"both good and bad" are found among the guests. They never were all really alike, nor ever will be. Therefore after they are gathered together, the awful separation follows. The man who had not on the "wedding garment," who had neither Christ's righteousness upon him, nor a heart renewed by Christ within him, is an image of all those who receive the grace of God in vain. Many will have it that their common civil life has nothing to do with their religion. Imagining they have done their duty to God, by attending church, and so forth, they conclude that God makes no further inquiry into their religion or conduct; and this delusion they palliate with every kind of ingenious excuse. Yet what but consequences the most awful can be expected from such folly as this! The particular character of the guests who are found worthy, is not here mentioned; it is enough that they are regarded as "called and chosen and faithful" guests, and that it is the Lord who thus regards them, &c. "The Lord knoweth them that are his," &c. &c. Let us then conclude by affectionately commending each other in prayer to God.

“As Thou, my God! hast been by me and with me during all my former life, as also during the years I have sojourned in this place, so, of thy mercy, be thou with me for the time to come, till thou take me home to thyself, into thy heavenly kingdom. And O, be thou with all those whom I am now about to leave; be thou with the inmates of the seminary, and with the members of the parochial churches; with all of every rank and age and sex! Bless likewise all who have been accustomed to hear thy message in this place, and those of us who may have heard it this day for the first time. Bless especially those who have met so often at the house and in the closet of thy servant for exercises of prayer, praise, and meditation in thy word. Of a truth, Lord! I have never said that only such are to be considered as accepted guests, or that even they are all rightly and piously minded. Thou, who alone searchest the hearts, thou only art able to discover them all, and to assign to each "his own place" and final destination. For this cause, O Lord, do I commit and commend them to thee; that it may please thee to purify and sustain them, to confirm and establish them. Unto thee I commend the whole church. What thy servant hath taught privately in conversation and confidential intercourse, the same hath he taught in public; and he humbly beseecheth thee to grant that whatever hath been thus spoken by him for thine honour and glory, and for thy name's sake, may bring forth manifold "fruit

that shall remain;" and that whatever of human infirmity or impurity hath been intermingled, may be cast into those depths whereunto thou castest the sins of every sinner that repenteth. Again do I commend myself and all who are here assembled, O Lord God of faithfulness and truth, into thy hands, and unto the word of thy grace! To thy holy name be praise, thanksgiving, and adoration, now, and for evermore! Amen.”

At the conclusion was sung,

"Be honour, glory, and exalted praise," &c.

from the Old Würtemberg Collection.

Henceforth it became Bengel's particular official business to assist in the direction of public affairs of the highest moment to the church of his country. As there are found among his papers some observations of his own respecting the rights, property, and power of the church, we here introduce them.

"If (says he) we would form a proper notion of the church, we must not form it, as is commonly done, by setting before us the primitive church as a model. The apostles, in speaking of ' the church,' intend not so much the church as it then existed, glorious and beautiful as it was; they meant rather the church in the abstract, or what it was designed of God to become hereafter. Eph. iv. 11-13. Christianity has never yet attained that perfect form which it is to have by virtue of the Old Testament promises.

"The light of the apostolic age was soon in the wane. With the exception of a few of the most ancient christian writings, which appeared immediately after the times of the apostles, we are constrained to say of all the rest, that the true doctrine of Christ and concerning Christ, with that of love, moderation, and sobriety, is not discoverable among them, so manifestly are they tinctured with what is harsh, rigid, and austere; the real depth of the Divine oracles and mysteries, the sweet, soft, and gracious manner of the apostles are no longer there; and as time advanced, the departure became still greater and more striking.

There must then be something better to come; indeed it is something truly great which God has graciously kept in store for the latter days. Lightly as many may be disposed to think of the present times, the truth is beginning to take deeper root than ever. Many verities, for which the apostles and primitive Christians laid down their necks, have for some time been fully admitted by the world, and more and more of them are con

tinually shining forth in so clear a light, that men no longer find any thing to object against them, and hereby the worldly interest is driven further and further off its ground, though its advocates, like men in a besieged garrison, are always on the alert to devise new pretexts for it, and to fence all their outworks to the best of their ability. Indeed, as far back as the time of Arndt, a new and important era began to dawn. Arndt prepared the way for Spener, who contrived to carry home the truth to the hearts of multitudes by his institution of private meetings for edification. This method of diffusing the power of the gospel we may regard as a 'gift from above' peculiar to our times; and the exercise of it is by no means to be discouraged, as it is quite in conformity with God's great providential appointments. For the Lord, pursuant to his purpose of drawing all men unto himself, first selected a small people, a single branch of the family of Abraham, and to them he gave special laws and a great variety of peculiar forms, to fix their attention and allure them to God. So, the christian minister, who would convert even a village in the present day, proceeds first to seek out a few of that village, and bring them into communion with one another; not, indeed, to the exclusion of the rest, but rather to induce the rest to observe and inquire concerning what is going on, that his invitation may by and by be able to reach and gather them also.

