ART. IV.

THE OLD TESTAMENT CHURCH.

AN EXAMINATION OF SEVERAL PARTICULARS IN THE CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH, AS IT EXISTED UNDER THE OLD TESTAMENT DISPENSATION.

By Rev. GEORGE D. ARMSTRONG, Norfolk, Va.

The visible church may be defined, as that society among men, which God has constituted to be the depository of his truth, and his agency for the edification of believers, and the evangelization of the unbelieving world. It is a visible society among men; and to make it such, God has given it certain. institutions and ordinances by which it is distinguished from the world. Of this nature, are the sacraments. It is a visible society which God has constituted. In this, it differs from all civil, political and social societies which have originated with men, and have been constituted by human authority. It is by divine appointment, the depository of God's truth. To it, in the days of the fathers, the "lively," or life-giving "oracles were given to be transmitted to us." And it is God's chosen agency for the edification of believers and the evangelization of the unbelieving world. Hence, the ministry and sacraments; hence, church government and discipline; hence, the commission, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."

In this sense, the visible church was constituted, when God entered into covenant with Abram, and appointed circumcision as the seal of his covenant. The record of this transaction is contained in the 17th Ch. of Genesis; "And Abram

fell on his face; and God talked with him, saying: As for me my covenant is with thee; and thou shalt be the father of many nations. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and thy seed after thee. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; every man-child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you." Such is the charter of the visible church, and it bears date in the land of Canaan, in the 100th year of the age of Abram; B. C. 1898.

It was not at this time that the Gospel of salvation was first revealed to man, that had been done, in the promise given in pronouncing sentence upon the serpent, and in the institution of bloody sacrifices. Nor was it at this time, that a special provision was first made for preserving and spreading abroad a knowledge of this gospel. Noah was "a preacher of righteousness" before the flood, and Melchisedeck, expressly styled, the " priest of the most-high God," met Abram, and blessed him, and received tythes of him, some fifteen years before the date of this covenant of God with Abraham. As the brief history which we have of this long ante-patriarchal period, is all embraced in the first eleven Chapters of Genesis, it seems but reasonable that we should regard these instances, not as the record of extraordinary facts, but as illustrations of the state of things then existing among men ; and therefore, as evidence of the existence of a class of persons called of God to the exercise of the ministry. In God's covenant with Abraham, an important addition was made, to the provisions already existing, for preserving and spreading a knowledge and belief of his revealed truth, in the separation of believers and their seed from the unbelieving world, by means of circumcision; and this it was, which constituted them a visible church. Just as the officers of an army, although regularly commissioned, and having their armour on, and the royal standard in their midst, will not form an organ

ized army until the host, of which they are the appointed
leaders, is enrolled and regularly embodied; so did not the
priests, although called of God to the priestly office, and hav-
ing the "oracles of God" committed to their keeping, form a
visible church, until believers and their seed were gathered
around them, and embodied as the sacramental host of God.
That the visible church thus established, was intended to
continue until the end of the world, is evident, both from the
express terms of the charter, and from the nature of the first
great promise embodied in that covenant. God declares his
covenant to be an "everlasting covenant," and his promise is,
"and thou shalt be the father of many nations;" a promise
which with an inspired apostle as its interpreter, we under-
stand is to meet its fulfilment only when "the fulness of the
Gentiles shall have come in, and all Israel shall be saved.”
(See Rom. 6th and 11th.) This church in which we "are
no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens of the
saints, and of the household of God; being built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being
the chief corner stone," after its establishment in the days of
Abraham, subsequently had its constitution modified in the
days of Moses, and again in the days of Christ and his apos-
tles; but in substance, the same church it has ever been.
The truth of this proposition, in several particulars, in which
it has been questioned by some, we shall attempt to establish
in the present article.

I. The visible church, as constituted in the days of Abraham and Moses, was truly and properly the church of Christ. By this we mean, not only that it had Christ as its spiritual head, but that it was established as truly by the immediate agency of God the Son, as it was afterwards modified by his agency, at the commencement of the New Testament dispensation.

Moses received his commission as the ruler and deliverer of Israel at Horeb, and subsequently, the constitution of the church as it was to be modified through his instrumentality, at Sinai; in each instance, his commission and instructions.

coming directly from God himself. In the inspired account of these interviews, even the most cursory reader must be struck with a peculiarity in the language of the sacred narrative. God, in the account of his appearance to Moses in Horeb, is, in the course of a single chapter styled, "the angel of the Lord;" "the Lord;" "God;" "the God of thy father;""the God of Abraham," (not Abram, but Abraham, to shew his identity with the God who gave the church her original charter; for it was at that time, and in consequence of a provision of that charter that the patriarch's name was changed from Abram to Abraham ;") "the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob;" "I am;" and "I am that I am." In Stephen's defence before the Jewish Sanhedrim, speaking of this event, he uses similar language, "And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him (Moses) in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, an angel of the Lord, in a flame of fire in a bush." "The same Moses did God send to be a ruler and deliverer, by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush." "This is he that was in the church in the wilderness, with the angel that appeared to him in the Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received the lively oracles to give unto us."

How are we to understand this application, to the same person of the several titles, "the God of Abraham;" "I am that I am ;" and "the angel of the Lord"? The term angel is used in scripture, as the designation of a particular office, viz: that of a messenger, or one sent to perform a special duty. Hence, the word translated angel in Ex. 3d, is translated messenger in Mal. 3: 1; "And the Lord whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in." In this sense, ministers, those sent of Christ to preach his gospel, are called the "angels of the churches." (See Rev. 3d and 4th.) This is the primary meaning of the term. The term angel, is also used in scripture, as the designation of a particular order of beings; an order differing from man, in that they are purely spiritual; and from God, in that they are created beings. To this order,

the name angel has come to be applied, because "they are all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation."

The term angel, cannot be understood in this latter sense, when applied to the being who appeared to Moses in Horeb and Sinai, since he then and there assumes to himself the titles, "I am;" and "I am that I am;" titles expressly intended to convey the idea of eternal self-existence, existence such as could be predicated of no creature. Nor can we admit the explanation offered by some; that the title of angel is given to the visible appearance which marked the divine presence; the "flame of fire in a bush" at Horeb; the title of Jehovah belonging to the God whose presence was thus marked: And this, because such an explanation is, not only, utterly at variance with the scriptural use and etymology of the term, but is equally at variance with the whole course of the narrative.

The only satisfactory explanation of the language under consideration, is that suggested by the terms in which Christ Jesus, on several occasions, speaks of himself: "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." "Jesus saith unto them, my meat is to do the will of him that sent me." "Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God." Now, in whatever sense Christ Jesus was one "sent" of God, or the Father, in that sense, was he, in the proper use of the term, "the angel of God." And if we understand the angel of Horeb and Sinai, to be God the Son, all difficulty in this case, at once disappears. He who was "the angel of God," was at the same time, "God;" "the Lord God;" "the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob," and "I am that I am."

The correctness of this explanation is confirmed by the declaration of John; "No man hath seen God at any time: the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him;" (Jno. 1: 18.) On carefully examining this declaration, in connection with the context, it will be seen, that it admits of but one interpretation; viz: "No man hath