Him, and not fall back upon the works of the law as their justification in God's sight.

Let the reader remark that this assumption, that all the Apostles' converts were members of Christ, and the exhortations to be good and holy grounded on the assumption, are alike general, and stand or fall together. If, for instance, any number of the members of the Corinthian Church had not been engrafted into Christ's body, the whole Church could not with any propriety be bidden in perfectly general terms (as they are) to demean themselves as becometh members of such a body Precepts urging to love and good works, grounded on some common grace or privilege, could not possibly be addressed to all, unless the privilege or grace were the common possession of all.

If it were a matter of great doubt whether some of these persons were really members of Christ, the very first thing to be done would be that each professing Christian should, for himself, resolve that doubt in his own case, and ascertain whether he ever had been made a member of Christ; but so far from this, the Apostolic Christians are bidden to dismiss all doubts upon the subject.

So that, whether we regard the terms which the Apostles apply to their converts, or the precepts of holy living which they ground on the fact that such terms are applicable to all the baptized, our position, that all the Apostolic Christians were in the same state of grace, is abundantly proved.

Christians are assumed to have entered into this state not at the moment when they first believed, or when they felt themselves justified, or forgiven, or when the peace of God was first shed abroad in their hearts, but at the moment when they entered into the visible Church by Baptism; for there and then they were buried and raised

again with Christ (Rom. vi. 1, 4; Col. ii. 12); then they were all baptized into one body by One Spirit (1 Cor. xii. 13); there and then they experienced the deliverance symbolized by the salvation of Noah in the ark (1 Pct. iii. 21), and of the Israelites at the Exodus (1 Cor. x. 1-10); then they washed away the sins of their heathen or Jewish state (Acts xxii. 16), were sanctified and cleansed with the washing of water by the word (Ephes. v. 26), and by God's mercy were saved by the bath of New Birth Titus iii. 5).

III. Our next point is:

That this state of regeneration, or salvation, does not necessarily imply the present goodness, or the final pcrseverance in grace of all once admitted into it: on the contrary, the Apostolic Christians are always assumed to be in danger of falling into deadly sin, and some of them are reproved for having so fallen.

I desire to draw particular attention to this point, for the opponents of Church principles have asserted that the members of the Apostolic Churches were all enlightened, converted, or regenerate persons in the modern and popular acceptation of these terms, and so (they say) we cannot safely argue from the terms used in describing their state of grace, that baptized Christians now have been admitted into the same stato.

It has even been asserted that the Christians of these Churches were assumed by the Apostolic writers to be all perfectly good-the end of their course anticipated at the very beginning-nay, that sin was assumed to be impossible in them.

Let us see what the facts are.

The Roman Christians are all assumed to have been "buried with Christ," and so to be "dead to sin" (Rom.

vi. 2--4) in Baptism, and yet in the very same chapter the Apostle, so far from accounting them all to be personally free from sin, bids them not to let sin reign in their mortal bodies (vi. 12). He addresses them all as "called saints," and as having received the Spirit of adoption (viii. 15), and yet, so far from presuming that they would finally persevere, he takes occasion to say (xi. 21, 22), "If God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: towards them that fell, severity; but towards thee goodness, if thou continue in His goodness, otherwise thou also shalt be cut off."

The Apostle assumes all to be members of Christ when he writes, "I say TO EVERY MAN THAT IS AMONG YOU not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to EVERY man the measure of faith; .. for as we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another" (Rom. xii. 5); and yet to these members of Christ he says in the next chapter, "Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying" (xiii. 13).

Again, the Apostle writes to all the Corinthian Christians as the Church of God which is at Corinth, to them which are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints." He assumes them all to be members of Christ, "by ono Spirit baptized into one body" (1 Cor. xii. 13—27), and yet he speaks to them as carnal (iii. 1—3), as-some of them-unjust, and unrighteous, and unchaste (vi. 8, 13—17, 20), as liable to fall by idolatry, murmuring, and tempting Christ (x. 1-10). He takes occasion to warn them against gross profanation of the Lord's

table (xi. 21), and against unbelief in the doctrine of the Resurrection of the body (xv. 12). He bids them awake to righteousness, for some have not the knowledge of God (xv. 34). He beseeches them not to receive the grace of God in vain (2 Cor. vi. 1); he expresses fear lest when he came again he should find not only debates, wrath, strife, backbitings, but also uncleanness, fornication, and lasciviousness unrepented of (xii. 20).

He asserts that all the Galatians were "children of God by faith in Christ Jesus," because "so many of them" as had "been baptized into Christ had put on Christ" (Gal. iii. 26), and yet they had been "bewitched, so as not to obey the truth" (iii. 1). He is afraid that he has bestowed labour in vain upon them, and he feels it needful to warn them against such works of the flesh as adultery, fornication, uncleanness, and lasciviousness (v. 21).

The Ephesian Christians arc all assumed to have been made nigh, to be fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, to be all members of one body (Ephes. ii. 13, 19; iv. 4, 25), and yet the Apostle bids them put away lying, stealing, all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour and evil speaking-not to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness,-not to be drunk with wine (iv. 25, 28, 31, 32; v. 3, 5, 11, 18).

The Hebrew Christians are all addressed as "holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling" (Heb. iii. 1), but, like their Corinthian brethren, are bidden to take warning from the example of the Israelites perishing in the wilderness because of unbelief (iii. iv.). They are all assumed to have a birthright, and yet they are bidden to beware, lest any of them, like Esau, profanely sell his birthright (xii. 15-17).

Again, those to whom St. James writes are all brethren," "begotten of God's will," and yet these same

persons are bidden to lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, bitter envying and strife, evil speaking one of another, and grudging one against another; they are bidden to cleanse their hands and purify their hearts. (James i. 21; iii. 14; iv. 8.)

Similarly, those to whom St. Peter writes are assumed to be " a chosen generation," "elect," and "born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible.” (1 Pct. i. 2, 23; ii. 9.) And yet they are bidden to lay aside "all malice and all guile, and hypocrisies and envying, and all evil speaking," to "abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul," and they are none of them to "suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evil doer" (ii. 1, 11; iv. 15).

Nothing, then, can be more untrue than the surmise that the Christians of the Apostolic age are all assumed to be converted or spiritual men in the modern sense of he words, or even that they are all supposed to be "good," still less that they are all assumed to have final perseverance vouchsafed to them.

Some of them are supposed to be all that even an Apostle could desire them to bc.

The Apostle hopes the best of all. St. Paul commends the faith of the Roman Church, as "spoken of throughout the whole world." (Rom. i. 8.) The state of the Philippian Church, as a Church, was such that the Apostle "thanks God upon every remembrance of them." (Phil. i. 3.) He remembered too, without ceasing, the "work of faith and labour of love and patience of hope" of the Thessalonian Christians. (1 Thess. i. 3.)

But with all these reasons for thankfulness there are distinct intimations in every Epistle that there were some among them-in some cases many-who were not living Christian lives. These lapsed or lapsing Christians may