Chap. 2.

The Virgin Mary.

27

were called, and how they finished their course, we shall know in that day." MATTHIAS, chosen on the death of Judas Iscariot the traitor, was a disciple and follower of the Lord Jesus, having companied with the twelve all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among them, (Acts i. 21.) but after this period he is not so much as mentioned. Among the most decided friends of the Saviour, the Evangelists record the names and charaeters of some illustrious WOMEN. One of these only is noticed after the ascension, by the sacred writers. And here let it be observed once for all, that Mary the mother of Jesus obtains no mark of distinction above her companions. John took her home to his own house, and there the sacred historians leave her. Her translation to Loretto, her elevation to the super-angelic, her assumption body and soul to heaven, there to appear as the mother of God, together with a thousand other things equally absurd, must be placed among the inventions of monks and hermits.

On the persecution and death of the first martyr Ste. phen, comes forward a character which has shone with peculiar lustre in the church. He first appears as an avowed enemy to Jesus of Nazareth. Saul of Tarsus stands by and gives his voice against the holy confessor, keeping the raiment of those that stone him; and being exceeding mad against the saints, he pursues them even to strange eities. The birth, the education, the prejudices, the spirit of Saul, are all well delineated by his own pen.

PAUL, called to be an apostle, last in order, but first in eminence, stands forward as the APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES. His conversion, his decision of character, his zeal, his labours, his writings, need not be recorded here: they form a conspicuous feature of the New Testa

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Judas.

Cent. 1.

1

ment. That such a man should, at the end of his career, receive the crown of martyrdom, is congenial with his history, though it is not in the sacred writings asserted in so many words; but from his own words, together with a train of events attending his latter days, it is a circumstance more than probable. His biographer, Luke, concludes his account of him, while the holy man is a prisoner in his own house at Rome. How long he survived this is uncertain. In his second letter to Timo. thy, he speaks of his death as near at hand, and from his phraseology, it is not a natural death he expects, as the result of old age, or a worn out constitution, but a violent death, I am ready to be OFFERED: but whether he died a martyr or not is immaterial, we are sure he lived the life of one.

JUDAS, by transgression, fell from the honours of the sacred college, that he might go to his own place. His bag and his halter he has left behind, with which to enshrine his awful memory. Let my reader notice these relics of a wicked heart, and beware of COVETOUSNESS.

CHAPTER III.

SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL, AND CONSTITUTION OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE.

DURING the life and ministry of Christ, the gospel was principally confined to the house of Israel. Indeed the gospel was ineomplete till he was lifted up; when his sufferings were accomplished at Jerusalem, he could say, IT IS FINISHED. Before his ascension, he commissioned his disciples to go out into all the world, and

Chap. 3.

Spread of the Gospel.

preach the gospel unto every creature.

29

In order that

they might be furnished to so great a work, they were commanded to wait at Jerusalem, to receive the promise of the Father. This was realized on the ever-memorable day of pentecost, that great and notable day of the Lord.

The moral state of Jews and heathens has been glanced at in our preliminary: darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people. Such was the condition of man, that neither the priesthood on the one hand, nor philosophy on the other, could afford any aid; therefore God works a new thing in the earth. "He chooses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things that are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence." All this we see fulfilled in the achievements of the poor but inspired fishermen of Galilee. Peter stands up and asserts the Divinity and Messiahship of him who had been just erucified as a malefactor, and three thousand souls at once yield to conviction, and join themselves to their Lord by a perpetual covenant. In these converts we behold the same persons who had agreed to reject Jesus as an impostor, and who had condemned him as a blasphemer. The success of these men stopped not here, Jerusalem was filled with their doctrine, and many were added to the church daily. These things awakened the wrath of priests and pharisees, and a fierce persecution ensued: but this only contributed to the spread of that rause they laboured to destroy. The disciples were scattered abroad, and they went every where preaching and teaching Jesus. In the first conflict fell Stephen,

30

The Church.

Cent. 1.

which event was presently succeeded by the conversion of PAUL. Not only is Palestine overrun with this new doctrine, but Rome and Greece enkindle with the holy flame. National prejudices are rooted up, Jew and Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, bond and free, become one in Christ Jesus.

Who can calculate the number of Christians in these days? At Jerusalem thousands embraced the faith. Twelve apostles, with auxiliary itinerant evangelists, going about every where with the glad tidings of salvation, converts were made, and some of these became preachers; churches were established, and elders ordained in every city; so mightily grew the word of the Lord and prevailed.

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

Is called in the New Testament the body of Christ, and those that compose it members in particular. Believers are denominated, disciples, brethren, christians, saints. These in their collective character acknowledge one Lord, one faith, and by one Spirit are all baptized into one body; and all constituting this church, however separated by time, or place, or condition, do hold the same head, and exhibit the same character. Hence, it must be laid down as an "invariable axiom," says a candid writer," that no man belongs to any christian church who has not the spirit of Christ, and that no church has any pretensions to be a living member of his body, which, in its ministers and members, is not found joined to the Lord by one spirit. A church without evidence of the influence and experience of the operation of the Holy Ghost, hath but a name to live, and is dead; and whatever may be its forms, or however sound its confessions of faith, it hath no more title to

Chap. S.

Ministers.

31

be reckoned a christian Church, than a statue or a corpse has to be esteemed a living man." The church of Christ, thus constituted, consists not only of members forming the general body, but of

MINISTERS,

Who act in the executive departments of the church. The Lord Jesus has by his own personal appointment, and also by his express word and command, ordained in his church a standing ministry, an order of men called overseers, stewards, ambassadors for Christ. He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. The ministers of the word and ordinances are appointed and sanctioned to the end of time; till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.

The apostolic character seems to have ceased with the lives of those who were divinely and personally called to that office; but evangelists, pastors, and teachers, were abundantly increased before the close of the seripture canon, and directions concerning their perpetual appointment and standing are clearly given. Timothy was an evangelist, to whom Paul thus writes:

The things that thou hast heard of me, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also." Similar instructions are given also to Titus.

In the Acts, and in the Epistles, we meet with the terms bishop, pastor, elder; these are evidently synonymous. Bishop, a corruption of the term episcopus, signifies literally an overseer, and is used indiscrimi