“ Arndt, as well as Spener and his followers, had to endure some enmity at first, from those who called themselves the orthodox, who arrayed against them all the fiery zeal with which they had waged war upon papists and other sects; but, since the rise of Wolf's philosophy, and because of the popularity with which it has gained ground, they are obliged, in order to withstand it, publicly to advocate sound principles; yes, those very principles which they could not find it in their hearts to endure in the person of Spener, and in the school of Halle.

6

"Still I do not think that the moral reformation, now begun, will proceed as did the doctrinal reformation of the last age; but rather that God will remove the unrighteous and the seed of the ungodly' out of the way, by his own overwhelming judgments; while a remnant will be saved, from which a people shall be born that shall praise the Lord.

"The amount of good, which for some time has been increasing so gloriously, is beginning to be at a stand. The pietistic character, which took its form at Halle, is rather too contracted for the times we live in. Zinzendorf will not be able to

accomplish his plan of conducting every streamlet of the living water into one reservoir, out of which he designs to irrigate the whole world. Indeed of what use would it be to abandon the professing church and leave it, like a carriage in a slough, where its leaders have blindly driven it? Much less can it be of any use to treat that church with unmingled reproach and bitter invective; for this surely is as contrary to the spirit of the gospel, the spirit of love, as is separatism itself, which would suffer it to retrograde into the regions of dark and barbarous heathenism. Therefore we should allow every thing in it to stand, that can stand; whatever is of any use, let it have its use; and whatever we can improve to real benefit, let us improve it. Only may Christ not be forgotten as our single dependence, boast, and glory, Christ in every matter, and upon every account; and then they, who really meet in him, are one. If ever it was the safest thing to be good friends with all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, and to keep clear of every thing like party spirit, a spirit always detrimental to the "One Thing needful,” that time is now. It is no longer a question whether disorder and corruption be great and enormous, (the existence of which is pretty generally admitted and felt,) but how to treat the disorder in the wisest manner, how to counteract its baleful effects. We are not for asserting that our church is a pattern of purity, far from it; for it is at present quite a medley, a confused, discordant, undisciplined mass; and all upright minds, especially among our parochial clergy, witness its declension and disorder with real sorrow. Nevertheless our church is a church of Christ: for we are to consider, not merely what is wanting in it, or what is by human fault perverted from its right use, but what God still possesses, maintains, and upholds in it. Our case is the same in this respect with that of the Old Testament church. The Israelites, with all their corruption, were still the people of God, and were called such, because God had his own ordinances among them. We must not then be too eager to adopt every objection that may be brought against our mother church, worldly as her children so generally are; neither must we forget the privileges we retain in those common public prayers and songs of praise, which she gives us so many opportunities of enjoying. Corrupt as her condition is at present, it is to her, under God, that we owe the preservation of the Scriptures, and our familiarity with their contents; without her, the whole history of Christ would long ago have been regarded as fabulous. There

fore we ought to make the best of our present circumstances by endeavouring to improve the good we still retain; and at the same time to pray without ceasing, that the Lord may come quickly and make all things new. Such have been ever the sentiments which I have thought it right to uphold. The church is specially under the conduct of the Holy Spirit; and what we have most to pray for in its behalf is, that He may descend from heaven into the hearts of its rulers, and through them into the whole community. Now just because the church is sunk away from the Spirit into world and flesh, therefore is our Israel at present given into the hands of hard taskmasters; and the Romanists are not altogether mistaken in asserting, that temporal rulers among Protestants possess undue dominion in spiritual things. To name only one instance; there is with us a very great extenuation of church property; and to this evil our own good Brentius* himself contributed. Hence Dr. Jäger, when he had occasion, (in his lectures,) to speak of any lost privilege of the church, used to say, 'here is another thing which God has given up to the rulers of this world.' True; and they may use it as they please; but a time will come, when God will call them to account for it, and the recompense awaiting them will be a fearful one.

"The lawyers of Böhmer's school have written much to prove the right of temporal interference in spiritual affairs: (de jure principis circa sacra.) This is precisely the foul blot of their writings. More is thus devolved upon temporal rulers than they are able to bear; consequently it is shifted off from themselves to their legal counsellors. The (ecclesiastical) consistory is executive as subordinate to the prince, and the prince submits to the authority of his law advisers. The divines themselves sit in consistory, not as pastors or representatives of the church, but as councillors acting in the name and on the behalf of the supreme magistrate. The lawyers, especially those of Thomasius's school, generally oppose them when they bring forward any serious motion for the reforming of abuses. The lay community are readily allowed to act more at liberty (in church matters;) because it is expected that out of gratitude for it they will the more easily submit to other invasions of their privileges.

"It is true that in the time of the apostles, the monarchical form of church government was the best; because through such

* John Brentius, the Würtemberg Reformer, and Bengel's great-great grandfather by his mother's side.