into the furnace. And yet, see what things the same Apostle, in this same letter, deems it needful to say to his brethren: "Lay apart all filthiness, and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word." Again, "Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." Again, "If ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lic not against the truth." Again, "Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded."

St. Paul speaks to his Ephesian converts as "sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise," "saved by grace through faith," and "made nigh by the blood of Christ ;" and yet this very Apostle, in this very letter, finds it needful to write to these persons such things as-" Putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour." "Let him that stole, steal no more." "Let no corrupt

"Let all

communication proceed out of your mouth." bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evilspeaking, be put away from you, with all malice." (Eph. iv. 28, 29, 31.) "Be not ye therefore partakers with them," i.e., with fornicators, and unclean, and covetous persons, as the context shows (Eph. v. 3—7).

Such was the state of the members of the Primitive Church- —some of them "full of goodness" (Rom. xv. 14), "having Christ in them" (Coloss. i. 27, 28). Some not spiritual, but carnal (1 Cor. iii. 1). Some needing words degrading sins.

of solemn warning against base and Now, it is manifest that the COMMON Prayers of the Church, if they are to be Scriptural, must descend as low as these Apostolic precepts.

The Common Prayers of the Catholic Church must not be pitched in the key of a sect or body whose profession is a profession of individual conversion, or individual spirituality. The Church must not assume that she is a

coterie of "enlightened " people, all "saved" now, and all sure of being saved ultimately, and whom we should insult if we prayed that they might be delivered from disreputable sins.

This is the snare of all Evangelical bodies of Christians who commit their public prayers to one man, and demand, cr look for, or encourage, professions of spirituality, or unveilings of inward experience. Their ministers would be more than human if they could divest themselves of their consciousness of the presence of professors who are sitting in judgment upon the outward expressions of their (the ministers') intercourse with God.

Every petition, then, is adapted to a certain so-called high spiritual tone, which, from the things not prayed for, and therefore assumed not to be needed, must be incomparably purer and holier than was the spiritual atmosphere of the Ephesian, Colossian, and Thessalonian Churches.

In the Book of Common Prayer it is assumed throughout that the Church is now what it was at the first-a field sown with wheat and tares, or a vine having some of its branches fruit-bearing, and some barren.

We consequently pray God to "make clean our hearts within us," and "not to take His Holy Spirit from us."

We pray Him to deliver us from "all evil and mischief, from sin, from the crafts and assaults of the devil, from His wrath, and from everlasting damnation "—" from all blindness of heart, from pride, vain-glory and hypocrisy, from envy, hatred and malice, and from all uncharitableness " from fornication and all other deadly sin, and from all the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil."

In the first Collect of the Christian year, we pray that God would give us grace to "cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light."

In the fourth Collect (Fourth Sunday in Advent) we pray

God to come among us, and with great might succour us, "because through our sin and wickedness we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us.”

In the Collect for Innocents' Day, we pray Him to "mortify and kill all vices in us.”

In the Collect for the Circumcision, we pray that " our hearts and all our members being mortified from all carnal and worldly lusts, we may in all things obey God's blessed will."

And so throughout the book. In this respect also it is a Book of COMMON Prayer, and reflects the teaching of the word of God.

CHAPTER VII.

CHURCH GOVERNMENT.

SECTION I.

Ir will be needful now to ascertain what principles of Church government are laid down by the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, and in what form of Church polity these principles find their development.

There is, in very deed, but One Governor, or Bishop, or Overseer of the Church, in the same sense as there is but One Priest, and One Pastor.

The Eternal Son of God, as He is the True Vine, has every office of salvation wholly in Himself.

He is the One Apostle, or Messenger of His Father; He is the Angel of the Covenant; He is the Bishop of our souls; He is the High Priest of our profession; He is the Chief Shepherd or Pastor-the Good Shepherd; He is even the One sole true Deacon or Minister (Mark x. 45 ; Rom. xv. 8), assisting, upholding-in fact, "working" all other ministry or service.

It is clear that, if it had been His sovereign will, He could have exercised all these offices alone-by Himselffor He is Omnipresent. Even though He left this world, He might have ministered to every need of His Church by Himself, dispensing altogether with any intermediate ministry of any sort; so that there would have been no room for any outward Church polity or organization—no place for any order of men to teach or preach, or govern, or administer Sacraments.

Let us then see whether we can gather His will from His word.

Now, first of all, as soon as ever He began to exercise His own ministry, He associated others with Himself as His fellow-workers. Scarcely had He himself begun to preach before He called Simon Peter, and Andrew, and immediately afterwards, James and John. To these He added cight others, so as to make up the mystical number twelve. The account runs thus :- "And when it was day, He called unto Him His disciples, and of them He chose twelve, whom also He named Apostles" (Luke vi. 13).

We can scarcely exaggerate the greatness of the position which He accords to these twelve men. "I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you." "Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit." "As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world." "Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, but to others in parables." "The Spirit of truth shall testify of Me, and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with Me from the beginning."

In His last prayer He prays for them, especially distinguishing them from all the rest of His followers (John xvii. 20).

He baptized by their hands (John iv. 2). By their hands He twice fed the multitudes. Six times do we read that "He took bread, and blessed, and brake, and gave to His disciples, and the disciples to the multitude." And that, after His departure, they were to continue to represent Him, we cannot but gather from what He said to them :- "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven." "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven." "As My Father sent Me, so send I you."

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