CONCLUSION.

GENERAL SUMMING UP OF THE ARGUMENT.

IN gathering into one view the results of the preceding inquiry. it will not be necessary to repeat the remarks which have been already made on the progressive tendency of the earlier revelation, from an external system of coercive discipline, and of symbolical ordinances, to religion in its inward- that is, its immutable — aspect. Taking up the subject at the point where it was left, we proceed to observe that the anticipations which we should be led, from a survey of the course of preceding revelation, to form respecting the nature of the Christian dispensation, have been found realized. In Christianity the visible theocracy which prescribed to the outward act is seen giving place to an inner theocracy -that of the Spirit, the external instrument of direction being the Word of God. Had it been otherwise, the Gospel, instead of being the consummation of all preceding dispensations, would have been a retrograde movement towards the shadows of Judaism. In short, the new Covenant of Christ is seen to be a continuation, not of that of Moses, but of the original covenant entered into with Abraham, which was founded upon a promise upon God's, and faith upon man's, part, and which the Law was never intended to disannul. As for the Law, entering or coming in parenthetically,* as it did, for a special purpose, it was, as soon as it had fulfilled its end, abolished; and the two covenants, between which it had been temporarily interposed, came together again, or, rather, the covenant of Abraham received in the Gospel its full accomplishment.

The purposes of revealed religion required that Christianity should be embodied in a visible Church, or aggregate of such churches, and possess positive institutions: and provisions were made to that end, either directly or indirectly, by Christ Himself. But the visible institutions of Christianity, whether rites or polity, are founded on a principle wholly different from that which pervaded the Mosaic appointments. They are not only fewer in num

*Hapeioner. Rom. v. 20.

ber, but their import and their mode of operation are different. Instead of working from without inwards,—that is, impressing, by means of discipline and habituation, an inward character, they pre-suppose that living union with Christ which constitutes the essence of saving religion. When Christianity came into the world, the Law, which operated by means of external discipline, was presumed to have done its work; and Christianity, instead of being a new law, took up the disciple of Moses at the point of spiritual progress at which the Law had left him, and carried him on to the freedom of the Gospel-the liberty of that real sonship which comes to man through union with the only begotten Son of God. The same process is repeated in the case of each individual Christian. The moral law does its work first on the heart, but only to lead to an immediate apprehension of Christ in His various offices by faith. Hence the sacraments are efficacious, not ex opere operato, but because of the faith of the receiver; which faith they seal and strengthen indeed, but do not in the first instance communicate; for ordinarily it comes by the Word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit. As regards the organization of Christian societies, the pattern after which it was to proceed was not delivered directly by Christ: it was in existence long before the Saviour appeared upon earth. And the work itself proceeded slowly, and by degrees, as need required. The Church had no existence, as an institution, antecedently to that of believers in Christ: * it was first visible in those believers, when, on the day of Pentecost, they received the new spiritual influence which flows from the glorified Saviour. All that followed in the way of external organization was the result, and the visible evidence, of the life within; just as in the individual Christian the visible fruits of the Spirit proceed from the sanctified affections imparted to him from above. Further additions to the simple polity of the first congregation of believers were deferred until the want of them was felt. This comparative liberty of action, as regards external matters, is precisely what we should expect if Christianity be, as compared with Judaism, the manhood of the spiritual life; if it be a religion of spirit and truth; if in it that real fellowship of man with God, which preceding dispensations did but pre-figure, is vouchsafed to all believers.

Such are the facts which an examination of the inspired record has brought out to view; and the conclusion to which they lead seems obvious. When we come to define what the Church of

.

For some good observations on this point, see Moehler's work, Einheit in der Kirche, Sect. 49.

Christ is, in its essential being, we must adopt the Protestant definition, viz. that it is, primarily and before it is anything else, a community of saints. For the definition of a thing must express its differentia, or specific difference; and its differentia must be drawn from that in it which is eternal and unchangeable; that which is the real basis of its visible existence; that which makes it what it is antecedently to the exhibition of its visible organic form. But this, in the case of the Christian Church, we have found to be the unseen presence of the spirit of Christ. This is what gives to the Church its existence in the sight of God, —that is, its real, as distinguished from its apparent, existence. The spiritual presence of the Saviour was, in fact, vouchsafed antecedently to the use of any of the visible ordinances, or appointments, by which its existence was to be permanently manifested; for the celebration of the Sacraments, and the regulations of polity, followed, not preceded, the invisible power from above which transformed a company of Jewish believers into a Church of Christ. The order of things thus at the first divinely established is an intimation of that which was to be observed throughout the whole course of the dispensation. For thus we learn that it is neither sacraments nor an Apostolical ministry that give being to the Church: they did not give it being when it first came into existence, and what they did not confer then they cannot confer now. What they gave to the Church, then, was not its true, but its visible, being, its being in the sight of men: and this is precisely the relation in which they now stand to it. Not that the Sacraments are not positive appointments, and of perpetual obligation; not that the Church is not essentially visible:-all that is affirmed is that its true essence does not lie in the appointments by which it becomes visible, but in that which those appointments presuppose, viz. the inhabitation of Christ by His Spirit in the hearts of believers. When Christ, according to His promise, came into the midst of the primitive One Hundred and Twenty, the new temple of God was really established upon earth, though as yet it had not put on a visibly organized form.

