consequence of this great event, all who from the beginning had died in the faith of the promise; with all who now on earth believed its accomplishment, were formed into one body under their common head by the Spirit, which was not given till Jesus was glorified. Now the spirits of just men were made perfect, God having provided some better thing for us, (says Paul to the Hebrews,) that they without us should not be made perfect. They were happy before in the joyful expectation of the accomplishment of their promise; but as they could not see it accomplished, so they received not the grand thing promised till now. They had been from the beginning chosen to this kingdom, now they were incorporated into it.

The holy angels are brought into a new order in this kingdom, and they enjoy greater happiness, by sering more of the Divine glory, while they act as servants to the Son of man in ministering to the heirs of salvation, than while they exercise the high powers given them in the earthly theocracy: For unto the angels (says Paul) hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.

The seat of this kingdom is in heaven, and all the grand things spoken of Jerusalem, the seat of power and centre of worship in the earthly theocracy, hold true in their fullest sense when applied to this; and they are constantly applied, accordingly, in the writings of the prophets explained by the apostles. Moreover, all the power of this kingdom is exercised by the king himself, without any deputies or representatives. This kingdom, then, cannot be moved; no enemy, no deceiver, can approach to the seat of power, where all the interests of the kingdom are eternally secured.

But this kingdom, for the sake of its imperfect subjects, and for the sake of those who are chosen to be yet made subjects of it, makes likewise an appearance on the earth in the open profession of the faith in the world.

To support this open profession, that the truth might be retained in its simplicity among those who believed, that it might be confirmed by its genuine effects, and that the light thereof might shine before all men, societies were gathered in divers places, by the influence of the gospel on the minds of men, and formed by the inspired apostles into church order, so as that each of them should be a representation by itself of Christ's kingdom in the city or region where it was gathered. Each of these societies, then, which were formed by the direction of the apostles, might justly be considered as a heavenly theocracy on earth. For as all the concerns of its union were heavenly, so in these it was subject to no jurisdiction

under heaven. And, indeed, nothing less than the power of Christ's resurrection, and motives arising from the state of things beyond the grave, could preserve the members of such a society in fervent love to the truth, and patient suffering for it, and retain them in the order and appoint them, the younger subject to the elder, and all of them one to another, in the fear of God.

Accordingly, we find the names and descriptions of the one entire heavenly kingdom, commonly applied by the apostles to each of these societies, as, The church of God, the body of Christ, the spouse of Christ, &c. In the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, we see with what Divine power and majesty the first of these was erected in Jerusalem. The glory which attended the erection of the earthly theocracy of old, was far excelled by what took place in this society. The minds of the people in the former were filled with the greatest dread and terror, the latter were filled with the greatest joy and confidence, even while under the most awful view of the Divine purity and holiness.

But as many were capable of professing the faith, so fit to be received as members, who were but partially enlightened, so did not thoroughly understand the truth, so as to obey it from the heart; and as a natural bias against it still remained, even in the minds of those who did understand it, these societies were liable to be greatly corrupted, both as to their faith and order, and at length to be so far alienated from Christ, while professing his name, as to become the synagogues of his adversary. Paul, writing to one of them, says, "I am jealous over you, with the jealousy of God: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from simplicity toward Christ."

As to this appearance of the heavenly kingdom on the earth, both in respect of the persecution from without, and corruption from within, to which it is exposed; Christ is said as yet to rule in the midst of his enemies; and he continues to do so, till all his people, in conformity to him, who was made perfect through sufferings, be made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light, and their bodies raised from the dead to the full possession of it.

Against the heavenly kingdom, the adversary is represented as exerting his abilities to the utmost, to destroy all of it within his reach: for the ancient sentence passed upon him, in terms borrowed from the natural grovelling condition of

the serpent, "Upon thy belly thou shalt go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life," confines his agency to the earth. He opposes this kingdom, by labouring to overthrow the truth on which it is erected. Jesus, in answer to the question, Art thou a king then? gave this account of his kingdom, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. The adversary makes it his business to change the Divine truth into a lie. So we are told, the grand apostacy was to come by his energy, with all power, and signs, and wonders of a lie. And the reigning leaders in this apostacy, who are represented with crowns like gold on their heads, are said to have a king over them, whose name, the reverse of Jesus, is the destroyer. All who received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, but wished for a perverted gospel to suit their pride and worldly lusts, now obtained it, and believed a lie to their destruction. Jesus Christ intimates no less, than that the power of deceit would be so great, that only the elect, and they scarcely, should escape it. The power of deceit, which began to work even under the eyes of the apostles, has extended itself greatly since their days. So that false characters of God, false Christ's, false spirits, have been reverenced for the true; yea, and all the sacred words of grace, righteousness, atonement, holiness, &c., have been applied to the basest counterfeits of what was anciently meant by them, and these counterfeits treated with all the respect due to the genuine originals.

