senting letters, dictated by the Spirit, and inscribed to "all them that are in Christ Jesus."

The third compartment represents particular churches; some of which are receiving apostolic congratulations on their union and prosperity; others, are evidently listening with ominous delight to the whispers of slander, and the plausible sophistries of error, while friendly and anxious countenances are turned on them in warning, expostulation, and pity; and others have separated into factious groups, and converted the sanctuary into an arena of angry debate, from which the grieved Spirit of love is departing, and where an infernal hand is seen scattering abroad firebrands, arrows, and death. Among each of these classes are messengers inspired from heaven, reminding them that they have one Lord, one faith, one baptism;" showing them that they cannot indulge in mutual mistrust or aversion without bursting one or other of the cords of love which constitute the bond of peace; praying for the reconciliation and reunion of such as are alienated; weeping over the obstinacy of that alienation, or else rejoicing in its removal; pointing them to the cross as the magnet of all hearts; and showing them that by coming to it they have come to the rendezvous of all the just, to the general assembly and Church of the first-born whose names are written in heaven. What other impression then can we derive from the survey than this, that unity is a sign of the true Church, and that so complete is this unity, that the atom does not more certainly form an integral portion of the material universe than the

meanest and obscurest believer has his appointed place and portion in the one great family which is gathering together in Christ? so that unscripturally to expel a single Christian, or to disturb the harmony of a single church, is to break the peace of the universe.

CHAPTER II.

THE NATURE OF CHRISTIAN UNITY; OR, WHEREIN THE ONENESS OF THE CHURCH CONSISTS.

FROM the preceding examination of Scripture it appears, that unity is one of the essential characteristics of the Christian Church. We proceed to inquire, in the next place, what we are to understand by that unity which is thus represented as blending all the faithful into one community.

I. And here it is natural for us to glance, first, at some of the ideas which have more or less obtained, and at the attempts which at different times have been made in the Church to realise this union. For if, on bringing them to the test of Scripture, either of them shall prove in accordance with that only standard, our inquiry will be ended, and our object gained; if, however, when weighed in the Divine balances, they are found wanting, we shall be justified in dismissing them entirely from our minds, and our way will be cleared for further inquiry.

1. Some have sought to unite the Church by equalising all its members in every respect; by establishing an ultra-democracy which should

dispense with all official distinctions, and consequent subordination. But, besides that no society can exist without order, and order supposes discipline, and discipline government, it is evident that the Christian union inculcated in Scripture is quite compatible with the greatest diversity of official distinctions, and of spiritual gifts. For not only did our ascended Lord give some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;" but he gave them expressly to promote the union and welfare of his body the Church-gave them "for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." And that some, at least, of these offices were not intended to be confined to the primitive Church is evident, for they are to be continued "till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." Official distinctions in the Church then consist with its perfect oneness, and are essential to it.

Others have professed to unite the Church by adopting the opposite extreme. Taking the platform of the military government of Rome* for its model, and, indeed, in many respects, taking its place, the Romish church built up, in hierarchal order, a towering structure of ecclesiastical grandeur, gradation above gradation -a living pyramid-on whose summit was enthroned a ruling mind, and at whose base

* See Cave's Primitive Christianity.

stretched out the kneeling and obedient world. This was spiritual despotism, in its "pride of place," mistaking professed submission for vital union. But even that submission was only apparent; for, as we shall hereafter have occasion to show, the elements of resistance and repulsion were so often in activity, that-strange anomaly the world was occasionally called in to give peace to the Church. Had that sub

mission to the Pope, however, instead of being only apparent and partial, been universal and complete, the power that enforced it would still have wanted that sine qua non of all official authority in the Church-the warrant of its Divine Head. But had he willed a unity of this nature, his apostles would of course have enjoined and enforced it. Yet when discoursing expressly on the unity of the Church, concerning such a constitution they are silent. They even specify the nature of the fellowship they enjoin-that it is to consist of faith, of love, and of common obedience to the will of Christ-but not a word do they utter concerning a universal government under one visible head. So far were they from connecting together the churches of various lands, by the appointment of one official head, that they did not connect together, in this way, the churches even of the same province. Indeed, the state of the political world, at the time, rendered the subjection of the universal Church to one visible head, utterly impracticable. And when in process of time that mockery of a union was attempted, it excited the earnest deprecation of