit which gave 
 it forth. 
 
 This more sure word of prophecy — ihe light 
 shilling in the dark heart of man, and but too 
 rarely comprehended — ^is here placed beyond all 
 outward testimony, as more certain than the 
 evidence of the senses themselves. It is the 
 same light— although the day of the gospel has 
 not dawned in the soul, yet struggling under 
 the clouds and darkness of outward systems, 
 and forms, and ceremonies — yet in the bondage 
 of the Law to the superstitions and prejudices 
 
 * 2 Pet. i. 19, 20. 
 
OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 73 
 
 of nature and education — which,, as it is minded, 
 will bring the brightness of Christ's dawn, and 
 the glory of his meridian day. 
 
 The gospel dispensation, wherein, to those 
 that look for him, Christ appears the second 
 time without sin unto salvation,* that is, not in 
 the body (for which sin is sometimes used as a 
 synonym), consists in the restoration of the order 
 in which man was created. The government, in 
 all things, being laid upon the shoulder of that 
 new birth in the soul, the son given, whose 
 name (which is his power) shall be called Won- 
 derful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Ever- 
 lasting Father, The Prince of Peace, of the 
 increase of whose government and peace there 
 shall be no end.f 
 
 Under it, the. spirit is brpught into subjection 
 to God immediately — the will of the creature 
 being crucififsd or nailed, as it were, hand and 
 foot, and the whole man subservient to the will 
 of Omniscience, Omnipotence, and Infinite 
 Goodness. The elder, which, since the fall, is 
 
 * Heb. ix. 28. f Isaiah ix. 6, 7. 
 
 7 
 
74 OF THE GOSPEL DISPKNSiTION. 
 
 the first-born, is made to serve the younger, or 
 that which is born of the Spirit. "As it is 
 written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I 
 hated."* In Uke manner the two sons of Abra- 
 ham, the first of the bond woman born after the 
 flesh, the othpr of a free woman by promise, are 
 an allegory representing the two covenants — the 
 one answering to Jerusalem under the Law, 
 which is in bondage with her children ; the other 
 to Jerusalem which is above, and free, the 
 mother of us all.f The experience of the Apos- 
 tle is a truth which all time will verify, that he 
 that was born after the flesh, persecuted Viiin 
 that was born after the spirit. 
 
 The gospel dispensation, in point of time, 
 succeeded the Law when, on the day of Pente- 
 cost, the Holy Ghost descended under the out- 
 ward symbol of cloven tongues, as of fire. It 
 was, nevertheless, that in which man was 
 created, and from which he fell by spiritual 
 death. As he comes into the world in this latter 
 state (for death reigns from Adam to Moses), he 
 
 * Rom. ix. 12, 13. t Gal. iv. 22-26. 
 
OF THE GOSPBIi DISPENSATION. 75 
 
 must first receive the Law as a Bchoolmaster, 
 and remain under tutors and governors, i. e. out- 
 ward teaching, till the time appointed of the 
 Father. In this condition he may, like the 
 Apostle Paul, live in all good conscience, though 
 a persecutor of the church of Christ. When, 
 however, in the fiilness of time,- that is, when 
 prepared for it, the Father shall reveal .his Son, 
 and take away the scales of blindness from the 
 eyes, the stony nature from the heart — ^when he 
 shall undergo that change which he must recog- 
 nize and cannot resist — when, convicted of sin, 
 he is forced to cry, "A Saviour, or I die," "A 
 Eedeemer, or I perish forever" ^ then it is that, 
 as to the young man formerly, who asked what 
 good thing he should^ do to inherit eternal life, 
 the unalterable terms are made known — the 
 perfect surrender of all to- the Divine will. At 
 that juncture, he that keeps his life and turns 
 away sorrowful, shall lose the eternal life he 
 seeks; and he who loses his life in all that hin- 
 ders his spiritual progress, shall find in lieu of it 
 that life eternal which is hid with Christ in God. 
 Henceforward, he is one with Christ and with 
 
76 OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 
 
 the Father — having his own natural will cruci- 
 fied — and comes, by adoption, to the condition 
 of a son of God, and joint heir with Christ. 
 
 Among the last injunctions of our Lord to his 
 disciples, was this: "What I say unto you, I 
 say unto all, "Watch."* At ho stage is the cau- 
 tion more necessary than when the soul has 
 passed into the inner temple^the holy of holies 
 — there to receive forever the law and command- 
 ment directly from God. The sea of glass min- 
 gled with fire, which John saw in the visions of 
 light, is perfectly typical of the Christian's path 
 — he is ever' liable to slip and be consumed. 
 Without absolute faith in his unerring guide, 
 when temptation comes he may wander back, as 
 did the Galatians, to the Law, and become en- 
 tangled again with the yoke of bondage. Nay, 
 he may transgress wilfully, and thus count the 
 blood (or life) of the covenant, wherewith he 
 was sanctified, an unholy thing, and do despite 
 unto the spirit of grace. In this rebellion, it is 
 impossible for such " to renew them again unto 
 
 * Mark xiii. 37. 
 
OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 77 
 
 repentance: seeing they crucify to themselves 
 the Son of God afresh, and _put him to an open 
 shame." * The penalty, as in the case of Adam, 
 is death. Wilful transgression, under the law 
 of outward commandments, may be atoned for 
 and forgiven ; under the gospel dispensation, it 
 cannot, for it is blasphemy against the Holy 
 Grhost. Nevertheless, who shall limit the good- 
 ness and mercy of God, though the last state of 
 such a man is fat worse and more hopeless than 
 the first ! 
 
 * Heb. vi. 6. 
 
 1 * 
 
78 OF THE CHUKCH. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 OF THE CHUECH. 
 
 Thus far, I have directed my examination to 
 the original and subsequent state of man, with a 
 view to rightly elucidate the subject, and dis- 
 charge the duty imposed in this work. It is 
 inapossible to comprehend a part of so vast a 
 theliie, without some idea of its relation to the 
 whole, as displayed by that whole itself. I 
 have, therefore, considered the position in which 
 I stand, as an immortal soul to be saved or lost, 
 by an inquiry into the cause of my present con- 
 dition^ — what I had in my ancestor at the crea- 
 tion, and what now I have not, that renders me 
 so sensible of my spiritual want. In developing 
 the cause which has produced this state of death 
 and darkness, with the means appointed for 
 redemption from its bondage, I have but pre- 
 faced that inquiry which a perusal of the book 
 
0]?, THE CHUECH. 79 
 
 I first named, ^dz. : "The End of Eeligious 
 Controversy," renders absolutely necessary. For 
 in this work, the author. Dr. Milner, maintains 
 with no little ingenuity and astuteness, that the 
 Roman Catholic communion, of which the Pope 
 is head, has exclusive claim to be the Church of 
 Christ. I perfectly agree with him in the axiom 
 that out of the Church there is no salvation ; 
 but I deny that the 'community of men for 
 whom he claims that title, forms what is, as an 
 unit, properly called the Church of Christ. 
 Every individual of the human race, with capa- 
 city to examine the subject, is directly and most 
 vitally interested in the question; for on the 
 correctness or the falsity of his theory depends, 
 in the mind capable of making it, that choice 
 which must lead to righteousness and peace, or 
 to delusion and misery. 
 
 What is the true church of Christ may be 
 better understood by showing what is not, I 
 propose therefore, to demolistrate that the Eoman 
 Catholic communion, an outwardly organized 
 body of men with the Pope at its head, is not 
 the true church. I concede, no ground, of any 
 
80 OF THE CHTJECH. 
 
 kind or cbaracter, for the present or past as- 
 sumption of the title ; and herein I hope to he 
 more consistent than his antagonist, the Pro- 
 testant Bishop I have named, who, in a 
 quahfied manner, admits the claim, and asks for 
 his own orgaiaization an equal or superior parti- 
 cipation in it. 
 
 I have endeavoured to exhibit the clear, com- 
 prehensive and scriptural history of the creation 
 and fall of man, with its consequences. The 
 latter I have shown to be almost uniform. His 
 tendency to darkness and spiritual bondage is 
 written indeUbly upon every page of the chro- 
 nicle. The proof that he escaped, and formed an 
 exception to this general rule, after the cruci- 
 fixion of the Son of God and martyrdom of 
 nearly all his apostles, vdll indeed demonstrate 
 him in a new phase of character. 
 
 We have no evidence, however, of such a 
 state of things. On the contrary, we find the 
 apostles themselves sliding back into the beg- 
 garly elements of an outward dispensation, and 
 labouring continually to correct the same weak- 
 ness in others. The light of the gospel dawned 
 
OF THE CHUKCH. 81 
 
 but gradually, even on the understandings of 
 men who had heard it preached, throughout a 
 long period, by him who spake as never man 
 spake. It required a miracle to convince Peter 
 that God is no respecter of persons • — and, even 
 in the exercise of his supposed apostolic pri- 
 macy, he was reproved by Paul, who never had 
 that outward commission which is considered 
 necessary to constitute the title of an episcopal 
 functionary in the church. 
 
 The fundamental error of both the controver- 
 tists to whose works I propose a supplement, is 
 the analogy by which they claim to identify 
 their respective hierarchies, as the church of 
 Christ. Thus Dr. Milner says : " If a prince is 
 desirous of showing his title to a throne, or a 
 nobleman or gentleman his claim to an estate, 
 he fails not to exhibit his genealogical table, and 
 to trace his pedigreb up to some personage, 
 whose right to it was unquestionable. I shall 
 adopt the same precise method on the present 
 occasion, by sending your society a slight sketch 
 of our apostolical tree, by which they will see, at 
 a glance, an abridgement of the succession of 
 
82 OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 our chief bishops in the apostolical see of Eome, 
 from St. Peter up to the present edifying pon- 
 tiff, Pius Vn., as likewise that of other illustrious 
 doctors, prelates and saints who have defended 
 the apostolical doctrine by their preaching 
 and writings, or who have illustrated it by 
 their lives."* In the commencement of this 
 genealogical tree, he states that: — "Within 
 the first century from the birth of Christ, this 
 long expected Messiah founded the kingdom of 
 his holy church in Judea, and chose his apostles 
 to propagate the same throughout the earth, 
 over whom he appointed Simon as the centre of 
 union and head pastor; charging him to feed his 
 whole flock, sheep as well as lambs, giving him 
 the keys of the kingdom of heaven and chang- 
 ing his name into that of Peter, or Rock: 
 adding, on this rock I will build my church." f He 
 then deduces title downwards through his suc- 
 cessors, as an heir would from his ancestor, in 
 claiming an estate — the only difference being, 
 that it descends from one incumbent to another 
 by virtue of the office, and not because of in- 
 
 * Page 168. t Ibid. 
 
OF THE CHURCH. 83 
 
 heritable blood. In this respect the analogy 
 fails which he instances, as also that derived 
 from its prototype, the Jewish priesthood. 
 
 His antagonist. Bishop Hopkins, leaving this 
 principle untouched, because his own pretensions 
 are based on it, attacks the primacy or head 
 pastorship claimed for the apostle and the see 
 of Eotne. And, in a long review of ecclesias- 
 tical history drawn from Roman Catholic authors, 
 shows breaks enough in the chain of descent to 
 damage its validity before any impartial court 
 and jury — ^to say nothing of the loathsome mass 
 of human depravity through which the vicar of 
 Christ must, receive his inheritance. Through 
 this long line, including many, very many of as 
 corrupt, hypocritical, and wicked men, if we 
 may judge by their acts, as the world ever saw, 
 the pure doctrines of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 have, by the Roman Catholic hypothesis, been 
 received down to the present tirfie, by oral tradi- 
 tion.* The salvation of my immortal soul de- 
 
 * The End of Religious Controversy, Letter X., page 
 54. 
 
84 OP THE CHUECH. 
 
 pends, therefore, on my believing as the infal- 
 lible truth, what has been told from man to man 
 through eighteen centuries — the most part of 
 them, plunged in the gloom of mediaeval dark- 
 ness. 
 
 Before proceeding to take up the texts of 
 scripture on which regts the whole of this won- 
 derful fabric, I must advert to the merits of its 
 rival, the church of England, as put forth by 
 the bishop above named. As above stated, it 
 also claims outward apostolic succession,* prin- 
 cipally through, the Eoman Catholic church 
 from which it was violently separated in the 
 reign of Henry V ill. ; coUaterally, I infer, 
 through certain British Sishops in the sixth 
 century. Its champion does not, however, 
 ground it exclusively on the dogma of outward 
 succession. It would appear, ftom his exposi- 
 tion, to partake of a mixed character, springing 
 directly from the same root and growing from 
 the same tree, yet dravsdng sustenance from 
 
 * End of Controrersy Conkoveited, Letter ZXin., vol. 
 I. page 435. 
 
OF THE CHtJIlCH. 85 
 
 neither. The Roman Oatholie denies vitality to 
 any branch, which his specific outward church 
 has severed from the trunk: — it is thei-eafter 
 dead, and must ever remain so, unless rein- 
 grafted upon the parent stock. Admitting the 
 premises, the Episcopal Bishop differs in his 
 conclusion, and is driven substantially from the 
 doctrine of the outward succession to the en- 
 larged definition of the Church of Christ, to 
 develop which more fully is the object of these 
 pages. I may confess that he has offered me a 
 better apolOgy for the origin of his church, than 
 I had before met with. Yet, notwithstanding 
 the respecteble footing' on which it is placed, I 
 am still convinced that politics had much more 
 to do with, it than principle — I must regard it 
 as I ever have, a state transfer of an anti^chris- 
 tian hierarchy, with as much of the golden cup 
 of its abominations as could possibly be con- 
 veyeid in the change. Its whole organizartion, 
 as a political engine, is perfectly compatible 
 with the aristocratic government of Great 
 Britain. But how its strange anomalies can be 
 reconciled, in any mind, with the republioau, in- 
 
86 OP THE CHURCH. 
 
 stitution^ under whicli we live, is to me an in- 
 soluble problem. 
 
 It matters little what tbe commands of Christ 
 were to hia immediate a{>oatles, and through 
 them to others, unless he who alleges authority 
 to act in virtue thereof, can produce the seals 
 of his commission. The Roman Catholic 
 endeavors to do this in a few, and, principally, 
 two scripture texts — after which he runs into the 
 boundless field of speculative opinion, among 
 men who had mostly the same outward interest 
 with himself to uphold- The first, and founda- 
 tion text, is taken from the gospel of Matthew, 
 where Christ asked " "Whom do men say that I, 
 the son of man, am ? And they, said, Some say 
 that thou art John the Baptist; some, Elias; 
 and others, Jeremia?, or one of the prophets. 
 He saith unto them. But whom say ye that I 
 am? And Simon Peter answered and said, 
 Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 
 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed 
 art thou Simon Bar-jona ; for flesh and blood 
 hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father 
 which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, 
 
OF THE CHURCH. 87 
 
 That thou art Peter ; and upon this rock I will 
 build my church : and the gates of hell shall not 
 prevail against it. And I will give unto thee 
 the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; and what- 
 soever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound 
 in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on 
 earth, shall be loosed in heaven."* 
 
 This is the starting Jink of that chain of title, 
 by which the Pope of Eome claims from Christ, 
 as lineal successor of Peter, to stand his vicar on 
 earth, with supreme spiritual power over aU 
 men, both in this world and that which is to 
 come. And, truly, if the world never saw so 
 vast an empire over the actions of men as its 
 assutnption created, it never yet witnessed so 
 baseless a foundation for usurped authority. In 
 its most literal, and perhaps strongest, aspect 
 for the claim, it hangs upon a quibble, or play 
 upon words, in the mouth of the Saviour. The 
 text of Matthew stands alone and unsupported. 
 Mark relates the commencing dialogue,! ^^^ 
 ends the whole subject with Peter's confession, 
 
 « Matt. xvi. 13-19.- f Mark viii, 27, 8, 9. 
 
88 OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 "Thou art the Chnst." Luke substantially 
 does the same in fewer words, and John is 
 altogether silent about it. If the consequences, 
 which have been justified from the above quoted 
 text, had been intended, we, can hardly believe 
 it would have stood the solitary voucher for a 
 claim of universal empire in all that chiefly 
 concerns man. J!speeially would we expect 
 some notice of so important an event, when we 
 remember that the beloved disciple wrote his 
 gospel long after the others had been promul- 
 gated, and at a period when heresies had 
 rendered outward authority, if it -existed as 
 claimed, sufficiently conspicuous for his percep- 
 tion. 
 
 Bishop Hopkins, in his " End of Controversy 
 Converted," * shows a distinction between the 
 words used in the original Greek. That pro- 
 perly translated Mock differing fromPeter, which 
 means, a stone. He then adduces a number of 
 passages from the Old Testament, in which the 
 word Rock is figuratively applied to the Deity— 
 
 * Vol. I. page 437. 
 
OF THE CHURCH. cSy 
 
 and from the New Testament to prove ita appli- 
 cation to Christ — concluding, as the result of 
 his examination, with this par-aphrase on the 
 words of the Kedeemer. "Blessed art thou 
 Simon Bar-jona, for thou hast acknowledged in 
 me the divine and Almighty Eock of Israel. 
 Flesh and blood hath not. revealed this unto 
 |:hee, but my Father which is in heaven. And 
 I say unto thee that thou art a stone, a living, 
 precious stone, which shall be set, along with 
 thy ffeUows, in the twelve foundations of my 
 celestial city. For, on the Eock which thou 
 hast confessed I will so build my church, that 
 the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 
 And to thee I will give the keys of the kingdom 
 of Heaven, for thou shalt be' the first to open , 
 the church by the power of the Holy Ghost on 
 the day of Pentecost. And whatsover thou 
 shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, 
 and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall 
 be loosed in heaven.' And on all the other 
 foundation stones in my heavenly city I will 
 bestow the same high privileges. For on them, 
 together with thee, after my great sacrifice is 
 8* 
 
90 OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 accomplished, and I have risen in triumph from 
 the dead, I will breathe the breath of my divine 
 power, and then will I fulfil my promise, by 
 saying to all my chosen Apostles, Receive ye 
 the Holy Q-host. Wbosesoever sins ye remit, they 
 are remitted unto them ; and whosesoever sins ye 
 retain, they are retained."* 
 
 This fanciful interpretation of the text to show 
 that the outward succession in Christ's church 
 was given the twelve apostles, proves too much; 
 for in the case of the Apostle Paul, to whom 
 was committed the gospel of the uncircumcision, 
 a thirteenth foundation in the celestial city 
 would be^ required. In fact, the manner in 
 which this great apostle was called, is not only, 
 as the Bishop expresses it, "decisive of the 
 wbole question about Peter's imaginary supre- 
 macy," but of the outward succession itself; 
 since the commission was by revelation, resisted 
 at first by the other disciples, and acknowledged 
 when demonstrated by the power that went with 
 it. I must therefore reject this imaginary 
 
 * Vol. I. page 441. 
 
OP THE CHUECH. 91 
 
 speech, and confine my strictures to the very 
 clear distinction he has drawn from the text, 
 between Peter, a stone, and Christ the Eock, on 
 which his church was to be built. 
 
 When Peter "answered and said, Thou art 
 the Christ the Son of the liviiig God," "Jesus 
 answered and said unto him. Blessed art thou, 
 Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and -blood hath not 
 revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in 
 heaven." The contrast is here as strongly 
 mad-e as can be, between the outward speech 
 and tradition of men, and the inward revelation 
 of God. It is the outwa/rd speech and traditions 
 of men, upon which rests the whole church 
 structure of both these controvertists. Through 
 flesh and hlood alone, here synonymous with 
 men, they respectively claim authority as com- 
 missioned ministers of the gospel of Christ. 
 But flesh and blood did not, nor could it, reveal 
 unto Peter or any other apostle or man, the 
 truth that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the 
 living God.. It was only by the revelation of 
 the Father, in perfect accordance with what he 
 elsewhere says, "Ifo man can come to me. 
 
92 OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 except the Fatter, which hath sent me, draw 
 him :" * that the knowledge of Christ could be 
 obtained. 
 
