Near the close of the 18th century, Dr. Abner Jones, of Hartland, Vermont, then a member of a regular Baptist Church, had a peculiar travel of mind in relation to sectarian names and human creeds. The first he regarded as an evil, because they were so many badges of distinct separation among the followers of Christ. The second, served as so many lines or walls of separation to keep the disciples of Christ apart; that sectarian names and human creeds should be abandoned, and that true piety alone, and not the externals of it, should be made the only test of Christian fellowship and communion. Making the Bible the only source from whence he drew the doctrine he taught, Dr. Jones commenced propagating his sentiments with zeal, though at that time he did not know of another individual who thought like himself. In September, 1800, he had the pleasure of seeing a church of about twenty-five members gathered in Lyndon, Vt., embracing these principles. In 1802 he gathered another church in Bradford, Vt., and, in March, 1803, another in Piermont, N. H. About this time, Elias Smith, then a Baptist minister, was preaching with great success in Portsmouth, N. H. Falling in with Dr. Jones's views, the church under his care was led into the same principles. Up to this time Dr. Jones had labored as a preacher nearly if not quite single-handed; but several preachers from the regular Baptists and Freewill Baptists, now rallied to the standard he had unfurled. Preachers were also raised up in the different churches now organized, several of whom travelled extensively, preaching with great zeal and success. Churches of the order were soon planted in all the New England states, the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and more recently in New Jersey and Michigan. A

A very extraordinary revival of religion was experienced among the Presbyterians in Kentucky and Tennessee, during the years 1800 and 1801. Several Presbyterian ministers heartily entered into this work, and labored with a fervor and zea! which they had never before manifested. Others either stood aloof from it, or opposed its progress. The preachers who entered the work, broke loose from the shackles of a Calvinistic creed, and preached the gospel of free salvation. The creed of the church now appeared in jeopardy. Presbyteries, and finally the Synod of Kentucky, interposed their authority to stop what they were pleased to call a torrent of Arminianism. Barton W. Stone, of Kentucky, a learned and eloquent minister, with four other ministers, withdrew from the Synod of Kentucky. As well might be expected, a large number of Presbyterian members, with most of the converts in this great revival, rallied round these men who had labored so faithfully, and had been so signally blessed in their labors. As they had already felt the scourge of a human creed, the churches then under their control, with such others as they organized, agreed to take the Holy Scriptures as their only written rule of faith and practice. At first they organized themselves into what was called the "Springfield Presbytery;" but in 1803, they abandoned that name, and agreed to be known as Christians only. Preachers were now added to their numbers and raised up in their ranks. As they had taken the scriptures for their guide, pedobaptism was renounced, and believers' baptism by immersion substituted in its room. certain occasion one minister baptized another minister, and then he who had been baptized immersed the others. From the very beginning, this branch spread with surprising rapidity, and now extends through all the western states.

On a

From this brief sketch it will be perceived that this people originated from the three principal Protestant sects in Ame rica. The branch at the south, from the Methodists; the one at the north, from the

Baptists, and the one at the west, from the Presbyterians. The three branches rose within the space of eight years, in sections remote and unknown to each other, until some years afterwards. Probably no other religious body ever had a similar origin.

The adopting of the Holy Scriptures as their only system of faith, has led them to the study of shaping their belief by the language of the sacred oracles. A doctrine, which cannot be expressed in the language of inspiration, they do not hold themselves obligated to believe. Hence, with very few exceptions, they are not Trinitarians, averring that they can neither find the word nor the doctrine in the Bible. They believe "Lord our Jehovah is one Lord," and purely one. That "Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God." That the Holy Ghost is that divine unction with which our Saviour was anointed, (Acts x. 38,) the effusion that was poured out on the day of Pentecost; and that it is a divine emanation of God, by which he exerts an energy or influence on rational minds. While they believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, they are not Socinians or Humanitarians. Their prevailing belief is that Jesus Christ existed with the Father before all worlds, and is therefore a Divine Saviour.*

The word Saviour signifies a deliverer or preserver, one who saves from danger or destruction, and brings into a state of prosperity and happiness. In Greek writers, the benefactor of a state is called a saviour; so among the Jews, God raised up men called deliverers or saviours, to deliver them from the invasion and oppression of surrounding nations; as Othniel, Ehud, &c. These were only temporal deliverers. But Jesus, the Messiah, is called SAVIOUR in the highest sense of the word. He saves his people from eternal death, from punishment and misery as the consequence of sin, and gives them eternal life and happiness in his kingdom. Hence he is called the Saviour of the world." " able to save to the uttermost," i. e. wholly. He is even called "the author of eternal salvation," "Lord and Saviour," to distinguish him from all human deliverers. It requires as great an effort to save a lost world from sin and death, as it did to create it in the beginning. Consequently none other than a divine being is competent for such a great work. The evidence we have to prove that ours is a divine Saviour is:

