3. Baptism, as the sacrament of incorporation in the church.

4. Commemoration of the Supper of the Lord, in "breaking of bread," as the sacrament of sustenance and church communion.

5. Continuance in the apostolic doctrine.

6. Continuance in the Apostles' fellowship, and in prayers.

To some of these points we have already adverted as inseparably connected, by divine appointment, with the right apprehension of Gospel truth, viz. the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the two concomitant standing witnesses upon earth, the two sacraments; we have now from Scripture evidence further elicited the fact, that the formation of a body in which the Spirit, the water, and the blood, should bear their joint witness, was accomplished through the instrumentality of men specially commissioned for that purpose, though with different measures of authority; that the work began with an invitation, and was perpetuated, in addition to the means already mentioned, by the establishment of a standard of doctrine, and by the association together of all concerned, in the fellowship of one body, and in one common worship.

There are various scattered notices bearing out these conclusions in the accounts given in

the Acts of the Apostles, both of individual conversions or additions to the church, and of the measures taken by the Apostles for the government of the infant churches; and still more information on this subject is to be gathered from allusions to these matters in the apostolic Epistles. These will more properly be introduced hereafter, when we shall separately consider the different means of grace, their proper use, and the abuses which human infirmity and corruption, which unbelief on the one hand, and presumption on the other, have connected with them in process of time. For the present, all that was sought to be established by the foregoing remarks, and which, it is hoped, has been placed beyond the reach of contradiction, is the truth, that incorporation in the body of Christ, the church, is an act that cannot be successfully undertaken and carried through by the self-will of any individual who may be desirous of appropriating, if not the spiritual blessings, at least the impunity which he conceives to be offered to himself in the Gospel; an act that cannot be regulated by the decision of any individual's own judgment, and his private interpretation of Scripture, as to the terms on which, and the means by which, that incorporation is to take place; but that whosoever is truly "added to the church," is so

Acts ii. 47.

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in consequence of "the manifestation of God's word through preaching," being besought by an "ambassador of Christ," and "in Christ's stead," to be "reconciled unto God;" that if that preaching and that invitation avail in his case so far as to lead to his introduction into the church," such introduction can take place in no other way than the way ordained by God; that if he be so introduced, his continuance in the fellowship of the church, and his ultimate attainment of the glory set before him, requires on his part a continued connexion with the body which he has joined, and a continued submission to the means of grace which God has vouchsafed to that body, and to him as a member of the same; that consequently the membership of the church is essentially a covenant state, the preliminaries and the standing conditions of which are not to be settled by man, but are settled for him by Christ himself; in

We do not intend by this statement to exclude, nor do we lose sight of, those who are incorporated in the church by baptism in their infancy; for in their case also the preaching and invitation has become available to their introduction, not indeed directly, as in the case of adult converts, but indirectly, through their parents, who have been led to procure for their infants the blessings of the Christian covenant at the earliest possible season of their lives. This subject will again, and more distinctly, come under consideration in connexion with the ordinance of baptism.

other words, that our union with Christ as members of his body is not in any degree dependant on our opinions or determinations, but on "the power of God, who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus, before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel; whereunto,' the Apostle continues, speaking of himself as one of the bearers of Christ's commission in the world, "I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles." "

CHAPTER VI.

Christianity a Trust committed to the Church.

I KNOW WHOM I HAVe believed, AND AM PERSUADED THAT HE IS ABLE TO KEEP MY DEPOSIT AGAINST THAT DAY. HOLD FAST THE FORM OF SOUND WORDS, WHICH THOU HAST HEARD OF ME, IN FAITH AND LOVE WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS; KEEP THE EXCELLENT DEPOSIT BY THE HOLY GHOST WHICH DWELLETH IN US."-2 Tim. i. 12-14.

THE sum of our argument, as far as it has been carried, may be briefly thus stated: that Christianity was introduced upon earth under certain sanctions, incorporated in a certain body capable of enlargement by the progressive addition of new members under certain conditions, and kept in a

My deposit, the excellent deposit, τὴν παρακαταθήκην (or παραθήκην) μου, τὴν καλὴν παρακαταθήκην. The use of the word deposit, which answers to the Greek аgакатаbкп, and which helps to convey a clearer expression of the sense of the original passage than our version, is happily illustrated, in application to a deposit of doctrines and ordinances, by two passages quoted by Wetstein, (ad 1 Tim. vi. 20,) one from Demosthenes, (contra Midiam, c. 48,) "this is what you have to guard, the laws and the oath; these are in your hands, ye judges, a deposit, as it were, in perpetuity from the rest, which is to be preserved inviolate for all that come to you for justice;" the other from Isocrates (ad