VOL. I.

CATHOLIC CHRISTIAN

COMMUNION.

I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY CATHO-
LIC CHURCH-THE COMMUNION
OF SAINTS.' -The Creed.

The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor alawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.-JACOB.

pa

It was customary with the triarchs, before they left the world, to pronounce a benediction on their offspring. The head of the family was the prophet and the priest, as well as the governor of the household. "By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, concerning things to come; and Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph." He also "called unto his own sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days." My text is part of his predictions concerning Judah. He was the fourth son of Israel; and unto him, the father, guided by the spirit of prophecy, gave the pre-eminence. His name is Praise; his character, a Lion; his hand is in the neck of his enemies; and even his father's children bow down before him: the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law giver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. VOL. I. MAY, 1831.

NO. 1.

The sceptre is the rod of office, and denotes the authority of him who holds it in his hand, or before whom it is carried in state, by another. Strong rods, in the language of another prophet, were used for the sceptres of them that bare rule.* The word† is never employed in scripture without indicating power under some form or another; and it is generally associated with the throne and the

kingdom. In this case, it is evidently the symbol of Judah's chieftainship; and being connected with the power of giving law, must certainly be understood as denoting national polity.

The lawgiver too, as well as the sceptre, is said to continue in the tribe of Judah through One of successive generations. from between his feet-shall not this description shall not depart cease to exist among his offspring The until the specified time. lawgiver is not merely a scribe, or a teacher; but one who proclaims the law by his power both to enact and to execute. The phrase indicates the continuance of some le

2

gislative power, whether civil or ecclesiastical; and "of Judah he

Ezek. xix. 11.

The Jews have a quibble on the word Dashebet, sceptre, they say it signifies

staff, and may be a rod, denoting afflictions, meaning that affliction shall not depart from the Jews until Messiah comes; and as they are still under affliction, that the Messiah is los, however, understood the word as we do,

not come. Their own chief Targumist, Onke

and this meaning is adopted by the Jerusalem Targum and the ancient versions.

spake nothing concerning priest hood." The tribe must, of course, according to the prophecy, continue as a distinct people with a civil polity of their own, until that descendant of the house of Judah shall appear whose right it is to reign until Shiloh come.

The word signifies sent, or messenger, and is one of the names of the promised Messiah. This is generally admitted, both by Jews and Christians. The application of the name Shiloh, to Jesus Christ, does not depend on its etymology, but upon its use in this connexion. Whether it be rendered Messenger, or Rest, or Peace-maker, it denotes that remarkable person who was expected of old; the seed of the woman to be sent upon the earth; the seed of Abraham, in the line of Isaac and Jacob, in whom shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. The prophecy points out a character not to be mistaken without great perversion of the text. He who is called Shiloh, was formerly made known to Jacob's family; descends from Judah is to appear not until the Jews became a nation, but yet some time before the annihilation of their polity; and is described as the centre of union among people of all lands―unto him shall

is a title of the Messiah; and the Jewish Targums and critics understood it as such. The word is is often found in a connexion which indicates quietness and safety, rest or peace. I take it however, with Dr. Clarke and many other critics, that the chief

idea in Shiloh is SENT-qui est mittendus. It is life, to know-Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent-The apostle and high priest of our pro fession is a well known title of our Lord.

O ATogoλog. Heb. 3. 1. Whom thou hast sent. areçɛinas. Jno. 17. 4. The Father hath sent me απέςαλκέ με. Jno. 20. 21. Shiloh is the delegate of God, to instruct, to redeem, and to govern.

the gathering of the people be. Who is this but the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of

David.

The gathering of the people is not a change of residence in order to assemble on one spot it is the submission of the heart to the will of an acknowledged and beloved Lord, made manifest by acts of diligent obedience. The people, thus united in faith and love, are not limited to the offspring of Jacob or Judah according to the flesh. They are the children of the promise; and they are of all the nations of the earth: for of such extent is the covenant of God with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac. Jacob, the heir of Isaac and of Abraham, to whom God also confirmed the covenant, is now in the act of transmitting the promise of the appointed deliverer. Abram was instructed to pass over Ishmael, and transmit the benediction in the line of Isaac. Isaac was directed to hand it down in the line of Jacob, in preference to his elder brother. Israel, now in his turn, is constrained to pass over Reuben, his first born and the beginning of his strength; over Joseph, who was at the time the prop of his father's house; and over Benjamin, whom he loved most, as the last son of his chosen Rachel. He was constrained to overlook his own affections and their claims, and proclaim him, as the progenitor of Messiah, whom Jehovah had selected for this honour. God refused the tabernacle of Joseph and chose not the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah, as the line through which to look for the advent of Shiloh, who unites men of all nations in

one great fellowship of life, of safety, and of enjoyment.

What was prediction, to the house of Israel in Egypt, is now become history. Judah obtained the praises of all his brethren, and long possessed the chieftainship. The sceptre has also departed; and there is no more a lawgiver or a commonwealth. Christ has been sent of God; the Messenger of peace has appeared; and the people are still gathering to him, as the living centre of their communion. It is in this character, that I now intend to speak of him. I accordingly proceed to show, That Jesus Christ, our Savior, unites people of all nations to him self; and that he is infinitely qualified for being the moral centre of the fellowship of the saints. There fore let all who love salvation, come to him, and cleave to him: for unto Shiloh shall the gathering of the people be.

I. Jesus Christ unites people of all nations and ranks.

The prophets foretold the fact; and the apostles assure us that the prediction is come to pass. "Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in him shall the Gentiles trust. He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and all nations flow unto it.

Ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ."* As by him are saved Abel and Enoch, Abraham and David, Peter and Paul, he connects in one great community, the beggar and the prince, the slave and the master, the Greek and the barbarian, the American, the European, and the Hindoo. "For by one Spirit we are all baptized unto one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have all been made to drink into one Spirit."†

The numerous scriptural representations of Christ and his people thus united, sufficiently show that the fellowship is as intimate as it is catholic; and there is scarcely an object, with which we are familiar, either in the natural or moral world, which hath not been employed by the sacred writers on this subject. Trees, houses, families, cities, kingdoms, armies, as well as the natural body, and even life itself, are made to certify and to illustrate the gathering of the people to their Lord and Savior. "I am the vine, ye are the branches. The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner. Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints, of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone; in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord. For as the body is one, and hath many members,

*Rom. xv. 8. 12. Isa. xi. 12, and ii. 2, 3. Eph. ii. 13, 14.

† 1 Cor. xii. 13. John xv. 5.

Ps. cxviii. 22. Eph. ii. 19.

and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular. Your life is hid with Christ in God. Christ is our life; the Head of the body; of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. He is the Captain of our salvation. The King of kings and the Lord of lords."* The history of the Christian religion is but the development of this principle. By Christianity I mean, not merely the dispensation of grace under the New Testament, for I also include the triumphs of the gospel from the fall of man to the advent of the Savior; "unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them." For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us." The Apostle Paul, referring to those religious men who are "so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea-shore innumerable," says, "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them." They were Christians who heard and believed the gospel. Moses as well as Paul gloried in the cross, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. They rise up in our view as a cloud where dwells the Son of God-"a great cloud of witnesses." Lo! how splendid! It is enlightened by the Sun of Righteousness: and from it we hear the voice of encouragement, "Go forward, looking unto Jesus."

* 1 Cor. xii. 12. 27. Col. iii. 4.

The gathering of the nations, to the author and finisher of our faith, was indeed contemplated both in the instructions which the Redeemer gave to his apostles, and in their exertions in defense and in promotion of the great and good cause in which they had enlisted. The business intrusted to them respected all people, and the extent of their commission is the limits of the world. Teach all nations. Preach to every creature. Their exertions were graduated by the same scale. Their hearts were elevated above considerations of temporary interests. They lived, they acted for eternity. Their plans were not predicated on the wishes of relatives or partizans; nor were they belittled by accommodation to the fugitive fashions of a perishing generation, Animated by the Holy Ghost under Christ their head, their enterprise was correspondingly magnificent. They sought the salvation of immortal souls, the law their rule, the gospel their hope, heaven the place of their destination, and the glory of the Godhead their light and their joy. Nor

were they unsuccessful. Millions among the nations, in the short space of thirty years, awoke from their deadly sleep, arose, and stood before the Lord; and, clad in armor of light, marched along with the apostles, under the banner of the Prince of Judah.

In the city of Jerusalem alone, there were many tens of thousands who professed the Christian religion in less than that time after the resurrection of Jesus Christ: and in every other part of Palestine the proportion of believers to the rest of the population may

have been correspondently great: Egypt, Ethiopia, Arabia, and Persia, received the gospel. Ancient writers represent Andrew the apostle as successful in the conversion of Jews and Gentiles in Scythia and the several provinces bordering on the Euxine. Thomas and Bartholomew were also successful in India; and it is certain that churches were founded in Lybia and Mauritania. The cities of Antioch and of Ephesus held several flourishing and growing congregations. The islands of the Mediterranean sea, and the European coast from Spain to Byzantium, were visited successfully by the heralds of the gospel. The history of the Apostle Paul himself affords the most convincing evidence of the rapid progress of evangelical light among the nations. The travels and success of the other apostles have not been handed down to us with so much minuteness and accuracy as those of this very distinguished servant of God. Luke, his companion and historian, wrote under the inspiration of the Spirit.

Besides the journeyings and ministry of the first ten years after Paul's conversion to Christianity and call to the public service, he accomplished five apostolical circuits among the Gentiles. To this work he was peculiarly appointed; and he was accordingly separated along with Barnabas at Antioch, for this hazardous but great undertaking, with prayer and fasting and the laying on of the hands of the ministers of that city. The first three apostolical journeys furnish the principal record of the success of his personal ministry. The harvest was

great: but the season was of no long continuance. It was but twelve years, since he first raised on pagan lands the standard of the cross, and but seven, since he crossed the sea and stood on European ground, until he returned laden with the gifts and the offerings of the converted heathen, to his own nation at Jerusalem. Then commenced the imprisonment which continued for several years, upwards of two in Cesarea, and about the same time in Rome. During the short period of his freedom, and even that frequently interrupted by temporary tumults and imprisonments, he labored with unparalleled exertions and success. Paul was a missionary, not of man's selection or appointment: but to such the heart cleaves. He was called and qualified by the Lord, to gather from among the nations, the people to Shiloh. He became all things to all men, and he gained many immortal souls of all classes and kindreds. He reasoned with the philosophers of every sect: he disputed with the logicians of the several schools: he expostulated with magistrates and military officers: he denounced Ananias with a curse, and he made Felix tremble: to the Jews he expounded the scriptures which they had in their possession: to the pagans he exposed their own abused and damnable idolatries: to all, he preached the gospel of the grace of God. Judges, governors, captains, multitudes of men of every rank, and of honorable women not a few, believed to the saving of their souls. Spurning the cup of devils, of which they had too often drunk, they rushed out of their