Although the Christians do not contend for entire uniformity in belief, yet in addition to the foregoing, nearly, if not quite

1. Because he is God's son, in a peculiar sense applicable to no other being in the universe. In the scriptures angels and men are called sons of God, but Christ is called his "own son," "his only-begotten son," "his beloved son," to distinguish him from others who are sons of God by creation, and regeneration. Also, in the parable, God is represented as having but "one son, his well beloved."-Mark 12: 6. The same expression is used in the Septuagint, in reference to Isaac, Abram's only son, Gen. 22: 2.-Take now thy son, thine (AGAPETON) only son Isaac." The phrase (HUIOS AGAPETOS) beloved son, is used ten times in the New Testament, and in every place it is spoken by the Father concerning his son Jesus Christ. See Math. 3: 17; 12: 18; 17: 5. Mark 1: 11; 9: 7:. Luke 3: 22; 9: 35. 2 Peter 1: 17. Mark 12: 6. Luke 20: 13. We want no better evidence to prove a man to be a human being than to know that he is of human descent; so we want no better testimony to prove that Christ is a divine being, than to know, as the scriptures abundantly inform us, that he is "the only begotten son of God."This proves that his essence is not only superhuman and superangelic, but strictly niforth and came from God," consequently if VINE. Jesus told the Jews that " he proceeded God were their father they would love him as possessing a nature equally lovely.-John 8: 42. Hence we find the most intimate union existing between the Father and the son, and such is the near relation, that their knowledge of each other is mutual. Jesus says (OUDEIS) "no one knoweth the son but the Father; neither knoweth (TIS) any one the Father save the son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him."-Math. 11: 27. Again he says: "as the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father." He is also represented as being the Father's bosom friend-even in the bosom of the Father," that is, to be in his embrace, and cherished by him. John 1: 18.

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Farther, the divine perfections were so exactly delineated in the son, that to see the son, was to see an exact representation of the Father; "he that hath seen me," said Christ to Philip. "hath seen the Father." Hence he is called by Paul, the image of the invisible God." Col. i. 15. "He is the effulgence of HIS (the Father's) glory, and an exact image of his substance." The word brightness (APAUGASMA.) Heb. i. 3. is an image drawn from a luminous body, giving the idea that as the brightness of the sun is to the sun that emits it, so is the son of God in relation to his Father, reflecting the splendor of the divine perfections, to angels and men. The expression (CHARACTER Mupostasenos) of the Father, signifies "the express image or counterpart of

It is nothing uncommon, among theological writers, to trace the origin of the Church of God to Abraham, the Father of the Faithful, with whom God made a covenant nineteen hundred years before the birth of Christ. We, however, dissent from this view of the origin of the church. We believe that the Abrahamic or Jewish Church was not the same church, called in the New Testament the Church of God. If the same, Christ would not have said to Peter, "Upon this rock will I build my Church;" and the Apostle would never have said, "He (Christ) hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain, (Jews and gentiles) one new man."|| Now, if this "new man," means the Church of God, and of this there can be no rational doubt, then, without controversy, she originated under the personal ministry of Jesus Christ and his apostles.

2. The name or title, Church of God,¶

Matt. xvi. 18. And I say also to thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Eph. ii. 14. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

16. Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.

Some writers derive the word Church from the Greek Kupiakn, Kuriake; Saxon Cyrc, or

There are those, who have pled for the use, and for the exclusive use, of some other appellations: such as the name of Christian: others for that of Disciples; and others, again, for the name Brethren, &c. But it ought to be recollected, that not one of those is a proper noun, or a patronymic, and, therefore, none of them is ever used in the Scriptures as an appellation for the church. The individual members of the church are; and may be, very properly so called; but not so with regard to the church herself. We nowhere read of the "Christian Church," or of the "Disciples' Church," nor of the "Brethren's Church," &c.

If, then, it is unscriptural to assume and wear any one of these, or any other Bible name, as a church appellation, how much more improper, unscriptural, and God dishonoring is it, to lay aside all Bible names, even the divinely appointed name, Church of God, and assume a human name: such as Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Lutheran, Presbyterian, German Reformed, Baptist, Methodist, Menonist, Unitarian, Universalist, or something else, equally inappropriate, unscriptural, and unmeaning?

Ciric; Scottish Kirk; German Kirche, from the ancient German verb Kieren, to elect, to choose out, and is of the same import with the Greek verb Exkadɛı, ekkalein, to call out; and whence the word Exλnata is derived, and primarily denotes an assembly of men called together on the authority of the supreme

power.

Is. Ixii. 2. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory; and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.

Gal. i. 13. For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it.

1 Tim. iii. 15. But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.