 To elucidate the distinction, I may open at 
 random upon almost any few lines in John's 
 gospel, or, indeed, the epistles generally. I take 
 the first my eye rests on : "Destroy this temple, 
 and in three days I will raise it up. Then said 
 the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple 
 in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three 
 days ? But he spake of the temple of his 
 
 body."t 
 
 Here is a parallel which furnishes the key, if 
 any were wanting^ to unlock the meaning of the 
 former saying. "Destroy this temple," — that 
 is, the man before you — "and in three days I 
 will raise it up." What I is this? l^ot the man 
 whose natural life was taken, and whose body 
 buried, any more than in the first case it was 
 the man ; for of the man he said, " I can of 
 mine own self do nothing"! — of course, neither 
 build my church, nor raise my body to hfe. In 
 
 * John vi. 44. f Ibid. "• 19-21. % Ibid. v. 30. 
 
OF THE CHURCH. 93 
 
 both, the man was the temple — He personified 
 the "Word—" Christ the power of God, and the 
 wisdom of God"*— "Christ the truth and the 
 life" — "the living God"— the Holy Ghost, of 
 whom it is declared " Te are the temple " f — 
 " Christ in you, the hope" of glory. "J In fact, 
 to rehearse the various names used for that 
 divine birth in the soul, whereby man is made a 
 new creature, and the son of God by adoption, 
 would require more gpace than could be allotted 
 in this work. It was on this revelation of him- 
 self as one with the Father, the Eternal Eock in 
 every soul fitted to receive him, that Christ 
 declared he would build his church, and the 
 gates of hell shall never prevail against it. 
 
 The parallel passage of Scripture introduced 
 in the latter part of the above paraphrase, 
 relates that Jesus, on the day of his resurrec- 
 tion, at evening, "when the doors were shut 
 where the disciples were assembled, for fear 
 of the Jews, came, and stood in the midst, 
 and saith unto them. Peace be unto you. 
 
 * 1 Cor. i. 24. t Ibid, iii, 16, 17— vi.i9. ' 
 
 t Col. i. 27. 
 
94 OP THE CHTJKCH. 
 
 And when he had so said, he showed unto them 
 Ms hands and his side. Then were the disciples 
 glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus 
 to them again, Peace be unto you: As my 
 Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And 
 when he had said this, he breathed on them, 
 and saith unto them. Receive ye the Holy Ghost. 
 Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted 
 unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, 
 they are retained." * 
 
 The inference here is, that they did not re- 
 ceive the Holy Ghost at that time. They were 
 shut up /or /ear of ihe Jews. "On the contrary, 
 when, at the day of Pentecost, they were filled 
 with the Holy Ghost, they preached the Gospel 
 publicly, freely, and fearlessly. The apostle had 
 previously stated that the Holy Ghost was not 
 yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified,^ 
 connecting its gift with the glorification as a 
 preceding cause. 
 
 In the first quotation, it was revealed to Peter 
 that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living 
 
 * John XX. 19-23. f John vii. 39. 
 
OF THE CHURCH. 95 
 
 God. Yet Peter certainly had not then received 
 the Holy Ghost ; for notwithstanding the reve- 
 lation, he denied' him, vrhich, had he received it, 
 would have involved that blaspheipy not to be 
 forgiven. Again, , Jesus told him with the 
 others, "It is expedient for you that I go away; 
 for if I go not away, the Comforter (which is 
 the Holy Ghost) will not come unto you ; but if 
 I depart, I will send him unto you." * So 
 dependent were they on him outwardly, that, by 
 his own assurance, the Holy Spirit would not 
 come till he was taken away. 
 ;• It is manifest, therefore, as is substantially 
 stated in the first chapter of the Acts of the 
 Apostles, that while Jesus was with them, they 
 were under the Law. Although he had " blotted 
 out the hand-writing of ordinances that was 
 against us, which was contrary to us, and took 
 it out of the way, nailing it to his cross,"t yet 
 they still looked to him in the flesh as he then 
 was, raised from the sepulchre, and being to 
 them little other than he had been before. The 
 
 * John xTi; 7. f Col. ih 14. 
 
96 OF THE CHUKCH. 
 
 Holy Ghost was not given till he, the end of the 
 Law, had departed, and was received out of 
 their sight. 
 
 The commission then, in both instances, to 
 remit and retain sins on earth and in heaven, 
 was coupled with the gift of the Holy Ghost. 
 In either case, our Saviour spoke as referring to 
 their future state when it should have descended 
 upon them. On this rock (Christ) I will build 
 my church, and I will give unto thee the keys 
 of the kingdom of heaven — tha,t is, of God, 
 which, he declared, " is within you." * 
 
 When a man is born agaiu of water (which is 
 John's baptism, that of repentance), and of the 
 spirit, which is Christ's, the finisher of the Law), 
 he can (and does) enter the kingdom of God.t 
 In this kingdom, God reigns supreme. The will 
 of the creature is crucified, slain, and buried. 
 Man is made a son of God by adoption, and 
 joint heir with Christ,| the only begotten Son. 
 In this sta,te, he is again redeemed from the 
 fallen nature, and the Holy Spirit of God 
 
 * Luke xvii. 21. t John iii. 5. } Rom. viii. 17. 
 
OF THE CHURCH. 97 
 
 descends upon the soul, its guide and governor 
 forever. He then becomes a stone in Christ's 
 spiritual church. As he hears of Christ, the 
 power of God revealed within, he judges; arid 
 his judgment is just, because he seeks not his 
 own will. He judges not according to the 
 appearance of outward things and circum- 
 stances ; but, from the wisdom, of God, judges ' 
 righteous judgment. Whatever, therefore, he 
 binds on earth, is bound in heaven ; or looses 
 on earth, is loosed in heaven. The infallible 
 church of which he is a member, and Christ the 
 Head, is pne, holy, universal — ^T;he same in the 
 beginning, now, and forever. 
 
 Having thus disposed of the principal founda- 
 tion of the outward hierarchy, I proceed to 
 examine the other passage of Scripture cited to 
 prove the commission of the church to Peter. 
 It is as follows : " So when they had dined, 
 Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, 
 lovest thou ae more than those ? He saith unto 
 him. Yea, Lord ; thou knowest that I love thee. 
 He saith unto him. Feed my lambs. He saith 
 to him again the second time, Simon, son of 
 9 
 
98 OF THE CHTJECir. 
 
 Jonasj lovest thou me ? lie saith unto him, Yea, 
 Lord ; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith 
 unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him 
 the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou 
 me ? . Peter was grieved because he said unto 
 him the third time, Lovest thou me? and he 
 said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things : 
 thou knowest that I.lovb thee. Jesus saith unto 
 him. Feed my sheep." * 
 
 This text, taken in connection with what is 
 recorded elsewhere, requires very little elucidar 
 tion. It amounts to nothing more than an im- 
 pressive and affecting exhortation to a warm- 
 hearted hut unstable follower. The character 
 of Peter was impulsive and rash — as dangerous 
 at times to the cause he espoused, as it was 
 effective and serviceable when rightiy directed. 
 His affectionate attachment to the person of his 
 Lord rendered him, no doubt, an object of soli- 
 citude; but his ill-governed zeal might prove 
 detrimental to the great mission. He rebuked 
 the Master for his prophecy, for which he in 
 
 * John xxi. 15-17. 
 
OF THE CHURCH. 99 
 
 turn was righteously rebuked by the severe 
 expression, "Get thee behind me, Satan; for 
 thou savourest not the things that be of God, but 
 the things that be of men."* He slept on the 
 watch in Gethsemane — cut off the ear of the 
 high priest's servant — and, despite his vehement 
 boast, thrice denied him in the extremity of his 
 need. Is not the verse in Luke on this last 
 occasion, a sufficient key to the earnest exhorta- 
 tions above quoted? "And the Lord turned, 
 and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered 
 the word of the Lord," how he had said unto 
 him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me 
 thrice. And Peter went out, and wept bit- 
 terly."! Nay, even at this last solemn inter- 
 view, when, according to Dr. Milner, the whole 
 church, " sheep' as welt as lambs," was turned 
 over to bin; and his successors in office at Rome, 
 we find him afterwards rebuked as an officious 
 intermeddler, "Wanting to know " What shall 
 this man do ? Jesus saith unto him, If I will 
 
 * Mark yiii. 33. f Luke xxii, 61-2, 
 
100 01 THE CHURCH. 
 
 that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee. 
 Follow thou me."* 
 
 It affords a melancholy evidence of human 
 depravity to find language, so obvious in its 
 import, wrested to bolster up the iniquitous 
 theories of man's ambition. Frail indeed must 
 be the materials, and still more scanty than 
 frail, which his covetousness would glean from 
 the sayings or doings of our blessed Lord, to 
 warrant his unhallowed aims. Yet few and 
 frail as they are, they suffice for the purpose. 
 Superstition and slavish fear crouch readily to 
 the tyrannous yoke of priestcraft. In all its 
 forms and phases, this prospers with the mass, 
 because it panders to the natural will, the natu- 
 ral desires in man. To deny self, to take up 
 the daily cross, and follow, in meekness and 
 humility, the path of a crucified Saviour, is not 
 so palatable as to be amused and deceived vrith 
 false theories, that make religion" an empty 
 confession of words, and godliness an outward 
 routine of ceremonies. It still, alas ! remains to 
 
 * John xxi. 22. 
 
OF THE CHUKCH. 101 
 
 be a truth, and I fear, from all indications, will 
 long remain so; that "wide is the gate, and 
 broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, 
 and many there be which go in thereat: 
 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the 
 way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be 
 that find it." * 
 
 * Matt. vii. 13, 14, 
 
 9* 
 
102 OF THE CHUKCH. 
 
 CHAPTEE Vn. 
 
 -OP THE CHUKCH — (CONTINUED). 
 
 In "Webster's Dictionary, we find no less than 
 ten definitions to this term. I shall not enter 
 into a critical disquisition as to its import. The 
 subject of inquiry with us, is, what did Christ 
 mean by the church he declared should be 
 built by him on the Rock — which I have shown 
 to be the revelation of God in the soul of man. 
 "We must turn to the sacred history for its clear 
 elucidation. Paul says, that God "gave him 
 (Christ), to be the head over all things to the 
 church, which is his body, the fullness of him 
 that fiUeth all in all." * And throughout this 
 epistle to the Ephesians, he illustrates the sub- 
 ject in so copious a manner, that I may scarcely 
 quote by verses, but refer to the whole. The 
 
 » Eph. i. 22-3. 
 
OF THE CHURCH. 103 
 
 substanee, however,, is every where the same, 
 and confirmatory of what, he there depicts it, 
 the spouse of Christ — and elsewhere calls it, the 
 "house of God, which is the church of the 
 living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." * 
 The house of God, under the Law, was outward 
 and figurative. The shekinah — ^the visible glory 
 — ^was there. But, under the gospel dispensation, 
 all these outward figures are spiritual truths. 
 Paul wrote to Timothy, his son in the faith, that 
 he might know how to " behave himself in the 
 house of God." If he had stopped there, we 
 might have a precedent for one ordinary 
 meaning of the word church, vi2j: a building 
 used for Divine "Worship. But he explained the 
 term in such a manner, that it can be conveyed 
 by no idea predicated of outward things. No 
 council, or synod, or assembly, that ever sat, no 
 society that was ever organized, or community 
 that ever existed, can be identified as the "pillar 
 and ground of the truth." 
 
 The language used by our Saviour, in pointing 
 
 *lTim. iii. 15. 
 
104 OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 out the method of settling differenced, may be 
 thought to conflict with this negative definition. 
 Let us examine the text, and see what is the 
 highly practical value belonging to his injunc- 
 tion. " Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass 
 against thee, go and tell him his fault between 
 thee and tim alone ; if he shall hear thee, thou 
 hast gained thy brother. But if he will not 
 hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, 
 that in the mouth of two or three witnesses 
 every word may be established. And if he shall 
 neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church ; but 
 if he neglect to hear the churchy let him be unto 
 thee as an heathen man and a publican. Verily 
 I say unto you, Wliatsoever ye shall bind on 
 earth, shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever 
 ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. 
 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall 
 agree on earth as touching any thing that they 
 shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father 
 which is in heaven. For where two or three are 
 gathered together in my name, there am I in 
 the midst of them."* 
 
 * Matt, xviii. 15-20. 
 
OF THE CHTJECH. 105^ 
 
 In ttis last passage of tlie quotation, we have 
 the general apostolic acceptation of the meaning 
 attached to the word church. Where two or 
 more are gathered together in the name of 
 Christ, there he is as the head and they are as 
 the bpdy. This is the visible ChuTch of Christ. 
 The name is a synonym for the power. Even in 
 secular assemblies convened under the warrant 
 of one in authority, a king or a ruler, his name 
 sanctions its proceedings only by virtue of the 
 power he delegates. So it is in the congregations 
 of God's people met together, not to do their 
 own . but their Master's will; When the high 
 priest and his kindred asked, in reference to the 
 miracle On the impotent man, "By what 
 power, or by what name, have ye done this ?" 
 Peter answered, "by the name of Jesus Christ 
 of-B'a2;areth," * thus showing the two to be con- 
 vertible terms. So Paul declares, that God 
 hath " given him a name which is above every 
 name : that at the name of Jesus, every knee 
 should bow, of things in heaven, and things in 
 
 * Acts iv. 7, 10. 
 
106 OF THE CHURCH. • 
 
 earth, and things tinder the earth: and that 
 every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is 
 Lord, to the glory of God the Father." * Does 
 he mean that when the name is pronounced by 
 human lips, there shall be a genuflection, and 
 that confession shall be audibly with the tongue ? 
 This would stultify not only the text here, but 
 that of the same import in Isaiah. "Look unto 
 me, and be ye saved,^ all the ends of the earth ; 
 for I am God, and there is none else. I have 
 sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my 
 mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, 
 That unto me every knee shall bow, every 
 tongue shall swear. '.'f 
 
 It is the power, therefore, in which the church, 
 whether of two or two hundred, for numbers 
 matter not, is gathered together, that constitutes 
 it. The will of man has no place but in subjec- 
 tion to Christ, the head, who is present in the 
 midst. Its judgment is infallible — ^what it binds 
 is bound, and what it looses is loosed in heaven. 
 What it agrees on touching any thing is done 
 
 * Phil, ii. 10. t Isaiah xlv. 22, 23. ' 
 
01 THE CHURCH. 107 
 
 in heaven, for all that it asks is of the will of 
 Christ, one with God the Father. This is the 
 holy ApoBtohc Church— and snt;h iS the import 
 of the term in the New Testament, whenever, 
 as the organ of Christ, his authority i« coupled 
 with it. I may be told that of his apostles one 
 was a devil, and others aye exhibited as but 
 fallible, and sometimes very erring men. That 
 Peter and Judas might have agreed in opposi- 
 tion to Christ — that the contention between 
 Paul and Barnabas was so sharp that they de- 
 parted asunder one from the other ;* and that 
 the decision of what is commonly considered 
 the first council! of the church, would appear 
 to us somewhat puerile, after its members had 
 been taught in person by the Head, and com- 
 missioned by so remarkable an outpouring of 
 the Holy Ghost. Nevertheless, the doctrine is 
 indisputably true, and the authority for it is 
 fpom the fountain and not the streams. The 
 sayings and the doings, the spirit and the ex- 
 ample of our Lord Jesus Christ, are worth more 
 
 * Acta XV. 39. . • j- Ibid. 20. 
 
108 OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 to the human family, than all its accumulated 
 treasures of learning and literature, drawn from 
 a countless host of fallible authorities. The 
 instruction they convey is eminently practical, 
 and conducive to our true temporal as well as 
 eternal interests. !N"ever man spake like him^- 
 never man lived like him. And whoever will 
 seek wisdom, must receive in simplicity and 
 singleness, his doctrine. Whoever will attain 
 happiness, must follow his footsteps in the path 
 of self-denial, irrespective of the opinions and 
 the contradictions of men. 
 
 The test, hy which to know the church, is its 
 power — not physically, nor politically, nor even 
 morally— for all these may be possessed by men, 
 and yet the holy name of Christ be denied, or 
 in the strong scripture term, blasphemed. 
 Christ gave the criterion by which false prophets 
 may be known, viz: by their fruits.* The 
 Apostle John tells the brethren to " believe not 
 every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are 
 of God ; because many false prophets are gone 
 
 » Matt. vii. 16. 
 
OF THE CHURCH. 109 
 
 out into the world. Hereby knew ye the Spirit 
 of God ; every spirit that confesseth that Jesus 
 Christ is. -come in the flesh, is of God."* He 
 then states the converse, and explains the 
 difference between the Spirit of Christ and 
 Anti-christ. The fifteenth verse contains the 
 substance of the whole doctrine : " Whosoever 
 shall confess that Jesus is theSon of God, God 
 dwelleth in him, and he in God." Can any one 
 suppose that the confession here meant, is a 
 confession of the tongue ? Is it not obvious to 
 the simplest comprehension, that the confession 
 is of the heart to God ? Most certainly, how- 
 ever, all that was written of Jesus Christ out- 
 wardly, will be confessed before men, and not 
 only in speech,- but in conduct, by that heart 
 which confesseth that he is come in the flesh. 
 That he is come a Saviour froni sin, a Redeemer 
 from all the spiritual bondage of human tradi- 
 tions, and inventions, to introduce the soul into 
 the glorious liberty of the children of God. In 
 the maintenance of that confession, "God 
 
 » 1 John iv. 1-2. 
 
 10 
 
110 OP THE CHUECH. 
 
 dwelleth in him, and he in God," as- man was 
 originally created. 
 
 The Apostle Paul tells the church ajt Corinth, 
 in illustrating the hidden wisdom of God, that 
 " the natural man receiveth not the things of 
 the Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness unto 
 him : neither can he know them because they 
 are spiritually discerned."* With such, vain 
 would be every effort to set forth a clear idea of 
 the Church of Christ. But I think it very pos- 
 sible to show what it is not. I have no contro- 
 versy with the members of any sect or commu- 
 nity, except so far as they claim the right to 
 direct me in the way of salvation, and to bind 
 on me what I know to be spiritual burdens. 
 Their assumption of a title affects me but little — 
 but when doctrines are published as gospel 
 truths, subversive of the religion I profess, as 
 the only hope of my redemption, then the case 
 is widely different. I must judge and decide 
 whether their promulgators are true or false 
 prophets. If true, they are the messengers of the 
 
 *lCor. ii. 14. 
 
OF THE CHURCH. Ill 
 
 Highest, and it were better that a mill-stone 
 were hanged about my neck, and that I were 
 drowned in the depth of the sea, than that, by 
 opposing them, I should offend the Majesty 
 they represent. If false, and erring wilfully, 
 they are impostors of the deepest dye — for to 
 gain to themselves a temporary advantage in 
 this life, they would entangle me, through 
 sophistry and superstition, and hazard my ruin, 
 both body and souL 
 
112 01' THE MINISTKT. 
 
 CHAPTER Vni. 
 
 OP THE MINISTKT. 
 
 "Christ's last commission to his apostles," 
 says Dr. Milner,* "was this: Cro teach all 
 nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, 
 and of the Son, and of the Moly Crhost, and h! I 
 am with you always even unto the end of the 
 world. Matt, xxviii. 20. Now the event has 
 proved, as I have already observed, that the 
 apostles, themselves, were only to live the ordi- 
 nary term of man's life ; therefore, the commis- 
 sion of preaching and ministering, together 
 with the promise of the Divine assistance, re- 
 gards the successors of the apostles, no less than 
 the apostles themselves. This proves that there 
 must have been an uninterrupted series of such 
 successors of the apostles in every age since 
 
 * End of Controversy, Letter XXVIII. 
 
OF THE MINISTKY. 113 
 
 their time, that is to say, successors to their 
 doetrine, to their Jurisdiction, to their orders, and 
 to their mission. Hence it follows that no re- 
 ligious society whatever, which cannot trace its 
 succession, in these four points, up to the 
 apostles, has any claim to the characteristic 
 title, Apostolical." 
 
