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to affect their hearts with a conviction of their own sinful and helpless state; the necessity of an atonement; the sufficiency of that satisfaction which had been made by the blood-shedding of Jesus Christ; the indispensableness of an exclusive reliance on his merits; the need, and efficacy, and abundance of God's free grace. By manifestation of these truths did the Apostles commend themselves, and the Gospel which they preached, to every man's conscience in the sight of God.* By such exhortations as these were the Churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily. And such must be the preaching of every minister of that Gospel, who desires to make it effectual to the conversion of sinners, to the enlargement and confirmation of the Church. It is right and proper, that we should employ all the talents which God has implanted in us, all the resources which he has enabled us to acquire, in endeavouring to gain the attention, and to interest the feelings of a careless or a fastidious world: but a practical change in their sentiments and affections, is to be wrought only by the native and simple energy of Gospel truth, set forth with scriptural plainness and force. While the flashes of human eloquence play around the * 2 Cor. iv. 2. + Acts xvi. 5.

imagination, or the riches of human learning surprise and confound the understanding, it is only the pure and perfect word of God, quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,* which finds its way to the heart and conscience, and awakens them to that solemn self-inquiry, What must I do to be saved?+

With respect to the order in which the Gospel was preached to different people, it appears, from the Acts of the Apostles, that it was first delivered, according to our Saviour's command, to the Jews; many thousands of whom were immediately converted to the faith: secondly, to the Samaritans, who worshipped the true God, but rejected the Scriptures of the Old Testament, with the exception of the books of Moses; who yet were in expectation of the Messiah's advent: then to the proselytes, or Gentile worshippers of the true God, in the person of Cornelius and his family: and, lastly, by the ministry of Paul, to those nations, who were altogether aliens, not only from the commonwealth of Israel, but from the life of God, through the ignorance that was in them; § who had changed the truth of God into a lie, and

*Heb. iv. 12.
+ Eph. ii. 12.

† Acts xvi. 30.
§ Eph. iv. 18.

worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator.*

The Church having first been founded and established in Jerusalem, the Apostles proceeded to preach the glad tidings of salvation to all nations, in obedience to their Lord's command. Of the Churches which they planted throughout the Gentile world, a few only are mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. Of the labours and journeyings of those holy men, with the exception of that brief memorial, no authentic record remains but the fact is one of historical certainty, that within a few years after the commencement of their ministry, the Gospel had been preached to almost every country and province of the known world. It appears, that the Apostles themselves did not sojourn long in any place; but having converted a sufficient number of persons to form a Church, or assembly of believers, they ordained presbyters, or elders, to teach and guide it after their departure; retaining to themselves the power of making such ordinances and regulations, as circumstances might require; and, in the case of more distant Churches, from which a reference to their authority might be difficult and inconvenient, they

* Rom. i. 25.

appointed, during their life-time, pious and faithful men, to exercise that authority over the Church, and all its members, both teachers and hearers. Such was Titus in Crete, who was left there by Paul, that he should set in order all things that were wanting, and ordain elders in every city. Such also, during the life-time of at least one Apostle, were the angels, or bishops, of the seven Churches in Asia, to whom, as to the presidents and rulers of those Churches, were sent the solemn warnings of the Spirit.†

Every separate Church had its presbyter, whom St. Paul terms its ruler, guide, and overseer. In the twentieth chapter of Acts he is said, while at Miletus, to have sent to Ephesus for the elders of the Church; and that these were the teachers, not merely of the Church at Ephesus, but of other Churches in that part of Asia, appears from his expression in the twentyfifth verse; And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone, preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. And as to the authority of any member of a Church to constitute himself a teacher, we may ask, why did St. Paul send, not for the members at large ↑ Rev. i. 20.

*Tit. i. 5.

of the Ephesian Churches, nor for such of them as chose to come, but simply for the elders, whom he charged to feed the Church of God, over which the Holy Ghost had made them overseers?

It may be not irrelevant to remark, that in that affecting valediction of the Apostle to his Ephesian friends and children in the Lord, not a word is said of their being accountable to Peter, as the chief of the apostolic college, or as the universal bishop; although, had such a supremacy been contemplated, St. Paul's impressive warning to them, to be on their guard against the false teachers who were to arise from among themselves, would surely have been accompanied with a reference to that supposed paramount and infallible authority.

Let us now survey the primitive Church of Christ, as it is pourtrayed in the annals of its earliest age. Planted as it was by the immediate ambassadors of Christ, and watered by the extraordinary dews of the Spirit, its miraculous growth bespeaking the special providence of God, it is not, perhaps, in all respects to be regarded as a pattern, or model of discipline, from which no deviation could be lawful in after times; yet in its leading features, both

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