must be entered in the spirit of a little child; it is to the humble and the poor, pre-eminently, that the Gospel is sent; and the common people are they who have always heard Christ gladly. They are marks, moreover, not determinable by the Church, but by God. Nor are they exclusively for any Church to judge herself by, but for all men, and especially for believers, to judge every Church by. The testimony of any Church, that she possesses them may, or may not, be true; and must be received or rejected, according as it may be found to be. In their very nature, the marks of the true Church are anterior to the claim of any particular Church-they are logically independent of the Church, and completely and divinely decisive concerning the Church. It is, therefore, wholly absurd to speak of our ascertaining the Church first, and afterwards ascertaining through her, what her true marks are; which is the method of the Papacy, and a specimen of the methods of all in all ages, who exalt the historical element of the Church to supremacy over its logical and supernatural elements. It is a method by which it is impossible to arrive at truth; a device whereby the word of God, and the reason and conscience of man, are sought to be controlled, by whatever body of persons, that can obtain, by whatever means, dominion over whatever they see fit to call the Church of God. Its use has been to cast the responsibility of the most atrocious wickedness, and the most abominable perfidy-upon the Church of the living God. Whatever may be the risk of error in determining for ourselves, what these marks are, and where they exist, and by consequence, which is the Church; it is less by far-and there is no possibility of escaping it—than necessarily falls upon every human soul, in deciding the previous, and still more important questions, which relate to Christ, and to our own souls. Moreover, in both cases, the risk is not diminished-but is immeasurably increased-by trusting to human instead of divine guidance-by following the commandments of a worm like ourselves rather than the doctrine of the living God.'

3. There are but two ultimate foundations, upon one or the other of which everything must rest, and all human conduct proceed. One of these is authority, the other is reason: reason, pure and simple, in all natural things-reason, enlightened by divine grace, in all supernatural things. Either of these may be

Matt., xv. 9; Isaiah, xxix. 13, 14; Col., ii. 18-22.

adopted, and will conduct us completely; but nothing, except one of these, will do so. We may commit our souls to the authority of the priest, to the authority of antiquity, to the authority of the Church-to any authority, lower than that of God— and blindly follow it; and such are the peculiarities of the fallen human soul, that it may be degraded into an unquestioning obedience to its idol-even to its own perdition.' Or we may commit ourselves to the guidance of that reason, by which God has distinguished us above the beasts that perish; and addressing it to the great realities which environ us, follow the truth made known supernaturally by divine revelation, and effectually applied to our souls by the Holy Ghost. This is the method ordained of God, commanded in his word, and appropriate to our nature, both as created and regenerated by him. The true and the good become clearer to the soul, and are more precious, as its devotion to them is more constant. The power and the proportion of that divine faith by which we walk, open before our steadfast gaze. And as with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are all changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

CHAPTER XXIV.

PURITY OF FAITH: THE FIRST INFALLIBLE MARK OF THE

TRUE CHURCH.

I. 1. Alleged Difficulty of Knowing the True Church of Christ: Cause of whatever may exist: Impostures.-2. Nature of her Infallible Marks.-3. The State of the renewed Soul, responsive to the Revealed Salvation.-4. Purity of Faith, the First Infallible Mark of the True Church.-II. 1. Divine Revelation the Infallible Arbiter of the Purity of Faith-and the Infallible Rule by which to Judge the Church. -2. The Questions of Salvation-Church-Rule of Faith-and Judge of Controversions: Their indissoluble Connection.-3. The exact Relation of the True Church to the Question of the Purity of Faith.-4. God himself the Infallible Judge: In this World by his Word and Spirit: At the Last Day, by Jesus Christ.-5. The Imposture of an Earthly, Infallible, Judge of Faith, and of Controversies.---6. The Relation of all Christian Graces to Purity of Faith.-7. The Saving Work of the Holy Ghost-the Vital Test of the Purity of Faith, and of the Church itself.-8. The Regulative Power of Faith.—III. 1. Nature and ground of our Judgments concerning true Faith, and the true Church.-2. Symbolical Statements of the Christian Church.-3. Hatred and Vengeance of God against Corrupt and Apostate Churches.

