Acts iii. 6; temple, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk; and to Æneas he says, "Jesus Christ maketh thee whole;" ix. 34. Acts v. 9. TheSeventy. because in each instance he was proving his credibility as a witness. But when he passes sentence on Ananias and Sapphira, he is acting as minister of the Holy Ghost; and therefore so expresses himself as to imply that their death was a miracle wrought by God the Holy Ghost, for the purpose of proving and vindicating the reality of his agency. "How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out." Another act of Christ's preparatory ministry then was, his ordaining an order of men-his apostles-for the special purpose of being witnesses to what he had said and done; and also, qualifying them to become agents and ministers in the new state of religion, which was to commence after his departure. III. Besides this, he had appointed seventy disciples, apparently with the same temporary commission as that with which his apostles were first sent. Perhaps by this time a greater number of missionaries might have been required; or the apostles might have been detained about the person of our Lord, on account of some passages of his life, which rendered their presence necessary as his witnesses, their permanent and peculiar duty. However that may be, the commission of the seventy had expired before the descent of the Holy Ghost; indeed, as far as we can see, immediately on their return to him. Meanwhile they, as well as the apostles, had scattered abroad much instruction, which God's blessed Spirit was sure to render effectual in all honest and good hearts. And although they were found on the descent of the Holy Ghost without any com &c. In a subsequent interview Moses The expression thus adopted to denote When, therefore, the Messiah was foretold, Isaiah had not only used the term Immanuel, but this expression, which to the Jews equally indicated another manifestation of the God of their fathers. The وو. promise is, that "he would give them a name, an everlasting name; that they should be called by a new name and Christ himself is spoken of as one whose name is holy."-Isa. lvi. 5; lxii. 2. The Jews who attempted to stone him for making himself "equal with God," because he had said, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work," must (with these prophecies before them) have understood him as claiming to be this new manifestation of the Godhead, and applying to himself this additional name, under which God was to appear for the purpose of establishing a new dispensation. (John v. 17.) Our form of baptism is an obvious allusion to it, and is equivalent to a command to baptize unto the Father as God, unto the Son as God, and unto the Holy Ghost as God. By this, too, may be explained (what is elsewhere remarked) that our Saviour's command to address prayer to the Father in his name, appears to have been fulfilled by the Apostles and early Christians, by addressing their prayers to the Lord Jesus. See Archbishop Whately's Sermons. Serm. 2. mission, yet it is highly probable that the first appointments to ministerial offices in the infant Church were made from this class: as from persons already prepared and practised by our Lord in a portion of his ministerial service, and, like the apostles themselves, peculiarly fitted for a second commission from the Holy Ghost. To this number, indeed, tradition has assigned more than one of the primitive worthies of the Church-Barnabas, Stephen, and others.8 IV. In addition to these, Christ had left behind him a body of The other disciples; adherents pledged to the good cause by the sacrament of Disciples. baptism, and prepared, by the instruction which they had received from him and his apostles, for the Christian truths with which the world was now to be enlightened. Of their number and precise character as a body, there is little to be learned, beyond the fact, that one hundred and twenty were found assembled on the election of Acts i. 15–26. Matthias. Some have supposed them to have constituted a peculiar assembly; and consider them to be intended by "the apostles' Acts iv. 23. company," to which Peter and John retired after their appearance before the Sanhedrim. Whether this were so or not, certainly they must have been so far prepared by their admission into the train of our Lord, as to have furnished capable and ready ministers for the Spirit, at that peculiar season when the harvest was greatest and the reapers fewest. Here then was a third order of faithful and experienced men, who, like the apostles and the seventy, were left qualified for a commission from that Comforter whom he had promised. V. The sacraments form another portion of the Christian institu- The tion which was embraced by our Lord's preparatory ministry. Their Sacraments. object and character have already been pointed out. Why they were instituted by him, and not, like all the other forms and ceremonies, left to the Holy Spirit, and to the Church under its guidance, is worthy of inquiry. Looking to the character of the apostles as appointed by our Lord, they appear only in the light of witnesses. Is there, then, any thing in the sacraments which rendered these men under that character peculiarly fitting to be trustees, as it were, of those sacred rites? If there be, an answer may be thereby given to the inquiry; the question being always considered with that diffidence and humility, which the wisdom of Christ, in his arrangement of the scheme of salvation, claims from every Christian. Now such a connexion is discoverable. Baptism, first, is the symbol of Baptism. a covenant between two parties-between the Christian and his Lord. On the part of the Saviour, it was instituted as the means whereby grace was given; and, as a proof of this, in the primitive Church it was always perhaps accompanied by some extraordinary gifts of the Spirit. On the part of the redeemed, it was a pledge that he believed. Thus, when the eunuch requested to be baptized 8 Clemen. Alexandr. Strom. Lib. II. p. 410, (ed. Heinsii Lutet. 