The Apostolic Testimonies.

IV. These Things being understood, the personal testimony of the Apostles, evidential of the rightful claims of Jesus to the Messiahship, or regal, imperial, and pontifical sovereignty over Israel and the world, may be next proceeded with. This testimony is contained in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John's writings. They were written that men "might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing, they might have life through his Name."

They show,

1.	That Jesus is the hereditary descendant of David and Aaron, in whom is vested the sole right to His Kingdom and Crown, as well as to the High Priesthood of the Kingdom, and page 7 that he will, therefore, be a King and Priest on his throne after the order of Melchizedec.
2.	That He is the acknowledged Son of God, by paternity of first birth, and by being born again of His Spirit after his resurrection from the dead.
3.	That he possessed two natures: first, that of sinful or mortal flesh; secondly, that of his present one, which is holy or spiritual flesh, "the Lord, the Spirit."
4.	That without the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sins—Hebrews iv. 22.
5.	That the blood of animals cannot take away sins—Heb. x. 4.
6.	That for a Sin Offering to be an efficient atonement, it must not only he slain, but made alive again, which constitutes it a living sacrifice.
7.	That Jesus was such a sacrifice, holy, acceptable to (rod, and without blemish, that is, without sin—Hebrews iv. 15—through a voluntary obedience in thought and word and deed to the will of his Heavenly Father—and a living faith in the covenants of promise.
8.	That the blood of Jesus is "the blood of the New Institution, shed for many, for the remission of sins"—Matthew xxvi. 26-28.
9.	That He rose from the dead, and entered into the Holy-place with his own blood, and was accepted and perfected by a spirit-birth in the fulness of the Godhead, and was taken up to the right hand of the Majesty in the Heavens, and that He will return in like manner as He departed, and to the same place—Acts i. 11—without blood unto Salvation—Heb. ix. 28.
10.	The attributes of Jesus constitute His name.
11.	That through this name, repentance, remission of sins, and eternal life are offered to all intelligent believers of childlike disposition.
12.	That if men would receive the benefit of the name, they must believe in it, and put ic on.
13.	That this name is inseparably connected with the institution of Immersion; so that if a believer of the Gospel would put it on, he must be immersed into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—the doctrinal Name of the Christ of God—Acts ii. 38; x. 44-48page 8
14.	That the Gospel is the Glad Tidings of the Kingdom in the name of Jesus the Christ. If therefore a man would he saved, he must believe this Gospel and obey it—Mark xvi. 15, 16.
15.	That if an angel preach any other Gospel than this, he is accursed—Galatians i. 8, 9.
16.	That all who obey not this Gospel shall be punished—2nd Thessalonians i, 7-10.
17.	That it is the law (embodied in the Gospel faith and practice) by which man shall be judged—Romans ii. 12-16.
18.	That the unrighteous or the despisers under the law shall not inherit the kingdom of God—1st Corinthians vi. 9-11—which is the Kingdom of Israel at the epoch of its latter day restoration to its first dominion under its Covenant King and princes.

V. To Understand what genuine Christianity is, in its Associational and Individual Relations, we must make ourselves thoroughly acquainted with the Acts of the Apostles. It contains an illustration of the manner and order in which they executed the commands of Jesus, the Christ, to teach all the nations the Word of the truth of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God in his Name.

VI. The Next Step, in the course, must be to study the Apostolic Epistles. From these and the Acts may be-learned the origin of the Great Apostacy from primitive Christianity, which constituted the superstition of Europe and Asia; and styled by the Apostle "A Strong Delusion." Its elements are termed by Paul "the mystery of iniquity," which, were secretly at work in his time, but openly from that of Constantino, until they brought Europe to what we now find it, in all its mischievous and debasing forms of impiety and page 6 spiritual absurdity. In its beginning this mystery of iniquity was concocted out of

A 1. A combination of Judaism with Christianity—Acts xv. 1-5—teaching that the Immersed Believers must also be Circumcised, thereby showing that "Immersion in the Room of Circumcision." was not thought of in the Apostolic age (the proper type being the washing or immersion of Aaron and his sons for the priesthood).

B 2. A further combination of Gentilism with this Judaised Christianity, from which resulted a compound of the three—a fourth something unlike either of its constituents, in the addition of the mysticisms of Pagan philosophies and the idolatrous fables of Pagan mythology, adapted by the cunning craftiness of men to corrupt the simplicity of "the truth as it is in Jesus."

VII. Lastly, we may proceed to the investigation of the Symbolic Prophecies—such as those of Daniel, and the Apocalypse. To master these, we must acquaint ourselves with

VIII. (The Apostles' Fellowship.) To have fellowship with the Father, and his Son, Jesus the Christ, we must have fellowship with the Apostles, by believing and doing the truth promulgated by them.^* This is styled "walking in the light of God,"—in the light by which we have fellowship one with another.—1st John i. 3-6-7.

We might be in approved fellowship with all Christendom—Papal and Protestant, Church and Dissenters—and yet have page 10 no fellowship with God; "for if we say we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness (ignorance), we lie, and do not the truth;"—because Papalism and Protestantism, while claiming fellowship with God, are mantled in the darkness of human tradition, and pervert and persecute the truth, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. It is the duty, therefore, of all who would embrace the Christianity of the Bible to lay, hold of the things we have already indicated by man's faith and obedience, and separating themselves from all Papal anal Protestant sects, either to maintain their own individuality, or, if sufficiently numerous, associate themselves together as a community of witnesses, "who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus the Christ."—Revelations xii. 11-17. Such an association would be entitled to the scriptural appellation of