MINISTER OF THE BIBLE-CHRISTIAN CHURCH, NORTH THIRD STREET, PHILADELPHIA. AMONG the primary institutions of our Heavenly Father, for the more effectual assistance of his people in the acquisition of spiritual knowledge, and the attainment of the end of their creation, was a visible, external Church, in which he might be worshipped, his name professed and magnified, his appointed ordinances duly administered, and such order and discipline maintained as should be suitable to the times and conditions of the generations of men. Such an institution existed in the Antidiluvian world; this was succeeded by the Noahaic, or Ancient Church, in which "Noah was a preacher of righteousness." Then followed the Israelitish, and lastly came the Christian Church with all its spiritual blessings, "peace upon earth and good will to men." There is great reason to believe that the Almighty has made use of means to bring forth to view the principles of these several Churches. Noah, Abraham, and in the fulness of time, Jesus Christ, are presented in the sacred Scriptures as the instruments by whom the respective Dispensations were announced to the human family; and even in subsequent times, when Reformation was needed, a Luther, a Calvin, a Melancthon, and others have been successively raised up in the providence of God to be the mediums for accomplishing his all gracious purposes, of reforming abuses in his church. Under Divine Providence, the body of people known by the appellation of BIBLECHRISTIANS, began to assume an external, visible and distinct existence as a Church about the year 1800, principally through the pastoral labors of the late Rev. WILLIAM COWHERD, minister of Christ Church, Salford, England. Educated in the most liberal manner for the Christian Ministry, he was early ordained a minister of the Church of England, or Episcopal Church, and appointed to the important duties of a church living, at Beverly, in Yorkshire. In addition to his sacred charge, he became Classical Teacher and Professor of Philology in the college at that place, and fulfilled the duties of both stations to the entire satisfaction of all concerned. While thus exercising his arduous duties at Beverly, he became acquainted with the late Rev. JOHN CLOWES, A. M., Rector of St. John's Church, Manchester, from whom he received a liberal offer, and a pressing invitation to remove to Manchester, and exercise his ministerial powers in that populous and improving town. Thither accordingly he shortly afterwards removed, and for some time preached in St. John's Church, in connection with the well known and highly venerated rector of that institution. Here Mr. Cowherd became a general favorite of the congregation, and as a preacher was universally admired. Possessing a strong and vigorous intellect, and a deep sense of moral responsibility, he was not long willing to to be trammelled in his religious services by the ritual and forms of that denomination; he therefore, after some time, left the established National Church, and took charge of the New Jerusalem Church, in Peter street, which had been built, and was just completed for him by a number of ardent admirers of his preaching. For some time Mr. Cowherd preached at this place, and was exceedingly popular; but even in the New Jerusalem Church, professing as it does to be distinguished for its Charity, he was made to feel the influence of sectarian jealousy. This caused him to come to the determination to continue there only until Providence empowered him to erect a church of his own, in which he could feel himself at liberty to preach the truths of the Bible unshackled by human creeds, and unfettered by sectarian connections. In the year 1800, when his Meeting House in Salford was completed, he commenced a new career; he preached the word of God gratuitously, and supported himself by the Practice of Medicine. Believing it to be the duty of every one, in matters of faith, to turn from the erring notions, and vain traditions that were to be found in most of the denominations of professing Christians, and to draw their principles directly from the Bible, he required every one who became a member of his church to proclaim himself simply a BIBLE-CHRISTIAN.* Hence origi None in the Christian Church, at first, were called so much as by the name of an Apostle; we never heard of Peterians, or Paulians, or Bartholomeans, or Thaddæans; but simply of Christians, from CHRIST. See EPIPHAN. Hær. 42. Marcionit.