Observations on Church Government

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that time, we find a vast concourse of people met together at that place.

The Apostles who had long been in the habit of believing the truth, were then by faith and fervent prayer, waiting for the promise of the Father -- ACTS i. 4, 5, and ACTS ii, throughout. Christ had promised that they should be baptized with the Holy Ghost and endued with power from on high. Accordingly, on the day of Pentecoft, the spirit came, like the rushing of a mighty wind ; and they were all filled with the Holy Gbost, and spake with other tongues, as the spirit gave them utterance. They being thus publicly set apart, and annointed with the Holy Ghost, were laid as the foundation of this spiritual tabernacle. Men had long been accustomed to look for God on a mount that might be touched, or in a temple made with hands : but now the dispensation is changed, and we behold the foundation of a spiritual temple -- an house not made with hands, nor bulit of dead materials, but of living stones. 1 PET. ii, 5.

While Jerusalem was the place to worship, the temple stood there, and never moved out of the spot, nor grew any larger ; but this new temple was designed to eclipse all the glory of the former, and fill the whole earth.* HAG, ii, 9. DAN. ii, 35. The same day, there were added to this building about three thousand, who continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine, in breaking of bread, and in prayers ; and the Lord added to the church, daily such as should be saved.

This one chruch is represented as a growing body, but never a single idea of others being formed out of it. Unity is one of its essential characteristics. Eph. iv,

* There were two temples at Jerusalem, figurative of two gospel churches. The first church was established, in consequence of Christ's first appearance ; and the second to be in consequence of his second appearance. The latter of which, was to eclipse the glory of the former and fill the whole earth : but both to be founded, and built by the same agent, namely, the Holy Ghost.

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4. 5. There is one body and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling ; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of alll, who is above all, and through all and in you all. This one church whose centre was visibly marked at Jerusalem, spread its circumference to all the countries round about, and will not cease to increase, till it includes the whole world, as leaven which is hid in three measures of meal, till the whole is leavened ; or as mustard seed hid in the ground, grows up into a great tree till the fowls of the air can lodge in the branches of it. -- In a short time after the day of pentecost, we find the church of God planted in Samaria, at Damascus, in the house of Cornelius &c. where it still appeared the same composed of believers, set up and anointed with theHoly Ghost. Great opposition was made to its progress, but the more did it daily increase & believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.

This one church of God, did not respect the persons, but the characters of men. It included Jews and Greeks, Barbarians, Scythians, bond and free. Hence, we find, in a little time, its members were dispersed over all the world, and were found in every nation under heaven, of every kindred and tongue upon the face of the earth.

From this view of the matter, would it not appear next to impossible, that persons so widely dispersed could be preserved in unity?

how were they fashioned alike ? Upon what principle were they united ? and by what rules were they obliged to walk ? What consession of faith had they as a bond of union ? what compendium of doctrines, or dedinite code of laws, to be universally subscribed ? Unhappy for the church in our day, (if there were such) they have been lost in the ruins of time, so that not a single trace of them is to be found. The only bond of union transmitted to us, and which is indeed the only bond that can unite B

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christians, is found in the holy scriptures, the true confession of faith, see EPH. iv. 15, 16. But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together, by that which every joint supplieth, ( or by the supply of every joint ) according to the effectual working ( or energy) in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying ( or building up) of itself in love. COL. ii. 19. holding the head, from which the whole body, by joints and bands, having nourishment ministered and knit together increaseth with the increase of God. We see here that from Christ the head, the living spirit flows to all the members, which fitly, or exactly joins, compacts, and knits them together in the bonds of love ; builds, or rears them up, worketh effectually, or exerts and exercises its energy according to the measure of size of every part, and ministers proper noursishment to promote the proportionate growth of every member of the body of Christ. This is the sweet anointing oil, the unction from the holy One, the spirit of God. or it is Christ himself by his spirit, shed abroad or diffused throughout the whole body, according to the capacity of every member.

This spirit is the cement, the true bond of union. Thus Christ prays, JOHN xvii, II, 21, 23 --" Holy Father, keep through thine own name, those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one ; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one, even as we are one ; I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one. We find here that Christ's prayer is, that his followers may be made one, and kept completely so ; not by means of some external law or form of words, but by the name of God. That they may be one in us says he : living and walking in the Father and the son ; and the Father and the Son living and walking in them : and thus to form and prserve the union, he gives them the glory which he received from the Father, i. e. his one spirit, whereby they are constituted one : for "he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit 1 Cor. vi, 7. Christ dwells in his heart by faith ;

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and as long as the members of the body continue in the faith, they are so intimately united, that any outward bond could only serve as a burdensome yoke. But if any of his professed members are not joined to the Lord in ore spirit, their outward bonds, are onlylike binding two or more dead bodies together, which hastens their purefaction, and renders their ill savor more intolerable to the living. Without this living spirit, the most perfect form or set of rules which could be made, tho' it were even by God himself, could not cement them together in the bonds of love, nor make them one in heart.

Mankind are not bound together like the parts of a machine, nor put in motion by external force ; they must be influenced by motive, and that motive must be in the heart. This is the law of God, received and engraven on the heart through faith ; hence it is said to be written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God ; not on tables of stone, but on fleshly tables of the heart. II Cor. iii, 3. After these days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws in their inward parts, and write them in their hearts. JER. xxxi. 33. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, to every one that believeth. ROM. x. 4. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart. He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him. The husbandman had an external law for his fig-tree ; -- that if it bore fruit, well, if not, he would cut it down. But the fig-tree was not governed by this law ; it acted according to a law in itself. So we are commanded to bring forth the fruits of HOLINESS, WITHOUT WHICH NO MAN SHALL SEE THE LORD. But this command, so long as it is not in our nature, has no more influence in the production of those fruits, than the command of the husbandman to his figtree. We see no outward law necessary to impel the rivers to the ocean - bind the stones to the surface of the earth, or prevent the trees from growing downward. No more dose a believer want an external law to oblige him to love God and his neighbor : for if there had been an external law given, which could

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have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. Examine your wheat-field, and you will find uniformity among all the grains : By what rule is this uniformity effected ? you may observe the same uniformity in every species of vegetables, plants and trees. and are those meaner things governed by real operative laws, and yet God's noblest creature, man, left at random to follow every shadow or image, and bend to every device of human wisdom ? No, there is one law and one government for man ; and all that are under that government are as uniform as the leaves on an apple-tree. This law is nothing less than the one spirit of the eternal God, which lives and operates in the chruch, as his body ; for by one spirit we are all baptized into one body, and have all been made to drink into that one spirit. Therefore, thay that have not this spirit, are lawless and disobedient, filthy dreamers, that defile the flesh, despise government, presumptuous are they, self-willed, who are not afraid to speak evil of dignities ; for if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Thus it appears that the Christian's law is in his heart, a copy* of which is drawn out in the new testament.

The members of the human body need no bond of union to cause them to act in concert, or to keep them from quarrelling and separating, but that spirit which animated the whole frame. The whole current of the new testament goes to shew that the spirit of Jesus is the true bond of union in his church ; but we find not the least intimation of any other bond being necessary. All who have received this one spirit, and are living and walking in it, are united together by the hand of God ; and what God hath joined together, let not man put asunder ; nay, it cannot be done, they are and must

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Our present copy of the new testament, is but a copy of a copy, &c. of a translation of a copy, &c. of what was written by the apostles ; and what they wrote, was only a copy of the internal law. Learned men say that a great many errors have crept in by so much copying and translating ; and if so, it must be the more necessary to have the original made manifest.