sociate together for all important interests, and would be sure to do so for religious purposes.

We may notice, on this occasion, the nature of the Church; the design with which it is formed; and the manner in which it is governed.

I. The nature of the Church.

1. It is a voluntary company; one to which men are not born, but to which they attach themselves by choice, to which their adherence is the effect of conviction. It was such from the first: "some believed the things which they heard, and some believed not;" some came out from their worldly connexions, and joined this holy company; some turned their backs on it, and adhered to the world. Such assemblies were at first formed in various places, and were each called a church. The term was not then used, as it has since been, to mark the whole body of Christians in any province or district, but always in one or the other of these two ways: either for the whole Church of Christ, for all his followers collectively, or for some particular society in one place. In the former sense, we read that "Christ is Head over all things to the Church, which is his body;" and again, that He loved the Church, and gave himself for it :" in the latter sense, we hear of the churches, not the Church, of Achaia and Macedonia; while we hear of the Church which is at Corinth, or at Ephesus, or even in the dwelling of a single family.

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2. It is a separated company; a holy society (holiness in Scripture denoting separation); its members are called to come out from among the people of the world; they are such as are in a state of vital subjection to the Divine authority, in distinction from those who follow the course of unrenewed nature. Hence there is an immense difference and distance, in all ages, between the irreligious world and the real Church. This leads us to remark,

3. It is a spiritual society, as opposed to a merely civil association; it consists of persons not entitled to certain peculiar worldly immunities or privileges, but born of God: "Ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." Nothing secular properly belongs to the Church: her beauty is of a purely spiritual kind; "the king's daughter is glorious within;" "the kingdom of God is within you." Just as we cannot, by artificial embellishments, add any thing to the real beauty of nature; so all that man has aimed to add, in the way of pomp and circumstance, to the Church of Christ, instead of adorning, rather disfigures it.

4. Though human instruments are employed in this society, yet it is wholly of Divine institution. No account is given of its formal institution by Christ. He assumed its existence, and said, on the opening of his ministry, "Tell it to the Church." In fact, the Christian Church is only a more highly privileged continuation of the Jewish. All the varied offices and administrations of the Church are of Divine original : "He gave some apostles, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ."

5. It is an immortal company. The individual members die; the Church itself can never cease. Fresh generations of saints are continually rising up in succession: in this respect, as in that of nature, God "renews the face of the earth :" He is ever raising to life those that were born dead in sins. The sacred lamp may be removed from one place, but it is only that it may burn brighter in another. Christ has founded his Church on a rock.

II. The design with which the Church is formed. This is twofold it is formed with a view to its own good, and to that of the world.

1. It is formed for the benefit of every individual belonging to it. The good Shepherd, while He feeds the whole of his flock, has a particular respect to the state and wants of every member; restores the wandering; bears the lambs in his arms, and gently leads those that are with young. The communion of saints affords a peculiar comfort to those among them who are troubled; they find an asylum in the sanctuary: every Christian should lend himself to others, bear their burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ; the law of love, so brightly illustrated by Christ himself, and, after Him, by that apostle who, in a noble burst of sympathy, exclaims, "Who is weak, and I am not weak?" As in the first age all had all things in common, so real Christians will now be ready to share their joys and sorrows, to help the needy in temporal wants; and, most of all, to cherish a spiritual union and sympathy. When they meet to hear, and pray, and communicate together, it is that they may grow together in love to God and each other. Christian intercourse unites the hearts of the saints. It was thus even before the gospel, when "they that feared the Lord spake often together." In so great an abundance of Christian ordinances and fellowship as we enjoy, we experience this benefit by little and little; an impression is added from time to time; and we are scarcely sensible of the advantages which we are always enjoying; but the loss of these privileges would teach us their value. Those who travel as missionaries in heathen lands are often ready to exclaim, "Wo is me, I dwell with Mesech! O how amiable are the tabernacles of the Lord!"

2. The salvation of others is another part of the design with which the Church is formed. The Church is a standing fortress for God in the world. Men see this company bound for the heavenly land, and are instructed and attracted by its example; as Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, meeting him with the Israelitish Church, exclaimed, "We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you!" It is a testimony to the appointment of God, and His Spirit as its author. But, above all, the profession of Christians blazons abroad the great doctrine of Christ crucified, and salvation by Him alone. It is a company that walk in one light, and seek one city, before the eyes of men.

III. The manor of its government. As every society, to be well ordered, requires rules, so there are rules of church government. These, indeed, are very few and very simple: real Christians need very little law; the law is for the lawless and disobedient; but theirs is the

law of love love is the fulfilment of the law. They are not without law to God; they are under the law to Christ; the love of Christ and Christians is the best law; this is the best casuist; without this, all besides is suspicious and ineffectual; but this will lead at once to the noblest conduct in every relation. Where, however, any professing members of the Church dishonour their profession, censure, and even excommunication, are appointed: "such are delivered to Satan" by apostolic authority and example.

The brief description of Christians is well given in these words: "They give themselves first to the Lord, and then to each other." They first feel the love of the Redeemer exciting love to himself; and then they go forth after his pattern to do good for his sake to their brethren.

What a company will this appear, when completed in heaven, purified from every stain of sin, and basking in the beatific presence of God and the Lamb! What a privilege and honour to be enrolled in the true Church! Oh, that we may all be found either inquiring the way to Zion with our faces thither, or reposing in this heavenly city!

LVI.

CONDITION OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCHES.*

ACTS, ix., 31: Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.

