as a direction to excommunication; and, if so, as implying that he had power to do so: and when the credibility that he had this power is once suggested, there are other passages in the same Epistle, as well as in those to Timothy, which may be regarded as allusions to this same power; by themselves, perhaps they would not suggest it, but directly as it is suggested they harmonize with it. 1 Tim. v. 20, 22. 2 Tim. i. 6, 7. Tit. ii. 15. iii. 10.

On the whole, then, we may safely say, that, [even] though these letters do not prove Timothy and Titus to have had the power to remit and retain sins, they are more intelligible on this supposition than [on] the contrary one.

4. If the powers which have been attributed to Timothy and Titus were not confined to them only, and intended only for the Churches of Ephesus and Crete, but were likewise imparted to other Apostolic Missionaries, for the edification of the other Churches, (and perhaps the certainty that the same wants which Timothy and Titus were to supply in their respective dioceses must have existed elsewhere, will make it credible that such was the case,) then it would seem probable that the persons who in Rev. ii. and iii. are spoken of as the Angels of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor, were such Missionaries. And, if so, the accusations brought against the Angels of the Churches of Pergamos and Thyatira, will most evidently refer to a neglect on their part of the power to "retain sins." St. Paul had charged Timothy, (1 Tim. v. 22) "not to

be partaker of other men's sins.” It seems the Angels of these Churches had made themselves partakers of other men's sins, simply by allowing them to remain in communion. "I have a few things against thee," says our Lord to the Angel of the Church of Pergamos, "because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam :" and again, to the Angel of Thyatira, "I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman, Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce My servants." Now it can hardly be supposed that these Angels would be accused of allowing what they had no power to prevent; so that perhaps it may be thought that they, as well as Timothy and Titus, had the power "to remit and retain sins," and if so, then in all probability the power of ordaining Presbyters likewise.

Faint

On all these points we cannot too constantly bear in mind, how little light we have any reason beforehand to expect, and therefore how unreasonable it is to demand more than a little. glimmering intimations are all that the subjects of the different Books of the New Testament were likely to give occasion for; and that they have given occasion to such intimations is, I suppose, evident enough.

§ 3. The Apostolical System a part of Christianity.

It has been shown, that the Christian world under the government of the Apostles, and probably of their immediate successors, was an organized society or polity, to which every individual convert was obliged to conform. It may, I think, be farther collected from Scripture, that this obligation was not positive, but moral: that it arose, not simply from the circumstance that the Apostles enjoined such conformity, but would have existed, had such injunction never been given in short, to use the common distinction, that conformity was not necessary because the Apostles commanded it, but that they commanded it because it was necessary, i. e. in the same sense in which faith was necessary, and as a means co-ordinate with faith, of appropriating the benefits of our Lord's death.

That such is the real nature of the obligation to conformity seems more than probable, from many Scriptural intimations respecting the nature of the Christian System. (1.) It would seem to be implied in the terms of our Lord's last commission to the Apostles, that the setting up some kind of Polity was a duty as peremptorily laid upon them as the dissemination of doctrines. Their commission was not simply to teach all nations, but to make disciples of them, μαθητεύειν, not simply διδάσκειν Οι εὐαγγελίζεσθαι. The threat too, which was de

nounced against those who should not believe them, was not to be escaped simply by belief, but by belief and a federal rite, in which they acknowledged themselves disciples,-Baptism'.

(2.) It is very observable that the figure under which the Christian System is most frequently designated in the New Testament is that of a Kingdom the Kingdom of Heaven, or the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Christ. Now it seems to be well worth considering, whether there is any thing in Christianity, regarded simply as a system of doctrine, which so responds to this figure as satisfactorily to account for the selection of it; and, if not, whether Christianity must not be something more than a system of doctrine, and whether something else than belief may not be necessary, in order to make men Christians. Certainly it does appear, in whatever light we view the subject, that if God ever at any time did reveal Himself to mankind as King, more especially than at another, it was at the commencement of that very system which Christianity was to supersede; on Mount Sinai in Arabia. Perhaps too it may be said without exaggeration, that under no system of religion, whether natural or revealed, has He ever so veiled His kingly character, as under that system which is said to have emancipated us from "the yoke of bondage," placing us under "the perfect law of liberty," giving us "the spirit of adoption," and

1

[" "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." St. Mark xvi. 16.]

representing us no longer as the "servants" of God, but as His “sons.” And, if for these reasons the propagation of the Christian doctrinal system can hardly be represented as the setting up of a Kingdom; then, since as a fact we know that something else was propagated conjointly with the Christian doctrines, which may with great propriety be called a Kingdom, viz. the Apostolical Polity, it certainly does seem reasonable to regard this Polity as the feature of Christianity, in respect of which it has received its commonest scriptural name, and consequently as a prominent, perhaps as an essential feature of it.

(3.) The Apostolical Polity appears to be very distinctly pointed at in two other figures, by which Christianity is designated in the sacred writings, viz. the Temple of God', and the Body of Christ'.

Thus when the Christian Church is spoken of as the Body of Christ, Christ Himself is represented as its head, and among its members there follow first, Apostles, and afterwards, subordinately, prophets, shepherds, teachers, and the other titles. indicating the possessors of spiritual gifts: and we are told, that "the whole body fitly joined and compacted together, by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working of the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body, unto the edifying of itself in love."

1 1 Cor. iii. 16. 2 Cor. vi. 16. Eph. ii. 22. 2 Eph. i. 22, 23. iv. 12.

Rom. xii. 5. 1 Cor. xii. 27.