which he was thrown down and stoned. The writer of the Epistle of Jude designates himself as a brother of James (the Just). (See Matt. 13: 55; Mark 6: 3.) It is uncertain whether he is the same who is called Judas the brother of James in Luke 6: 16. Nothing is known respecting his apostolic labors.

OBS.-The Epistle of James, directed to Christian converts of the twelve tribes both within, and also without the bounds of Palestine, was written in consequence of various afflictions and temptations to which the Jewish Christians were exposed. That dead faith against which he warns with such energy, was the vain and false opinion, which was deeply rooted in the Judaism of the times, and which even converted Jews found it difficult to abandon, that the mere descent from Abraham secured for the Jews a superiority above the Gentiles, and that in view of the fact that the Jews confessed the God of Abraham, they could not fail to obtain salvation and justification before God. With this dead faith, which was destitute of the fruits of true sanctification, James contrasts the example of Abraham, in whose life the living fruits of faith appeared in such abundance, and whose works were precisely the seal of his justifying faith. When Paul says that man is justified by faith, without the works of the law, and James says that man is justified by works, and not by faith only (224), they by no means contradict each other. The connection in which their words occur shows, that the former commends that living faith, the evidences of which are furnished by the sanctification which succeeds it, while the latter commends the sanctification that proceeds from faith as the essential condition of salvation. And, further, Paul simply condemns that confidence which rests on the dead works of a deluded and carnal self-righteousness, while James condemns that idle confidence which rests on a dead external confession of the true God; he maintains that it has no power, and that it is a hinderance to salvation. The short Epistle of Jude warns with great power against certain apostate, blaspheming and lascivious deceivers, whose sentence, as he shows, has been already typically pronounced in the punitive judgments of the Old Testament. It presents many points of resemblance to the second Epistle of Peter, in its form and in its contents. It has not been satisfactorily shown to which of the two priority belongs, although the most weighty considerations which are advanced preponderate in favor of Peter's epistle.

§ 184. The Four Gospels, and the Acts of the Apostles.

Those who had personally seen the works of Christ, and heard his discourses, were gradually removed from the Church by death; while these witnesses were disappearing, Christianity was constantly extending its borders. The want of writings was soon deeply felt, in which those accounts of the life of Christ which possessed apostolic authority might be accurately preserved, and be secured from corruptions. This was the origin of the Gospel of Matthew, who was himself an apostle and an eye-witness, of the Gospels of Mark and Luke, who wrote by the apostolic authority of Peter and Paul, and of the Acts of the Apostles, written by Luke as a continuation of the Gospels. Long after these three Gospels were written and circulated, John, the beloved disciple of the Lord, was impelled to add a fourth. In this Gospel he bequeathed a most precious legacy to the Church, by enshrining in it that image of the Redeemer, which was indelibly portrayed in the depths of his loving soul, and maintained in all its life and power by the quickening influence of the Holy Ghost. (John 14: 26.)-These four Gospels (The Gospel according to Matthew, Mark, &c.), each of which adopts a peculiar mode of treatment, and selects different aspects in presenting the same exalted subject, form together only one Gospel. Therein the Church now finds an image of the Redeemer as faithfully described, and exhibited in as many varied positions, as the comprehension of man can grasp - it constitutes the ground of our faith (1 Tim. 3: 15, 16), the fountain whence our love proceeds (1 John 4: 19), the example proposed for our imitation. (1 Pet. 221.) The narrative, on the other hand, entitled, The Acts of the Apostles, exhibits to us the operations of the Spirit of Christ, who guides into all truth; it furnishes, in the labors of the apostles, a model of pure evangelical preaching and pastoral fidelity, and affords, in the various circumstances of the primitive congregations, both examples that claim imitation, and also impressive warnings.

OBS. The general coincidence of form and contents in the first three Gospels is remarkable. Their general structure is the same,