 From what is ahove predicated in regard to 
 the church, it wjll he- seen that the last infer- 
 ence, to prove an outward succession of pastors, 
 ordained one of another and instructed one of 
 another to teach them to observe all things 
 whatsoever he had commanded, is purely gra- 
 tuitous. It is true that the charge to those then 
 ahqut him, will, to a certain extent, include all 
 who were to succeed in their mission. But it is 
 not true that the command, even to them, was 
 without qualification — for they were expressly 
 told to tarry in the city of Jerusalem until they 
 were endued with power from on high.* In the 
 concluding part Christ says, Lo ! I am with you 
 always. Surely this power, which is the Com- 
 
 * Luke xxiv. 49. 
 10* 
 
114 OP THE MINISTRY. 
 
 forter, the Holy Ghost, Christ within, had some- 
 thing- to do with the commission. But if it was 
 merely by word of mouth, to tell others what 
 they had outwardly heard of him, (and this is 
 the Roman Catholic doctrine of tradition,) then 
 I grant the conclusion as deducihle from the 
 premises. In the foregoing chapter, I have 
 shown his exposition of the church,, and his pro- 
 mise, in accordance with that above to his 
 ministers, — " Where two or three are gathered 
 together in my name, there am I in the midst 
 of them." Of course, to "the end of the 
 world," as he is with his messengers. But no 
 disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, any more than 
 his commissioned minister to -preach the ever- 
 lasting gospel, ever received the power to confess 
 or to baptize, without first tarrying at Jeru- 
 salem — "a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that 
 shall not be taken down ; not one of the stakes 
 thereof shall ever be removed, neiliier shall any 
 of the cords thereof be broken."* This Jeru- 
 salem is that state of the sojul's rest, wherein it 
 
 * Isaiah zxziii. 20. 
 
OE THE MINISTRY. 115 
 
 waits submissively to receive power from on 
 high, and to do the Master's will. 
 
 Christ declared of his own mission, "I am 
 not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house 
 of Israel."* In sending the twelve apostles, he 
 limited them to the same circuit, with the 
 charge, " freely ye have received, freely give ;"t 
 > and the assurance " It is not ye that speak, but 
 the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in 
 you."{ Again, when the Law was ended, like 
 limited allotments were made by the Power that 
 commissioned the apostles. To Peter was com- 
 mitted the gospel of the circumcision, and to 
 Paul that of the uncircumcision,§ to say nothing 
 of the latter's call, altogether, by the Spirit. I 
 conclude, therefore, that they who teach without 
 waiting for power from on high, and without 
 the specific command from Christ, "^ho is sclways 
 with his church and his ministers, are of the 
 class who run without being sent, and who pro- 
 phesy without being spoken to. || 
 
 The Apostle Peter says, " As every man hath 
 
 * Matt. XV. 24. t -Ibid. x. 6-8. J Ibid, 20. 
 I Gal. ii. 7. II Jer. xxiij." 21. 
 
116 OF THE MINISTRY. 
 
 received the gift, even so minister the same one 
 to another, as good stewards of the manifold 
 grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak 
 as the orades of God : if any man minister, let 
 him do it as of the abiUty which. God giveth ; 
 that God in all things may be glorified through 
 Jesus Christ:"* and Paul gave the church at 
 Corinth to understand " that no man can say 
 ihat Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy 
 Ghost, "t 
 
 "When the multitjide, on. the day of Pentecost, 
 mocked the apostles, Peter told them — " This is 
 that which was spoken by the prophet Joel: 
 And it shall come to pass in the last days (saith 
 God), I will pour out of my spirit upon all fiesh; 
 and your sons and your daughters shall pro- 
 phesy, and your young men shall see visions, 
 and your old men shall dream dreams : And on 
 my servants and on my hand-maidens, I will 
 pour out, in those days, of my Spirit : and they 
 shall prophesy." J 
 
 The evangelical prophet Isaiah, evidently in 
 
 * 1 Pet. iv. 10, 11. 1 1 Cor. xii. 3. 
 
 t Acts ii. 16-18. 
 
OF THE MINISTRY. 117 
 
 reference to the gospel dispensation, states that- 
 "thy teachers shall not he removed into a 
 corner any more, hut thine eyes shall see thy 
 jteachers: and thine ears shall hear a word 
 behind thee, saying. This is the way, walk ye in 
 it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye 
 turn to the left."* This is in correspondence 
 with the testimony of the Apostle John : " But 
 the anointing which ye have received of him 
 ahideth in you, and ye need not that any man 
 teach you : hut as the same anointing teacheth 
 you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and 
 even as it hath taught you, ye, shall abide in 
 him."t And agaim: "Ye have an unction 
 from the Holy One, and ye know all thingsl"! 
 
 Scripture texts may be multiplied to prove 
 the doctrine here set forth. It is the same laid 
 down by Christ to his apostles;: "The Com- 
 forter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the 
 Father will send in my' name, he shall teach 
 yoi^ all things, and bring all things to your 
 
 * Isaiah xxx. 20-1. f 1 John ii. 27. 
 
 J Ibid, 20. 
 
118 OF THE MINISTET. 
 
 remembrajiee, whatsoever I have said unto 
 you." * 
 
 I ask now, in view of these emphatic truths, 
 and of the whole concurrent testimony of the 
 righteous in all generations, from what source is 
 the doctrine that man may ordain and commis- 
 sion his fellow-worm to preach the gospel of our 
 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ? Let us exa- 
 mine the motives which have grafted so poison- 
 ous a shoot upon the true vine. Christ com- 
 manded his disciples, " Freely ye have received, 
 freely give." Paul was very solicitous that he 
 might not make the gospel chargeable.t His 
 own hands ministered to his necessities, and to 
 them that were with him.J It is true that, in 
 the ninth chapter of his first epistle to the 
 Corinthians', he quotes from the law of Moses to 
 show that "they which minister about holy 
 things, live of the things of the temple : and 
 they which wait at the altar, are partakers with 
 the altar." "Even so," says he, "hath the 
 Lord ordained, that they which preach the gos- 
 
 * John xiv. 26. 
 
 t 2 Cor. xi. 9, 1 Thes. ii. 9, 2 Thes. iii. 8. J Acte xx. 34. 
 
OF THE MINISTRY. 119 
 
 pel should live of the gospel" — verses 13, 14. 
 Few passages have been more "wrested" to 
 selfish purposes than this, although very easily 
 understood from what follows. The train of 
 reasoning he adopts, leads to a conclusion he 
 repudiates expressly in his own practice, and 
 that, too, in the strongest terms — "It were 
 better for me to die than that any man should 
 make my glorying void." Peter's testimony is 
 still stronger when rebukilig Simon the sorcerer, 
 who had believed and been baptized ; the latter 
 desired the power to confer the Holy Ghost, and 
 would have paid for his education as a minister 
 — "Thy money perish with thee," said the 
 apostk,- " because Uiou hast thought that the 
 gift of God may be purchased with money," * 
 
 I have shown before, that, every member of 
 Christ's church, out of which there is no salva- 
 tion,- must have his will in subjection to its holy 
 Head, and, as a consequence, be like passive 
 day, to be moulded, and feahioned, and fitted 
 in the spiritual house, as seemeth good to the 
 
 * Acts viii. 9-20. 
 
120 OF THE MINISTET. 
 
 heavenly architect. When we refer to the pre- 
 sent and past fltate of what -the controvertists I 
 have, spoken of, respectively call " the church," 
 it will not be difficult to discover that covetous- 
 nesB and ambition have built up the incongruous 
 structures so elaborately defended in their works. 
 I shall do little more than refer to these for a 
 description of the colossal, but baseless images, 
 whose deformity they have severally unveiled. 
 Their, type may be found in that which King 
 Nebuchadnezzar beheld, vnth a head of fine 
 gold, breast and arms of, silver, but legs and 
 feet of iron and clay. 
 
 In the one, the chief pastor affects to caU 
 himself the servant of servants, but substantially 
 claims to be lord of lords, and king of kings.* 
 With the imaginaiy keys of St. Peter to open 
 or to close the gates of Paradise upon whom he 
 vsdll, his aim has ever been, and most success- 
 fully, to reign on earth in all the gorgeous trap- 
 pings of temporal greatness. Least of all men 
 could the pontiff of Rome, such as he appears 
 
 * See End of ControTersy Controverted, Lett. XLII., VoL 
 II., page 338. 
 
OF THE MINIB-TRT. 121 
 
 to US on the page of history, vouch his position 
 and his works in proof, as a follower of him who 
 was meek and lowly in heart. As we investi- 
 gate the rise and progress of his vast empire 
 over the governments of this world, we discover, 
 in the machinery employed, the secret both of 
 its motives and its success. It succeeded, by a 
 systematic course of tactics imitative of the 
 world's conquerors, in separating from the mass 
 an army, outside of, and unaffected by the 
 general interests of mankind. He who will 
 permanently enlist men in a cause antagonistic 
 to the peace and welfare of the community, 
 must first sever the links which bind his instru- 
 ments in the bosom of society as constituent 
 portions. Such is the only mode practically 
 etfective in the consolidation of military power. 
 The soldier is detached from the> social ties of 
 family and kindred; and by pandering to his ani- 
 mal appetites, by still further debasing the natu- 
 rally depraved tendencies, of his mind, by cre- 
 ating new and abnormal interests in- his breast, 
 he is made the servile, unquestioning, and effec- 
 tive tool of ambition. So, by the prohibition 
 11 
 
122 OP THE MINISTRY. 
 
 of marriage to its clergy, the Koman hierarchy 
 sundered effectually the bond of union between 
 it and the human family at large. I have before 
 shown the rottenness of the foundation whereon 
 the whole structure rests. It is not, therefore,' 
 surprising that a few random passages from the 
 epistles of Paul, wherein he spoke confessedly 
 of himself, and not by commandment, together 
 with forced analogies drawn from figurative 
 illustrations elsewhere, should be ample warrant, 
 in such hands, for this mortal blow at the 
 strongest bond of society, ahd the surest pledge 
 of its welfare. Without such a prohibition, that 
 vast body of cosmopolites, the Roman Catholic 
 priesthood, comprising every variety of opinions 
 and inodes of action, and covering every species 
 of iniquity which would tend to the increase of 
 their power, could never have been created and 
 maintained. 
 
 I am willing to concede as much of purity to 
 its offspring, th^ so-called Church of England, 
 as its political origin and the temper of the times 
 will warrant. But reformed as it is, in many 
 respects, and enlarged as are the principles 
 
OP THE MINISTEY. 123 
 
 whi&h regulate its intercourse with rival com- 
 munities, it owes its freedom from the most 
 revolting doctrines of the parent, more to out- 
 ward circumstances, than to the honest search 
 after truth. It is Eomanism suhstantialiy, hut 
 in a different dress, to suit the refinement and 
 the pride of independence which characterize 
 Englishmen. I am amused, while I am in- 
 structed, in observing the contrast of temper 
 throughout this family quarrel.^ All the acer- 
 bity mutually displayed in holding up the defor- 
 mities of rival claimants to the same lineage, 
 ends in petty issues on the veriest trifles that 
 can occupy the attention of a serious mind. 
 The supremacy of Peter over the other apostles, 
 involves, it is true, the question of political 
 chieftainship. The motives which prompted 
 Henry VHI. to break asunder the bond that 
 linked his kingdom with the Papacy, are impor- 
 tant so far as they affect the origin of the 
 Anglican chuTch, But the administration of 
 the cup to the laity, the number of the sacra- 
 ments, the distinction between consubstantiation 
 andtransubstantiation, with other like friyqloua 
 
124 OF THE MINISTRY. 
 
 questions, seem but small matters to call forth 
 such an amount of controversy. Yet, in their 
 hot disputes as to the manner of tything mint, 
 anise, and cummin, they are perfectly agreed 
 about the paramount importance of its being 
 done. Amid all the crimination and recrimina- 
 tion, it is evident, as was manifested in the cor- 
 respondence between Archbishop Wake and the 
 Doctors of the Sorbonne, appended to Mosheim's 
 Ecclesiastical History, that fraternal love and 
 unity would be perfectly restored by a satis- 
 factory settlement of the outward patrimony. 
 
 I have said before, in substance, that it was to 
 me a problem how repubUcans can reconcile the 
 inconsistencies of this aristocratic institution, 
 with the forms of government under which we 
 live. It may be proper to enlarge a little at this 
 stage of the inquiry. "Will it be denied that the 
 divine right of kings ta govern, and the divine 
 right of bishops to rule, have their origin from 
 one and the same source? Are they not the 
 twin conception of superstition and craft ? They 
 were born, and have lived and flourished, side 
 by side, the banded scourges of mankind, in 
 
OF THE MINISTRY. 125 
 
 royal despotism and papal supremacy. Their 
 strength was greatly crippled on the, soil of our 
 ancestors, in the change to a constitutional 
 monarchy and a ref5rmed church. In our own 
 free and Christian pohty, they are both happily 
 dead and buried-;- would I could hope, forever ! 
 — as axioms of wisdom in the control of human 
 affairs. But nevertheless, parts of the commu- 
 nity' still cherish the form of one, and thereby 
 render themselves inconsistent, in practice, with 
 their principles. It is no more self-evident that 
 "all men are created equal," than that all have 
 equal access to God. Ifay, the former is but an 
 abstract political truth, and if applied! to our 
 condition as we come into, the -world, altogether 
 false in fact. "Whereas, from the very attributes 
 of Deity, the unequivocal testimony of the Holy 
 Scriptures, and the spontaneous outcry of his 
 creature everywhere, and in all ages, the latter 
 is not susceptible of a doubt. Why, then, deny 
 that the Christian church is a pure democracy, if 
 such a term may be used to illustrate the condi- 
 tion of its members as equal? Why establish, 
 or rather continue, from the effete and corrupt 
 11* 
 
126 OF THE MINISTRY. 
 
 'institutions of England and' Ronae, tEe orders, 
 the titles, and the honors, which are as repug- 
 nant to the genius of republicanism as they are 
 opposed to the express commands of Christ ? 
 
 It seems hardly necessary to make quotations 
 to prove a matter so faimiliar to every reader of 
 the gospels ; but lest any should feel a doubt 
 about the fact, and be unable to refer readily to 
 the texts, I offer a few instances in point. 
 Speaking of the scribes and Pharisees who sat 
 in MoseS' seat under the Xaw, his degenerate 
 but still recognized outv?^ard successors, Jesus 
 told his disciples that they loved distinction, and 
 to be called of men Eabbi. "But," said he, 
 "be not ye called Eabbi: for one is your Master, 
 even Christ : and all ye are brethren. And call 
 no man your Father upon the earth ; for one is 
 your Father which is in heaven. K'either be ye 
 called masters : for one is your Master, even 
 Christ. But he that is greatest among you, 
 shall be your servant."* Again, when the 
 young man applied the term Good Master, Jesus 
 
 * Matt, xxiii. 8-11. 
 
OF THE MINISTBY. l27 
 
 rebuked him with the question, " Why callest 
 thou me good ?" and the asseveration " There is 
 none good but one, that is God." * On another 
 occasion, he said to the Jews, "How can ye 
 believe, which receive honor one of another, and 
 seek not the honor that cometh from God 
 
 only?"t 
 
 This last text is very significant, for Christ 
 had just' referred them to their^Scriptures 
 (which, though wrested to suit their purposes, 
 were held up by them as an infallibie test), in 
 order to prove his mission. Their condition is 
 ascribed, in the query, to its true cause. 
 
 If I mistake not, the official style or title of an 
 English Bishop, is "Most reverend father in 
 God." The letters of the American Bishop are 
 addressed to " The most reverend Erancis Patrick 
 Eenrick, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Balti- 
 more." How far this flattering iitle conflicts 
 with the dignity of a citizen of our Tepublic, and 
 the duty of a professed disciple of Christ, as 
 shown in the foregoing quotations, must be left 
 for the reader»to judge. 
 
 * Mark x. 18. t John t. 44. 
 
128 OP THE MINISTRY. 
 
 I shall not embellish my argument with, a 
 superfluou8 account of that national church from 
 which his is derived, and its enormous revenues 
 wrenched by law from all ; but proceed to exa- 
 mine the position of a minister, under the less 
 objectionable voluntary system of payment, as 
 we find it here. 
 
 Every man who has to earn a livelihood for 
 himself and family, undertakes the study of some 
 business or profession, in order to exchange the 
 product of his labor for the subsistence and the 
 comforts he requires. If he gain a knowledge 
 of medicine, his services are worth the conside- 
 ration for which he offers them to the commu- 
 nity, as a healer of diseases. If an acquaintance 
 with the laws is obtained, he barters it fairly for 
 the requisite share of common property, and 
 gives a quid pro quo for that he receives. But I 
 deny that there is value given in preaching a 
 sermon, performing a rite, or visiting a parish- 
 ioner, for money. It is true that the ear may be 
 gratified with an eloquent discourse, the ed;ica^ 
 tional scruples may be relieved by an outward 
 ceremony, and the feelings solaced in a profes- 
 
OF THE MINISTRY. 129 
 
 sional call. But the object is not, as in the other 
 cases, to he gained by the purchased- services. 
 By the advice and assistance of the lawyer or 
 physician, T may. recover, respectively, my pro- 
 perty or my health. I know that the means I 
 employ are" directly adapted to the end in view. 
 I pay them for something real, which their pro- 
 fessional studies have enabled them to give. 
 But it is not so in regard to the counsel I may 
 buy for the salvation of my immortal soul. All 
 the linguists, the logicians, and the orators in 
 the world, could they concentrate their energies, 
 would hot suffice to impart the "grace of God 
 that bringeth salvation, and hath appeared to all 
 men."* 
 
 So far is this from being the case, that the 
 means thus used have a direct tendency to frus- 
 trate the object I profess to aim at. I feel my- 
 self in want of spiritual help — am desirous of 
 attaining a state of security as to the course best 
 adapted to reach the haven of peace and bliss — 
 I know that my stay here is but short, and I 
 
 * Tifus ii. 11. 
 
130 OF- THE MINISTRY. 
 
 have the inward- consciousness of an eternity 
 hereafter ^I must JBndthat certain rule spoken 
 of at the commencement of this work, which 
 will guide me to rest. Well ! surely when the ^ 
 land is filled with ready counsellors, I need not 
 go far to seek it. Here is the associate of Dr. 
 Milnerj with his advertisement, " The End of. 
 Religious Controversy," to satisfy my doubts. 
 The one holy, catholic, and apostolical church is 
 before you, says he; the doorS are open — 
 nothing so easy as to enter, profess your alle- 
 giance, and, settle your scruples forever. Here 
 is her genealogy^ — you, see the title deduced 
 straight from Christ down to the "present edify- 
 ing pontiff of Rome" — and here is my commis- 
 sion under his seal, with the fisherman's ring, to 
 bind or to loose you on earth and in heaven. 
 " In fact, no inquiry is so easy, to an attentive 
 and upright Christian, as to discover which is 
 the true church of Christ : because, on the one 
 hand, all Christians agree in their common 
 creeds concerning the characters or marks which 
 she bears; and because, on the other hand, these 
 marks are of an exterior and iplendid kind, such 
 
OF THE MINISTRY. 131 
 
 as require no extensive learning or abilities, and 
 little more than the use of our senses and common 
 reason, to discern them."* Enter, then, our 
 venerable church, for out of it there is no salva- 
 tion. You, having the opportunity thus offered, 
 will be inevitably damned forever if you refuse. 
 I am somewhat staggered at the self-possession 
 of this complacent speaker. Ifevertheless, I 
 choose to risk a few days longer the possibility 
 of being cut off under this terrible anathema. 
 But \^at have we next? Another claimant, 
 though far more modest in his pretensions, to 
 the keys of the kingdom of heaven. He also 
 exhibits his genealogy and exterior marks. But 
 I find that he relies far more for success, in 
 proving the other most hypocritical, corrupt, 
 and wleked, than upon any independent merits 
 of his own church. I perceive, too, that there 
 is a deadly rivalry between them ; yet neverthe- 
 less, a remarkable agreement throughout both. 
 They are alike outward and showy structures — 
 magnificent to the view, and elaborately fur- 
 
 * End of Controversy, Letter L., p. 323. 
 