In perfect conformity with this view of the Church we have found the Apostles addressing Christian Churches as societies, not of mere professors of the Christian faith, but of saints and believers; and on that ground urging upon them the duties of a Christian life. Each Church is regarded, not as an institution, but as a living body, animated throughout by the Spirit of God: from which internal spring of action all its acts, as a Church, are sup

posed to emanate. No visible Church is exactly what it professes to be; but any difficulty hence arising is obviated by the protestant and scriptural distinction between the body of Christ as it is in itself and as it becomes visible, or, in popular language, between the invisible and the visible Church. In its present imperfect manifestation, as an aggregate of visible churches, the mystical body of Christ appears in external conjunction with elements which do not properly belong to it, and which yet it cannot separate from itself: these, therefore, to use the language of Augustin, it tolerates until the day of Christ, without, however, lowering its own proper idea, so as to make it comprehend both the tares and the wheat. Hence the great importance of that distinction, without the aid of which it is difficult either to reconcile Scripture with itself or the actual facts of the Church with Scripture. Romanism meets the difficulty by lowering the idea so as to correspond with the fact, thereby depriving the Church of all its real value in the of the Christian, and reducing it, as Melancthon observes, to the level of a mere secular polity.

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If the progressive tendency of revelation from the first, and the actual facts connected with the establishment of Christianity, are incompatible with the Romish conception of the Church, not less irreconcileable is that conception with Christian feeling and the conclusions of reason. Nothing can be more offensive to Christian instinct, if we may be allowed the expression, than the notion that Christ's mystical body-the holy Catholic Church- comprehends, according to its idea, both the good and the bad, — that is, that it is, in its true essence, a body morally indifferent. Let the theory be pushed to its extreme limit; let it be supposed that sanctifying faith were altogether to perish from Christendom, leaving, however, the polity of the Church and the visible signs of the Sacraments in existence; we should still have to believe that the members of such Christian societies, if they may be so called, are true members of Christ's body, and consequently of Christ Himself; and, because they are in Christ, are in a state of salvation, or in the way of being saved! The enormity of such a view is manifest: yet it is only the legitimate consequence of the Romish theory. But this theory offends against reason also. For it severs the Church militant from the Church triumphant, and makes the body of Christ, which Scripture affirms to be one, to consist of two incongruous parts. It has been already observed that the two parts of which the body of Christ is composed-the Church militant and the Church triumphant—are in real, though

not visible, conjunction, and together make up the one body of which Christ is the head. Now it is difficult to conceive how one body under one head, the members of which, by the supposition, have a vital organic connexión with the head, can be composed of two heterogeneous parts, or resemble the ill-compacted image of Daniel, the head of which was of fine gold, and the feet part of iron and part of clay. But, according to the Romish doctrine, this is actually the case. That part of Christ's body which consists of departed saints is, confessedly, a community, not of mixed composition, as every visible Church on earth is, but of saints, in the strict and highest sense of the word. We have ground to believe that with their mortal bodies the saints deposit whatever of sin and imperfection adhered to them in this life; and that the work of grace, which was here incomplete, is perfected after death. Thus while the severance of the whole body from the wicked, who were here in external conjunction with it, is deferred until the end of all things, a partial separation is even now effected by the transfer of each sanctified soul, as it departs from the body, into a place, or state, where there is no admixture of evil. This part of the body of Christ, therefore, is, in its composition, essentially holy; the holiness of its members being not a separable accident, but an essential property; not merely a corporate, but a personal, one. But, according to the teaching of Rome, the other part-the Church militant upon earth-is of a different character, being, according to the idea, a community of mixed composition, comprehending within its pale both good and bad: it is holy only in its corporate capacity, as being consecrated to the service of God, which is by no means incompatible with the supposition of its members being personally unsanctified. Thus we have two parts, heterogeneous in nature, coalescing into one homogeneous whole: the part in paradise excluding from its idea any admixture of evil; the part upon earth embracing within itself both the renewed and the unrenewed in heart. How an amalgamation of this kind can take place it is difficult to conceive. We may place things the formal characteristic of which is diverse side by side, or in simple juxtaposition; but we cannot, either in fact or mentally, combine them into one homogeneous body.

The same difficulty may be thus stated:-If the wicked are

The body, that is, so far as it is completed: for, in strictness of language, the Church of Christ comprehends, not only the departed saints and those now upon earth, but also those who shall believe upon Him to the end of time. At present the Church is imperfect, because the number of God's elect is not accomplished. - See Burial Service, First Collect.