1629.) Eusebii Hist. Eccl. Lib. I. C. 12; Lib. II. C. 1. Epiph. Hæres. XX. Lib. I. H. F Acts viii. 37. by Philip, his answer is, " If thou believest with all thy heart thou mayest. To the gaoler at Philippi, St. Paul made the same reply, when asked what was the requisite qualification to fit him for Acts xvi. 31. admission into the covenant of salvation; "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," (i.e. made a Christian.) Baptism then was, on the part of the Christian, the pledge that he believed. Now the apostles were the especial witnesses of what was to be believed, they were the persons whose report was to be credited; and to them, therefore, most suitably was committed the sacrament of admission into the Church, "the keys of the kingdom,' as to men already intrusted with the password into it. Thus, the appointment of witnesses and the rite of baptism seem to be naturally connected, and to belong to one and the same period of the institution. The Lord's Supper. The Lord's The sacrament of the Lord's supper is emphatically termed a memorial. It was enjoined on the apostles, and through them on all Christians, as a symbolical rite to be observed for ever in remembrance of Christ, in remembrance of him especially in his fulfilment of the most important part of his ministry. Being, then, in itself a sort of monument, or histrionic record, of the most mysterious of those events to which they were appointed witnesses, a reason presents itself, why the institution of this sacrament, also, should have been assigned to the same period of the new dispensation, as the appointment of the witnesses themselves. They could surely best understand and explain its origin, who were chosen to bear testimony to the event which it was to call to remembrance; and who, if not all present like St. John at the awful scene, were yet present on those various occasions, when it had been prefigured and foretold, by words and by signs, by allusions to mysterious prophecies, by parables, or by typical miracles. VI. The Lord's Prayer is another portion of his preparatory ministry. Brief as it is, it is very important. We have in it not only a sanction for praying together, but for using set forms of common prayer. We learn from it, too, the manner in which we should address ourselves to God, and the nature of the petitions which we should make to Him. Nor is its value as one of our forms of common prayer inconsiderable. Besides its intrinsic excellence, and the sanctity which attaches to it from having been dictated by Divine wisdom, it derives a peculiar character from the circumstances under which it was composed, and the immediate purpose for which it was composed. It was given at the request of those who were in constant attendance on our Lord, that he would teach them to pray, as Luke xi. 1. John also taught his disciples; meaning obviously, not that they did not know how to pray, but that they desired to have some form of prayer provided for their use, and suitable to their condition as attendants on our Lord. Its immediate purpose was that of a sort of family prayer. Having come down to us with this character 9 xvi. 23. impressed on it, its use is a perpetual reminiscence to us, that we are still brethren, still members of one holy family, although that family has enlarged and spread over the world. The simple wording of the prayer contributes to this effect. To its original character, too, as composed for the use of those who were our Lord's companions while on earth, we may attribute certain omissions which, we may presume, would not have been made, had it been composed originally in reference to the Lord's future Church. There is no mention in it, e.g. of the Holy Spirit that new Comforter was not to come until Christ had gone away. The petitions in it are not made in Christ's name, and yet, his promise is, "Whatsoever ye John xv ʊ; shall ask of the Father in my name, he will give it you. Now, supposing this prayer to have been composed for his apostles and disciples, in the character of his companions and helpers while on earth, this is exactly what we should expect; for it was not until he should be glorified that prayer was to be made to him, or in his name. Accordingly, when that time was now approaching, he tells his disciples, "Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name; ask John xvi. 24. and receive. Which amounted to this, “Henceforth ye are to pray in another character and another form. I go to be myself the object of prayer, and even to the Father must prayers be addressed in my name. Look, too, at the first prayers of the Church, and you will observe precisely this change. Take, e.g. that before the election of Matthias, "Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all Acts i. 24. men:" or that of Stephen, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit; Lord, Acts vii. 59, lay not this sin to their charge." This last is most to the point, because it is obviously an imitation of the prayer which the blessed Jesus made on the cross for his murderers, 'Father, forgive them," Luke xxiii. &c., the precise change to which we have been alluding being adopted. It is not any more, "Our Father," but "Lord Jesus. 66 9 "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter.”—John xiv. 15. 60. 34. CHAPTER II. PREACHING TO THE JEWS. From A.D. 33-41. SHALL we say, then, that the period of the Christian dispensation, of that dispensation under which we now live, commences where our Lord's ministry closes? Such appears to be the case, that ministry being only preparatory: first, as forming and furnishing the subject of Christianity: secondly, as providing certain instruments, and making certain arrangements to facilitate the first measures of the Holy Spirit, whose office it was to Christianize the world. The history of that great work naturally falls into a twofold division: the former portion extending through the period in which the Holy Guide and Governor of the Church effected his purpose by a manifest interference; by extraordinary gifts and endowments bestowed on his agents, and an extraordinary and sensible reception, and welcome, as it were, of all, who by their means were introduced into the new kingdom of God. In due season, this manifest and sensible interference of the Holy Spirit was withdrawn, and has continued to be so unto the present day. The history of the latter period will be, therefore, treated separately from that of the former, because of this great line of division. In that, the extraordinary display of the Spirit was a necessary guide and beacon to direct men to the Church, and to keep them from wandering in their progress to it. It served a similar purpose with the pillar and cloud, which for a time were manifested to guide the Israelites to the earthly Canaan. In this, the kingdom being settled, although the God of the true Israel still resides amongst his people, that residence is secret and invisible—within a holy of holies-within the hearts of the faithful. Like the Jews, we only for a short season enjoyed the open and palpable symbol of God's guiding presence, but, like Heb. viii. 1,2. them, we were not left comfortless. "We have such an High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man," and through him, and by him, we have access unto God. It is the first of these periods, however, to which our attention must be now confined; that is, to Christianity as it was taught and conducted by the apostles and other inspired ministers of God. And here it will be proper to mark distinctly the breaks by which even |