their perseverance in that state, or their final salvation, being left undecided. That they were brought into "a state of salvation" is all that the passage affirms; but the question is, what did this expression, in their case, imply? Nothing is more common than to hear it explained as signifying merely the being brought within reach of the means of grace, or admitted into a visible Church; a privilege which, of course, may be enjoyed equally by the unrenewed and by the renewed in heart; so that all the members of a Church, however destitute of sanctifying grace, may equally be said to be in a state of salvation. It is certain, however, that in the passage alluded to, the expression means much more than this; for, on inspecting the context, we find that the "saved" who were added to the Church were true penitents and believers. The exhortation of St. Peter was, "Repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins:" "they that gladly received his word"—that is, did repent and accept the offer of salvation-"were baptized; and of such as these, not of the unrenewed in heart, were the daily accessions made to the Church. And, indeed, a moment's reflection will show that "a state of salvation," by the mere force of the words, signifies the state, not of those who may be, at some future time, but of those who are in the way of being saved; and no one, we know, is in the way of being saved who is not under the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit.* Admission, then, to a visible Church pre-supposed, in the Apostles' times, the existence of a new heart; which is precisely what is affirmed concerning the import of the word regeneration.

It is with a constant reference to the cardinal distinction above mentioned that we are to interpret the expressions which have passed from the Jewish into the Christian economy. Thus to take the instance of the words "elect" and "called," which express the same idea under a slightly different aspect:-the Jewish nation, as a body politic, was chosen out of the nations of the earth to be the repository of the divine oracles, and to be brought into a

The importance of carefully considering the import of words is strikingly illustrated by the instance mentioned in the text. Most of the difficulties which our catechism is supposed to present will be found to disappear, by simply bearing in mind that the "state of salvation" into which the child thanks God for having been brought means, not merely access to the means of grace, but a state of holiness, a state which, if persevered in, will issue in salvation. The child is supposed to be a penitent, believing, child, so far as a child can repent and believe, and as such, his baptism being supposed to have issued in a real change of heart, he is "a member of Christ" &c. All this is plain enough when we consider that the child prays that God may continue him in the state in which he now is; which cannot therefore be supposed to be an unsanctified state: but the erroneous meaning attached to the expression "a state of salvation" has prevented persons from seeing it.

peculiar relation to Jehovah as its tutelary God: this was a privilege, in the strictest sense of the Word, for the revealed knowledge of God was purposely withheld from the rest of the world; and the covenanted advantages connected with it were of a national and temporal kind, such as the possession of Canaan, and earthly prosperity. Eternal rewards did not belong to the nation as such, but to the pious members of it. The corresponding fact under the Christian economy is, not national, but, individual election; and election, not merely to external connexion with a visible Church, or access to the means of grace (what is to prevent any heathen from placing himself under the preaching of the Word?) but, to the effectual grace of the Holy Spirit renewing the heart. In like manner, when St. Paul speaks of Christians as the "called" of God, he means, not merely that the Gospel invitation has been addressed to them, but that they have accepted it: he takes for granted that the inward call of the Spirit has accompanied the outward one of the Word. Election to the mere possibility, apart from the actual foretaste, of salvation is an idea unknown to the New Testament Scriptures. Living, sanctifying, union with Christ is everywhere presupposed in those who are called the elect of God:- as when St. Paul connects election and calling directly with justification; with the foretaste of glory; with adoption; and with the sanctifying work of the Spirit:* and St. Peter declares that "sanctification by the Spirit," "obedience," 'and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ," were the blessings to which the Christians whom he addressed were chosen.† Whether the persons addressed were elected to continue in the state in which they were then supposed to be; whether their election and calling involved the certainty of their final salvation-this is another question which has no particular bearing upon the point before us. The introduction of the Calvinistic controversy into the discussion is irrelevant, and has tended to perplex a very simple truth,-viz. that the present state of the elect of God is, according to the New Testament, one of conscious participation in the blessings of the Gospel; one which contains in itself the earnest of future bliss, whether we suppose it to be indefectible, or the reverse. ‡

• Rom. viii. 30.; Ephes. i. 5.; Col. iii. 12. See also 1 Thes. i. 4, 5.

† 1 Pet. i. 2.