132 OF THE MINISTRY. 
 
 nished with all the appliances to seduce and 
 captivate the natural affections of <men. Elo- 
 quence attracts the intellect, music the feelings, 
 and architecture, with the^fine arts in her train, 
 ministers to the eye in the matchless profusion 
 of mediaeval monuments of genius. Yet I am 
 unable to choose between them ; for if I take 
 the " exterior marks," I fear the principle will 
 conduct me to the first, however repugnant may 
 .be this complete surrender of my freedom to 
 think for myself, into the baruds of a man as 
 like- in all particulars as may be, and no doubt 
 as frail. In either case, if I -may judge by the 
 mass of testimony exhibited against each other, 
 the marks of sanctity are by no means apparent. 
 They both refer me to the Holy Scriptures in 
 proof of their respective credentials. The first, 
 in a qualified manner, as subordinate to the 
 interpretation he and his colleagues may pro- 
 nounce; the tradition which, he tells me, has 
 been handed down from their predecessorsj 
 however this may conflict with the text. The 
 other informs me that they contain the whole 
 counsel of God — the only revelation he ever 
 
OF THE MINISTRY. 133 
 
 made to man — and are the highest rule of 
 faith and practice. With this reference, I exor- 
 mine for myself; and readily discover that if 
 obedience to the positive injunctions of him to 
 whom every portion points as the perfect 
 standard, is to constitute the ci'iterion of their 
 claim to represent him, there is scarcely a mark 
 of identity. His advent was ushered in with 
 the anthem of " Peace on earth, and good will 
 to men." He declared hia kingdom not of this 
 world. He testified , continually against forms, 
 and rituals, and ceremonies, and inveighed most 
 severely against th« hypocritical claimants to an 
 outward hierarchy, and a spiritual control over 
 men. " How can ye," said he to these, "escape 
 the damnation of hell?"* and told them "Had 
 ye believed Moses" (that is, the outward record), 
 "ye would have helieved me; for he wrote of 
 me." t He ever preached perfect righteousness, 
 both by precept and example, without any com- 
 promise with opinion or expediency; and having 
 left no "mark" whatever which the ingenuity 
 
 * Matt, xxiii. 33. t John v. 46. 
 
 12 
 
134 OF THE MINISTRY. 
 
 of men could torture into a warrant for spiritual 
 dominion over their fellows, lie promised to be 
 with hiB disciples to the end of the world — to 
 send them his Holy Spirit, which would lead 
 and guide them into all truth. 
 
 How, then, am I to treat the claims of those 
 who, at the present day, attempt to impose on 
 me their commandments as the doctrines of 
 Christ ? "Who assure me that he is not with the 
 two or three gathered together in his name? 
 That he does not dwell in spirit with those who 
 look for him, as their leader and their guide ? 
 That such ideas are mere chimeras of a heated 
 brain ? That his express commands cannot be 
 meant as rules of conduct ? That doctrines and 
 creeds, which have not a shadow of foundation 
 in what he said or did, are "the great essentiak 
 of my everlasting salvation ? 
 
 To reconcile the monstrous perversions which 
 these men bave systematized, and defend as 
 Christian Theology, with the ascription of 
 honesty and uprightness to them, would be im- 
 possible, did I not remember that they were 
 educated in them — that they live by them — that 
 
OF THE MINISTEY. 135 
 
 a doubt or a suggestion as to their truth, would 
 be at the peril of their worldly standing and 
 their pecuniary incomes. 
 
 It is, alas ! but too true, and too sad a proof 
 of the utter depravity of men, that the teachers 
 of religion are placed, by education and posi- 
 tion, precisely on a par with the merchant, the 
 physician, and the advocate at law. They select 
 the profession as a means of support, and are 
 apprenticed to learn it. It is not pretended that 
 they seek the truth. Whatever may be the 
 aspirations or the abilities of a candidate for 
 what is called holy orders, the bed of Procrustes, 
 on which he is laid, lops him or stretches him to 
 the one standard of his sect. Sent forth from 
 his theological college by human ordination, to 
 teach a particular community the stereotyped 
 opinions which they alone will hear, the path 
 of ambition is opened before him, as the blind, 
 and deaf, and partly dumb mercenary of his em- 
 ployers. The instant he sees, the moment he 
 hears, the day that he speaks, as a free and 
 honest man, with other eyes^ or ears, or tongue, 
 that path is closed. The fruits of his studies 
 
136 OF THE MINISTRY. 
 
 are lost — his subsistence may utterly fail — for 
 his trade is spoiled. 
 
 I am desirous to avoid, if possible, the use of 
 language that may wound the feelings of any ; 
 but I cannot stifle, on a subject of such para- 
 mount importance to all men, the expression of 
 plain, but necessary truths. For of the evils 
 which afflict society, none, in my opinion, is 
 comparable to that under consideration, for the 
 certainty, and the magnitude, and the perma- 
 nence of its results. To this organization of 
 intellect into a class or order of men, as a sepa- 
 rate profession by which to live and rise in the 
 world, must mainly be attributed the practically 
 anti-christian state of communities and nations. 
 They stand a direct and formidable barrier in 
 the way of the sincere seeker after truth. But 
 for their rivalry and contention, I should have 
 little hope, even in this land, for freedom of 
 conscience. A general union of the clergy upon 
 any great measure, though that of national edu- 
 cation, would, I fear, be ominous for our liberty, 
 virtue, and independence. Nevertheless, I have 
 no controversy with them as men and neighbors. 
 
OF THE MINISTRY. 137 
 
 111 my personal acquaintance, I can take no 
 ground for distinguishing them, in any particu- 
 lar, from the mass of my fellow-citizens. They 
 are educated in error, and become the active 
 instruments of a false system, to spread and 
 perpetuate it. They profess honesty of purpose 
 —I may not gainsay it, for I cannot search the 
 heart. That Being to whom they are individu- 
 ally accountable, whose mercy covers his judg- 
 ment-seat to an hair's breadth, has reserved to 
 himself this awful prerogative. But I must say, 
 in view of the clear precepts and the promises 
 of the Master, which they theoretically- recog- 
 nize, but practically ignore, " How can ye escape 
 condemnation 1" 
 
 They will object, perhaps, to the command 
 ".Freely ye have received, fi-eely give," that they 
 have not received freely. This is most true. 
 They have paid for their theological education, 
 and must. selLtheir theological services. They 
 consider the laborer worthy of his hire — this 
 also is reasonable. As they are employed and 
 paid to preach and pray, sprinkle and commu- 
 nicate, marry and bury, and generally perform 
 12* 
 
138 OP THE MINISTRY. 
 
 ecclesiastical services within certain geographical 
 limits, it is proper that the contract be fulfilled 
 on both sides. But let them not assume to be 
 pastors over the sheep of Christ — for these know 
 his voice, and the voice of a stranger they will 
 not follow.* Let them, as the hireling, and not 
 the shepherd, keep within their jurisdiction, and 
 smooth the path of the worldling as well as they 
 may. Let them profess, truly, to be "blind 
 leaders of the blind," f and they will not be 
 disturbed. When, however, they claim to lord 
 it over God's heritage, with such challenges as 
 are put forth in the works I have before me, I 
 feel more than a warrant to expose their preten- 
 sions, and hold them up as the veriest counter- 
 feits, in every particular, that the world has ever 
 beheld. 
 
 That the leaders of the people cause them to 
 err — that the priests bear rule by their means, 
 because the people love to have it so — is the 
 reason why Christendom has made little or no 
 progress in learning the very rudiments of the 
 
 * John X. 5. t Matt. xv. 14. 
 
OP THE MINISTRY. 139 
 
 gospel of Christ. In nothing is man more 
 inconsistent, thaa in seeking counsel of a class 
 whose education and interest both prompt them 
 to turn him from the great teacher, the " more 
 sure word of prophecy;" by taking heed to 
 which as unto a light that shineth in a dark 
 place, the day will dawn, and the day star, 
 Christy the sun of the spiritual firmament, arise 
 in his heart. Human wisdom excludes the tes- 
 timony of an interested witness, upon the 
 emallest question of property ; but blindly sur- 
 renders the salvation of the immortal soul to an 
 an order of men who have every motive that 
 worldly interest can create, to bind around it 
 the chains of spiritual darkness, and lull its 
 apprehensions into a fatal repose. How prolific 
 such a course, of corresponding ignorance, wick- 
 edness, and misery, let the present and past 
 condition of the race answer. 
 
 Is it necessary to add to- what has already 
 been said on the subject, that Jesus Christ, the 
 anointed Saviour, always commissions Ms minis- 
 ters with the burden of the word of the Lord ? 
 That he is still with them wherever they are 
 
140 OF THE MINISTRY. 
 
 sent, " confirming that word with signs follow- 
 ing ?" * That it does not return unto him void, 
 but it accomplishes that which he pleases, and 
 prospers in the thing whereto he sends it?t 
 The condition of such a minister, to be blind 
 and deaf as to all outward knowledge, in the 
 discharge of liis duty, is ever the same — "Who 
 is blind, but my servant? or deaf as my mes- 
 senger that I sent ?, who is blind as he that is 
 perfect, and blind as the Lord's servant? Seeing 
 many things, but thou observest not: opening 
 the ears, but he heareth not."{ His minister 
 ever tarries at Jemsalem, the soul's quiet habi- 
 tation, until endued with power from on high, 
 and in this power declares the whole counsel of 
 God, irrespective of the fear or the favor of 
 men. As no other preparation than that of 
 the heart is required, his or her hands (for all 
 are one in Christ) are employed about the lawful 
 pursuits of life, to provide for its necessary sus- 
 tenance and comfort ; and when from home on 
 
 * Mark xvi. 20. f Isaiah Iv. 11. 
 
 t Ibid, aii. 19, 20. 
 
OF THE MINISTRY. 141 
 
 the service of the Master, such entertainment as 
 those who are worthy may offer in the feeling 
 of hospitality, suffices. He can covet no man's 
 silver or gold, if he would keep his eye single to 
 the business about which he is sent. Such are 
 the pastors whom Christ commissions to feed his 
 sheep and lambs. They neither can, nor dare 
 they, of themselves^ do anything. They have 
 no nearer access to the Father of mercies than 
 any of their fellows ; but having become con- 
 verted, regenerate — having tasted the good 
 word of God, and the powers of the world to 
 come— in humility and as submissive instru- 
 ments only — they are qualified to speak to 
 others of that which was from the beginning, 
 which they have heard, which they have seen 
 with their eyes, which they have looked upon, 
 and their hands have handled, of the Word of 
 Life.* " It matters not as to the fashion of their 
 speech — Christ, their Master, is with them, in 
 the midst of his gathered church ; and as face 
 
 * 1 John i. 1. 
 
142 OB THE MINISTKY, 
 
 answereth face ia a glass, so the word spolcen 
 will meet the witness in the hearts of the 
 hearers; or, what is far better, in that awful 
 reverent waiting frame of mind, the -Saviour 
 himself will break the spiritual bread, and bap- 
 tize the soul into a sense and feeling of his own 
 ineffable glory. 
 
ABKOftATION OF THE LAW. 143 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ABEOGATION OF THE LAW. 
 
 The contimial tendency of the mind of man 
 towards a state of worldlinesa and sensuality, 
 has been, in tlie foregoing pages, illustrated from 
 tte scriptural writers of Ms history. Fallen, by 
 transgressing the divine law, froin that original 
 condition of purity in which he was created, 
 and dead to the controlling Power that kept his 
 lower nature in absolute subjection, we have 
 traced the depth of his wretchedness, and the 
 means appointed' for his redemption front sin. 
 The institution has been set forth, of that series 
 of outward types which represent his progress 
 under tutors and governors, from his state of 
 nature to a state of grace — from that of an alien 
 and almost an enemy, to his adoption as a son 
 of God — from the small glimmering of spiritual 
 light, in which the Law of outward command- 
 
144 ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 
 
 merits is given, to lead him from the bondage 
 of this world, into the glorious liberty of the 
 children of God. We behold him throughout, 
 rebellious, stiff-necked, and ever prone to choose 
 darkness rather than light — to rest in delusions 
 and carnal ease, rather than take up the cross 
 of Christ, and follow him in the regeneration. 
 
 It would be a contrast, indeed, if the advent 
 of the only begotten Son of God, the end and 
 crown of the series, by whom life and immor- 
 tality were brought to light, had changed his 
 invariable tendency to evil. But it did not. 
 With even more stupendous miracles than 
 heralded the mission of Moses, as an appeal to 
 their senses — with infinitely greater authority, 
 in the irresistible conviction that accompanied 
 his teaching — with the declaration from their 
 own Scriptures, their idolized rule of faith, that 
 he was the expected Messiah, he was rejected 
 and put to death. Not only did he fail to receive 
 the welcome from his own, to whom he was 
 especially sent, but he was deserted, in the hour 
 of extremity, by the few disciples who had 
 received, and forsaken all to follow him. "I 
 
ABROGATION OB THE LAW. 145 
 
 will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the 
 flock shall be scattered abroad," was fully veri- 
 fied in his case ; he " trod the wine-press d,lone, 
 and of the people there was none with him." 
 
 In the counsels of Infinite Wisdom, it was 
 expedient that he should die for the people, and 
 that the whole nation perish not.* He accordiDg- 
 ly suffered, the innocent for the guilty, " the just 
 for the unjust, that he might bring them to 
 God."t There -is no higher evidence furnished 
 to man of God's goodness and love, than this. 
 The^e is no more perfect demonstration of the 
 oneness of God in will and benevolence with 
 his church, than this proof. I have stated 
 before, that he follows the rebellious prodigal as 
 the fondest parent does his erring child, to bring 
 him back, if possible, to virtue and peace.' He 
 sends his messengers — his regenerate and puri- 
 fied children — to speak the Word of reproof, of 
 persuasion, or of encouragement; and after 
 that, to suffer with them or for them. If reco- 
 vered, " there is more joy in heaven over one 
 
 * John xi. 50; 51. 1 1 Pet- "i- 18. 
 
 13 
 
146 ABROGATION OP THE LAW. 
 
 sinner that repenteth, than over ninety and nine 
 just persons wMcTi need no repentance." * Of 
 sucli value is tlie salvation of a single soul in the 
 sight of God and his redeemed. It was now, 
 however, his only hegotten Son who was sent— 
 one who never sinned — to speak, as never man 
 spake, the words of perfect wisdom and good- 
 ness. He declared to Pilate, "To this end was 
 I horn, and for this cause came I into the 
 world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. 
 Every one that is of the truth, heareth my 
 voice." t -A-nd stated, in his subhme prayer — 
 "I have glorified thee on earth: I have finished 
 the work which thou gavest me to do." J This 
 was in allusion to his ministry. The remainder, 
 which might not properly be called work, being 
 but passive suffering, his last exclamation pro- 
 claimed /aMec? with his mortal life.§ 
 
 It is a commonly received opinion that the 
 death of Jesus Christ formed a part, and the 
 most prominent part, of God's plan for man's 
 redemption from sin. I must confess that I 
 
 * Luke xy. 7. f John xviii. 37. 
 
 t Ibid, xvK. 4. i Ibid, xix. 30. 
 
ABROGATION OP THE LATV. 147 
 
 have not been able to arrive at such a conclu- 
 sion, la giving my reasons, I hope to treat the 
 subject in that reverent manner which will not, 
 or should not, offend the feelings of any ; and, 
 be it remembered, I go to the very highest out- 
 ward authority in search of truth. If his testi- 
 mony is not clear, I illustrate it only by what 
 ean be fairly drawn from the records sanctioned 
 and coiifirmed by him. In view of the positive 
 declarations above referred to, perfectly harmo- 
 nizing with all he said and did as to the cha- 
 racter and extent of his mission, we overstrain 
 legitimate deductions by framing schemes and 
 systems that hinge on what he left unsaid. He, 
 surely, was the best exponent of his own doc- 
 trine ; and unless some evidence can be furnished 
 nearer the fountain-head, for the all-important 
 part attributed to the tragedy upon Mount Cal- 
 vary, I must class it among the mere inventions 
 of human wisdom and priestly craft. 
 
 It is true that this event was foreshadowed by 
 prophecy — that he himself conversed about his 
 death, and explained its necessity as it actually 
 occurred — that Moses and Elias, who appeared 
 
148 ABEOOATION OF THE LAW. 
 
 in glory, " spake of his decease which he should 
 accomplish at Jerusalem" — yet, nevertheless, 
 among the many unauthorized doctrines based 
 upon his sayings and doings, I consider this as 
 having the kast foundation. 
 
 The object to be attained, in the counsels of 
 Infinite Wisdom, is the restoration of man to 
 that condition whence he fell, viz. ; the state in 
 which, his will being slain, he becomes obedient 
 to the righteous government of God in his soul. 
 God, himself, is unchangeable — the same to-day, 
 yesterday, and &rever. He is represented as 
 changeable, because he follows a rebellious crea- 
 ture throughout the subtleties of his serpentine 
 reasonings, and the sinuosities of his devious 
 course. His dispensations and his plans are 
 changing, simply because they are adapted to 
 the constant and final end in view. They are 
 now by judgments upon individuals or nations 
 — again by warnings immediately and instru- 
 mentally — at other periods, by the alternative 
 of woes or repentance — sometimes, by the 
 pathetic remonstrances of his militant church, 
 and its baptism into suffering and death for the 
 
ABEOGATION OF THE LAW. 149 
 
 sake of the dying, and- even the spiritually dead 
 — and not seldom, by the awful sentence of 
 destruction. 
 
 In consequence of this, no prophecy, having 
 reference to the will of man for its accomplish- 
 ment, can be positive. It must always be con- 
 ditional ^ for, were it made otherwise, man's 
 free agency would be destitoyed. I may cite, 
 almost indefinitely, passages of Scripture for 
 proof of this. One of the most remarkable 
 instances is made the theme of the book of 
 Jonah. This prophet, we are told, was com- 
 manded to go to Ifineveh, and cry against it for 
 its wickedness. He tried to escape from the 
 duty, but was compelled, by suffering, to sub- 
 mit. He was bidden a second time, and accord- 
 ingly went. Through him, the prophecy of God 
 was positive — "Yet forty days, and Nineveh 
 shall be overthrown." The object was accom- 
 plished — they repented, from the greatest to the 
 least, in sackcloth and ashes. " And God saw 
 their works, that they turned from their evil 
 way : and God repented of the evil that he had 
 13* 
 
150 ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 
 
 said that he would do unto them : and he did it 
 not." * 
 
 "When he sent his only begotten Son to the 
 lost sheep of- the house of Israel, it was for the 
 same end. But a greater than Jonah failed to 
 accomplish the object of his ministry — "He 
 came unto his own, and his own received him 
 not."t Had they received him — had they 
 repented, as the Ninevites did at the preaching 
 of Jonah — can we suppose they would have put 
 him to death ? And if they had not taken his 
 life, what becomes of the fore-ordination, and 
 the contract between the "first and second per- 
 sons of the Trinity," as alleged to have been 
 made in reference to the Sacrifice of Christ ? 
 
 But it is supposed, from the reasoning of Paul 
 in several of his Epistles, especially that to the 
 Hebrews, of which he is generally reputed the 
 author, that the death of Christ by violence was 
 necessary, in order to end the Law. It is true that 
 the apostle, particularly in addressing those most 
 familiar with it, draws his analogies from the 
 
 * Jonah iii. 10, -j- John i. 11. 
 
ABKOSATION OF THE LAW. 151 
 
 sacrifices under that Law, to show its termina- 
 tion in the one offering, by which "he hath 
 perfected forever them that are sanctified." * It 
 was the advent and preaching of Christ, how- 
 ever, that annulled the Law of Moses, and that 
 brought life and immortality to light in the 
 gospel. He, himself, was under the Law, and 
 submitted to its rituals ; but, in his sermon on 
 the mount, he abolished the commandments of 
 the Law given because of the hardness of thejr 
 hearts, and preached the gospel as it has been 
 preached neither before nor since. Its pure and 
 perfect doctrines were promulgated, and a 
 standard of holiness raised before men, far 
 beyond what they then or since have been able 
 to receive. 
 
 His preaching and his display of miraculous 
 power, in fact, but hardened them the more. 
 His testimony convicted, but did not, because it 
 could not, convert them. Their state rendered 
 that impossible. I say this, in the full belief 
 that all things are possible with God ; but when 
 
 * Heb. X. 14. 
 
152 ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 
 
 he made man a free agent, lie gave something 
 to a being formed in his own likeness, and in 
 the gift the power to will freely was forever 
 bestowed. Had it been possible to reach their 
 hardened hearts, surely he wherein dwelt the 
 fullness of the Godhead, would not have wept 
 over Jerusalem because her day of visitation 
 had passed by. 
 
 The inshining of God's light upon the soul, 
 has been likened to the action of the sun on 
 matter, which produces different effects accord- 
 ing to the recipient ; thus, it softens wax, but 
 hardens clay. The eonrparison, in this respect, 
 is perfectly applicable. He said to Moses, when 
 commissioned to show those wonders before 
 Pharaoh which he put into his hand — "I will 
 harden his heart, that he shall not let the people 
 go."* And the result proved it with every suc- 
 cessive miracle, until the destruction of all the 
 first-born of Egypt accomplished his object. 
 Paul's reasoning, when commenting on this in 
 his epistle to the Romans, is hard to be under- 
 
 * Bxod. iv. 21. 
 
