eth the frame of man's body, that as there, so in the Church, God hath set some to be instead of eies, eares, tongue and handes: that is, to bee principall members for the guiding and directing of the whole, which without them is maimed and unable to provide for the safety and securitie of itselfe." Bilson on the perpetual Government of Christ's Church, chap. i. p. 1, 2.

The testimony of Barrow to the same point is most decisive. "Reason," says he, "plainly doth require such subordinations; for that without them it is scarce possible to preserve any durable concord or charity in Christian societies, to establish any decent harmony in the worship and service of God, to check odious scandals, to prevent or repress baneful factions, to guard our religion from being overspread with pernicious heresies, to keep the Church from being shattered into numberless sects, and thence from being crumbled into nothing; in fine, for any good time to uphold the profession and practice of Christianity itself. For how, if there be not settled corporations of Christian people, having bulk and strength sufficient by joint endeavour to maintain the truth, honour, and interest of their religion; if the Church should only consist of independent and incoherent particles (like dust or sand) easily scattered by any wind of opposition from without, or by any commotion within; if Christendom should be merely a Babel of confused opinions and practices, how, I say, then could Christianity subsist? How could the simple among so discordant apprehensions be able to discern the truth of it, how would the wise be tempted to dislike it, being so mangled and disfigured. What an object of contempt and scorn would it be to the profaner world, in such a case." Barrow's Works, vol. iii. p. 202. Serm. XXIV.

NOTE XXI.

It is perhaps scarcely necessary to observe, that the commission here spoken of does not include those supernatural powers which the Apostles possessed. What they taught, "as moved by the Holy Ghost," (1 Pet. i. 21.) what they did, "the Lord" miraculously "working with them," (Mark xvi. 20.) was peculiar to themselves.

As commissioned to declare "the whole counsel of God," (Acts xx. 27.) they stood alone: and their successors could neither add to nor diminish the doctrines which they commissioned them to deliver. As "endued with power from on high," (Luke xxiv. 49.) they exercised a right of inflicting punishments upon the unfaithful disciple, (Acts v.) and bestowing peculiar gifts on those who were deemed fit to use them, (Acts xix, 6.) which their successors presumed not to claim. The power itself was temporary; granted to meet the peculiar exigencies of the infant church, and withdrawn (as were also by degrees all other extraordinary gifts) when these exigencies ceased. But independent of this personal and peculiar authority, the commission of our Saviour conveyed to the Apostles a power of governing the church, and of ordaining persons to fill the subordinate stations in the ministry; and this power, as it was of perpetual necessity, was also to be perpetuated in the church; it was to be "committed" by them "to faithful men, (2 Tim. ii. 2.) who were not only to exercise it themselves, but to transmit it through their successors, whom they were to ordain to this peculiar office, to the end of time.

:

"It will happily be granted," says Bilson on this important subject, "the Apostles had their prerogative and preeminence above others in the Church of Christ but that limitted to their persons, and during for their lives and therefore no reason can be made from their superioritie to force the like to be received and established in the Church of Christ for all ages and places; since their office and function are long since ceased, and no like power reserved to their successours after them. I doe not denie but many things in the Apostles were personall, given them by God's wisdome for the first spreading of the faith, and planting of the churches amongst Jewes and Gentiles, that all nations might be converted unto Christ by the sight of their miracles, and directed by the truth of their doctrine: yet that all their gifts ended with their lives, and no part of their charge and power remained to their after-commers; may neither be confessed by us, nor affirmed by any,

unlesse we mean wholly to subvert the Church of Christ. To be called by Christ's own mouth, and sent into all nations; to be furnished with the infallible assurance of his truth, and visible assistance of his Spirit; not only to speak with tongues, cure diseases, worke miracles, know secrets, and understand all wisdome, but to give the Holy Ghost to others, that they might doe the like; these things, I say, were needfull at the first preaching of the Gospell to convert infidels that never heard of Christ before; to confirme the believers compassed with divers temptations; and to store the whole world, then presently, with meete pastors and teachers: but to maintaine the church once setled, and faith once preached, there is no cause why either the immediate vocation, or generall commission, or mightie operation, and sudden inspiration of the Apostles should alewaies endure. The Scriptures once written, suffice all ages for instruction: the miracles then done are for ever a most evident confirmation of their doctrine; the authoritie of their first calling, liveth yet in their succession; and time and travel, joyned with God's graces, bring pastours at this present to perfection; yet the Apostles charge to teach, baptize, and administer the Lord's Supper, to bind and loose sinnes in heaven and in earth, to impose hands for the ordaining of pastours and elders; these parts of the apostolicke function and charge are not decaied, and cannot be wanted in the Church of God. There must either be no church, or els these must remaine: for without these no church can continue." Bilson on the perpetual Government of Christ's Church, ch. ix. p. 105.