"Every Christian is called and elected to the Christian privileges, just as every Jew was to his". . . . . "there is no such distinction among Christians as the 'called' and the uncalled, the elect and the non-elect."-Whately's Essays, 2d series, Essay III. This remark is perfectly just; only care must be taken to attach to the term "Christian" its proper meaning. A Christian is a man in Christ," one, that is, who not merely has had certain spiritual blessings proposed to his acceptance, or placed within his reach (if this

The same remarks apply to the term adoption, or sonship, com mon both to the Law and the Gospel. The Jewish violɛoía, or privilege of sonship, belonged to the nation as such, that is, to all the descendants of Abraham after the flesh, without reference to any distinction between those of them who were and those who were not renewed in heart. But this "adoption," which belonged to Israel after the flesh, was but a figure of the privilege which the Christian enjoys, just as the "glory" mentioned in the same passage was but a symbol of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the spiritual temple-the Church of Christ. If the prophets sometimes appear to employ the phrase "sons of God" in a more restricted sense, to signify those of the elect nation who were spiritual as well as natural descendants of Abraham, it is only one of the many instances in which prophecy was anticipatory of the Gospel. Under the Christian dispensation, the privilege of adoption is inseparably connected with the spirit of adoption, whereby the Christian cries, Abba Father, and which is in him the earnest of the future inher

were all that was necessary to make a man a Christian, every heathen or Jew living in a Christian country would be entitled to the appellation; for the blessings of salvation are offered to him, are placed within his reach, and he has only to appropriate them), but has accepted the offer, and is in the enjoyment of Christian privileges, — viz. the favour of God, the spirit of adoption, sanctification, and the hope of eternal life. Every such Christian, indeed, that is every real Christian (and such the Apostles took for granted those to be to whom they addressed their epistles) — is one of the called and elected of God. This, however, is not the Author's meaning. By "every Christian" his argument requires that we should understand Christians of all sorts-e. g. nominal, unsanctified, Christians; every one, in short, who has been initiated into a visible Church, it being immaterial to the ides whether he have saving faith in Christ or not, or even be a secret unbeliever. That such persons have a claim to be regarded as the called, or the elect of God, or the sons of God, in the New Testament sense of the expressions, we must require clearer evidence for believing than has hitherto been produced. But this is the error which pervades the whole of the valuable work alluded to; its foundation being the non-recognition of the scriptural distinction between visible Churches and the mystical body of Christ, a subject which will come under consideration hereafter. Melancthon teaches us the true view of the relation between the Jewish and the Christian dispensation:- Propter has (promissiones corporalium rerum) dicebatur 'populus Dei' etiam mali in his (Judæis), quia hoc carnale semen Deus separaverat ab aliis gentibus per certas ordinationes externas et promissiones: et tamen mali illi non placebant Deo. At evangelium affert non umbram æternarum rerum sed ipsas res æternas, Spiritum Sanctum et justitiam, quâ coram Deo justi sumus. Igitur illi tantum sunt populus juxta evangelium qui hanc promissionem Spiritus accipiunt.” Apol. Conf. Aug. cap. 4.

The same theoretical defect pervades certain sections of another valuable work (Sumner's Apostolical Preaching), with the practical conclusions of which all sober interpreters of Scripture must agree. On the subject of "grace," for example, the writer, after quoting several passages in which Christians are addressed as regenerate, as members of Christ, as washed, sanctified, and justified (Rom. vi. 3.; Col. ii. 12; Rom. viii. 5.), observes, that "these addresses and exhortations are founded on the principle that the disciples, by their dedication to God in baptism, had been brought into a state of reconcilement with him, had been admitted to privileges which the Apostles call on them to improve:" whence the

itance: a Christian privilege of sonship, apart from the sanctifying work of the Spirit, is a fiction of divines, for which no ground is found in Scripture. "As many as are led by the Spirit of God they" (and they only, as the Apostle's meaning obviously is) "are," under the Gospel dispensation, "the sons of God:"* this is the uniform language of the New Testament, from which no passage can be produced in which the expression "sons of God" may not be shown necessarily to presuppose a saving change of heart in those who are thus addressed.