ABKOGATION OP THE LAW. 153 
 
 stood, and has been wrested to establish the 
 absurd doctrine of predestination — a doctrine 
 which can never be reconciled with the position 
 of man, or the attributes of God. I do not 
 perceive, however, that his mode of illustrating 
 this subject, defective and ambiguous as it 
 appears, has an application, in any way, to the 
 dealings of God with the soul of man. The 
 case he instances just before introducing this — 
 " As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau 
 have I hated,"* manifestly proves that the 
 power of the potter over the clay, of the same 
 lunip to make one vessel unto honor, and ano- 
 ther unto dishonor, has reference to the indivi- 
 duals as types under the Law. For the ways 
 J of God are equal — his grace has ever been dis- 
 pensed to alljf and not a part of the human 
 family. It must have been, therefore, to Esau, 
 as well as Jacob. But as types, representing, the 
 elder, his natural birth in sin, and the younger, 
 man's spiritual birth in the regeneration, Esau 
 was, figuratively, hated, and Jacob loved. 
 
 * Romans ix. 13. f Titus ii. 11. 
 
154 ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 
 
 That Jesus Christ died far the sins of all 
 mankind, is abundantly evident from many 
 Scripture passages. I have shown the import 
 of the tejm* as applied to the state of those not 
 actual offenders. Matthew explains it in like 
 manner, when recounting that Jesus cast out 
 the spirits with his word, and healed all that 
 were sick: "That it might be fulfilled which 
 was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying. Him- 
 self took our infirmities, and bare our sick- 
 nesses,"! or sins. Truly, "his own self bare 
 our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, 
 being dead to sins, should live unto righteous- 
 ness: by whose stripes' ye were healed." J But 
 the sins and the atonements under the Law, 
 were of an outward nature; and, saith the 
 apostle, "it is not possible that the blood of 
 bulls and goats should take away sins,"§ that is, 
 against God. In what follows this last quota- 
 tion, we have the assurance that sacrifices and 
 offerings for sin, by the Law, were not pleasing 
 to God — that Christ came to do his will, and 
 
 * Ante, p. 32. f Matt. viii. IT. 
 
 X 1 Tet. ii. 24. ? Heb. x. 4. 
 
ABROGATION Or THE LAW. 155 
 
 took away the first, that he might establish the 
 second covenant. " By the. which will we are 
 sanctified, through the offering of the body of 
 Jesus Christ, once for all." * It is, therefore, in 
 doing the will of God that we are sanctified or 
 made holy, through the one offering which 
 ended all others, and was their substitute. We 
 "received the atonement," or, in other words, 
 were reconciled by it ; and " being reconciled, 
 we shall be saved by his life." f But surely the 
 reconciliation is in consequence of a change on 
 the part of rebellious man. ' 
 
 ^ The surrender of his life, thelefore, to the 
 Jews,, in obedience to the will" of God, which by 
 their rejection was made necessary in order to 
 maintain his testimony, must be considered, 
 first — the one outward offering that ended all 
 others forever ; and secondly— in a far more im- 
 portant point of view, as the-.purchase of his 
 church.f He was alone on the cross, despised 
 and rejected .of men, and, from his own testi- 
 mony, forsaken of God. Truly it might be 
 
 » HeTj. X. 10. t Rom. v. 10, 11. 
 
 t Acta XX. 28. 
 
156 ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 
 
 said, " he suffered for sins, the just for the un- 
 just, that he might bring us to God." * It was 
 an offering abundantly sanctified to man, for it 
 formed the seed of the church ; and acceptable 
 to God, being in accordance with his will, and 
 the manifestation of his infinite love. 
 
 The texts wherein he is represented as a pro- 
 pitiation, must, I conceive, be greatly wrested, 
 to apply them as the Roman Catholic writers, 
 and all claiming under their authority, have 
 done. John says, in his first general epistle — 
 "My little children, these things write I unto 
 you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we 
 have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ 
 the righteous: And he is the propitiation for 
 our sins ; and not for ours only, but ^Iso for the 
 sins of the whole world." f And Paul also, in 
 writing to the Romans — "Therefore, by the 
 deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified 
 in his sight ; for by the law is the knowledge of 
 sin. But now the righteousness of God without 
 the law is manifested, being witnessed by the 
 
 * 1 Pet. iii. 18. 1 1 John ii. 1, 2. 
 
ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 167 
 
 law and the prophets : Even the righteousness 
 of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto 
 all and upon all them that believe : for there is 
 no difference: For all have sinned, and come 
 short ©f the glory of God ; Being justified freely 
 by his grace, through the redenaption that is in 
 Christ Jesus : whom God hath set forth to be 
 a propitiation through faith in his blood, to 
 declare his righteousness for the remission of 
 sins that are past, through the forbearance of 
 God. To declare,"! say, at this time his right- 
 eousness: thathe might be just, and the justifier 
 of him which believeth in Jesus." * 
 
 The substance of the above is, that Jesus 
 Christ, our advocate with the Father, the pro- 
 pitiation for our sins, is, through faith in. his 
 blood, set forth to declare his righteousness for 
 the remission of past sins. All the terms are 
 applied spiritually. The apostles are illustrating 
 the great fa'ct that redemption from original sin, 
 the bondage of the natural condition, is pur- 
 chased or acquired when the soul reaches the 
 state of regeneration — when old things under 
 
 * Eom. iii. 20-26. 
 14 
 
158 ADROGATION OF THE LAW. 
 
 the law of outward commaiidnieiitB are done 
 away — when the -vail (that conceals the inward 
 and true teacher) beneath which it has been in 
 darkness, subject to forms, ceremonies, opinions, 
 and speculations, is rent, and all things made 
 new in the heavenly man Christ Jesus — but 
 through faith in his blood — ^words which I shall 
 dwell upon hereafter. 
 
 The culmination and close of that series of 
 types, given by the Almighty under the Jewish 
 Theocracy (in which term I include God's 
 government, through various forms, until the 
 abolition of the Law), was in the person of Jesus 
 Christ of Nazareth. He it was of whom the 
 Lord spake by Moses — "I will raise them up a 
 Prophet from among their brethren, like unto 
 thee, and will put my words in his mouth: 
 and he shall speak unto them all that I shall 
 command him." * He was the outward mani- 
 festation of God in the fulness^ — the perfect out- 
 ward rule and exemplar of men. It is important 
 that we should keep this fact constantly in view, 
 for religious theories and institutions are very 
 * Deut. xviii. 18, Acts iii. 22. 
 
ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 159 
 
 far from a practical recognition of it. But, as 
 there is a dispensation higher than the outward 
 Law written on tables of stone, to which it 
 pointed and led, so there is a guide greater than 
 Jesus Christ of Nazareth, of which he was hut 
 the type or outward representative. His second 
 appearance in the soul as the Comforter, the 
 Holy Spirit, to lead and guide into all truth, 
 and ever presentas its Saviour, is the blessed 
 reality of God's whole plan for man's redemp- 
 tion. -And, abundantly as this second appearance 
 was manifested immediately after his crucifison, 
 it has been no less within the reach of mankind 
 in every age of the world. But it does not fol- 
 low that because he terminated the outward 
 dispensation to a particular people, and visibly, 
 as it were, introduced that of the Gospel, the 
 higher and the perfect covenant, we are to seek 
 for rules, precedents, and authority, from his 
 instruments. On the contrary, by the whole 
 series of types, man was taught to look directly 
 to the source of all knowledge and power — to 
 leave his dependence on his fellow for aid and 
 direction, and come to that infallible Teacher, 
 
160 ABROGATION OF. THE LAW. 
 
 the Word which, in the beginning, was his life 
 and light. The Apostle Paul, on his conversion 
 — or introduction into the gospel dispensation, 
 or regeneration, or baptism with fife and the 
 Holy Ghost, or revelation of the Son in him, for 
 they are all convertible terms — went not to the 
 apostles at Jerusalem to learn his duty to God.* 
 And he told the Corinthians, Christ." died for 
 all, that they which live should not henceforth, 
 live unto themselves, but unto him which died 
 for them, and rose again. Wherefore, hence- 
 forth know we no man after the flesh: yea, 
 though we have known Christ after the flesh, 
 yet now henceforth know we Mm no more. 
 Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new 
 creature: old things are passed away; behold, 
 all things are become new."t This must be 
 the experience of every one who reaches that 
 state of the soul in which, by adoptian, he can 
 truly call God, Father. 
 
 » Gal. i. 17. * 2 Cor. v. 15-17. 
 
KELICS OF THE LAW. 161 
 
 OHAPTEE X. 
 
 RELICS OF THE LAW. 
 
 I SHALL proceed with what is called the canon 
 of the Scriptures, to show the state of the 
 Church on the termination of that outward 
 government ordained of the Most High. The 
 apostles were called and commissioned to 
 preach, while Jesus was yet with them. They 
 were witnesses of his miracles, and taught by 
 him personally, in a manner which, were it pos- 
 sible to learn after the mode contended for by 
 the Roman Catholic hypothesis, might be sup- 
 posed adequate to their perfect, instruction as 
 gosJ)el ministers. Yet, although they returned 
 with the testimony that the very devils were 
 subject to them through his name,* they were 
 but imperfectly qualified for the work ; for he 
 
 * Luke X. 17. 
 14* 
 
162 RELICS OP THE LAW. 
 
 told them, "It is expedient for you that I go 
 away: for, if I go not away, the Comforter will 
 not come unto you."* They looked to him, 
 and depended on him, -while he was yet with 
 them ; and hence it \yas expedient for them that 
 he should go away. If, therefore, the apostles, 
 chosen and educated by the highest outward 
 authority ever yet furnished for instruction in 
 righteousness, could not be made living minigters 
 of the word, without power immediately from 
 on high, where stands the claim for teaching 
 and ordination, by men confessedly weak, and 
 erring, and oftentimes wicked ? 
 
 "We have evidence enough from the four 
 evangelists, that they were yet but as children 
 in the knowledge of spiritual truths. Educated 
 under the rituals and ceremonies of the Law, 
 they partc)ok largely of the general belief that 
 the kingdom of the Messiah was to be set up on 
 earth, with temporal authority. Even after the 
 Holy Ghost had descended upon them, they 
 divested themselves of Jewish superstitions and 
 
 * John xvi. 7. 
 
EBLICS OF THE hkW. 168 
 
 prejudices but slowly and partially. Before the 
 day of Pentecost, tkey selected a successor to 
 Judas ty lot; and after that wonderful outpour- 
 ing- of the spirit, the customs and tenets of the 
 synagogue cliing to their ministry, and clouded 
 their doctrines. Is it, therefore, wonderful that 
 they could not bear the many things Christ had 
 to say unto them* whil9 iff the flesh, seeing they 
 iaade such tardy progress in learning, even 
 when the instr^uments of greater works than he 
 himself did ? f 
 
 Were the theory of an outward visible church, 
 instituted by Christ, correct, we should expect 
 to find perfection in example, and infallibility in 
 doctrine, near the fountain whence it sprang. 
 But no such dogma is to be met with among 
 the primitive Christians. Their earliest records 
 are contained in the New Testament, and this, 
 afibrds not the slightest warrant for its assump- 
 tion. K the practices of the apostles are to be 
 received as divine institutions, because they were 
 practised by them, then the rule must sanction 
 
 * John xvi. 12. t Ibid, xiv. 12. 
 
164 EELICS OF THE LAW. 
 
 and enforce the adoption of all. In such case, 
 customs of Jewish, and even of heathen ori^, 
 will be re-engrafted upon modern Christianity, 
 Paul shaved his head at Cenchrea because of a 
 vow,* and circumcised a Greekjf albeit the 
 latter rite had been pronounced unnecessary by 
 the apostles and elders. The Roman Cathohe 
 disputant gets over the difficulty by that conve- 
 nient aid, the traditions of the church, for which 
 he assuredly has some warrant in the instructions 
 given to Timothy.J But how the Episcopal 
 writer, who pronounces the canon of Scripture 
 the "Word of God, and the only rule of feith and 
 practice, can extract what is infaUible and obli- 
 gatory, from that of the same origin which, ia 
 not, constitutes a problem not so easily solved. 
 I aver, then, that the general tendency of 
 mankind to leave the spirit for the letter — the 
 inward for the outward — the substance for the 
 shadow — found no exception in the case of the 
 apostles, on the promulgation of Christianity; 
 although it is freely acknowledged that they 
 
 * Acts xviii. 18. f Ibid, xvi, 3. 
 
 t 2 Tim. ii. 2. 
 
RELICS OF THE LAW. 165 
 
 themselves came to see the character of those 
 rites and ceremonies, then continued in conde- 
 scension to the weakness of their Jewish con- 
 verts. Happily for the great doctrine which 
 Jesus Christ preached to them, and the revelar 
 tion of the Holy Ghost abundantly confirmed 
 with overwhelming conviction, their testimony 
 on the subject is clear and conclusive. Their 
 epistles, generally, are addressed to the particu- 
 lar states and conditions of the churches, or 
 congregations of the believers established in 
 different places. The modes of reasoning, and 
 the illustrations used, are adapted to the end 
 separately in view. Thus, - in writing to the 
 Gentile converts at Eofne, Paul shows that they 
 too had a law to themselves, equivalent to the 
 written law of the Jews, and that obedience to 
 what they knew placed them, before God, upon, 
 equal ground with the circumcision. "While, in 
 the epistle to the Hebrews, who had the outward 
 law of Moses, the analogies are nearly all drawn 
 from the types with which they were femiliar 
 under that law. He addresses the faithful breth- 
 ren at Colosse a letter of encouragement, 
 
166 RELICS OP THE LAW. 
 
 while the backsliding Galatians receive a sharp 
 reproof for their reception of another gospel 
 than the grace of Christ, by which they had 
 been turned again to the beggarly elements. 
 Having begun in the Spirit, they had sought to 
 be made perfect by the flesh. His letters to 
 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, are more special 
 and private, but ahounding with reiterations of 
 his great doctrine, amid the advice, direction, 
 and entreaty called for by the occasion and the 
 circumstances. 
 
 It is, I think, no difficult task to satisfy an 
 impartial inquirer, from these epistles, and the 
 other books of the New Testament, that the 
 outward church, as a segregate body of indivi- 
 duals, recognizable like corporations, societies, 
 and governments of men, never had an exist- 
 ence. It has been shown, from the highest 
 autharity, what constitutes the visible church of 
 Christ. Let the "marks of the Lord Jesus" be 
 manifested by his patience, meekness, humility, 
 purity, and power from on high, and all whose 
 eyes are sufficiently anointed with the eye-salve 
 of the kingdom to discern spiritual things, will 
 
EEEICS OF THE LAW. 167 
 
 salute it ia gospel fellowship. But from the 
 very heginning, this church has been rarely met 
 with out of the wilderness — like its holy head, 
 it has ever been despised and rejected of men — 
 hke him, it is not of this world. If it were, the 
 world would love its own. Who will dare to 
 point out that collection of men whose thoughts 
 and actions are altogether from God, and not of 
 themselves? Until this be done, I apprehend 
 that the very foundation is wanting for the claim 
 of a specific body of men, as such, to holiness 
 and infallibility of doctrine. Hence, the church 
 is manifested by its power. As the salt of the 
 earth, which has not lost its savor. As the light 
 of the world, through which Christ the Sun of 
 righteousness shines visibly, to- illuminate and 
 to vivify what is sunk in darkness, and lost in 
 death. , 
 
 But the marks of the outward churches, 
 claiming by succession from the apostles, or by 
 imitation of their practices and forms, are of a 
 \&xj different character. These are sufficiently 
 visible and cognizant to men. To become a 
 member of such is purely a matter of will, pro- 
 
168 RELICS OP THE LAW. 
 
 vided there be no great disqualification by noto- 
 riously bad conduct. Sucb a church may be 
 composed, in part or in whole, of unregenerate 
 men, who, by Ghrisf s express declaration, can- 
 not see, much leas enter, the kingdom "of God.* 
 To call such the one holy church, is to bring 
 righteousness into fellowship with unrighteous- 
 ness—light into communion with darkness — 
 Christ into concord with Belial, f But I have 
 no intention to cast a stigma upon any denomi- 
 nation of professing Christians ; I merely wish 
 to apply their principles, and exhibit these in 
 their ultimate development, I beheve there are 
 meinbers of the true mystical church to be 
 gathered out of all ; but so far from conceding 
 their claim to be, corporately or collectively, 
 even a part of the Christian church, I consider 
 them the true congeners of the synagogue — 
 identical in institution, and cognate in govern- 
 ment. 
 
 It is not necessaiy to trace the declension of 
 what is in history commonly called the church, 
 
 * John iii. 3-5. f 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15. 
 
RELICS OF THE LAW. 169 
 
 nor to exhibit the partial reformations it has 
 undergone from time to time. Such a course 
 would be foreign to my purpose. I am endea- 
 voring to give a reason of tho hope that is in 
 me, as a reply to the assumptions made by the 
 writers whose works are under consideration. 
 They respectively claim to set forth the Church 
 of Christ. If I cannot show that neither of 
 them has any foundation on which to stand as 
 such, I must, by my principles, determine 
 between the two, and secure, as far as I may, 
 my soul's salvation in her arms. But I have 
 already exhibited the character and the marks 
 which the spouse of Christ ever bears, from his 
 own testimony, confirmed by that of his imme- 
 diate apostles. I deem it of no consequence to 
 descend farther in the' history than this, for if I 
 can, as I think I shall, show that all the rites 
 and ceremonies and observances now in use, 
 are continuations of the outward law abrogated 
 by Christ, and discouraged,^ though allowed by 
 his apostles, I shall need but little more to carry 
 out my design. 
 15 
 
170 EBLICS OP THE LAW. 
 
 We proceed, therefore, to the examination of 
 what are called by Dr. Milner the means of 
 sanctity. The principal and most efficacious of 
 these, according to the Roman Catholic hypo- 
 thesis, are the seven sacraments, as they are 
 termed, of Baptism, Confirmation, The Lord's 
 Supper, Penance, Extreme TJnction, Orders, 
 and Matrimony. It would be a useless waste of 
 labor to follow up all the inventions which 
 Popes and Councils, Doctors and Priests, Con- 
 vocations and Synods, have frpm time to time 
 engrafted on the various forms of religious pro- 
 fession. Their name is Legion, and their 
 parentage no higher than those above enume- 
 rated. Nor do I purpose to go farther into 
 these than may seem absolutely necessary to 
 show, beyond all doubt, their character as 
 excrescences borrowed from Jewish, and in some 
 instances, heathen superstitions. In the outward 
 code dispensed by the Most High, were, through 
 the evil tendencies of the human heart, incor- 
 porated a vast number of glosses and traditions, 
 by which, as our Saviour testified, it was made 
 
EELICS OF THE LAW. 171 
 
 of none effect. It would be, indeed, a remark- 
 able circumstance, if the growth of centuries 
 which resulted in so corrupt, a hierarchy as liiat 
 of Eome, should not have produced a like mass, 
 of heterogeneous mixture, to ensnare the credu- 
 lity and enslave the ignorance of mankind. 
 
172 RELICS OF THE LAW. 
 
 CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 RELICS OF THE LAW — (CONTmUBD). 
 
 OF BAPTISM. 
 
 The term Baptism is, in the records of the 
 New Testament, so continually used by Christ 
 and his ap6stles, that if any word should have a 
 settled meaning, we might suppose it to be this. 
 On the contrary, I maintain that none of equal 
 frequency has been less understood in its ori- 
 ginal import. When he used it in the quota- 
 tion before introduced,* " Go ye, therefore, and 
 teach all nations, baptizing them in the name 
 of the Pather, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost," it was prefaced by his information, as a 
 thing necessary to be known in connection with 
 the command — " All power is given unto me in 
 heaven and in "earth," and followed by the 
 
 * Ante, p. 112. 
 
RELICS OF THE LAW. 173 
 
 assurance, "Lo,. I am with you alway, even 
 unto the end of the world." * 
 
 Surely any unprejudiced person, in reading a 
 passage like this, would couple hath the power 
 in the antecedent, and the promise in the subse- 
 quent verse^,with the duty to be performed. If, 
 then, Christ, having all power in heaven and in 
 earth, and promising to be ever present with 
 that power, commanded as his last solemn in- 
 junction to teach all nations, baptizing them, 
 must he not attach an awful significance to a 
 word introduced in such a connection, and under 
 such circumstances ? 
 
