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church. So at the close of the present period, ere the sentence of excision is executed on christendom, the true church will be raised to its own place in heavenly glory with its Head. At Pentecost, and for some time afterwards, the church and christendom were identical: the church was christendom, and christendom was the church. We know, however, how evil men crept in unawares, how the enemy sowed tares among the wheat, how grievous wolves entered in not sparing the flock, and perverse men arose, drawing away disciples after them. We know how the mystery of iniquity which wrought even in the apostles' days has continued to work, and how, as the result, christendom has not continued in God's goodness. But, notwithstanding this, the true church has never ceased to exist. Through this whole dark period, all who, through grace, have been quickened to believe in Christ, have been identified with his position in heavenly places, and have been, in fact, and are, his body, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who forms and fashions them by heavenly hopes for heavenly blessedness and glory. The cutting off of christendom, need I say, will not touch the life of one single member of this elect body, or bride of Christ. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." "Because I live, ye shall live also." But how are we to use this precious certainty of everlasting life? Surely not to reconcile ourselves to those evils, or to connivance at those evils, which are drawing down the heaviest judgments of God on that which professes the name of Christ. That would be to turn the grace of God into lasciviousness" indeed! No, let us rejoice in the assured, unfailing certainty of being with our Head and Bridegroom in the glory which has been given to him, and which he has given to us; let us the more bless God for it, seeing the end that awaits the poor world around us-the christian world-(sad paradox and contradiction) as it terms itself; but let us never forget, that "he hath this hope in him (Christ), purifieth himself even as he is pure.' Never let us seek to reconcile ourselves to anything which will not bear the light of his coming glory. What that glory will consume, is no object for our affections or pursuit. The Lord grant us the full sanctifying power of the heavenly hope, which sovereign grace has made, with such precious certainty, our own.

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With christendom we are sufficiently identified by a

common profession of christianity, and by personal participation, alas! in its sins, to feel the sentence of excision pronounced on it, to be a loud call on us to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. It was when Josiah was informed that nothing could cause the sentence to be revoked which had gone forth against Jerusalem and Judah, personal exemption indeed being promised to him, that he still further humbled himself before the Lord, and set about promoting a reformation which had till then no parallel in the nation's history. The judgments could not be averted, and they were not: but Josiah's penitence was fully owned of God, and the reformation he was used to bring about was a bright testimony for God, on the very eve of the nation's overthrow. O for something of his spirit! "Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me: I have even heard thee also, saith the Lord. Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of the same.' 2 Chron. xxxiv, 27, 28. We, my brethren, are not comforted by the assurance of being gathered to the grave in peace, but by the hope of being gathered to meet the Lord in the air, so that when the judgments come, we shall not be amid the scene on which they are poured but in the heavens whence they issue. But surely the effect of such a hope, is not to make the heart indifferent to the dishonour cast on Christ's name by the sins of those who bear it, whether really, or in profession only. We are identified with that to which Christ has, in his absence, so to speak, entrusted his glory; and can we refuse to bow our heads, and by confessing our sin and bearing the shame and sorrow of it before him, justify him in those judgments, by which, ere long, he will vindicate his despised and dishonoured claims, and make manifest, that however we may have forgotten his glory, he remembers it, and knows how to assert and manifest it, to the glory of his Father, the joy of his saints, the confusion of his adversaries, and the deliverance of an oppressed and groaning creation! To his name be glory

for ever.

(Price One Penny.)

No. 5. [Plain Papers on Prophetic] May, 1853. and other Subjects.

CHRIST AND THE CHURCH.

Alas!

THE responsibilities and the doom of christendom were what last occupied us. But within the sphere to which the name of christendom attaches, there exists that which is unspeakably precious to God the Father, and to the Lord Jesus Christ. What is that of which we thus speak? It is THE CHURCH OF GOD. The true portion, the highest privileges of the church of God, as well as the responsibilities flowing therefrom, were purposely passed by in our last number. Our attention was confined to such views of the responsibility of those who bear the name of Christ, as christians generally would be able to recognise. that to christians generally the church of God is a subject but little known. I do not mean that they are not true believers-that they are not saved. A man may be a true believer, and know little about the church of God. A man may be a member of that church (as all true believers during the present period are,) and yet be ignorant of its nature and destiny. The church is the bride of Christhis body. It is the habitation of the Holy Ghost. Its calling is a heavenly one. Its portion and its hopes are heavenly. Its continuance here is only to represent Christ, and shew forth the riches of the grace of God. When its formation and discipline are completed, it will be removed to its own heavenly sphere; and God will then begin to deal in judgment with the earth. How distinguished must be the privileges, and how solemn the responsibilities of such a body! And seeing that christendom has assumed this place, and pretends to be nothing less than this church of God, how seriously are its own responsibilities enhanced thereby! Let us now turn our attention to this subject, and inquire what light is shed upon it in the word of God. The Lord

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grant us very simple faith, and the spirit of sobriety and godly fear, in pursuing this inquiry.