I.-1. As soon as God's people on earth assume, by his direction and under his guidance, an organized, separate, visible, common existence; new obligations to each other, and to all mankind, as well as new obligations of individual men and of civil communities towards this divine society, arise out of its creation and action. One alleged difficulty in the performance of these duties, is the pretence of great uncertainty in ascertaining, amidst an immense variety of religions, which is that true Church of God whose existence amongst men gives rise to the duties themselves. Under this pretext, the wicked evade the obligation to follow Christ at all, and willingly confound his Church with every synagogue of Satan; while every anti-christ seeks, through it, to promote his own wicked ends, and to defeat the grace of God, which bringeth salvation. If the world, and more especially the children of Christ, would follow simply and earnestly the light of that reason, with which God has endowed us, and the teachings of that divine word, which he has given to be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto

our path, it is not easy to imagine how the least obscurity could hang over such a question. If the Church were, what she should be-even then the wicked might hate and shun her; but it would be for her glory and beauty-and not upon the shameful pretext that the house of Judah is like all the heathen. As long as the people of God manifest clearly, the new life which animates them, men cannot well avoid taking knowledge of them, that they have been with Jesus; nor can joint inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven fail to recognize each other, and so recognize the body, which they unitedly compose. A city cannot be hid, if it be set on a hill; and salt is cast upon the dunghill, only when it has lost its savour. And it has happened during the most deplorable corruptions of the Church in the high places of the earth, that the obscure and despised but faithful disciples of the Lord, have found refuge, though it were in dens and caves of the earth; and when prevented by persecution from publicly manifesting God's Kingdom, or when unable amidst surrounding darkness and corruption to discern that it existed, they saw plainly that those who claimed to be the Church of Christ, were indeed the Synagogue of Satan. It is in order to favour the pretensions of corrupt, persecuting, and apostate Churches, that all those false and delusive means of distinguishing the true Church, which occupy so large a space in controversies, and which are discussed in systems of theology-were at first invented, and have been so vehemently defended. I leave to those controversies and those systems, the settlement of the true value of such impostures. The whole subject, which to the true Christian is practically extremely simple, has its chief importance in the clear statement of that, which if it had never been intentionally corrupted and obscured, could never have come to be doubted. To that statement, therefore, I will address myself.

2. The Kingdom of God on earth, as I have sufficiently proved, is constituted out of his elect, redeemed, and regenerated people. The nature and end of that Kingdom, have a precise relation to that definite principle and method of its composition. It is, as so composed, of such a nature and for such an end, that it becomes visible more and more, by becoming more and more perfectly organized. Its absolute freedom, thus organized and visible, is complete in its perfect separation from the world, and its perfect consecration to Christ, its only Head. Its supernatural

element is, therefore, its distinguishing element-as exponents. of which its logical and historical elements find their chief value. Inevitably, therefore, whatever mark infallibly distinguishes this divine Kingdom, must be in complete accordance with these elemental truths, and must make full account of them all. Whatever pretended mark does not obviously meet this necessity, must obviously be a fallacy and an imposture. Whatsoever mark does obviously meet it, is beyond all peradventure, a permanent and infallible mark of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Where any such mark is found, there is found a portion of that Church. -it may be an imperfect one-but still a true portion, of that Church just as there are real but feeble Christians. Where the whole of these marks are found-and they are both few and simple-there beyond all doubt, that Church is found in her beauty, her strength, and her completeness.

3. Now the fundamental characteristic of every elect, redeemed, and regenerated person-that is of every member of the Church we seek is, that he is a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, as the only and all-sufficient Saviour of sinners. To perpetuate and to propagate this belief on earth, for the glory of God and the salvation of men, is the fundamental object of the existence of the Church, and of all its efforts to perfect and extend itself. Every step by which the Church has become organized, visible, and complete, has been a step perfecting, enlarging, and confirming this belief, and making every method of perpetuating and extending it, more and more complete and efficacious. The subject matter of the belief itself, the mode of its communication to men; the power by which it is made effectual unto salvation; all the steps by which those who cherish it, are united, organized, and separated from the world into one body unto Christ; and the total action of that one body, unto the great ends of its own existence: all are supernatural-all are by divine revelation. It is a revealed Saviour, revealed truth, revealed holiness, a revealed Church, a revealed immortality. All are brought nigh to us, and manifested in the union of all who are united to Christ-in the organized communion of all who have communion with Christ. This is that which we profess to seek. That in man which is responsive to all this, God and all God's people in all ages express by a single word-Faith: faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ.'

1

Rom., i. 16, 17; 1 John, v. 10; Eph., i. 13–23; ii. 3–21.