Thus, by stratagem, as well as by open contempt, malice, and violence, the adversary with his seed, continues to make war with the remnant of the woman's seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, till the resurrection of the dead, when he shall be divested of all power, and become a mere sufferer of punishment, on a level with the meanest of those who are deceived by him. So that those who fear not God, have no occasion, according to the popular notion, to dread any harm from him in the other world.

I have as yet spoken but sparingly, and in the general, of the Spirit of the truth, having described it hitherto, chiefly by showing what is opposed to it. But a more particular consideration thereof will naturally occur afterward, in speaking of faith, and its effects.

IN the meantime, it may not be amiss here to take some view of the spirit which breathes in the religion of the pre

sent age, more especially on the leading point of acceptance with God. And this I think we may have, by glancing at the writings of some few of those whose names are highly respected by the different classes among us.

I shall begin with those two great men who are amply recommended to our esteem, as humble disciples of Jesus Christ, in the manner following: "The celebrated Erasmus, and our judicious Locke, having trod the circle of sciences, and ranged through the whole extent of human literature, at length betook themselves solely to the Bible; leaving the sages of antiquity, they sat incessantly at the feet of Jesus."*

&c.

Thus speaks Erasmus in a small treatise against Luther.†

"For though Paul says, Where sin hath abounded, grace also hath superabounded; it does not, therefore, follow, that before one is by grace made acceptable, he may not through Divine assistance, prepare himself, by works morally good, for the Divine favour, &c. I agree with their opinion, who ascribe a little to free will, but very much to grace,"‡

Mr. Locke, in his Reasonableness of Christianity, shows at large, from the Scriptures, with great perspicuity, that men obtained eternal life, believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. But not knowing the truth which the apostles understood by these words, so not finding any ground of acceptance with God in them, he very plainly rests our justification before God, on the homage we pay to him, in giving credit to any promise or truth he is pleased to reveal, as that Abraham should have a son; or rather, in putting together these two words, and affirming, in any sense we please, that Jesus is the Christ, together with our best endeavours to obey the precepts delivered by him; from whom, beside a clearer declaration of our duty, and greater encouragements to virtue, arising from the prospect of a future life, he proposes no other advantage to us, but that, p. 289, If we do what we can, he will give us his Spirit to help us to do what and how we should." This, I think, is the scope and substance of the whole treatise. However, we may hear a few more of

* Meditations, vol. 1, p. 151.

+ Entitled, De libero arbitrio collatio.

+ Quanquam enim Paulus dicit, Ubi abundavit peccatum, superabundavit et gratia; non tum sequitur ex hoc, quod, ante gratiam gratum facientem, non possit homo, adjutus auxilio Dei, per opera moraliter bona, sese præparare favori divino, &c.

Mihi placet illorum sententia, qui nonnihil tribuunt libero arbitrio sed gratiæ plurimum.

his own words. p. 193, "God dealt so favourably with the posterity of Adam, that if they would believe Jesus to be the Messiah, the promised King and Saviour, and perform what other conditions were required of them by the covenant of grace, God would justify them because of this belief. He would account this faith to them for righteousness, and look on it as making up the defects of their obedience; which being thus supplied by what was taken instead of it, they were looked on as just or righteous, and so inherited eternal life.". p. 213, "The faith required was to believe Jesus to be the Messiah, the anointed, who had been promised by God to the world, Amongst the Jews, (to whom the promises and prophecies were more immediately delivered,) anointing was used to three sorts of persons, at their inauguration, whereby they were set apart to three great offices, viz. of priests, prophets, and kings. Though these three offices be in holy writ attributed to our Saviour; yet, I do not remember that he any where assumes to himself the title of a priest, or mentions anything relating to his priesthood. Nor does he speak of his being a prophet but very sparingly, and once or twice as it were by-the-by. But the gospel, or the good news of the Messiah, is what he preaches everywhere, and makes it his great business to publish to the world."

Page 244.-"All, then, that was required before his appearing in the world, was to believe what God had revealed, and to rely, with a full assurance, on God for the performance of his promise; and to believe, that in due time he would send them the Messiah, this anointed King, this promised Saviour and deliverer, according to his word. This faith in the promise of God, this relying and acquiescing in his word and faithfulness, the Almighty takes well at our hands, as a great mark of homage paid by us poor frail creatures to his goodness and truth, as well as to his power and wisdom; and accepts it as an acknowledgement of his peculiar providence and benignity to us. This oblation of an heart, fixed with dependence and affection on him, is the most acceptable tribute we can pay him, the foundation of true devotion, and life of all religion. What a value he puts on this depending on his word, and resting satisfied in his promises, we have an example in Abraham whose faith was counted to him for righteousness, as we have before remarked out of Rom. iv. And his relying firmly on the promise of God, without any doubt of its performance, gave him the name of the father of the faithful, and gained him so mubh favour with the Almighty, that he was called the friend of God; the highest and most