-Item. Hær. 10. nated the name by which this body of Christians are designated and known among the numerous and diversified sects of the age. His cultivated mind, transcendant talents, powerful eloquence and indefatigable zeal soon attracted a large and highly respectable congregation; for in the pulpit Mr. Cowherd shone with peculiar lustre. He was fluent, copious, sublime, demonstrative and persuasive. Possessing a clear and harmonious voice, capable of expressing all the various pas. sions of human nature, and taking a deep interest in his subject at all times, he seldom failed to reach the hearts and enlighten the understandings of his hearers. His church soon became so crowded that numbers who could not be accommodated with a seat, were yet contented to stand in the aisles that they might enjoy the pleasure of hearing his eloquent and instructive illustrations of the Bible. In the year 1807, he began to inculcate the doctrine of abstinence from the flesh of ani mals as food, and total abstinence from all intoxicating liquors as religious duties. He founded his principles on the testimony of the Bible, and confirmed them by appeals to the facts taught by Physiology, Anatomy, and personal experience; for he faithfully practised what he taught to others as essential to secure their salvation. This In the spring of 1817, a number of persons, all professing to be members of the Bible Christian Church, as above described, including two ministers, the Rev. James Clarke, and the writer of this article, sailed from Liverpool for Philadelphia, in the ship "Liverpool Packet," Captain Stephen Singleton, Commander. people left the land of their Nativity, with the intention of becoming citizens of these United States. They had in view as the crowning object of their emigration, the propagation of their religious views among the citizens of this great Republic, and if possible to establish the Bible Christian Church, in this free and favored land. Shortly after their landing, the Rev. Mr. Clarke, and several of his friends determined to go Westward and obtain land. The other minister and two or three friends concluded to remain in the city of Brotherly Love, believing it to be their duty to "Stand still and do good," trusting that the gracious promise of their Heavenly Father, would be extended to them;" verily thou shalt be fed." other. From Front Street, where the first religious meetings of this people were held, to Pear Street, thence to Coates Street, then to Germantown Road, and little Green Street. The only remedy they could entertain as likely to be permanent, was to purchase a place of their own. Accordingly on the 31st of May, 1823, a lot of ground was purchased. A frame building which had been recently erected and used as a Lancasterian School House, was bought, removed to their lot and fitted up in a plain and suitable style for public worship, and on the 21st of December, of that year, it was opened and dedicated to that purpose. In the year, 1830, they became Incorporated by Law, under the title of "The Philadelphia Bible Christian Church, North Third Street," and they have recently superceded their old frame building by the erection of a handsome brick edifice. The next step in the onward progress of this people was to buy out a Teacher, and rent the residence and school house he had occupied; the minister intending by the blessing of Providence, to support himself and family by teaching school; and to fulfil his ministerial duties by preaching on the Sabbath, like the Apostle of the Gentiles of old, " in his own hired house," to as many as might be disposed to attend and listen to his testimony. Here he adopted, at once, the order of procedure which had been approved and acted on by his brethren in the ministry, in England. He took a chapter from the Old Testament, beginning at the first of GENESIS in the morning, and one from the New Testament, beginning with the first of MATTHEW in the afternoon, and proceeded in this way, chapter by chapter in regular rotation every Sabbath day, giving such an Exposition of the revealed Word of God, as he might be graciously enabled to do by the goodness of God. To make their meetings more generally known, a notice was caused to be published in several of the City papers, stating, That the members of the Bible Christian Church, assembled every Sabbath day in the Schools back of No. 10, North Front Street, at half past ten o'clock, in the morning, and at three in the afternoon; that they did not form a Sectarian Church, deriving their doctrines from human creeds, but that they held all the doctrines, though not all the ideas of the various sects, so far as they were respectively founded on the literal expressions of Sacred Scrip- "The DIVINE TRINITY Consists not of ture; that they humbly sought, through three visible beings or personal subsistenthe institutions of the WORD OF GOD, to cies-somewhere localized in a heavenly become more efficiently edified in Bible" mansion," but of three combinations of Truths, and that they respectfully invited their fellow mortals, of any or every profession, to come and hear for themselves, and if disposed, to join with them in Church membership, and unite in the allimportant service of