ESSAY II.

designed to

Religion.

§ 1. Or all who acknowledge Jesus of Naza- Christianity reth as their Master, "the Author and Finisher be a social of their faith," there are scarcely any who do not agree in regarding Him as the Founder and perpetual Head of a religious Society also ;-as having instituted and designed for permanent continuance, a Community or system of Communities, to which his Disciples here on earth were to belong. The religion He introduced was manifestly designed by Him, and so understood by his immediate followers, to be a social Religion. It was not merely a revelation of certain truths to be received, and of practical rules to be observed,it was not a mere system of doctrines and precepts to be embraced by each individual independently of others; and in which his agreement

or co-operation with any others, would be accidental; as when several men have come to the same conclusions in some Science, or have adopted the same system of Agriculture or of Medicine; but it was to be a combination of men who should be “members of the Body of Christ," -living stones of one Spiritual Temple ; " edifying" (i. e. building up) "one another in their Faith;"-and brethren of one holy Family.

This " Kingdom of Heaven" as it is called, which the Lord Jesus established, was proclaimed (i. e. preached) by his forerunner John the Baptist as" at hand." And the same, in this respect, was the preaching of our Lord Himself, and of His Disciples,-first the Twelve, and afterwards the Seventy,-whom He sent out during His ministry on earth. The good tidings they were to proclaim, were only of the approaching Kingdom of Heaven; it was a joyful expectation only that they were commissioned to spread : it was a preparation of men's hearts for the coming of that Kingdom, that they were to teach.

a See Sermon IV., "On a Christian Place of Worship, and also Dr. Hinds's "Three Temples."

b This word has come to be ordinarily applied to religious instruction; from which, however, it is always clearly distinguished in Scripture. It signifies, properly, to announce as a herald. Our Lord's "preaching that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand," and his teaching the People, are always expressed by different words.

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But when the personal ministry of Christ came to a close, the Gospel they were thenceforward to preach was the good tidings of that Kingdom not approaching merely, but actually begun, of the first Christian Community set on foot, of a kingdom which their Master had appointed unto them :" thenceforward, they were not merely to announce that kingdom, but to establish it, and invite all men to enrol themselves in it: they were not merely to make known, but to execute, their Master's design, of commencing that Society of which He is the Head, and which he has promised to be with “ always, even unto the end of the world."

C

of a Chris

We find Him, accordingly, directing them not Institution only to " go into all the world, and preach to tianSociety. every creature," but further, to " teach” (“make

It is likely that the Doxology at the end of the Lord's Prayer, "Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory," (which all the soundest critics, I believe, are now agreed, does not exist in the best MSS. of the Gospels,) was adopted by the Disciples very soon after our Lord's departure from earth. At the time when He first taught the prayer to his Disciples, it would have been premature to speak of the heavenly kingdom in the present tense, as actually established. They were taught to pray for its coming as a thing future. At a later period, it was no less proper to allude to it as already existing; and the prayer for its " coming," would be, from the circumstances of the case, a prayer for its continued extension and firmer hold on men's hearts.

d

See a Sermon by Dr. Dickinson (now Bishop of Meath). on our Lord's two charges to his disciples.

disciples of," as in the margin of the Bible)" all nations;" admitting them as members of the Body of Disciples, by "baptizing them into the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost."

e

Of his design to establish what should be emphatically a Social Religion,—a "Fellowship' or "Communion of Saints," there can be, I think, no doubt in the mind of any reflecting reader of our sacred books. Besides our Lord's general promise of "coming unto, and dwelling in, any man who should love Him and keep His saying," there is a distinct promise also of an especial presence in any Assembly-even of "two or three-gathered together in his name.' Besides the general promises made to prayer,—to the prayer of an individual" in the closet,"there is a distinct promise also to those who shall " agree together touching something they shall ask." And it is in conformity with his own institution that Christians have, ever since, celebrated what they designate as, emphatically, the Communion, by "meeting together to break bread," in commemoration of His redemption of His People.

e

"In the name," is a manifest mis-translation, originating, apparently, with the Vulgate Latin, which has "in nomine." The preposition, in the original, is not iv but eis, "into" or "to."