SERMON II.

ST. JOHN Xx. 21.

As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

Ir was the object of my last discourse to lay before you the considerations which, independently on testimony, render it difficult to doubt that our Lord laid the foundation of a system of government and continuation for the Christian Church. It will be our business to day to consider the subject in another point of view, and observe how this probability assumes the character of certainty by the aid of the evidence of Scripture and history. This subject has been so often examined, that no hope can be entertained of producing any thing new, nor could novelty be productive of any advantage. My sole object is to set before those who are intended for the ministry a simple and concise view of the nature of their calling, that they who are about to

enter on it in the spirit of zeal and of earnestness, may be confirmed and cheered in their devotion to their Master's cause, by a knowledge of the high privileges which will be bestowed on them; and that those who are about to take on them the ministry of God in carelessness or from secular motives, may be deterred from their sin, by a knowledge of the arduous duties, and the awful responsibility, which such privileges must entail.

I proceed then to enquire from Scripture and the records of the primitive Church, what was done by our Lord, his Apostles, and their successors in this momentous matter. And the several points in relation to our Lord are these. During his abode on earth, we find that he called' twelve apostles to the exercise of the ministry, and afterwards seventy other disciples with powers, it would seem, somewhat inferior to the first. The twelve were sent to preach in his name and act as his substitutes in every respect; while the seventy were only directed to those places where their Master was to follow

1 At this part of the Sermon I ventured to introduce some remarks on a book then lately published, a translation of Professor Schleiermacher's Work on St. Luke; but as they appear to me to break the course of the statement, I have preferred transferring them to the Appendix, in the enlarged state in which they have since appeared in the British Critic, (No. IV. Oct. 1827, p. 392.) See Appendix.

them, and to supply what had been wanting in their ministration from defect of power or of ability.

1

It is the opinion of Beveridge that the twelve did not receive their full consecration and sacerdotal power until after our Lord's death, as the Levitical priesthood, itself an ordinance of God, was not abolished till that sacrifice was made. Without examining this opinion, I may at once proceed to the consideration of the full promises and declarations of our Lord after his resurrection. And first I shall observe, that in a passage of St. John's Gospel our Lord declared to the Apostles that as his Father sent him, so he sent them", words which seem of themselves almost sufficient for our purpose; that immediately after this declaration he breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Ghost;' and assured them that from that time 'whosesoever sins they remitted, those sins were remitted; and whosesoever sins they retained, were retained.' But with these strong and positive promises, we must join others recorded by St. Matthew 3 in a passage wholly undisputed, and confirmed by another of St. Mark, the genuineness of which is admitted even by Eichhorn 5 himself. We find

1

Beveridge's Works, Vol. ii. p. 112. in Horne's edition. 2 John xx. 21. 3 Matt. xxviii. 19. 4 Mark xvi. 15.

Eichhorn Einleitung in das Neues Test. Vol. i. p. 621623. 2nd edit. or p. 577-579. 1st edit.

in both, a command of our Lord to the Apostles 'to go and make disciples of all nations and baptize them,' and a promise that he would be with them to the end of the world.'

It is not my intention to weary you with entering into the endless and sometimes fruitless controversies which these words have caused, or to enquire what were and what are the bounds of the power given by our Lord to his ministers'. I shall rest my cause, as far as concerns our Lord, on the assertion, that if words have any meaning, these words contain a commission and a provision for its renewal and continuation. The commission will not bear, never has borne, any dispute; all classes and sects admitting that the Apostles received a commission from their Master. The provision for a renewal has been sometimes disputed by the Rationalizing Christians, but with very little show of argument 2. I must, however, observe here,

1 I refer here to the enormous claims made by the Roman Catholic Church on the one hand, with respect to the powers of the keys, and the equally unreasonable attempt made on the part of Christians of low views to get rid of all meaning attached to the declaration of our Lord on that point. The reader will find a specimen of opposite views in Lampe's Commentary on John xx. 21, 22.

2 See on this subject some very sensible remarks of Dr. Hey, Article XXIII. § 25. The arguments used by the Presbyterians against the supposition that the continuance of an order with

that when our Saviour says that he sent his Apostles, as the Father sent him,' he obviously speaks only of his embassy as a Teacher and Minister. He was sent by his Father to die for the sins of the world; and after that, to enter into glory, and be the Ruler of all things until the consummation of the world. In this sense he certainly did not send his Apostles, but spoke in his lower capacity of a Minister of God on earth, and in that capacity sent his Apostles as the Father sent him. Be it remarked too, in this place, that the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews' especially observes, that as no man taketh the honour of a Priest unto himself, but he that is called of God as was Aaron, so Christ glorified not himself to be an high Priest,' nor assumed the character till the descent of the Spirit upon him had manifested God's pleasure and intention. If then Christ sent the Apostles as his Father sent him, sent them, that is to say, to do his work after he had departed from the world; if by that very act he showed that in his ministerial character he had the power of delegating and continuing his authority, could they, to whom he promised the same power as he possessed, conceive

higher powers was included in this commission are well answered by Scott, in his Christian Life, Part ii. Vol. ii. Ch. vii. p. 404. ed. 1700.

1 Heb. v. 4, 5.