 K we pass on to^he next Evangelist, its use 
 is no less portentous — "And he said unto them, 
 Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel 
 to every creature. He that believeth, and is 
 baptized, shall be saved ; but he that believeth 
 not, shall be damned." f Here, belief and bap- 
 tism are to be followed by salvation ; and from 
 the very absence of the latter in the remainder 
 of the sentence, we must infer a close and neces- 
 
 * Matt, xxviii. 18-20. t Mark xvi. 15, 16. 
 
 15* 
 
174 RELICS OF THE LAW. 
 
 sary connection between them, as also ia evident 
 from what Paul told the Ephesians, " There is 
 one Lord, one faith, one baptism." * Yet, the 
 received doctrine of both the churches defended 
 in the works under consideration, is, that Christ 
 enjoined them to sprinkle a few drops of water 
 in the face while pronouncing certain words. 
 
 But the absurdity of their practical interpre- 
 tation does not st6p here. The command to 
 teach all nations, baptizing them, is fulfilled by 
 sprinkling infants who cannot be taught. Thus, 
 that which should accompany and effectuate the 
 teaching, is made, by their inconsistent theory, 
 the principal, and in the case of those who never 
 reach an age to receive teaching, the only means 
 of sanctity. Can there be an instance furniehed 
 of a more flagrant perversion of language to 
 mean what it does not, than this Eoman 
 Catholic and Protestant Episcopal doctrine of 
 baptism ? 
 
 I shall endeavor to show, in a concise manner, 
 the introduction and the mixed import of the 
 
 * Eph. iv. 5. 
 
EBIICS OF THE LAW. 175 
 
 word, as used througliout the ISTew Testament. 
 It is scarcely necessary to remind the well- 
 informed reader, that baptism («'. e., dipping or 
 immersing) with water, was and is a practice 
 universal in the warm climates of Asia, both as 
 a means of purifying, to cleanse the bodj", and a 
 religious rite, to signify the ablution required 
 for the soul. Hence, it was appropriately incor- 
 porated among the emblerds of sanQtificatipn, 
 under that series of types and- shadows of the 
 good things to come. Throughout the <;om- 
 dandments of Moses, washiiig the body forms 
 a conspicuous medium of purifi:cation,'to cleanse 
 from the sins of accident or commission therein 
 set forth. We find also a most lively represen- 
 tation of the baptism which the soul must 
 undergo, in the direction of the prophet Elisha 
 to K"aaman the leper- — " G-o and wash in Jordan 
 seven times, -and thy flesh shall come again, to 
 thee, and thou shalt be clean." * ; The river 
 Jordan^ which had to be passed by Israel as the 
 last obstacle to their entering the promised land, 
 
 * 2 Kings V. 10. 
 
176 RELICS OF THE LAW. 
 
 was that in which John, the fore-runner of 
 Christ, baptized his disciples with water unto 
 repentance. Could there be more expressive 
 language used to convey an idea, than that of 
 immersion in what was figuratively the river of 
 judgment, to show the necessity of washing by 
 repentance ? That John, in person and minis- 
 try, was a type under the Jewish dispensation, 
 is genferally conceded,; indeed, none professing 
 a belief in any system of religion having refer- 
 ence for its origin to the gospel narratives, can, 
 with the least color of foundation, deny the fact. 
 His testimony was-^"I indeed baptize you with 
 water unto repentance : but he that cometh after 
 me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not 
 worthy to bear : he shall baptize you with the 
 Holy Ghost and with fire." * 'Sow let us ascer- 
 tain from him thus heralded — the Prophet to be 
 heard in all things, according to Moses — what 
 was the position of John. "Among those," 
 said he, " that are born of women, there is not 
 a greater prophet than John the Baptist; but 
 
 * Matt. iii. 11. 
 
BELICS OF THE LAW. 177 
 
 he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater 
 than he." * Can this language be applicable to 
 John, as a man, whose whole life was one of 
 self-denial, and whose death that of a martyr for 
 his righteous testimony ? Surely not. Our 
 Saviour referred to him as one of the types, and 
 the last before himself — that baptizer of the 
 soul unto repentance, whose washing should 
 precede the baptism of the Son of God with the 
 Holy Ghost and with fire, whereby all the first 
 or chaffy nature being consumed, it is quickened 
 and made a new creature in the kingdom of 
 God. Hence the least in the kingdom of God, 
 or the Gospel dispensation, is greater than the 
 greatest under the law. 
 
 The baptism of John was with water — that 
 of Christ with the Holy Ghost and fire, as stated 
 in the foregoing text. The first was an outward 
 act, and a mere type ; the second was a figura- 
 tive expression of what Christ, by his inward 
 and spiritual appearance, should efiect on the 
 SQul. The baptism with fire never occurred 
 
 * Luke vii. 28. 
 
178 EELICS 0? THE LAW. 
 
 outwardly, and necessarily could not. Nor, by 
 the testimony of the evangelist, did that of the 
 Holy Ghost until Jesus had ascended and was 
 glorified.* 
 
 When he asked the Pharisees, " whether the 
 baptism of John was from heaven or of- men," 
 he recognized the distinction between that and 
 his own. His disciples baptized with John's 
 baptism, but he himself did noif He was 
 baptized by John in order to fulfil the righteous- 
 ness of the law,t under which he lived, for he 
 came not to destroy, but to fulfil the law and 
 the prophets.§ The testimony of John con- 
 cerning the two baptisms is very clear. "He 
 must increase,, but I must decrease." || This 
 can alone be predicable of the two as repre- 
 senting, the one, an outward material figure 
 destined to pass away with the end of the law, 
 the other that birth of the Spirit, whereby man 
 enters the kingdom of God — that child born, 
 that son given, on whose shoulder shall forever 
 
 * John vii. 39. t ^jid. iv. 2. % Matt. iii. 15. 
 
 2 Ibid. V. 17. II John iii. 30. 
 
KEMCS OF THE LAW. 179 
 
 rest the government, whose name shall be 
 called, Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty- 
 God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of 
 Peace — of the increase of whose government 
 and peace there shall be no end.* In the 
 epiritual antitype the baptism of repentance 
 must also pass away on the introduction of the 
 second covenant, the gospel dispensation, wherein 
 all things are new, and all forever of God. 
 
 Dr. Milner says, "no authority can be more 
 express than that of the Scripture, as to this 
 necessity — (i. e. outward baptism.) Except a 
 man be born of water and of the spirit, says 
 Christ, he cannot enter into the kingdom of 
 God. John iii. 5. Eepent, cries St. Peter, 
 and be baptized every one of you, in the name 
 of Jesus, for the remission of sins. Acts ii. 38. 
 Arise, answered Ananias to St. Paul, and be 
 baptized, and wash away thy sins. Acts xxii. 
 16." f He forgot to add, however, the testi- 
 mony of the apostles on the subject, in explana- 
 
 * Isaiah ix. 6. 
 
 * End of Religious Controversy, Letter XX.^ p. 120. 
 
180 RELICS OP THE LAW. 
 
 tiou of their views. "And as I began 'to 
 speak," says Peter to the apostles and brethren, 
 who condemned him for eating with the uncir- 
 oumcised, " the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on 
 us at the beginning. Then remembered I the 
 word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed 
 baptized with water : but ye shall be baptized 
 with the Holy Ghost." * Here is a plain expo- 
 sition, from one he calls the suprenie pastor of 
 his church, of the foundation text on which he 
 builds it. " Go ye forth and teach, baptizing, 
 &c. Peter did teach, and, as he taught, the 
 word was confirmed "with signs following" — 
 the hearers were baptized with the Holy Ghost. 
 Again, he informs us, stiU more explicitly, what 
 saving baptism is not, and what it is. "The 
 like figure whereunto, even baptism, doth also 
 now save us (not the putting away of the filth 
 of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience 
 toward God) by the resurrection of. Jesus 
 Christ."t 
 Paul told the Corinthians, in speaking of 
 
 * Acts xi. 15, 16. t 1 Pet. iii. 21. 
 
RELICS OF THE LAW. 181 
 
 those whom he had ^ baptized, viz : Crispus, 
 Gaius, and the. household of Stephanas : " For 
 Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the 
 gdspel."* Here, outward baptism is spoken 
 of. If, then, this great apostle was not sent to 
 baptize with the otitward baptism, which is the 
 baptism of John with water, how can Christ's 
 command, to teach all nations, baptizing them 
 in the name of the Father, Son^ and Holy 
 Ghost, be construed to mean that baptism for 
 which Paul had no commission ? 
 
 The same apostle declares, "There is one 
 Lord, one faith, one baptism."t None will 
 deny that, as he was not a whit "behind the very 
 chiefest apostles," his ministry must have been 
 instrumental in the saving of souls. If his 
 teaching was so, could it have been otherwise 
 than by baptizing according to the command 
 of Christ? But he declares that he was not 
 sent to baptize (outwardly) — and that there is 
 one baptism — which, I take it, means but one 
 saving baptism. Is not the inference clear then, 
 
 * 1 Cor. 1. 17. t Eph. iv. 5. 
 
 16 
 
182 EELICS OP THE LAW. 
 
 that this one saving ■baptism, the baptism of the 
 Holy Ghost, was that commanded by Christ — 
 in which whoso believeth (i. e. practically, by 
 its regenerating eflfect upon the heart) — shall be 
 saved ?* 
 
 He givies, again, the like definition, in 
 writing to bring back the Galatians from their 
 retrograde movement towards the beggarly 
 elements of the Law. "For as many of you as 
 have been baptized into Christ, have put on 
 Christ." t And he says to them, "My little 
 children, of whom I travail in birth again until 
 Christ be formed in you." | 
 
 Now, these phrases, — baptism into Christ — 
 putting on Christ — Christ being formed in 
 them — are manifestly convertible terms — ^mean- 
 ing one and the same thing. If Paul, therefore, 
 travailed, or laboured, by teaching, which his 
 epistle proves, to baptize them into Christ, he 
 was sent. The one baptism, therefore, is not 
 the outward baptism for which he declares he 
 was not sent, but the baptism into Christ — into 
 
 * Mark xvi. 16. f Gal. iii. 27. t Ibid. iv. 19. 
 
RELICS OP THE LAW. 183 
 
 the name (which I have shown above to mean 
 the power) of the Father, and of the Son, and 
 of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 That the apostles baptized with water, both 
 while Christ remained outwardly with them, 
 and after the Holy Ghost was given, constitutes 
 no argument in its favor, when, as I have 
 shown, their testimony was eventually raised 
 against it. They circumcised, and did other 
 things which, by universal consent, are con- 
 sidered abolished. It is not from the remnants 
 of Judaism still prevalent among them after 
 their conversion, that we are to draw our 
 warrant for practices, of a character antagonist 
 to the pure doctrines of our Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ. Still less shall we stand excused 
 for descending lower on the page of ecclesias- 
 tical history, to bolster up ritiss and ceremonies 
 which find no authority at its fountain-hfead. 
 As I have said, the same rule whicb would es- 
 tablish, as immutable, any one practice because 
 of their apparent sanction, would operate to 
 bind us in respect to all. And if the interpre- 
 tation of what are called the Fathers or Pastors 
 
184 KELieS OP THE LAW. 
 
 in council, is to be made our infallible guide, 
 we shall need better interpreters of their 
 meaning than either of the controvertists or 
 their fellows in the so called science of Theology, 
 haye yet been able to furnish. I could cite 
 authority enough, even from these, to shake 
 the whole system so perseveringly sustained by 
 that wisdom which grasps more at the form 
 than the substance of religion. But such a 
 course would open an illimitable field of con- 
 troversy, instead of narrowing its boundaries. 
 "We all profess that our doctrine shall be tried 
 by the Holy Scriptures. I aver, and I think 
 have proved, not only that the sprinkling of 
 infants has no foundation at aU, but that the 
 practice of baptizing adults in water is not 
 warranted, either by Christ or his apostles. 
 Leaving, therefore, this head, which might be 
 greatly enlarged, I proceed to consider other 
 kindred errors of the same parentage. 
 
 After what has been demonstrated as the 
 baptism of Christ, the subject of Confirmation, 
 the second means of sanctity, may be dispatched 
 in a few words. The laying on of hands by a 
 
BELICS OF THE LAW. 185 
 
 i)isliop, to perfect the Christian who has been 
 sprinkled in infancy, must be ranked as a 
 purely unauthorized invention of men. The 
 Koman Catholic doctrine, according . to Dr. 
 Milner, is that the Holy Spirit is " communicated 
 in this sacram«nt," and "those who are true 
 Christians, by virtue of baptism, are not made 
 perfect Christians except by virtue of the sacra- 
 ment of confirmation." * 
 
 I have shown that the baptism of Christ is of 
 the Holy Ghost, the power from on high, 
 which the apostles were to wait for, and which 
 should accompany their teaching. Because the 
 gift of the Holy Ghost did, in gome instances, 
 follow the laying on of hands, thip formality 
 has descended with the outward succession of 
 bishops, according to the hypothesis of the 
 Eoman Catholic, and its offspring, the Pro- 
 testant, Episcopal Church. "With the former 
 it would seem, from the above quotation, to be 
 absolutely necessary to salvation, as a sequel to 
 the sprinkling in infancy, "\Yith the latter, I 
 
 * End of Religiovis Controversy, Letter XX., p. 121. 
 16* 
 
186 RELICS OF THE LAW. 
 
 infer it to be a mere imitative rite, taken from 
 the mother church. In either case it is but a 
 form, which, like others under that outward 
 dispensation of the Law, was, at times, used by 
 the instruments of the Most High, when miracles 
 were wrought through his power. That these 
 forms were not immediately relinquished by the 
 apostles, constitutes no precedent for their con- 
 tinuance — especially as the modern is but a 
 copy of the ancient ceremony without any effect 
 at all. But, as whatever virtue may be claimed 
 for it, depends, by the confession of both parties, 
 on the regular episcopal ordination, as con- 
 tinuing by this form a vicarious substitute for 
 Christ on earth, which I have before shown to 
 be a very figment of priestcraft, this means of 
 sanctity may be dismissed without farther 
 comment.* 
 
 * The Church of England, according to Bishop- Hopkins, 
 rejects Confirmation' as a sacrament, because sacraments 
 must be ordained hy Christ Tiimself, axs^ they must be 
 outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace 
 given to us. End of Controversy controverted, Letter XIX., 
 Vol. I. p. 360. 
 
 Does not washing the feet, ordained hy Christ himsdf 
 and expressly commanded, answer the requisition? See 
 post, p. 206. 
 
RELICS OP THE LAW. 187 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 EELICS OF THE LAW — (CONCLUDED). 
 
 OF THE LOEl)'sSTrPPER. 
 
 The, consideration of this subject becomes 
 very important, not on account of the scripture 
 warrant for what is called the Eucharist,- but 
 
 because of the doctrines which have been laid 
 
 ' ■ I. 
 
 down concerning it. I have before alluded to 
 the universal practices of idolatrous nations, in 
 offering living victims to their deities as propi- 
 tiatory sacrifices, to appease their wrath or draw 
 down their favors. The sanction given this 
 tendency of the human mind, both from nature 
 and education, by directing it to the illustration 
 of spiritual truths under the Law, has, no 
 doubt, tended to perpetuate the belief in out- 
 ward sacrifices, as acceptable offerings to the 
 Most High. 
 
188 RELICS OF THE LAW. 
 
 What testimony can be produced from tte 
 highest outward authority, has been above set 
 forth to show the part which the crucifixion of 
 Christ had in the appointed means of man's re- 
 demption. The doctrine, however, of the con- 
 trovertists, under examination, is of a very 
 different character. The parent XI!hurch of 
 Home puts it on the footing of such a sacrifice. 
 That man's redemption from the fall is wholly 
 and solely due to the preconcerted immolation 
 of the "second person of the Trinity," as a 
 victim sacrificed to the "first" — on the alleged 
 ground that it requires an infinite person to 
 atone for an infinite sin, and to satisfy infinite 
 justice. That this sacrifice was made on Mount 
 Calvary — and thereby the door of heaven 
 opened to all the holy men who had preceded 
 him, who until then had been kept in a part of 
 hell called limbo.* That the same actual 
 sacrifice of the body and blood, soul and divinity 
 of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, is con- 
 tinually made in the Mass, by the instantaneous 
 
 * Bishop Ilay's Abridgment, p. 26. 
 
EBLICS OF THE LAW. 189 
 
 change of a wafer into his body and blood. 
 That, to make this sacrifice, altars and a priest- 
 hood are necessary. That the priesthood was 
 instituted by our Saviour in his commission of 
 the keys to Peter and his successors in office 
 as fully set forth above — and that in eating this 
 wafer, the communicant 'fulfils tlife condition 
 laid down by Christ,. " Except ye eat the fiesh 
 of the son of man, and drink his blood, ye have • 
 no life in you." * 
 
 Were it not that the whole of this monstrous 
 theory is based on the gross idea of an outward 
 sacrifice being required to propitiate the Most 
 High, we should be at a loss to understand, how 
 it was ever possible for even the darkest mind 
 to extract such an hypothesis from the scriptures 
 of Truth. But, as man has ever been the same 
 in all ages, since his serpentine reasomisurped 
 the seat of God, we m?iy legitimately infer that 
 the grovelling superstition, which, likening hig 
 gods to himself, led him and does lead him, to 
 flatter them with- incense, and appease or bribe 
 
 * End of Religious Controversy. 
 
190 RELICS OF THE LAW. 
 
 them with outward bfferings and victims, has 
 caused him thus to heathenize the gospel of 
 Christ. It might be interesting to trace the 
 progress of error, in its perversion of the 
 simple, but highly figurative teachings of our 
 blessed Lord, gathering strength as it rolled 
 onward, until its grossness reached the climax, 
 and compelled men to arraign it. But, as my 
 object is to expose it in as concise a manner as 
 is consistent with duty, I must refer the curious 
 to other sources. 
 
 We are by nature such enemies to Truth, 
 that the first who uphold it, even in its smallest 
 discoveries, are almost always its martyrs. The 
 seeds, however, are sown in tears and blood, to 
 fructify in due time, and produce fruit after 
 their kind. Were it susceptible of being 
 directly implanted in the stony heart of unre- 
 generate man, the goodness of God would have 
 accomplished his object, and made a short woi'k 
 in the earth. He would not have led him 
 through the mazy path of outward similitudes, 
 borrowed from his perverse idolatry, up to the 
 pure and simple source in his own soul. N"or 
 
KBLIOS OF THE LAW. 191 
 
 would he, through his obedient Son, have con- 
 veyed it in parables, " because they, seeing, see 
 Dot ; and hearing, they hear not, neither do 
 they understand." * 
 
 But, constituted ' as man is in his natural 
 birth, he cannot know, nor receive, the things of 
 the spirit of God.f They are to him either a 
 stumbling block, by which he falls still deeper 
 into error, or foolishness, to be contemned and 
 r^edted. The preaching of Christ is now, as it 
 was formerly, a hidden mystery to the wise in 
 this world's knowledge, to be received only by 
 that state comparable to a little child, by which 
 Jesus illustrated the capacity to hear it. Hence 
 it is, that the pompous theories, the elaborate 
 rituals, the gorgeous display of outward, cere- 
 monialsj are far; more effective in impressing his 
 mind, than the simple doctrine of regeneration 
 and entire conversion of heart. Christ, in his 
 inward and spiritual appearance, a present 
 teacher and Saviour from sin, is as much re- 
 jected and crucified, as he was formerly, when 
 
 * Matt. xiii. 13. 1 1 Cor. ii. 14. 
 
192 RELICS OF THE LAW. 
 
 manifested to the outward understanding of 
 men, by the fulfilment of prophecy, and the 
 abundant proofs of his mission. 
 
 The grossness of the theory, and the evident 
 perversion of the principles originally promul- 
 gated by Jesus Christ and his apostles, as I 
 have said, caused men to call its details in 
 question. When, in the plenitude of power, 
 the Pope and his coadjutors sold out the merits 
 of holy men, which as the keeper of Christ's 
 storehouse on earth, he had accumulated in the 
 pontifical treasury, it became too much, even 
 for the credulity of those educated to believe 
 him the infallible representative of the Majesty 
 on high. A rebellion against his authority, and a 
 reformation in doctrine and practice were the 
 results. But it was only a reformation — the 
 corrupt tree was left, shorn, it is true, of its 
 most pestiferous branches. Political changes, 
 through long and bloody wars, deprived it of 
 the power to poison the moral atmosphere as 
 widely and absolutely as before. Yet, never- 
 theless, the sap which gave vigor to the parent, 
 
EBLIOS OF SHE LAW. 193 
 
 sfill flowed through the scions detached and 
 transplanted from the same unholy root. 
 
