it will be found, that in proportion as the grounds on which that proposition has been adopted and maintained by each party, have been subordinate or untenable, in the same proportion have the conclusions deduced from it been fraught with dangerous errors. Some of these grounds will necessarily in the further progress of our inquiry fall under our notice, for which reason they need not be further adverted to in this place. What has been said, is no doubt sufficient to show why it is, that leaving for the present such questions as the possibility of spiritual communion, or the validity of the sacraments beyond the pale of the church (whatever may be understood by this last named term) untouched, we take at once higher ground, maintaining, on the warrant of Scripture, that the church is not the means, and the establishment of Christianity the end to be attained by it, but that, on the contrary, the building up of the church for his own glory, to be "his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all," is the great purpose of God, to accomplish which Christianity was in process of time introduced, and to the end of time shall be sustained, in this world, in the distinct character of a means to an end. t The moment we apprehend this truth, that the presentation to himself of a glorious church, to be his body, is the object of Christ's work, past, present, and to come, the proposition that Christianity is inseparable from the body of the church, becomes a self-evident proposition, and we are enabled to reason from their inseparable connexion, from the dependance of Christianity as the means, upon the church as the end, downwards upon those very questions of a subordinate character, which having been injudiciously made the basis of the highest truth known to us concerning the purposes of God, have led, and are still leading to so much unprofitable debate, and to such apparently endless confusion. It argues no small encroachment of the natural selfishness of man's heart upon that sublime view, in which the perfected church of Christ is placed before us as the central focus from whence the beams of his glory shall radiate upon the universe of creation, that with the great mass of professing Christians, and among them with many who would be much shocked to have their catholic character as churchmen called in question, Christianity has dwindled down into an individual concern of their own; and that their personal religion, which is no more than a qualification for the exalted honour and privilege of being absorbed in the great purpose of God's glory in his church, is considered by them as the sum and substance, and their personal salvation as the chief end of their faith. They are so engrossed by the danger of their natural condition, and their escape from it through the blood of Christ, so exclusively occupied in watching their religious progress, so intent upon the personal enjoyments attendant upon a state of grace, and upon the anticipation of those everlasting pleasures of which their present state is both a foretaste and a pledge, that they have not time to remember the very simple fact, that God and his glory are as much the centre of the work of redemption and of the church, as they are of all the other works of God and of the universe of creation; and that consequently the light of salvation hath shined upon them expressly for this end, "that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles;"" they forget that "the grace and apostleship" of the Gospel of their salvation, whereby the preaching of that same Gospel has descended to them also, was originally conferred with a view to "the obedience of faith among all nations, for his name's sake." Rom. i. 5. The obvious sense of this, in the original difficult, and in our version singularly obscure verse is, that St. Paul had Next to the sin of causing God's holy name to be blasphemed in the world through their offences, and putting the Son of God to an open shame, there is no greater dishonour that men calling themselves by the name of Christ can put upon him, than that of habitually keeping out of sight the fact, that the spiritual blessings wherewith we are blessed in him, have all this one object, "that in the dispensation of the fulness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in him; in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory."" To separate the work of Christ and the gifts of his grace from this the great end and purpose of all, is an act of unbelief, inasmuch as no cognizance is taken of God's purpose, and of presumption, inasmuch as the importance of man's salvation is unduly magnified; unbelief and presumption the more inexcusable, as from the first foundation of the received through Christ "grace" to be dispensed, and an "apostleship" or commission to preach the Gospel "among all nations," whereby the nations were to be brought "to the obedience of faith," i. e. to the full and submissive reception of God's grace and truth in Christ, with this ultimate purpose, that the name of God might be glorified. church, the glory of God, to be accomplished in her and through her, has ever been most prominently placed in view. If even Pharaoh was not left in ignorance that he was raised up for this very cause, that God might "show in him his power," and that "the name of God might be declared throughout all the earth,"* much less was it hidden from them who were called to be unto him "a peculiar treasure above all people, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation," that the purpose for which "the Lord hallowed them, and brought them forth out of the land of Egypt to be their God," was, that He himself might "be hallowed among the children of Israel," and that "all the earth should be filled with the glory of the Lord." It was on the strength of this high and holy truth that Moses put forth the bold plea, "Look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin, lest the land whence thou broughtest us out say, Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness ;" it was on this ground that Joshua founded his appeal, "O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs a b Lev. xxii. 32. * Exod. ix. 16. y Lev. xxii. 32, 33. |