It was not till after the death and resurrection of Jesus that the church began. In the purpose of God, as we shall see, it existed before all worlds. But as to its actual existence on earth, the church was formed by the descent of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost. Those who till then had been individual believers, disciples of Christ, were by the descent of the Holy Ghost incorporated into one body; and that body, which has existed ever since, is the church of God. Christ glorified is the Head of this body. All true believers in Christ are its members. The Holy Ghost unites the members to the Head, and to each other. He dwells in the body, moreover, supplying life, strength, guidance, and blessing from the Head to the whole; his own presence constituting its sole power of growth, unity, testimony, and rule. Such is the scriptural idea of the church. But to understand what the New Testament teaches us concerning it, it is necessary that we consider certain previous dealings of God with mankind.

From the time when sin entered the world, and God gave the promise of the serpent's overthrow by the woman's seed, there have always been those who have been "saved by grace through faith." Abel, Seth, Enoch, and Noah in the antediluvian period; since then, Abraham and others, patriarchs, prophets, priests, and kings; besides multitudes whose names have not been transmitted to us, but who are noticed in Heb. xi. as having lived in faith and died in faith, looking for a better resurrection, are proofs that God never left himself without a witness, even in the darkest times. But these believers of other days were never incorporated into one body. They were never formed into an assembly inhabited and ruled by the Holy Ghost. Enoch walked with God. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Isaac and Jacob followed in the pilgrim steps of their father Abraham. Joseph was enabled through grace to maintain his integrity in circumstances of most terrible temptation. Moses had close converse with God for forty days and forty nights on the summit of the mount. Joshua led the victorious armies of Israel into the promised land. Samson, Jephthah, and others, were used of God as instruments of deliverance to Israel. Samuel was the chosen instrument and channel of renewed blessing after the ark had been carried away, and the house of God at Shiloh had

been overthrown. David, the man after God's own heart, served his own generation by the will of God, and fell asleep. Others might be mentioned, Elijah, Elisha, and multitudes besides. But all these are presented to us in God's word, as individual servants of his-not as members of a body. They were men of faith. Their devotion and obedience shine brightly on the pages of the inspired record. But there is not such a thought suggested by all that is said of them, as that they were members of "the body, the church." They were quickened by the Spirit, beyond all doubt. By virtue of the foreseen sacrifice of Christ, they were forgiven and saved. They will all have part in the first resurrection, and partake of heavenly glory. There can be no question as to any of these things. But no one of these things, no, nor all of them together, constitute the church. The church shares these things, life, justification, resurrection, and heavenly glory, with the saints of old Testament times; but what constitutes the church, is something distinct from, and beyond all these things. It is the actual living unity with Christ and with each other of those who since Christ's resurrection are formed into this unity by the presence of the Holy Ghost come down from heaven. Was there anything like this in Old Testament times?

God had a nation, indeed, in Old Testament times; and the history of this nation, with the prophetic details of the counsels and purposes of God respecting it, form the principal subjects of the Old Testament scriptures. Israel was not manifested as a nation, until its redemption out of Egypt by the hand of Moses. Long before this, God had promised to the patriarchs, that their seed should possess the land of Canaan; but now this promise was to be accomplished.

My object is not to consider the way in which God fulfilled his promise and brought them into the land. My readers know well that this was done, and that the nation of Israel possessed the land for many hundreds of years. Placed there under God's immediate government, they proved themselves in the land, what they had already shewn themselves to be in the wilderness, a stiff-necked and rebellious nation. God had long patience with them; now chastising them for their sins, and then on their confessing and bewailing their iniquities, raising up for them judges, who first delivered and then governed them. A crisis of national iniquity led to the setting aside of this order of things, and the elevation of David to the throne. With David God