 After the political supremacy of the Pope, the 
 Eomish doctrine of transubstantiation was one 
 of the principal subjects of attack, in the estab- 
 lishment of the so called Church of England. 
 The expositor of that church, our American 
 . controvertist, takes, I apprehend, the most 
 liberal ground in reference to the tenet, which, 
 in the various grades of opinion thereon, is 
 known to his communion. I infer this from 
 the fierce disputes and litigation that have re- 
 cently developed within the bosom of the es- 
 tablished Church of England, the existence of 
 almost every shade of belief on the subject, 
 from his symbolical interpretation of the 
 Eucharist, up to the very gates of Rome it- 
 self — the dogma of the real presence in the 
 bread and wine. 
 
 It will not be necessary, therefore, to enter 
 upon the question of the sacrifice of our 
 Saviour, under the form of a little flour and 
 water made into a wafer, and constituting after 
 the priest's consecration, the offering of the 
 17 
 
194 RELICS OF THE LAW. 
 
 second person of the Trinity to the first, in 
 order to appease his wrath, and satisfy his 
 justice. This branch may now be left to 
 Protestant writers of almost every description. 
 A protest has been entered, for some centuries, 
 against the idolatry and abs,urdity of what is 
 termed the sacrifice of the mass. The form, 
 however, is still retained among professing 
 Christians, with various degrees of ascribed 
 virtue, from the tenet of the Tractarian section 
 of the Anglican Church, a distinction with 
 scarce a difference from the doctrine of the 
 Koman Catholic, down to the "Unitarian com- 
 municant, who partakes of the elements as 
 simple memorials. But, as I am a firm beUever 
 that, to attain eternal life, it is absolutely neces- 
 sary to eat the flesh, and drink the blood of 
 Christ, I shall be obliged, as an important part 
 of my undertaking, to show how this must be 
 effected. Before doing so, I will consider that 
 relic of the Law called the Lord's Supper, in 
 the outward participation whereof the High 
 Churchman, the Roman Catholic, and some 
 
EELICS OP THE LAW. 195 
 
 others, assert that they fulfil the condition by 
 which the life alluded to may be received. 
 
 The twenty-sixth chapter of Matthew gives 
 his account of what Christ did on eating the 
 Jewish passover with bis disciples. "And as 
 they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed 
 it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and 
 said. Take, eat: this is my body. And he took 
 the cup, and gare thanks, and gave it to them, 
 saying. Drink ye all of it : For this is my blood 
 of the new testament, which is shed for many 
 for the remission of sins." Mark's statement is 
 nearly the same. In Luke, the proceeding is 
 given as follows : " And he said unto them, 
 with desire I have desired to eat this passover 
 with you before I suffer. For I say unto j'ou, I 
 will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled 
 in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup, 
 and gave thanks, and said, Take this and 
 divide it among yourselves: For I say unto 
 you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, 
 until the kingdom of God shall come. And he 
 took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and 
 gave unto them, saying. This is my body, which 
 
196 RELICS OF THE LAW. 
 
 is given for you ; th^fl do in remembrance of me. 
 Likewise also the cup after supper, sayingj'^his 
 cup is the new testament, in my blood, which is 
 shed for you," * 
 
 It is remarkable that John, who was the only 
 witness, besides Matthew, to whose statement 
 we have access, who was one of the principal 
 actors in the scene described, who wrote long 
 after the others, and whose report of the 
 sayings and doings of Christ at that most 
 eventful period, is by far the most minute of 
 any, should have omitted all allusion to this 
 great fundamental institution of the outward 
 church. Did the matter rest here, there would 
 be no difficulty in fully comprehending the 
 mystic import of our Saviour's words, when, for 
 the last time, fulfilling with his disciples, the 
 duty of an Israelite under the legal dispensa- 
 tion. The assurance contained in each account, 
 that he would not drinif of the fruit of the vine, 
 until that day when he should drink it new with 
 
 * Luke xxii. 15-20. 
 
RELICS OF THE LAW. 197 
 
 them in Ms Father's kingdom, sufficiently ex- 
 plains their spiritual meaning. 
 
 "With many, and indeed most of the ob- 
 servances in which they had been educated, the 
 apostles and early converts still retained the 
 Jewish passover. It was, nevertheless, ehaitged 
 in character, and became a custom among the 
 brethren through weakness rather than sanction. 
 But their practice in this, as likewise that of 
 assembling on the first day of the week, formed 
 the warrant for superstitious doctrines concern- 
 ing both. It was convenient for ecclesiastical 
 dignitaries, in after times, to claim, from their 
 example, the holiness of the Jewish for the so 
 called Christian sabbath, and'through this claim 
 to bind burdens on their fellow-men. So, also, 
 on the primitive custom of distributing bread 
 and wine when assembled, in memorial of that 
 last supper, they based the doctrine of an out- 
 ward sacrifice for sin, in imitation of the Mosaic 
 institutions. 
 
 It is true that we have less apostolic testimony 
 on this head, than that of water baptism. And 
 what is accessible, takes the form rather of 
 17* 
 
198 EELICS OF THE LAW. 
 
 negative than positive evidence. The first 
 epistle of Paul to the Corinthians famishes 
 what I shall endeavor to prove such, although, 
 to the superficial examiner, it may appear 
 otherwise. Among the many directions and 
 rebukes concerning their omissions and com- 
 missions, as reported to him, he endeavors to 
 reform their superstitious notions in regard to 
 eating and drinking. They were, like the Phari- 
 sees, too much disposed to cleanse the outside 
 of the cup apd platter, to the neglect of the in- 
 ward part. Hence, he tella them not to be 
 querulous when bidden to a feast, but to eat 
 what is set before them, asking no question for 
 conscience' sake. ^Nevertheless, when told that 
 " This is offered in sacrifice unto idols," for the 
 sake of a weak brother, not to eat. "Whether 
 therefore," says he, "ye eat or drink, or what- 
 soever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Give 
 none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the 
 Gentiles, nor to the church of God : even as I 
 please all men in all things, not seeking mine 
 own profit, but the profit of many, that they 
 
EELICS OF THE LAW. 199 
 
 jmay be saved." * He then, after some directions 
 atOut very trivial matters, reproves them for 
 gluttony and drunkenness under the pretence 
 of coming together to eat the Lord's supper, 
 and proceeds thus : " For I have reqeived of the 
 Lord that which also I delivered unto you, 
 That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which - 
 he was betrayed, took bread: And when he 
 had given thanks, he brake it, and said. Take, 
 eat ; this is my body, which is broken for you : 
 this do in remembrance of me. After the 
 same manner also he tooh the cup, when he had 
 Supped, saying, This cup is the new testament 
 in my blood : this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, 
 in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat 
 this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the 
 Lord's death till he come. Wherefore, whoso- 
 ever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of 
 the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the 
 body and blood of the Lord. But let a man 
 examine himself, and so let him eat of that 
 bread, and drink of that cup. For he tha,t 
 
 * 1 Cor. X. 31-3. 
 
200 RELICS OP THE LAW. 
 
 eateth and drinketla unworthily, eatetb and 
 drinketh damnation to hiniself, not discerning 
 the Lord's body." * 
 
 Is it not evident that the apostle, instead of 
 sanctioning the custom, is but reproving its 
 abuse, and conveying spiritual instruction 
 through its medium? He that eateth and 
 drinketh unworthily, discerns not the Lord's 
 body, of which this outward supper was but a 
 type. As he had told them before, " The cup 
 of blessing which we bless, is it not the com- 
 munion of the blood of Christ? the bread 
 which we break, is it not the communion of 
 the body of Christ ?" f But types and outward 
 shadows were ended with the law. They only 
 pointed to the substance, which is alone effica- 
 cious for the soul's redemption. So far, how- 
 ever, from seeking that substance, and leaving 
 the shadow to pass away, man, in his serpentine 
 wisdom, inaugurated as the Christian church, a 
 fabric of superstition, compounded of the worst 
 features of Judaism and Pagan idolatry. I 
 
 * 1 Cor. xi. 23-29. t Ibid. x. 16. 
 
KELICS OF THE LAW. 201 
 
 challenge, even amid the fetish worshippers of 
 henighted Africa, the developement of an idea 
 more repugnant to the scriptural conception of 
 God, than that embraced in this doctrine of the 
 wafer sacrifice. 
 
 I shall now endeavor to explain what is the 
 body and blood of Christ: that "bread which 
 came down from heaven :" of which " he that 
 eateth shall live forever." * 
 
 In conveying to the reader's mind the position 
 of man as he was created, I have represented 
 him a three-fold being. This I consider the 
 best method of illustrating what, is demon- 
 strably true, even by the facts of physiological 
 science. His moral nature is a third organiza- 
 tion, still more undeveloped as he enters ex- 
 istence, than that of his intellect. It is as per- 
 fectly contrasted with the latter and separated 
 from it, as from his physical formation, and as 
 they are from each other. But, after all, the 
 reality, described by the sacred writers, is suffi- 
 ciently obvious under any view of the subject. 
 The command was given to that in his moral 
 
 * John vi. 51-58. 
 
202 RELICS OF THE LAW. 
 
 constitution which could perfectly comprehend 
 and obey it. His duty was as plain to him in 
 the unclouded radiance of the sun of righteous- 
 ness, the Word in the beginning, the fulness of 
 Divine eflPialgence, as is the outward pathway 
 to his eye, marked and trimmed, and hedged in 
 for safety, under the brightness of a summer's 
 day. What is it that separates the human from 
 the brute creation, more clearly than this moral 
 accountable nature or conscience ? Not his in- 
 tellectual, unbounded as that would appear, in 
 comparison with the scanty reasoning powers 
 of all below him in the scale of existence. For 
 great as is this, its province and its limits are 
 within the material world. It cannot soar 
 beyond — It is wholly unable by searching to 
 find out God. The loftiest and most cultivated 
 intellect has no nearer access to the throne of 
 grace, to the knowledge which constitutes 
 eternal life,* than the meanest understanding. 
 For " the things of God knoweth no man, but 
 the Spirit of God." t 
 
 * John xvii. 3. 1 1 Cor. ii. 11. 
 
EELICS OP THE LAW. 208 
 
 In the outward man with whom we have in- 
 tercourse through the medium of our senses, the 
 blood is the representative of life. The most 
 ordinary means of destroying the latter, is to 
 take away the former. Hence, in the popular 
 acceptation, the world over, these are convertible 
 terms. Moses so considered it, as appears by 
 the express declaration in Leviticus — " For the 
 life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have 
 given it to you upon the altar, to make an 
 atonement for "your souls ; for it is the blood 
 that maketh an atonement for the soul." * It 
 was symbolical, therefore, of the life, that 
 "almost all things are, by the law, purged with 
 blood: and without shedding of blood is no 
 rejnission." For. says the apostle, "if the blood 
 of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an 
 heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the 
 purifying of the flesh ; How much more shall 
 the blood of Christ, who through the eternal 
 Spirit offered himself without spot to Grod, 
 purge your conscience from dead works to serve 
 the living God ?"t 
 
 * Lev. xvii. 11-14. + Heb. ix. 13, 14, 22. 
 
204 KELICS OF THE LAW. 
 
 In. the dispensation of the law, I have en- 
 deayored to show that the whole series, from 
 the beginning to the end, was typical. Nor 
 does the man who was its crown and close, 
 form an exception. The error then is manifest, 
 in supposing that the outward blood is that 
 blood of Christ, which purges the conscience 
 from dead works to serve the living God. 
 "While the apostle is proving to the Hebrews, 
 &om their own authorities, that the one great 
 offering ended all others forever, he applies it in 
 the same sense that our Saviour did, when, at 
 the last supper, he told his disciples to drink of 
 the cup — "For this," said he, "is my blood of 
 the new testament, which is shed for many, for 
 the remission of sins."* And again, "Except 
 ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink 
 his blood, ye have no life in you — ^Whoso eateth 
 my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal 
 life."f When in giving them, therefore, the 
 outward bread, he said, " Take, eat : this is my 
 body," he was enforcing the same great spiritual 
 
 * Matt. xxvi. 28. t John vi- 53-4. 
 
RELICS OF THE LAW. 205 
 
 truth— that it is the living bread which cometh 
 down from heaven — the flesh and Wood of 
 Christ, the eternal Word — of which if a man 
 eat, he shall live forever. It must be his 
 nourishment — become his life and, Light, to 
 lead and guide him into all truth. He must 
 receive this as his Saviour, and be born again,- 
 " not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor 
 of the will of man; but of God." * The Jews, 
 like many, j)erhaps most, since their day, could 
 not hear it — and he thenJold them plainly, " It 
 is the spirit that quicken eth : the flesh profiteth 
 nothing : the words that I speak unto you, they 
 are spirit, and they are life."t 
 
 It seems a mere work of supererogation, to 
 pursue this subject farther. The whole gospel 
 of John is almost a direct commentary, to 
 explain and enforce the doctrine. Even the im- 
 portant rite minutely detailed where we should 
 assured;ly have found an account of the Lord's 
 Supper, had it been intended as an ordinance, 
 that of washing his disciples' feet, both illus- 
 
 * John i. 13. t Ibid. vi. 63. 
 
 18 
 
206 EELICS OF THE LAW. 
 
 trates and confirms the same spiritual trutli. 
 "If I wash thee not," said he to Peter, "thou 
 hast no part with me." If Peter had no part 
 with his Saviour without outward washing, he 
 must have erred greatly in saying, that it is not 
 the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but 
 the answer of a good conscience toward God 
 that saves us.* But Christ's obviously spiritual 
 meaning was consistent in this, -with his doctrine 
 of the regeneration. He inculcated also a lesson 
 of humility, and told them expressly that he 
 had given them an example, "that ye should 
 do as I have done unto you."t Why is not 
 this far more authoritative and better authenti- 
 cated command, (for between the personal 
 witnesses, John and Matthew, the beloved disciple 
 undoubtedly takes precedence) binding as an 
 ordinance on the church ? Dj:- Milner cites it to 
 prove that his unwritten law of tradition must 
 explain the written law of scripture. But in 
 what manner will Bishop Hopkins, whose highest 
 
 * 1 Pet. iii. 21. t John xiii. 15. 
 
EELICS OP THE LAW. 20T 
 
 and only law is, pfofesaedly, the written scrip- 
 ture, reconcile so glaring a discrepancy ? 
 
 The body and blood of Christ, the living 
 bread which cometh down from heaven, the 
 well of water, in us, springing up into everlast- 
 ing life,* are then but names to signify the 
 substance — the Holy Spirit he promised to send 
 his discipl«s — himself, the Word which was in 
 the beginning, the life and the light of men — 
 ever present with his qhurch to the end of the 
 world. Wben man makes the offering of his 
 natural life — that reasoning, serpentine, casuistic 
 will that always chooses darkness rather than 
 light, because it seeks, to justify evil deeds — and 
 submits passively to God's government in the 
 soul, then he experiences the antitype of all 
 outward types, and becomes, truly, a member 
 of that church — militant and in suffering on 
 earth — but triumphant and blessed forever in 
 heaven. It is then tha,t the real immortal man 
 receives again his life lost by the fall, and, par- 
 taking of this spiritual flesh and blood of Christ 
 
 * John iv. 14. 
 
208 KELICS OP THE LAW. 
 
 day by day, dwells in peace with God, having 
 been redeemed by it from the state of death and 
 bondage to sin. There ever has been, is, and 
 ever must be, but one will in heaven — that of 
 God — whom now, by adoption, he can truly 
 call Father, and to do whose will is his spiritual 
 meat and drink. 
 
 The four remaining means of sanctity, called 
 sacraments by Eoman Catholic writers, are 
 easily disposed of. Penance, which is trans- 
 lated repentance in Protestant versions, neces- 
 sarily precedes conversion and amendment of 
 life. Extreme Unction is a mere form, with so 
 little scriptural foundation, as to render its 
 examination supeMuous, after what has already 
 been said. That of Holy Orders stands upon 
 the assumption that Christ instituted an out- 
 ward priesthood, which I have sufficiently 
 shown to be groundless. And Matrimony, a 
 contract of a rehgious character, to be prayer- 
 fully entered into, derives no sanction from any 
 act of man. God alone can join souls in this 
 sacred engagement, and whom He hath joined, 
 let no man put asunder. 
 
OF FAITH. 209 
 
 CHAPTEE Xm. 
 
 OF FAITH. 
 
 "By grace are ye saved," saitli the apostle, 
 " througli faitli ; and that not of yourselves : it 
 is the gift of God." * And again : " The grace 
 of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to 
 all men, teaching us, that, denying ungodliness 
 and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, right- 
 eously, and godly, in this present world : Look- 
 ing for that blessed hope, and the glorious ap- 
 pearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus 
 Christ ; who gave himself for us, that he might 
 redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto 
 himself a peculiar people, zealous of good 
 works." t 
 
 In this latter quotation the fact is asserted, 
 that all men have access to that grace which 
 
 * Eph. ii. 8. t Titus ii. 11-14. 
 
 18* 
 
210 OF FAITH. 
 
 bringetli salvation ; and its effects are perspicu-- 
 ously set forth. In tlie former that we are 
 saved by it, through faith- It becomes then a 
 very important matter to understand the mean- 
 ing of faith. 
 
 I know of no better definition- than this same 
 apostle furnishes in his Epistle to the Hebrews. 
 "Faith," says he, "is the substance of things 
 hoped, for, the evidence of things not seen."* 
 And surely, there could not be a finer series of 
 illustrations, than those which follow his defini- 
 tion. By it, all the miracles, both in the 
 material and moral world, have been wrought. 
 Without it, the power of God has been rendered 
 inoperative, even when manifested through his 
 only begotten son. He told his disciples they 
 might remove mountains, and that nothing 
 should be impossible to them, if they had faith 
 as a grain of mustard-seed — the smallest of all 
 seeds — yet he himself did not many mighty 
 works among his own countrymen, because of 
 their unbelief. 
 
 * Heb. xi. 1. 
 
OF PAITH. 211 
 
 " Without faith it is impossible to please him ; 
 for he that cometh to God, must believe that he 
 is, and that he is a rewarder of them that dili- 
 geiitly seek him." * Here is the first requisite: 
 to believe in the existence of God — an omnipo- 
 tent, omniscient and omnipresent Being — and 
 a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. 
 But, it is said, "the devils also believe and 
 tremble, t It is, therefore, by works of a con- 
 trary nature to theirs, that saving belief iu God 
 is to be manifested. An outward confession 
 may, in consequence, be without faith. The 
 Atheist is not, of necessity, he alone who denies 
 with the ' tongue that there is a God. On the 
 contrary, the very highest profession may be 
 made before men, while the conduct proves it 
 but hypocrisy and lies. " The fool hath said in 
 his heart, There is no Ood." J He whose deeds 
 prove that the affections of his heart are alien 
 to God, is the true Atheist — the virtual believer 
 that there is no God. 
 
 So, "if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, 
 
 * Heb. xi. 6. t James ii. 19. J Psalms xiy. 1. 
 
212 OF FAITH. 
 
 he is none of his." * This, too, must be mani- 
 fested by the fruits of that spirit. It is impos- 
 sible that the same Holy Spirit can produce 
 contrary effects — therefore its operation must 
 be, to make the disciple like his Master, other- 
 wise he is none of his. But how do we find 
 Christendom at the present day? Is it any 
 nearer that lofty standard which was plainly 
 held up in precept, and exemplified in practice 
 by Jesus Christ, more than eighteen centuries 
 ago ? Do we behold the evidence in fierce and 
 destructive wars abroad — in fraud, covetousness 
 and oppression at home? Are these manifest 
 contradictions to every precept and every act, 
 of both Christ and his apostles, the results of 
 their teachings and their example ? Who will 
 dare &fSxm it in the face of that record of 
 their sayings and doings, which forms, pro- 
 fessedly, the ground-work of all our systems of 
 morals and religion ? • 
 
 Christ promulgated his doctrine in language 
 which is not susceptible of misinterpretation or 
 
 * Rom. viii. 9, 
 
OF FAITH. 213 
 
 perversion. "Ye have heard," said he, "that 
 it hath been said. Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
 bor, and ,hate thine enemy : But I say unto 
 you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse 
 you, do good to them that hate you, and pray 
 for them which despitefully use you and perse- 
 cute you." * The vrhole tenor of his sermon on 
 the mount is of the same character. But 
 Christendom has, at this inoment, the spectacle 
 of a v^st war, in justification of which the 
 name of Christ has been invoked. The cog- 
 na^ churches, claiming outward descent and 
 authority from him, are engaged in prayer for 
 the success of their respective armies in the 
 dreadful work of butchering each other. It 
 may be appropriately to the god of battles, but 
 surely not to Him who is one with Christ and 
 his church. The supplications of the Eoman 
 Catholic priesthood of France, and its reformed 
 hierarchy of England, are put up against the 
 prayers of their ofiicial brethren of Russia — 
 and, on both sides, in sanction of a contest 
 
 * Matt. V. 43-4. 
 