worshipping God according to the teachings of his Word. Much inconvenience was experienced from time to time, by being compelled to move their meetings from one place to an This denomination of Christians having no Creed but the Bible, cannot refer to any other standard of Faith, as containing a development of their doctrines, or principles of religious belief. In the Report of a Conference, however, composed of Ministers and lay members, held in Christ Church, Salford, Manchester, in June, 1809, at which were present, Rev. Joseph Wright, Kighley, Yorkshire; Rev. George Senior, Dalton; Rev. Samuel Dean, Hulme, now Manchester; and Rev. William Cowherd, Christ Church, Salford, Manchester; and about forty lay members as delegates from different parts of the kingdom. In that Report we find the subjoined testimony in relation to the Doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation, Revelation, the Church, and Church Discipline. Spirit in one united kingdom. In this GREAT SPIRIT of heaven, the inmost is the Father, or essential DIVINE SPIRIT; the second, effluxed by and every-where combining with the Father, is properly the SON OF GOD; and the third, assumed by the Father and the Son, in and around human or angelic individuals and societies, is as properly the SON OF MAN,—taken by the Son of God into union with the Father, when the atonement or "at-onement" between God and men was fully effected, according to the obvious meaning of the REDEEMER's prayer: "As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us!" 66 66 BEING then descended, and were exclusively enshrined within the person of JESUS CHRIST; or, whether it were the EMANATED GLORY OF DIVINE SPIRIT of the IMMUTABLE GOD, as existing forth in the heavens, which became SOUL in the REDEEMER. "If the DIVINE BEING descended on that occasion, He who built the universe, and continually gives life to every animated creature, must necessarily have worked for a time, on our earth, as a common carpenter; and then have died, like a frail mortal: For, JESUS CHRIST, it is certain, by following the occupation of that reputed parent' to whom he was Accordingly, as God is "a Spirit" and as "all men should honor the Son as they honor the rather," the glorified REDEEMER, now constituting a place prepared" for Christians, is there the infinite HUMAN SPIRIT-the WORD that was "with God," the SON OF GOD" before all worlds," concentrating himself finitedly in an assumed human Spirit from our earth -the Son of Man "born in time;" displaying therein a "LIKENESS as the AP-subject,' was denominated the CarpenPEARANCE OF A MAN-the LIKENESS of the GLORY OF THE LORD;" and beaming thence from the indwelling and embosoming Father (that fills also and embosoms the universe) a threefold HOLY SPIRIT, in which HE-the TRUE OBJECT of all Christian worship, unitedly comes to men, according to promise, "in his own glory, in his Father's, and (in that) of the holy angels." 66 ter; and, after a laborious and painful life, died as man ever dies, by the separation of soul and body, when he had cried, Father! into thy hands I commend my Spirit.' 6 · in "But if we admit, as we ought to do, according to the Scriptures, That GoD gave not the Spirit,' His Son, by measure' to JESUS CHRIST, but dwelt' thereby in Him, in heaven, and in the universe, at the same time and in the same manner, ONE UNDIVIDED GOD: That the Son of Man' also, or the Human Spirit, which was associated with the Divine at the incarnation, was JESUS CHRIST on earth, and in heaven,' at one and the same time;finally united with the GREAT OMNIPOTENT, the DIVINE SPIRIT in both worlds, when He said, ' All power is given to Me in heaven and in earth :— In this case, we neither finite the DIVINE Spirit, nor limit the HUMAN exclusively, to the person of JESUS CHRIST. On the contrary, we maintain, That they have been from eternity united in the heaven of heavens,' the throne of God,' as intimately as the soul and body of man are united into one person ;—but not 6 This TRINITY of Spirit in any of the "Father's mansions," is, according to the Scriptures, OMNIPRESENT in miniature, both within and before the eyes of every angel or spirit of "just men made perfect," in what has been invariably called "the beatific vision."-Thus "it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.—No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared (or manifested) him.-He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.