NOTE XXII.

It was the opinion of Bp. Pearce (see Comment. in Matt. xxviii. 20.) that the words σuvréλaa тou aiŵvos signify the end of the Jewish age: whence it would follow, that the promise of our Saviour was to be limited to those miraculous assistances, which were vouchsafed to the Apostles. But the authorities in favour of the interpretation adopted in this Lecture, must be allowed to determine the question against him; if the unani

mous sentiments of so many learned men, on a subject strictly within their province, may be considered as decisive.

"Quid sit ouvréλaa тoũ aiwvoç satis apparet supra, c. xiii. v. 39, 46, 49. c. xxiv. v. 3. Post id tempus, cum Christus regnum traditurus est Patri, aderit nobis, sed non eo modo de quo hic agitur, ad imbecillitatis nostræ subsidium. Quare potest rows hic proprie accipi. Hinc autem manifestissime apparet, voluisse Christum ut Apostoli aliis, alii rursum aliis πιςοῖς ἀνθρώποις καὶ ἱκα vois étéρous didážou munus illud magisterii commendarent : ut videre est 2 Tim. ii. 2. nam eum promissio hæc ad consummationem sæculi se extendat, Apostoli autem tamdiu victuri non essent, omnino his Christus in ароstolorum persona censendus est etiam successores ejus muneris compellasse." Grotius ad locum.

The language of Wolfius, in opposition to the very opinion maintained by Bp. Pearce, is equally positive. "Arctius quam par erat, horum verborum vim coercet Amelius, part. ii. p. 230. quando præsentiam Christi de cumulo charismatum extraordinariorum Spiritus Sancti, in miraculis redundantium, exponit; ouvréλaav vero alwvwv de consummatione seu excidio templi Hierosolymitani, quo stante difficilior futura sit Christianæ doctrinæ propagatio, interpretatur. Certe ouvréλaa toữ alvos, Matth. xxiv. 3. Marc. xii. 4. et Hebr. ix. 26. quos affert locos, quibus et Matth. xiii. 39, 40. addi poterat, non nisi finem universitatis rerum infert." Wolfii Cura Philologica in Matth. xxviii.

Koecher, in his Analecta Philologica, maintains the same interpretation. "Promissionem vero illam non ad omnes Christianos, sed ad eos solum spectare, qui baptizare et docere jubentur; neque tamen ad solos Apostolos restringendam, quod illi faciunt qui ouvréλsav Tou ai vos de fine œconomiæ et reipublicæ Judaicæ interpretantur, sed de omnibus futuris Ecclesiæ doctoribus, quippe Apostolorum in officio successoribus intelligendam esse. Analecta in Evang, S. Matth. xxviii, 20.

See also Schleusner voce σuvréλaa. If we consult our own commentators, we shall find this interpretation supported by the powerful names of Hammond, Whitby, Wells, Clarke, Wilson, Doddridge, Macknight, and

the continuators of Poole. Abp. Potter declares, that "if we will allow this promise to be explained by the Evangelist himself, or by our Lord's design in making it, we must conclude that it is to be extended to a constant succession of Gospel ministers to the world's end." Discourse of Church Government, chap. 4. And Isaac Barrow, asserting in equally plain terms the continuance of the assistance of the Holy Spirit to those, who "still by a settled ministry supply the room of the Apostles and first planters of the Gospel," says, that "by the influence hereof upon the pastors of his Church it is, that our Lord accomplisheth his promise to be with it until the end of the world." English Works, vol. iii. Sermon 27. p. 224.

If however, notwithstanding this accumulated weight of authority, further scriptural evidence is required in support of this important doctrine; this evidence may be found in the practice of the Apostles, as recorded in their own writings and history. Hence it will appear, that "the Apostles both in teaching and governing the churches when they were present, had helpers; when they were absent, had substitutes; after their final departures or deaths, left successors." Bilson, Perpetual Government, &c. p. 210. These appointments sufficiently prove what they understood by our Saviour's promise. For can we suppose, that they would have assumed a right to bestow on others a portion of that commission, by which they themselves acted; that they would have taught them to consider themselves as ministers of Jesus Christ; (1 Tim. iii. 6.) as accountable to Him for their conduct; (Heb. xiii. 17.) as endowed with a particular gift of God by virtue of their ordination; (2 Tim i. 6.) and therefore empowered to govern and teach his people, and dispense his sacraments; that they would have directed them to perpetuate this gift in the Church (2 Tim. ii. 2, Tit. i, 5.) by the same form of ordination, by which it had been granted to them; unless they had been well assured, that the promise of our Lord was not merely personal; not made to them only, but to their successors also in their sacred office, to the end of time? He then, who seeks for additional proof from Scripture of the divine commission