To all this, however, it will be replied that the nature of a visible Church, which we know must in all cases be a body of mixed character, as well as the actual state of several of the churches to whom St. Paul addressed his epistles, forbid the supposition that, in terming them communities of saints and believers, he could have used these words in their highest signification. This is the second difficulty which it is conceived lies in the way of our interpreting the Apostle's language literally. But a moment's reflection will show that the difficulty is only imaginary. We must recollect

conclusion drawn is, that in the present day all the members of every visible Church are, by virtue solely of their consecration to God in baptism, to be regarded as members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven. But equity requires that we put not out of view what had taken place in the disciples to whom St. Paul wrote antecedently to their baptism. Had they not been baptized on the presumption that they were penitent believers? And whence came it, that they gave heed to the message of salvation, repented, and believed? Scripture itself informs us,-"The Lord opened the heart of Lydia, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul" (Acts, xvi. 14): in other words, a special work of grace, antecedent to baptism, accompanied the Word, and made it in their case effectual to produce repentance and faith In addressing a society composed of persons who were supposed to have experienced, previously to baptism, the same work of grace which had taken place in Lydia, it would of course have been out of place to make any distinction between individuals; all the members of the Church were supposed to be true believers, and to have been baptized as such: many may have been hypocrites; but they were not baptized as hypocrites or nominal Christians. In short, as remarked in the text, St. Paul addresses Christians according to their profession, according to what, if their profession was sincere, they actually were. How far his expressions are applicable to a church composed of persons baptized in infancy is another question; but it must never be forgotten that this was not the case of those to whom St. Paul wrote. Consequently we cannot at once, and without further discussion, argue from the one case to the other; before we can do this, both the practice and the doctrine of infant baptism must be far more clearly established than by the sole aid of Scripture they have hitherto been. The source of the error may be thought to be visible in the following passage from the same work;-"St. Paul authorizes us to believe. . . . that grace sufficient is denied to none to whom the offer of salvation is made through faith in Christ Jesus, and who are united to him in baptism." (p. 150.) It is not the mere "offer," but the acceptance of Gospel blessings, that prepares men for baptism, and the acceptance of the Gospel implies repentance and faith, or a change of heart in those who accept it. The offer of salvation was made to multitudes who never became members even of the visible Church, but remained in their heathenism.

* Rom. viii. 14. 17. Compare Gal. iv. 5. 7.

that in the Apostolic Church an effective discipline—the very idea of which seems to be lost amongst us - existed. By means of this discipline, they having been separated from the society whose overt acts were contrary to their Christian profession, the Apostle, not being endowed with the divine prerogative of inspecting the heart, was compelled to take the rest at their profession, and to deal with them as real Christians, so long as there was no visible, tangible, proof to the contrary. He addressed Christian churches not as they were in fact, but according to the idea: that is, according to what they ought to be. St. Paul was well aware, that, however far the sifting process might be carried, no visible Church could ever be rendered an unmixed community of saints: but the question is, all that man can do towards making the fact correspond with the idea being done, what style of address was then to be adopted? Was the Apostle to attempt a further and more subtle discrimination between those who were inwardly tares and the true followers of Christ? The attempt would have been equally vain and presumptuous. He took the only course open to him. Without pronouncing upon the state of individuals in the sight of God, he assumed the whole body to be what it professed to be a body of real Christians. For it must be remembered that, however far his profession may be from being a true one, every professor of Christianity professes to be a true, not a mere nominal, Christian. Except on this assumption, the Apostle could not have proceeded to enforce Christian duties by Christian motives. A lecturer on colours must take for granted that his hearers possess the faculty of sight: yet he knows that there may be persons born blind amongst them. A Christian addressing a body of professing Christians must assume that they are Christians: otherwise, he has no ground on which to stand. In addressing them as such, he does not presume to say which of them are, and which are not, living members of Christ: he may suspect, he may even be certain, that they are not all what they profess to be; but is he therefore to descend from the high ground of Christian privilege, and take up that of mere nominal professorship? Surely not. The Church is to be designated not from the tares, but from the wheat; not from what it is in fact, (for in fact it is always imperfect), but from what it aims at being; not from its present earthly condition, in which it is always found mixed with heterogeneous elements, but from what it will be at the day of Christ, when a final separation will take place between it and everything which did not really belong to it.