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EQUALITY OF MEMBERS.

THE equality of the members of the kingdom of God, distinguishes it at once from all earthly kingdoms, and entitles it indeed to be designated as the kingdom of heaven. Jesus, the head of this kingdom, acknowledged its meanest members as his brethren, and saluted his followers with that free and honourable appellation. He preseuted them with a child as an example of humility, and as a fit emblem of those who should be greatest in his kingdom (Matt. xviii. 1, 2.) He referred them to the oppression of the kings and the great ones of the earth; against them his irony was finely expressed-" the kings of the nations lord it over them; and their tyrants are called benefactors. Do not ye act thus: but let the elder among you become as the younger, and the chief as the servant." (Luke xxii. 25, 26. Wakefield.)—From the example of the pharisees of his day he drew a lesson of humility to his followers; he taught them too, their dignity, their equality as men and brethren. The scribes and pharisees were solicitous for the first place at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues; they loved greetings in the streets, and to be called by men master! “But be not ye called master!* (was the

* What a satire this upon religious titles and distinctions! The teachers of almost every sect and party are distinguished

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advice of Jesus), for one is your master even the Christ; and call ye no man your father on earth, for one is your father which is in heaven, and ye are all brethren." (Matt. xxiii. 7, 8, 9.)-Of this noble, this generous sentiment, Paul has also made mention in all his epistles. He charges the believers of Rome by his authority, as an apostle of Jesus, that no man among them should think of himself more highly than he ought, however elevated his office might be in the church; " for as we have many members in one body, but all these members have not the same office; so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and each of us severally fellow members thereof." (Rom. xii. 4, 5.)-To the church of Corinth, which had suffered itself to be misled by false teachers, degraded and insulted by corrupt men, he enjoins, "lèt no man glory in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours!!" (1 Cor. iii. 21, 22). To the Galatians he expresses himself in this animated and animating stile," for ye are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ!! for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus!!" (Gal. iii. 26, 27, 28.)

by an appendage to their names expressive of peculiar holiness and sanctity. The Reverend of our own age is the Rabbi of the Jewish age their professions, their principles, their objects, are the same.

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Introductory Remarks to the Internal Government of the Church,

We shall now speak of the internal government and organization of the Church-ofits Officers-their mode of election-their character-their duties-the duties due to them from the members.

We must premise, that the apostles of Jesus, and all the functionaries employed in the first plantation of Christianity, are to be kept separate and distinct from the officers of the Christian church-they form no part of the officers of the Christian church-they never did form a part of the officers of the Christian church, In their day and generation the churches, when orga. nized, were complete without the apostles-competent (as far as their knowledge and virtue went) to all the purposes of Christian union, without either Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, who indeed were only ministers by whom they received the word. A nation forms a colony, gives to it social institutions, laws, government-how absurd would it be to confound the civil officers of the colony with the agents and emissaries who had been employed by the mother country in framing its political establishments. This sort of absurdity however is almost uniformly carried to the Christian church; the apostles of Jesus are reckoned among its chief officers, and the clergy, as their successors, appear to supply their place. The idea which we

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have here advanced is admirably expressed and fully substantiated by Paul-" and 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, 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 fullness of Christ." (Ephes. iv, 10, 11.)-Hence it appears that even the apostles themselves entertained no other idea but that their situation in the church was temporary, and for a specific object; and, as after they had organized the churches, and devoted their lives to their complete establishment they retired to their graves without appointing any persons to succeed to their power and duties, it must follow of course that their offices ceased with them. We trust too, the reader will perceive in the following pages, that the church of God, as taken from the New Testament, is complete aud entire; and that there is no place therein for the services of those who would pretend to succeed by appointment, to the office of the apostles !

An Elder, Bishop, Pastor, or Overseer, is a person appointed to superintend the general concerns and interests of the church-to see that its laws are adminis tered-that its order is preserved—and that the wants and condition of its members are made known to the church-that all the purposes for which Christians become a united body are promoted and constantly kept in view.

The various ramifications of the duties of the Elder are not expressly pointed out in the New Testament;

* There has been much difference of opinion on the subject of the officers in the Christian church. The term Elder is frequently used in the plural (Elders) in the New Testament, and it has been consequently supposed that there was a plu rality of officers in each assembly bearing that name, and that the Bishop was a separate and superior character of office, presiding over the whole. The following observations will, we think, tend to elucidate the business. The term Elder is evidently nothing more than an adjective, expressive of age, the comparative of eld, and (according to Johnson) now corrupted into old. Elder, in its first and natural import, stands opposed to younger; and strictly to convert it into a substantive, the addition of the word man appears necessary-an Elderman. Exactly corresponding with this is the term alderman, from ald, old, and man. The Saxon word is ealderman, which DYCHE has observed, " by degrees came to stand for persons of the greatest distinction, because such were chosen to discharge the highest offices, being those whose long experience rendered them most capable."