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the Lord Jesus Christ has built his church-indeed we have only examined what appertains to the first part of it, the Scripture doctrine of the person, character, and work of the Saviour-there still remains to be considered that branch of it which relates to the person, office, and agency of the Holy Spirit in the economy of redemption-and it is the more necessary for me to bring prominently forward this subject, inasmuch as it is in vain to look for it in any of the histories of the Christian church now extant. This I shall endeavour to do in the next Lecture; in the meantime, suffer me to repeat, by way of impressing it more deeply upon your attention, that on no point have greater or more pernicious mistakes prevailed, than on the subject of Christ's kingdom on earth. It was from erroneous views of it that the Jews rejected the Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth; it was from erroneous views of it that the man of sin was engendered, nourished, and raised to his throne; it is from erroneous views of it that so much division exists among professing Christians of the present day. To heal these divisions, to unite the people of God in one, to bring down and effectually destroy the power of the man of sin, to exalt and promote the Redeemer's kingdom-to accomplish these great and important ends, the only scriptural method is for each one of us to appeal and study for himself the oracles of God, the simple records of divine truth, endeavouring to divest the mind of all prejudice and preconceived notions, to hear the voice of Jesus and follow him as sheep do their shepherd, to learn of him as disciples or scholars learn of their teacher, and to yield implicit obedience to his revealed will as subjects to their king; for he is king of Zion, and hath forbidden us to call any man master on earth.

LECTURE III.

The subject continued-Spirituality of Christ's Kingdom-Office and operations of the Holy Spirit-Necessity of Divine Influence to the conversion of sinners—Formation of the Church at Jerusalem-Appointments of Public Worship-Elders and Deacons-Bond of Christian Union-Rule of DisciplineRecapitulation.

I endeavoured in my last Lecture to lay before you some scriptural views of the nature of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, founded upon his own declaration, when, in reply to Pilate's question, he answered, “My kingdom is not of this world:" thereby teaching us that it is not of a secular nature, to be either propagated or defended by an arm of flesh, or to have its laws enforced by human sanctions, or any such temporal punishments as mere human authority can inflict. As this is a point of great importance, and lies at the foundation of all just views of Christianity, I crave your indulgence while I enlarge a little further upon it in this place, by way of introduction to the present Lecture.

Whoever examines with due care and attention the genius and characteristic properties of the Christian religion, as laid down by its divine founder, must admit that it is not possible to conceive a greater contrast than that which exists between the spirit which his instructions breathe and that spirit of pride and domination which has generally prevailed among clergymen, or in what is commonly called the church, in which I would be understood as including the church of Rome-all national churches without exception—and, would I could except from the charge many of the dissenting churches also! but

“Illiacos intra mures peccatur et extra."

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While the Saviour himself was upon the earth, with what earnestness did he enforce it upon his apostles and followers not to affect a superiority over their fellow-disciples, or over one another, but to live as brethren and equals; and he did it in such a way as to impress upon them the fact that in this respect his kingdom would differ in its fundamental maxims from all the kingdoms of this world, viz. that that person would be deemed the greatest in it whose deportment should be the humblest, and that whosoever would attain pre-eminence must make good his claim to that honourable distinction by being more eminently serviceable to the brotherhood. But I will quote you his own words :-" Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and that they that are great exercise authority upon them; but among you it shall not be so; on the contrary, whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister," that is, your servant: "and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant," or rather slave: ❝even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and give his life a ransom for many," Matt, xx. 25-8. And again, "Be ye not called Rabbi; for one is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren: and call no man your father upon the earth; for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters; for one is your master, even Christ: but he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted; Matt, xxiii. 8-12. These admonitions and instructions are sufficiently plain and explicit to enable the simplest Christian to comprehend them, and also to apply them as a touchstone by which to distinguish the kingdom of Christ from all counterfeits. And then,

