the Apostles only, to enable them to build the Church, but to their successors also, throughout all ages, that they might uphold and preserve the edifice entrusted to their care. x" Lo I am with you alway, "even unto the end of the world:" From these facts, which are recorded in the Scriptures, and which seem necessarily to imply that which other historical testimony confirms, we infer, that the Apostles, in the exercise of the power thus vested in them, instituted that ecclesiastical polity, which was maintained in the Church, without interruption, until the period of the Reformation; and is, even now, preserved unimpaired, in the greater part of the Christian world.

We are told by the evangelist, that after our Saviour's z" passion, he shewed him"self alive to his Apostles by many infal"lible proofs; and continued with them forty days, speaking of the things per

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taining to the kingdom of God." That

* Matt. xxviii. 20.

■ Acts i. 3.

y See Note XXII. Appendix.

by the " kingdom of God" we are here to understand the visible association of Christians for religious purposes, under a government divinely appointed, may reasonably be a presumed; and the subsequent conduct of those, to whom these discourses were addressed, will furnish us with the best criterion, by which to judge of their subject and intent.

When then we know, that the Lord Jesus held many conversations with his Apostles relative to the economy of his kingdom; and are also certain, that, in all which related to the due discharge of their office, as the founders and first rulers of this kingdom, they acted under the especial influence of the Holy Spirit,' sent by him to guide them into all truth; we cannot hesitate to believe, that the order of government, which they solemnly appointed, and strictly enjoined their successors to continue, was of divine institution, and was intended to be of perpetual use in the Church.

a See Note XXIII. Appendix.

C

The power exercised by the Apostles themselves is easily to be collected from their own acts, as recorded by St. Luke, and from the Epistles of St. Paul. Therein we learn, that they took cognizance of the opinions and practice of their disciples; b forbidding them to exercise some civil rights, as contrary to their Christian duty; punishing them by spiritual censures, and by exclusion from spiritual privileges, for offences against the moral law; and by similar penalties coercing those, who made *shipwreck of their faith," and blasphemed the worthy name by which they were called.

In addition to this judicial authority, they performed all the offices of the priesthood; preaching, baptizing, administering the Lord's Supper, and foffering up the common devotions of the disciples in their public congregations.

And they also assumed certain peculiar powers, which none but their own order

b See Note XXIV. Appendix.

d 1 Cor. v. 5.

f See Note XXV. Appendix.

c 1 Cor. vi. 1.

e 1 Tim. i. 19, 20.

were allowed to exercise: they only could lay hands upon baptized persons, to fconfirm them in possession of the privileges of Christianity; and they only could ordain ministers to officiate in the Christian priesthood.

h

Such, exclusive of all especial gifts and graces, was their ordinary authority, as rulers in the Church of Christ; and this authority we know that they committed to others, who were to act as their successors. They were to ordain elders, to preside over them, and take care that they taught no other doctrine than the i truth; they were to superintend the public service; to be examples to the believers; to be themselves teachers, and preachers of the word "; and to maintain their supremacy over the elders and deacons, against all who presumed to gainsay or despise its exercise.

4

In a word, it is impossible to read the

f Acts viii. 14.

g Acts xiv. 23.

h 1 Tim. v. 22. 2 Tim. ii. 2. Tit. i. 5.

two Epistles of St. Paul to Timothy, and that to Titus, without acknowledging, that they were admitted by him to a full participation in his own authority; that the power of ordination was committed exclusively to them, in the churches over which they were appointed to preside; and that all the members of these churches, whether laity or clergy, were placed under their government; and made responsible to them for their religious conduct.

Though we have not the same infallible testimony of Scripture respecting the practice of the Apostles in the other churches which they planted, we could not have doubted, that they all pursued the same rule, even had history been silent upon the subject. But this is not the case. We have abundant 'authority for asserting, that they left their successors every where established; and that, from that period to the present, the same distinction of office, and spiritual power, has been regularly

• See Note XXVI. Appendix. P See Note XXVII. Appendix.