[Preached at Broadmead, Bristol, Thursday evening, May 11th, 1826, preparatory to the Lord's Supper.]

Ir is interesting to trace great institutions to their origin; but, above all, to trace the rise of Christianity, the greatest interposition of Providence in the affairs of men. This we are enabled to do by the records afforded us in the book of Acts, which is an infallible history of the Christian Church in its first and purest state. In the text we have,

I. The external condition of the churches of Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, the three principal portions of the Holy Land, represented as a state of rest. This repose of the churches has been ascribed by some to the conversion of Paul, who had before been the chief agent in the persecution that raged; by others to the circumstance of the Jews, who were always the foremost persecutors, being engaged in opposing the erection of an image of some pagan deity in their temple; an event which occurred, according to the account of Jewish historians, in the reign of Caligula, at the time referred to in the text. The great Head of the Church knows which are the proper seasons of trouble, or of rest, for his people. When the Church enjoys continued rest, there is danger of its rusting in indolence or contracting

From the notes of the Rev. T. Grinfield.

a worldly spirit. Yet seasons of quiet are favourable, in their turn, to the growth of Christianity, to the spread of missions, to the stability of fearful professors like Nicodemus. In the case of the text, God preserved at once the internal and external prosperity of the rising Church of Christ.

II. We have here also a record of the spiritual state of the Church at that time: this is described in a twofold view.

1. These churches "walked in the fear of the Lord." Christian conduct is often called in Scripture a walk: the expression implies habitual and progressive attention to the will of God; not merely a state of recumbence on the merit of Christ, but an actual obedience to his laws; a reception of Jesus Christ as the King as well as the Saviour of his people. For Jesus Christ is probably to be understood by the name "the Lord" in this, as in many other passages of the New Testament. They walked in the fear of Jesus Christ as their Lord and their Judge: influenced by this reverential respect to his authority, they professed Him openly, they loved each other, they bore each other's burdens, and so fulfilled the law of Christ. Never let us forget that we are under the law to Christ; that by Him we are redeemed from our vain conversation and from all iniquity. The evangelist seems to have transferred to the Lord Jesus Christ this expression, so frequent in the Old Testament, "the fear of the Lord," as an epitome of all religion.

2. These churches, these Christians, walked also "in the comfort of the Holy Ghost." This is a distinguishing feature of Christianity; of that "kingdom of God" which is described as "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." They tasted his first-fruits; they felt his silent influences, his gentle insinuations; they experienced his testimony to Christ; they entertained Him as the promised Comforter dwelling in themselves as his happy temples; the Spirit of adoption, who makes us feel our filial relation to our heavenly Father; the Spirit of promise, who applies all the promises of God to the heart. The fulness of the Spirit is the antepast of heaven: and this was the element in which they "walked," the air in which they breathed! What, in comparison with this, are all the pleasures of the world? Who that has ever tasted of this living water, would ever thirst again after the troubled streams of earthly joys? Here mark the connexion implied between the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Spirit: these Christians yielded themselves up to Christ, and therefore the Spirit of Christ abode with them that Spirit will never prostitute his comforts to those who neglect holiness: make duty your concern, if you would enjoy the comforts of God! As some are fond of referring every mention of the Holy Spirit to his miraculous agency on the first disciples, it may just be observed that no reference to miracles can be supposed here, as miracles have no tendency to give joy to the heart.

III. We have the joint effect of these two principles; of this fear and of this comfort. These churches were edified, and they were multiplied.

1. They were edified. The allusion is to the rising of an edifice. "Ye are God's building." The Church is represented as a habitation of God, filled by his Spirit, and founded on the doctrine of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. When Christians grow in faith, love, and holy obedience, the Church may be said to rise: when the members are united in spirit, cemented as the lively stones of the spiritual temple. It was so in those churches: there existed no jealousy between the Jew, the Galilean, and the Samaritan, before so disunited and opposed; all were one in Christ: no provocation, except to love and good works; they · loved one another with a pure heart fervently. Such a happy state more than compensated for all the storms of persecution: it was a rest, the foretaste of heaven. And it was reserved for those who walked in the united fear of God and comfort of the Spirit: the fear of God was rewarded by the comfort of the Spirit; and the experience of this heavenly comfort endeared, in return, that holy fear.

2. They were multiplied. It is implied that there exists a union between the edifying and the multiplying of a Christian society. As Christians grow in grace, their example becomes the more influential on their brethren: as they let their light shine, others, seeing their good works, are attracted to glorify their heavenly Father, and add themselves to their company. When God pours out his Spirit upon his people, they spring up as willows by the waters; one says, I am the Lord's, another subscribes to the Lord, and a third surnames himself by the name of the God of Israel. What can be wanting to that church which is edified internally, and multiplied externally? What so delightful to any Christian society, as to hear the call effectually given, Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee!" to see its younger members coming forward and devoting themselves to the faithful profession of Christ; our children lisping the praise of God; and worshippers of the outer court entering into the blessedness of Christian experience! May this happy state be vouchsafed to all here assembled !

LVII.

CONFIRMATION OF THE DISCIPLES.*

ACTS, xiv., 22: Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith: and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

[Preached at Broadmead, Bristol, Nov, 10, 1826, preparatory to the Lord's Supper.]

AFTER preaching the gospel in different parts, appear anxious to see the fruits of their labours. the fabled ostrich, which leaves its eggs on the

From the notes of the Rev. Dr. Wilson.

the apostles always They were not like sand, to be trodden