In

in the wilderness ;'' and, three times, to the tumultuous assembly' in the theatre at Ephesus. all other cases, it is used in a more spiritual reference; either in a general or a particular signification.

In its most general and extensive sense, the 'church' is the 'body,' of which Christ is the Saviour,' and the Head.' It consists of all the pious of every age-the' general assembly of the first-born,' 'the spirits of just men made perfect ;' and of those, on earth, who have been brought into a new moral state and relation. The church,' says Hooker, being a supernatural society, doth differ from natural societies in this, that the persons unto whom we associate ourselves in the one are men, simply considered as men; but they to whom we be associated in the other, are God, angels, and holy men.' 3

In its more particular application, the term 6 church' is used for local bodies of believers ;' as the church at Jerusalem,' at Corinth,'' at Cenchrea; the church of the Thessalonians :' also the church in the house' of Philemon, of 'Nymphas,' of 'Aquila and Priscilla. In the plural we read of the 'churches' of Galatia, of Judea, of Macedonia, of Achaia; never of the church of any province or nation, in the singular.

Acts vii. 38.

2

Acts xix. 3 Eccl. Pol. b. i.

There is no unequivocal example in the New Testament, of the word church' being used for a building exclusively devoted to public worship. This accommodation does not appear to have become common, till near the close of the second century. The heathen Celsus, fifty years before, reproached the Christians as having ' neither altars nor temples.' They met together as they could; probably in private houses: and Justin Martyr says that, when he visited Rome, he instructed, at his own house, those who wished to hear him.' 3

2

It is remarkable that the salutations to or from a' church' said to be in a house,' are sometimes mentioned distinctly from those sent to or from the body of the believers in the same place.* Origen, who wrote in the third century, says, that if an entire family had been converted, the salutation was addressed to the church in that house.' 5 If so, the expression might simply mean that the household were members of the christian assembly in that place. At all events, the general tenor of the apostolical epistles to churches obviously implies a very close connexion between all the believers composing each church; though it is pos

2

Tertull. de Coron. Mil. c. 3. Orig. contra Cels. viii.

3 Act. Mar. S. Just. Ruinart.

+ Col. iv. 15, 16. 1 Cor. xvi. 19, 20.

1

sible that in some cities, such, for example, as Rome and Corinth, the church may have been too numerous to assemble statedly in one body; and we know that at Jerusalem they broke bread from house to house.' After the apostolic age, though Christianity went on diffusing itself over countries, each church, with few exceptions, and those not till a late period, seems to have been able conveniently to assemble as one congregation.2

The local epistles are evidently addressed to Christians as organized into societies, for the purpose of observing the ordinances, and exercising the spiritual discipline of Christianity; and they are said to come together in one place,' or ' in the church.' We may therefore define a visible church of Christ, in the language of the 'Articles of Religion,' a body of faithful men, in which the pure word of God is preached, and the sacraments be duly administered, according to Christ's ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same.'

In the original christian assemblies, the distinction between a clerical order and the laity does not appear to have been clearly marked. In that age of wonders, charismata, or miraculous

1 Rom. i. 8. Acts xviii. 10. Acts ii. 46.

2

King's Inquiry, Part i. ch. ii. Campbell, Lect. vi. 3 1 Cor. xii. xiv.

gifts of the Spirit, were largely distributed; and the power that bestowed them, prompted their exercise in the church. Even independently of these gifts, it would not seem that apostolic sanction was indispensably necessary to preaching the gospel. Apollos does not appear to have had any other qualifications than those of piety, and of nature, aided perhaps by the Platonizing Judaism of Alexandria, more congenial with Christianity than the Pharisaism of Judea. In the case of this warm-hearted convert, we read of no previous apostolical commission; and of no rebuke to him for assuming the office of instructor, though he himself required to know the truth more perfectly.'*

It is evident that all those functions in the church, which involved the charismata, ceased with the age of miracles. But Christians are agreed, with a very small amount of exception, that it entered into the plan of the gospel, that the church of Christ should remain organized under official persons to the end of time. The grand point of difference among those who have embraced the doctrines of the Reformation, has related to the kind of government which ought to obtain.

Many, who have held different opinions on this question among themselves, have concurred in Acts xviii. 24.

maintaining that a certain model of external church-order is so clearly laid down by the apostles, that any voluntary deviation from it is as unlawful, as a departure from the doctrines or moral precepts of Christianity.

Others make no claim to this divine right, and hold that neither Christ nor his apostles have given any precise form of church-government; but that lawful human authority may determine it in any country; and that when it is so determined, whatever be men's opinions, they are bound to submit, provided nothing be enjoined which is clearly repugnant to the word of God. *

Of a third class,-some agree so far with the second, as to suppose that no definite plan of churchorder is laid down in the New Testament; and among them might probably be found those who incline to the sentiment that whatever is best administered is best:'-others, rejecting this maxim as too latitudinarian, are of opinion that a given form may be perceived clearly enough for general guidance, by those who study the apostolic records diligently, devoutly, and with an unbiassed mind. Yet they admit that the evidence on this point is by no means so unequivocal, as that which exists for the grand cardinal truths, on which human hope and sanctification depend. This third class neither hold with absolute divine right, Stillingfleet's Irenicum, 1661. Ch. viii. p. 384.