214 OF FAITH. 
 
 which realizes, more than any picture ever 
 imagined, the horrors of hell on earth. 
 
 The Apostle James declared that " wars and 
 fightings," come " of your lusts that war in your 
 members. Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and 
 desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and 
 war, yet ye have not^ because ye ask not."* 
 Every war that was ever waged, from the first 
 to the present, had its origin in, and depended for 
 its continuance upon, the cause here set forth. 
 It is true, there have been defensive to resist 
 aggressive wars. The degrees of guUt must 
 vary, from the blackness of sheer ambition, 
 lust, and cruelty, down to the mildest shade of 
 transgression incurred in resisting atrocious 
 wrong. But who shall judge of these ? Are 
 they not, in practice, imaginary extremes ? Was 
 there ever war without a pretext ? Was there 
 ever a cause defended by it, unstained by all 
 the most ferocious passions of our nature, and 
 the direst cruelties which man can inflict ? The 
 very existence of bodies armed and organized to 
 
 * James iv. 2. 
 
OP FAITH. 215 
 
 do each other all the mischief they can, whatever 
 the justice of either cause may he, is subversive 
 of every idea of love, to God or man. The 
 ordinary duel has this apology, that the offender 
 and the offended meet to settle their own 
 quarrel in their own way. But the national 
 duel brings into mortal conflict, men who have 
 no grudge to spur their revengeful appetites. 
 The comrades of this war were the antagonists 
 of the last, and the belligerents of to-day, the 
 close allies in arms but a Short time since. 
 
 This single case of war has been taken to 
 exemplify the contrast between what modern 
 religion, falsely so called, sanctions and actively 
 upholds, and Vhat Christ's express . teaching, 
 fortified by his practice, even unto martyrdom, 
 positively forbids. With the like result I 
 might go over the whole of his sermon on the 
 mount, and point out almost as great an antago- 
 nism in every particular. So far is Christendom 
 from having the Spirit of Christ, that even the 
 poor mockery of respect to his doctrine, and an 
 honest confession of inability to reach it in 
 practice, is wanting. "With their blind guides 
 
216 OF FAITH. 
 
 to lead, the professed Christian churches turn 
 back to the law which he expressly abrogated, 
 and invert his recital of what was in old time, 
 and what he then commanded. 
 
 But the argument is urged, that without re- 
 sistance, oppression and tyranny would destroy 
 political liberty; — that aggressions must be 
 checked by coalition, and to render this effec- 
 tive, the science of war must be learned, and its 
 machinery employed in the only available 
 manner, irrespective of private opinions or 
 duties. So thought the Jews formerly, when 
 the precepts of Christ were obviously tending 
 to convert men, from the bhnd instruments of 
 human policy, to the meek champions of peace 
 on earth, and good will toward men. " If we 
 let him thus alone, all men will beUeve on him ; 
 and the Eomaus shall come, and take away both 
 our place and nation." * Their reasoning was 
 correct, on the ordinary principles of expedi- 
 ency. But so far was the result from justifying 
 their worldly-wise conclusion, that the very 
 
 * John xi. 48. 
 
OF FAITH. 217 
 
 means ttey used to prevent it, were, by an 
 overruling Providence, made the causes of their 
 destruction. 
 
 May not the same moral be drawn from 
 events now transpiring in another hemisphere ? 
 What, in the inscrutable counsels of Omnipo- 
 tence, is reserved for the end, no man can tell. 
 But ail former history has shown this awful 
 game a barren storehouse of future good. The 
 necessity which justifies it, is the tyrant's plea 
 as well as the patriot's. The political wisdom 
 that plans, is as uncertain and short-sighted, as 
 that which crucified the Prince of Peace, to 
 preserve the integrity of a nation he came ex- 
 pressly to save. 
 
 I have introduced this subject, in order to 
 illustrate the doctrine of Expediency as op- 
 posed to Faith. Man, in his fallen, unregenerate 
 state, sets up his own wisdom, and reasons upon 
 immediate consequences. He will not trust the 
 eternal "Wisdom which would demonstrate that 
 no end can be safely reached by improper 
 means. He will not hear the doctrine that God 
 governs the universe he has created, and can, 
 19 
 
218 OF FAITH. 
 
 and does overrule and control the purposes of 
 men according to his own good pleasure. 
 When Pilate vauntingly asked, " Knowest thou 
 not that I have power to crucify thee, and have 
 power to release thee ? Jesus answered, Thou 
 couldest have no power at all against me, 
 except it were given thee from above :" * This 
 is the Christian's faith — ^faith in God ; as omnis- 
 cient — knowing all things, the end as well as 
 the beginning : as omnipresent — ^without whose 
 -notice not even a sparrow falls to the ground: 
 as omnipotent — able to paralyse the assassin's 
 arm, or deliver from serried legions of hostile 
 foes — and as supremely good — who, to the 
 temporal sacrifices of his obedient servant, wUl 
 restore a hundred fold and reward with ever- 
 lasting life.f 
 
 Christ again declared to PUate, " My kingdom 
 is not of this world; if my kingdom were of 
 this world, then would my servants fight, tiiat I 
 should not be delivered to the Jews." f In this 
 eternal truth is contained the keys of the Mng- 
 
 * John six. 10, 11. -f Matt. xLs. 29. 
 
 t John xviii. 36. 
 
OF FAITH 219 
 
 dom of heaven. They who enter it are re- 
 deemed from the craft, the policy, and the 
 grovelling wisdom of the unregenerate nattire. 
 They trust implicitly in God, and pursue the 
 path of duty as his will is revealed in the in- 
 nermost sanctuary of the soul. Though, like 
 their Master, they may be hung up between 
 earth and heaven, a spectacle for the scoffs and 
 derision of men, they know the Power in whom 
 they have trusted, and that, however humbled 
 before the multitude, it is for the greater glory 
 of the resurrection which will follow. As they 
 fight not for a corruptible, but an incorruptible 
 crown, they look only to their leader for direc- 
 tion and for safety. Obedient to all human in- 
 stitutions which God has set over them, except 
 where to obey would conflict with his law, they 
 suffer, but dare not resist violence for the testi- 
 mony he has given them to bear. In this 
 manner they fulfil all righteousness, even under 
 the laycs and the governments of the world. 
 They are holy, harmless, and undefiled, in the 
 warfare of the church — when brought before 
 governors and kings for the sake of its Head, 
 
220 OP FAITH. 
 
 suffering, if necessary, without answering ever 
 a word, or speaking in his name what is given 
 them in that same hour,* and what all their 
 adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor 
 resist-t 
 
 Faith, then, is a living operative principle. — 
 a reality, which manifests itself at all times, and 
 on all occasions. It produces good works as a 
 result — but always under the direction of that 
 Wisdom which is from above — which sees the- 
 end from the beginning - — which overleaps the 
 evanescent and transitory, to contemplate the 
 ■ infinite and eternal. 
 
 In the acceptation of the world, faith is gene- 
 rally considered an affair of the head — ^but it is 
 far otherwise. "Whatever theories a man may 
 hold, either through the force of education, or 
 from a conviction of their correctness, it matters 
 very little, provided the heart be right in the 
 sight of God. If the natural stony heart of the 
 first birth in sin, be changed by repentance to 
 that fleshly table whereon God can write his 
 
 * Matt. X. 19. t Luke xri. 15. 
 
OF FAITH. 221 
 
 law, if tlie spiritual eye be kept single to the 
 .glimmerings of light, even under the darkest 
 theories that priestcraft ever fastened upon the 
 mind, the whole body will, sooner or later, be 
 filled with light— : the day will dawn, and the 
 day-star arise, Christ the Sun of the spiritual 
 firmament. 
 
 But, as saving faith is the gift of God to him 
 whose eye is kept single to the light made 
 manifest, it is also dispensed, in infinite Wisdom, 
 to meet man's C9.pacity to receive it. The 
 Apostle Paul declares the gospel of Christ to 
 be the -power of God unto salvation, to every* 
 one that believeth — " For therein is the right 
 eousness of God revealed from faith to faith." * 
 As the soul becomes obedient ~and submissive 
 to this power of the gospel " preached to every 
 creature which is under heaven,"t the righteous- 
 ness of God is revealed from faith to faith. 
 " Till," through the means and the dispensa- 
 tions appointed, " we all come in the unity of 
 the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of 
 
 * Rom. i. 16, 17. t Col. i. 23. 
 
 19* 
 
222 OP FAITH. 
 
 God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of 
 tlie stature of the fulness of Christ." * In this 
 stature, "we henceforth are no more children, 
 tossed to and fro, and carried about with every 
 wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and 
 cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to 
 deceive," * but established on that Kock which 
 is immutable, the revealed will of God in the 
 soul as its guide and governor forever. 
 
 The experience of Christians, however, in 
 this conversion, is very different. "While illus- 
 trating the state to Nicodemus, Christ declared, 
 "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou 
 hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
 whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is 
 every one that is born of the Spirit." f And 
 again : " as the lightning that lighteneth out of 
 the one part under heaven, shineth unto the 
 other part under heaven ; so shall also the Son 
 of man be in his day."| On some, and per- 
 haps most, it is a gradual and almost an imper- 
 ceptible work — while others are stricken down 
 
 * Eph. iv. 13, 14. t John iii. 8. 
 
 t Luke xvii. 24.' 
 
OF FAITH. 223 
 
 in a momeut, under the overwhelming sense 
 of their lost and nndone condition. The 
 Apostle Paul, with whose history in this parti- 
 cular, my own closely corresponds, was, as is 
 well known, of the latter class. On one day he 
 lived under the law of men's commandments in 
 his unregenerate state, self-persuaded that he 
 was blameless — on the next, he felt himself the 
 chief of sinners ■ — for he had received his 
 Saviour, the revealer of that depth of wretched- 
 ness in which he lay. To follow him singly in 
 the regeneration, was thenceforth the great 
 ohject of existence. Had he gone to Jerusalem 
 to them which were apostles before him, in 
 order to learn what he must do, I have no doubt 
 at all that his great mission would have been 
 frustrated. But he had faith — ^living faith that 
 the Power which had raised him from the spiri- 
 tually dead, required no aid or assistance from 
 humaji counsel. 
 
 It is owing to an opposite course of conduct, 
 that man is so rarely found advancing beyond 
 the Law into the gospel state. God speaks to 
 him by irresistible convictions, which, for the 
 
224 OF FAITH. 
 
 time, lie must hear — But he turns from the 
 great teacher within him, to some one of the 
 "outward successors," too often little better 
 than the Pharisees of old', and, in order to save 
 his natural life or will, loses that eternal life 
 which is proffered him. "Wrapt in the impene- 
 trable covering of a formal profession, he 
 fulfils the decent round of prescribed cere- 
 monies, and lives and dies in the fatal delusions 
 he has hugged so fondly to his bosom. The 
 spiritual eye becomes blinded, and in the carnal 
 ease of a respectable worldly professor of re- 
 ligion, he allows all his influence among men 
 to pass, under the guidance of the counsellor 
 he pays, in the support of error. Careless of 
 consequences, and fearing men too much to in- 
 vestigate truth for its own sake, he is willingly 
 harne&ed in the Church of Anti-christ — for 
 there are but two — " He that is not with me, is 
 against me," saith Christ, " and he that gath- 
 erethnot with me, scatteretii abroad."* 
 
 " Behold, now is the accepted time ; behold, 
 
 * Matt. xii. 30. 
 
OF FAITH. 225 
 
 now is the day of salvation." * The moment 
 ■which is passing in our lives is the turning 
 point throughout all time and eternity. On 
 this moment hangs the future, forever. If ow, 
 is the accepted tim« — it is all that we possess. 
 H'o man can tell whether the next moment may 
 be his, to work while it is yet day. Be his state 
 of advancement in the school of Christ little or 
 great, assuredly, he has work enough to engage 
 aU the energies at his command. This great 
 work of salvation is entirely between God and 
 his own soul. It concerns him alone, as if no 
 other human being were on the face of the 
 earth. As the measure of grace is personal to 
 himself — as the dispensations meted out in 
 infinite Wisdom, are adapted precisely to his 
 own several state and condition, he can have no 
 excuse for oomparing his advancement with 
 that of his neighbor. In fact, this is impossible, 
 for to do so requires the knowledge of another's 
 heart. ifTor can he stand justified in the sight 
 of his final Judge, because, through the per- 
 
 * 2 Cor. vi. 2. 
 
226 OP FAITH. 
 
 verse inclinations of his natural will, he has 
 committed himself to the direction of others. 
 If, in sincerity of heart he do so igaorailtly, 
 then, although he must suffer loss while in 
 bondage to the beggarly elements of human 
 invention and craft, yet if that honest sincerity 
 stimulates him to seek after truth, there will be 
 a growth in spiritual stature, even under this 
 law of man. But wo to him, if, deceived by 
 the delusion he has embraced, his integrity is 
 destroyed when conviction reaches the soul. 
 The state of that young man who turned away 
 sorrowfully from Christ, because he would not 
 make the required sacrifice, will be his. To 
 resign his false theories, to face the opposition, 
 and even the scorn of his associates, to feel his 
 own natural will, hitherto but slightly crossed, 
 now crucified and buried by th* baptism of 
 Christ, must prove a severe ordeal. But the 
 account is with eternity forever. Moral prin- 
 ciples are as immutable as the throne of God. 
 If sincerity of purpose, and purity of heart be 
 lost — if a compromise be made with error — if 
 that lowest platform of sheer justice to the 
 
OF FAITH. 227 
 
 cause of truth and righteousness be evaded — he 
 cannot pass the threshold of Christ's church. 
 And the more he hugs his delusions — the more 
 conspicuously his merits raise him to the bad 
 eminence of a blind guide and teacher to others, 
 the deeper will be his guilt, and the darker his 
 retribution as an upholder of the synagogue of 
 Satan — of the Church of Anti-christ. 
 
228 CONCLUSION. 
 
 CHAPTER 5IV. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Having now given, in as brief and concise a 
 naanner as the importance of the subject would 
 permit, my reasons for not subscribing to the 
 doctrines put forth in the controversial works to 
 which this is offered as a supplement, the 
 object proposed, is, I apprehend, sufficiently 
 accomplished. I have no wish to do more than 
 furnish the honest inquirer after Truth, with a 
 plain scriptural exposition of that certain rule 
 or method by which the religion of Jesus 
 Christ may infallibly be known. In carrying 
 out this design, he will, at least, perceive that I 
 can have no private or selfish end in view. I 
 desire to gain no proselyte to a particular sect 
 of professing Christians, nor have I any wish to 
 uphold any especial ideas or opinions as worthy 
 of acceptation. Engaged, I trust, with fearless- 
 
CONCLUSION. 229 
 
 ness of maii^ and singleness of heart toward 
 God, to perform what my puny efforts can com- 
 pass, in directing my fellow probationers to that 
 Source of light and life, from which alone has 
 been learned my little knowledge, I feel no 
 motive but that of gospel love for their souls. 
 The first and foremost wish of my heart is, to 
 speak only what I know — ^the next, in so doing, 
 to vindicate the ways of God to man. If there 
 appears to be a presumptuous grappling with 
 subjects of the greatest magnitude, let it be re- 
 membered that I follow only in the train of 
 fellible and presumptuoue men. I have the 
 same interest at stake, and I. must judge for 
 myself. AH the. countless array of authorities 
 could not sanctify error, and make it effective in 
 the salvation of my soul. It is impossible, 
 therefore, to avoid this investigation of the pro- 
 found ^causes, which have led to the present' 
 condition and wants of our race. Every one 
 whose spiritual perceptions are sufficiently 
 quickened to feel truly hifl hold on immortality, 
 and the utter insufficiency of all mundane pur- 
 suits to satisfy that immortal nature, must, of 
 20 
 
230 coNCLtrsiON. 
 
 neccBsity, enter this great field of inquiry. As 
 he does it with singleness of heart, the light 
 which makes manifest, will reveal to him the 
 things of the Spirit of God. He will soon per- 
 ceive that, in the school of Christ, all must be 
 learned anew — that he has hitherto known 
 nothing of the Divine Being or his attributes. 
 But, as he progresses in that knowledge which 
 cannot be shaken or superseded, his experience 
 will enable him to compare spiritual things 
 with spiritual. In the records of 'what holy 
 men, who have gone through the same process, 
 said and did, he will receive a confirmation, 
 while, at the same time, his own testimony 
 must be added to theirs, on proofs as positive, 
 and even more so than the outward senfles can 
 furnish of outward things, that truth is one and 
 the same forever. In this manner, he will be 
 enabled to set his seal to the testimony of the 
 righteous of all generations. 
 
 It is not through such witnesses that discredit 
 is brought upon religious teaching. They illus- 
 trate doctrine by example, and cannot but 
 receive that respect which a consistency between 
 
CONCLUSION. 231 
 
 precept and practice nmst ever command from 
 even prejudiced hearers. And, in the warfare 
 of the church militant with the inventions 
 fastened by ambition and craft upon her holy 
 profession, the armory, furnished by her enemies, 
 will become polished and effective weapons in 
 his hands. As his divine Master, in turning the 
 artillery of the letter-wise, scribes and Pharisees 
 upon themselves, vindicated the ways of God, 
 so will he, in convicting gainsayers from their 
 own acknowledged authorities, place these upon 
 their just footing, and strengthen the force of 
 their testimony. 
 
 I have omitted all topics which lay not 
 directly in my path, and have limited the ex- 
 amination, even of these, to what was necessary 
 for a bare exposition of their character. Enough, 
 I trust, has been furnished, to prove the con- 
 sistency of the Holy Scriptures with themselves, 
 and to exhibit from them, their idea of the 
 Majesty on High. If not, the fault is assuredly 
 my own — " Let Grod be true, but every man a 
 liar." All human efforts to convey any con- 
 ception of the great I AM must, forever, iitterly 
 
232 CONCLUSION. 
 
 fail. The most I aim at is to break those 
 images which the corrupt and grovelling wisdom 
 of the worldly mind has raised, for incense to 
 itself while ministering at unhallowed and 
 worthless shrines ! 
 
 The two great commandments, on which 
 hang all the law and the prophets, involve the 
 sum of human duties — ^indeed, the first contains 
 the all in alL To love God, who is declared to 
 be love,* is to manifest that love by obedience. 
 And the surest manifestatioji is perfect love to 
 men; who, in the pure creation which came 
 from his hand, and in the depth of degradation 
 which has perverted it, still stand, as objects of 
 his equal care, our neighbors and our brethren. 
 God's love is manifested by the subordination 
 of every temporal and transient interest to 
 man's eternal welfare. The love which is 
 begotten in the soul by obedience to His holy 
 law, is of the same nature, co-extensive with 
 the whole human femily, and supremely solici- 
 tous for its everlasting salvation. Our present 
 
 * 1 John iv. 8. 
 
CONCLUSION. 233 
 
 life is "a vapor, that appeareth for a little 
 time, and then vanisheth away." It is but pre- 
 paratory to one without limit in duration, and 
 to which it can bear no comparison. Every 
 motive and every act, should therefore have re- 
 ference to that state which is to follow. Hence 
 the insignificance of worldly affairs, to such as 
 confess that they are strangers and pilgrims on 
 the earth, and declare plainly that they desire 
 and seek a better, that is, an heavenly country. 
 To reach the holy Jerusalem, of which the 
 Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the 
 temple, and the light,* or, in other words, to 
 regain that Paradise where His will reigns and 
 rules supreme forever, is the end and object of 
 all their labors and sufferings. 
 
 * Eev. xxi. 22, 23. 
 
 20* 
 
 THE END.