-The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise." In this way, that "glorified" and visi-exclusively,' even there. That, on earth, ble MEDIATOR of the otherwise invisible GoD, from a heaven as before an angel, is every where the " express IMAGE of the Father's Person,-the Image of his GLORY." the Human was partially separated from the Divine Spirit, at the fall of man. That in JESUS CHRIST, the fallen, the carnal spirit of man was ultimately re-united with its APPROPRIATE DEGREE of the DIVINE SPIRIT, as THAT exists,— unseparated from the throne,-down into our world. That this DIVINE SPIRIT, descending from the throne and pervading the universe, is that HOLY SPIRIT, which came upon the Virgin and assumed materiality at the incarnation. That when this Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, the Light that enlightens every man that comes into the world,' had, through the fleshly tabernacle of JESUS CHRIST diffused itself throughout this world of man, as cther diffuses itself in our atmosphere; it then began to exhibit the Divine HUMAN APPEARANCE* of the HEAVEN of HEAVENS, as ether exhibits the refracted image of the sun in our atmosphere. That this IMAGE of that Divine Human Appearance, which is given in the glorified Human Spirit at the centre of creation, is the true 'JESUS CHRIST, whom we shal! meet in the air;'-that 'Quickening This APPEARANCE is most sublimely described by the Prophets;-as He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grass-hoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them as a tent to dwell in.'—Isai. xl. 22. And upon the likeness of the throne was a LIKENESS as the APPEARANCE OF A MAN above, upon it:-from the appearance of His loins even upward; and from the appearance of His loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire; and it had brightness round about, as the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain:-This was the appearance of the LIKENESS of the GLORY OF THE LORD.'-Ezek. i, 26--28. † In looking through the atmosphere, as in looking through a telescope, toward an object, we never see the object itself (the sun, for instance) but only that image of it which is formed (in the lowest stratum of the atmosphere, and) next the eye in the Telescope.See FERGUSON, Lecture V11.--Also Bp. BERKELEY'S Theory on Vision, passim. That the Human Spirit, in its greatest and smallest portions, in heaven and in man, is ever in the human form,-may be demonstrated by what is natural, thus:- Every salt, in crystallizing, invariably assumes its own peculiar form. You may dissolve common salt, or saltpetre, a thousand times, and crystallize them as often by evaporating, or cooling the water in which they are dissolved, yet will you still find the common salt will be constantly crystallized in the form of a cube, and the saltpetre in the form of a prism; and if you examine with a microscope such saline particles as are not visible to the naked eye, you will observe these particles to be of the same shape with the larger masses.-See Bp. WATSox's Chem. vol. i. p. 87. · 6 Spirit,' the Mediator between God and Man,' by whom,' as refracted to the right hand of God,' all the faithful shall apparently pass, when He delivers up the kingdom to the Father' in the eternal heavens. That the GLORY investing this express Image of the Father's Person,' is again the HOLY SPIRIT,' which was 'not given' forth in full manifestation from the throne of JESUS,' till He was fully glorified, or till His HUMAN SPIRIT, leaving its fleshly Tabernacle on the cross, became one with the right Spirit of Man as filled and united with the good Spirit of God throughout the universe. That the material body, re-assumed at the resuscitation, and handled' by the unbelieving Thomas, could spontaneously pass off from the Spirit of JESUS; as the flesh and blood,' which cannot enter the kingdom of heaven,' undoubtedly deflagrated from the prophet Elijah, in the fire beheld by Elisha. That, in this way, the body' of JESUS, which had given offence to some, and might have caused idolatry in others, became truly and properly a sacrifice for sin.' And that, finally, the At-one-ment or reconciliation between God and Man, was virtually effected, when the human spirit was re-united with the Divine; and fully accomplished against sin, when JESUS, by voluntarily laying down His life, prevented his enemies from murdering him :-thus overruling their wicked design, for good to them and their posterity, by preventing sin,—particularly the sin of idolatry, among Gentiles as well as Jews, even to the remotest generations. In this way of viewing the Incarnation and the Redemption, the pious Christian may be edified, the infidel silenced or reclaimed, and all the great attributes of Divine Wisdom, Mercy and Goodness, completely reconciled with common sense, sound reason, and every expression of Sacred Scripture. "It was also thought a subject of great importance to consider, whether REVELATION, particularly that of the BIBLE, came to the inhabitants of this earth by secret Inspiration, or by open Vision and audible Dictation.-It may be clearly perceived, that Revelation by secret InSpiration could only be of a private nature, merely to the individual who re |