Nor is the unity of the church to be found in some particular form of exclusive church polity, as Episcopalianism, Presbyterianism, or Congregationalism.  We have conclusively proved that that conception of the church patterned after the forms of political government, in which government and authority are vested inherently and exclusively in human hands, is foreign to the original conception of the church as it existed in the minds of its Founder and his apostles.  The government of the New Testament church is a theocracy.  Christ is head.  He rules through his Holy Spirit by moral suasion and spiritual influence, and the ministers and helpers whom he calls and qualifies share in that oversight and responsibility to the same extent that they are able to wield the same moral and spiritual power. This is the only church authority and government recognized in the New Testament.

[Sidenote:  The perpetual theocracy]

Here I shall digress long enough to point out by way of contrast the true form of divine government.  Every one is familiar with the theocratic government of Israel under the Old Testament dispensation.  God ruled.  He who carefully reads the New Testament can not fail to discern the same type of government in the church before the rise of human ecclesiasticism.  The first preachers of the gospel spoke with an authority not derived from a human source.  When Peter and John were threatened before the Council and commanded not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus Christ, they gave the sublime answer:  “Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.  For we can not but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:  19, 20).  The same principle stands out in bold relief in the experience of Paul.  Although that great apostle was forward to cooperate with other apostles and ministers of Christ, one can not fail to see that his whole career exemplified the principle of theocracy.  He “was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.”

[Sidenote:  An important parallelism]

Permit me to call attention particularly to an important parallelism between the government of Israel under the theocracy and the government of the New Testament church before the rise of ecclesiasticism.  God led his people out of Egypt by Moses and Joshua.  These men are a type of Christ, who leads his people.  After the Israelites were settled in Canaan, they had no central government, but each locality or city was autonomous, having its local judges or elders.  In a time of crisis God raised up a judge to lead the people in the necessary cooperative efforts to preserve or regain their liberties.  Their miseries Were always the result of their own sins, not a failure of the divine form of government.  Their appointing a king and thus setting up a centralized human government was called rejecting God as ruler.  And this is exactly parallel with what ecclesiasticism has done and is doing with the same results.  God’s government of the church is set aside and rejected.