31 JANUARY 1863, Page 22

The Model Church. By the Rev. L. B. Brown. (Freeman.)—This

small work, which professes to contain an inquiry into the nature, con- stitution, government, and characteristics of the Church of the first century, is the essay to which a prize has been awarded by the Bicentenary Association. The mere statement of this fact will be sufficient to indicate the nature of the conclusions at which the author arrives. He tolls us that the early Church consisted of regenerate members only, and advocates the adoption of a similarly exclusive system at the present day. He insists that the members of the original Church wore all equal, and that its officers did not constitute a hierarchy, but " were chosen by their fellow-members to become the helpers of their faith and joy." There were, of course, no such things as bishops, episcopacy being " the mother of the Papacy, the sub-soil from which that deadly upas tree germinated." The "Independent and Baptist Churches" appear to approach most nearly to the type of the original Church. We need not hardly say that Mr. Brown's pamphlet has not the slightest chance of convincing even one of his opponents ; but it will doubtless be very acceptable to those who are already of the same way of thinking with himself.