they usually record the same discourses and actions of the Lord in language which is very frequently word for word the same, and they have therefore not unaptly been termed the Synoptic Gospels. Nevertheless, each is also distinguished by a purpose and character peculiarly its own, by various additions and omissions of a greater or less extent, by a different mode of exhibiting and arranging the details, and even by occasional statements which seem at first to contradict those of the others. But all these striking peculiarities are explained in the most easy and simple manner, when due attention is given to the circumstances of the apostolic age. The facts belonging to the evangelical history were promulgated for many years only in an oral manner; during this period, in which they were accordingly uttered by the mouth alone, a certain agreement or conformity was undesignedly established in the statement and exhibition of particular facts. The Evangelists naturally adopted this established form of the oral communications, when they committed the accounts to writing, and enriched the latter with additions derived from their own knowledge or investigations, and also adapted them to the peculiar object which they had in view or the wants which they designed to supply. The Evangelist John alone is an exception, since it was his special purpose to complete the former Gospels by additions derived from his own recollections, and finish the image of the Redeemer's Person and labors, by exhibiting the latter in still another and an essential point of view. The apostle Matthew, of whose apostolic labors we possess no reliable accounts, was the first who wrote; it is evidently the object of his Gospel to supply the wants of Jewish Christians. He describes the life of the Redeemer in its Messianic dignity and lowliness, and shows that the Law and the promises were fulfilled in him and through him. — Mark (whose Jewish name was John), a nephew of Barnabas, wrote his Gospel by the apostle Peter's authority. (1 Pet. 5: 13.) When Barnabas separated from Paul ( 172. 1), he accompanied the former on his missionary journey, but afterwards appears as a faithful assistant of Paul (Col. 4: 10; Philem. ver. 24; 2 Tim. 4: 11), and a companion of Peter. (1 Pet. 5: 13.) The peculiarity of his Gospel, which, according to credible accounts, he wrote at Rome for Gentile Christians, consists not merely in the omission of extended discourses, but also in his graphic descriptions of facts with which many subordinate but characteristic incidents are interwoven; hence he furnishes a succinct but an attractive and animated sketch of the actions of Jesus. — Luke, a physician according to Col. 4: 14, the faithful companion and assistant of the apostle Paul, probably wrote

his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles during the two years of his residence in Rome, when Paul was imprisoned. (Acts 28: 30.) Both of these compositions are dedicated to an eminent Roman, named Theophilus. (Luke 1: 3; Acts 1: 1.) He wrote his Gospel by the authority of Paul, and the Pauline tendency was evidently his guide in the selection of the discourses and actions of Jesus which he records. He is accordingly inclined to give special prominence to those portions of the evangelical history that pre-eminently illustrate the free grace of God which precedes the sinner's approach, excludes all human merit and calls and invites all alike to be saved. It is his purpose to present Jesus as the Saviour of sinners. The fourth Gospel specially designs to describe the theanthropic personality.of the Redeemer, the image of which was so distinctly beheld by John, and so deeply impressed on his soul. Hence he commences with the ante-mundane existence of Christ, who is the eternal, essential and personal Word of God (2óy05); and he records with special pleasure, both those discourses of his divine Master in which he himself bears witness of his Person and mission, and also those actions in which his glory is pre-eminently revealed, "the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14. See John 20: 31.)

CHAPTER III.

THE APPROPRIATION OF SALVATION IN THE CHURCH.

§ 185. The Design and Character of this Period.

1. Not only is the redemption of man now finished, but all the conditions also are set forth on which its appropriation depends. The atoning death of Christ offered satisfaction to eternal justice, and life and immortality were brought to light through his resurrection; the Sacraments are instituted, the Holy Ghost, who guides into all truth, is poured out, the Church is established, and the Word of God recorded. It yet remains that this great salvation should be preached to all the nations of the world, and to all the individuals who compose them, and that they all, or as many as do not obstinately exclude themselves, should receive the remission of their sins and eternal life through a personal appropriation of this salvation. Salvation is appointed,

like leaven (Matt. 13:33), to penetrate and imbue the entire mass of the human race, and sanctify and renew all the conditions and movements, and all the circumstances and relations of human life, whether they are the most elevated or the most lowly. Such is the design of the present period.

2. The foundation of this work was unquestionably laid, and a commencement was made already, in the apostolic age. In so far succeeding times resembled, in the task assigned to them, and in their character, those of the apostles, and both constitute a single current flowing onward in the same channel. Still, they are distinct and separate from each other, although their general task is the same. For, in the former case, namely, that of the apostolic age, the foundation and the vehicle of development consisted of the extraordinary gifts of grace bestowed by the Holy Spirit, especially, the immediate illumination from which the preaching of the apostles proceeded, and the gift to do signs and wonders, by which the efforts of the apostles were most effectually sustained and promoted. These gifts were necessary at that time. The word of God could not have been set forth except through an immediate illumination, and the preaching of the apostles could not have been adequately confirmed except by signs and wonders; as the result of all, a deep and immovable foundation was laid for the Church of God.

3. But the Holy Spirit operates in general, since the death of the apostles, exclusively through the ordinary Means of Grace, that is, the Word of God and the two Sacraments; and, indeed, the Church, firmly and immovably established on the rock of salvation, no longer needs those extraordinary gifts. The Church no longer finds it requisite that the preaching of the Word should. be confirmed by external signs and wonders, for it is itself, in conjunction with that transformation of the world to which it has given rise, a miracle greater than all that were wrought by the apostles. It no longer needs an immediate illumination and infusion of strength, since it possesses an inexhaustible source of light and power in the Means of Grace. Miracles still occur as frequently as in the apostolic age, but they are transferred from the lower region of nature to the higher region of the inner life of the spirit, where their most appropriate and suitable sphere is