As to worldly monarchies, or commonwealths of whatever kind, the Lord Jesus taught his disciples to yield a ready and cheerful obedience to such rulers as Providence should set over them-to pay them tribute, to submit to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, provided they did not run counter to the law of God, "Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's," said he, “and to God the things are God's." Far from affecting any secular power himself, when the multitude, on one occasion, would have taken him by force and made him a king, he withdrew from them; and

on another occasion, when solicited to arbitrate in a case of civil right or property, what was his reply? "Man, who made me a judge, or a divider over you? And then addressing the people he said, “Take heed and beware of covetousness." The grand end of his doctrines was to purify the heart, and the instructions which flowed from his lips during his public ministry were always calculated to extirpate the seeds of evil that lurked there. And these are the principles on which his kingdom is founded. They were inculcated by his apostles; and in their time, and before the Christian profession became corrupted, they generally prevailed among the professors of Christianity. But I now proceed to the subject of the present Lecture.

In laying before you a summary of the doctrine on which the kingdom of Christ is founded, our attention has hitherto been confined to what the Scriptures teach us concerning the mediation, of the Son of God-that divine person who interposed in the behalf of a lost world, and who appeared upon earth to save his people from their sins. But the Gospel, or doctrine of the kingdom, introduces us to the knowledge of a third divine person, who concurs in the salvation of mankind. This is the Holy Spirit, which proceedeth from the Father, and is sent by the Son as his Spirit,-whose power is spoken of in exalted terms-towards whom the highest reverence is challenged-and who, in all the variety of his operations, is "one and the self same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.” 1 Cor. xii. 11.

It is indeed a fundamental principle of divine revelation that there is only one living and true God, besides whom there is no other. Yet the Scriptures reveal a plurality in the one undivided Godhead or Deity, of which we have many intimations in the Old Testament; but it was reserved for the Gospel to give us the fullest information on this high and sublime subject, where we find that there are three distinct personal subsistents in the divine nature, viz. FATHER, WORD (or Son), and HOLY SPIRIT. The unity and distinction of the Divine Three is a mystery which infinitely transcends all our limited powers to comprehend: and consequently it becomes us to receive the subject in the meekness and simplicity of wisdom, without curiously prying into things which our faculties were not formed to explore, or without

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rashly imagining that the infinite Jehovah can say nothing of himself beyond what we can comprehend. One God and Father of all is known by the light of nature: the Son of God is made known by revelation, because the world which he had made stood in need of his interposition to redeem it; and the Holy Spirit is made known by the same revelation, because the benefits of this redemption are applied through his agency. Our knowledge in this way grows with our necessities: we learn how inadequate our faculties are to comprehend the divine nature, when we see such important discoveries superadded to the investigations of the most enlightened reason. And we further learn that the measure of knowledge which the Father of spirits sees meet to communicate is not given us for the purpose of mere speculation, and to gratify curiosity, but is immediately connected with the grounds of our comfort and hope. The discoveries of revelation comprehend all that is necessary for us in our present circumstances, and we act wisely to be content with them. The mode in which the Son and the Spirit subsist, and the nature of their connexion with the Father, however much they have been the subject of human speculation, are nowhere explained in Scripture. But the offices of these divine persons, as it is a subject of infinite importance to us, are clearly revealed, with such hints only of their nature as may satisfy us that they are divinely qualified for them.

The important station which the Son of God sustains in the economy of redemption has been already evinced, as also the right which he acquired by his perfect obedience and suffering to dispense the blessings of his purchase. It is in the dispensation of these blessings that the office of the Holy Spirit more especially presents itself to our view. The Scriptures enable us to trace his operations in the church from the earliest times. We are told that HE, the Holy Ghost, "spake by the mouth of all his holy prophets, who prophesied, since the world began, of the sufferings of Christ, and of the glory that should follow." To his agency, the miraculous conception of the Son of the Highest is ascribed, Luke i. 35. He descended upon Jesus at his baptism-and was given to him without measure during his public ministry; and when he rose from the dead, and sat down at the Father's right hand in heaven, the Holy Spirit was manifested in

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