promise of miracles to his church at all times. True, miracles were promised to the disciples, but they were not promised "for ever," like the Spirit of Truth. Accordingly M. Bouvier, now bishop of Mans, says, after Cardinal de la Luzerne, "Whether God will exhibit such divine signs of sanctity in his church perpetually, we dare not define; nor therefore do we affirm, that sanctity thus understood, is essentially a positive note of the true church." This is most reasonable; and, at all events, no one can pretend that miracles were promised always to particular churches.

In conclusion, then, it may be said, that the question of miracles cannot, with propriety, enter into the notes of the true church. It involves too extensive enquiries into the pretensions of various communities; and after all, if the performance of signs and wonders were proved, they would not necessarily establish the sanctity of those who wrought them, while sanctity may exist without any such signs. God may surely employ sinners to perform great works, (as in the case of Balaam,) or permit the devil to deceive evil men through their means. Far it be from me to affirm that real miracles have not been wrought since the time of the apostles, for the confirmation of Christians, and especially for the conversion of the heathen. There is every probability, nay certainty, that such signs have been wrought; but we ought not, I contend, to examine them with a view to discover the true church; more especially as it does not appear, that any of those

miracles which have the slightest pretension to credibility, were wrought to determine controversies of faith or discipline between the existing communities of professing Christians.

OBJECTIONS.

I. The church can only comprise perfectly holy men; for Christ gave himself for the church, "that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Eph. v. 27.).

Answer. The church is here spoken of, as consisting of those who alone are its essential and permanent . members, and who are known to God only; but this does not infer, that there may not also be men who are only imperfectly members, but who are, together with the righteous, in the external communion of the church.

II. According to Christ's will, none but saints and the regenerate ought to be admitted into the church, therefore those who are not saints, cease to be members of it.

Answer. (1.) I deny that none but visible saints are to be admitted into the church, as I have before proved. (2.) Assuming that visible saints only are to be admitted, yet their sanctity alone does not make them members of the church. They must be admitted by the ministry of others; and so, in like manner, their departure from visible sanctity does not, ipso facto, deprive them of external church-membership, but they must be separated by others, or by a formal act of their own.

III. The reformers held the church to consist only of

the elect and holy. For instance, the Confession of Augsburgh (Art. vii.).

Answer. They only meant, the church considered in its permanent, internal, perfect character; for they admitted, in the Apology of the Confession, that the church comprises both righteous and sinners in her external communion.

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CHAPTER VII.

ON THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE CHURCH.

UNIVERSALITY, of course, could not have been a characteristic of the church at its commencement, when it only existed at Jerusalem; but the testimony of Scripture, and history, and general opinion, oblige us to believe, that it was afterwards to become universal, and to remain so always. It is not necessary for us to suppose a physical and absolute universality, including all men: this would be inconsistent with the predictions of the existence of antichristian powers. All that is here contended is, that the church was to possess moral universality, to obtain adherents in all the nations of the world then known, and to extend its limits in proportion as new nations and countries were discovered: and that it was never to be reduced again to a small portion of the world, though always subject to persecutions, fluctuations, and losses.

1. I argue from Scripture, that the Church was to be morally universal, or to be propagated in all nations. The prophecies relating to the kingdom of Christ all express this character: "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed" (Gen. xxii. 18. xxvi. 4. xxviii.

14.); "In the last days the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it" (Is. ii. 2.); "Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit" (Is. xxvii. 6.); "I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth” (xlix. 6.); "Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession" (Ps. ii. 8.); "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee" (Ps. xxii. 27.); "He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth" (Ps. lxxii. 8.); "His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun; and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed" (verse 17.).

Our blessed Saviour himself referred to these prophecies, in his discourse with the disciples after his resurrection, saying: "Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer... and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke xxiv. 47.); he also declared that his disciples should be witnesses to him "unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts i. 8.), and commanded them to "go teach all nations," promising his presence with them "always, even unto the end of the world" (Matt. xxviii. 19, 20.). We find accordingly, that the apostles " went forth and preached every where" (Mark xvi. 20.). As St. Paul As St. Paul says, "their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the end of the world" (Rom. x. 18.); therefore, even in the lifetime of the apostles, the church was universal,