appear, when we consider, that it was not composed of a few individuals only; holding their meetings in a small confined district, and possessing a power of immediate communication with each other upon every emergency but that, even at this early period, it had extended itself throughout the then known world; that its con gregations were to be found in every province, and in every city; that its members were confined to no one rank or order of men, but abounded in all; that they pleaded in the courts of justice, and fought in the armies of the nations, who were leagued for their destruction; that they were conspicuous among the high and the low; that they partook in the deliberations of the senator, and the gains of the merchant; that they inhabited the palaces of the rich, as well as the cottages of the poor; so that an eloquent apologist scrupled not to affirm, that, if the Christians were to withdraw themselves into deserts from the dominion of their persecutors, P See Note XVIII. Appendix. the Romans would want subjects to govern, and the empire would reckon more enemies than citizens. What then could have preserved this body, so widely dispersed, and composed of materials so various; what could have connected the noble, with his slave; the learned and elegant Greek, with the unlettered barbarian ; the conqueror and the vanquished, by ties which no human force could dissolve; but the powerful operation of conscientious adherence to one common system of spiritual discipline and subordination? As the Church could not have maintained its ground against external attacks, had not a common form of government, universally acknowledged, reverenced, and obeyed by its members, given it that compactness and solidity, that community of interest and affection, requisite to sustain it under the discouraging circumstances of its first establishment; so neither could it have escaped the evils of internal discord; I See Note XX. Appendix. evils at any time to be deplored, as weakening its influence, and undermining its authority; but, in its then infant state, necessarily fatal to its very existence. The abilities and inclinations, the views and interests of men are so different, that mutual independence must, almost of necessity, produce mutual dissension: and had not the Apostles been enabled to delegate to successors the power they themselves possessed; and to frame a system of government, of perpetual duration and authority; the Church could not, humanly speaking, have survived its original rulers. For as when there was no king in Israel, every man did what was right in his own eyes; so no sooner would the power of enforcing submission to some legal government have ceased, than the Christian society must have been dissolved; and the Christian faith, without some extraordinary interposition of Providence, must have perished with it; for every one being left free to think, as well as to act for himself, the religious opinions of men would have speedily become as various and discordant, as their dispositions and infor mation. But that we may not seem to build upon mere abstract reasoning, when proofs of a more direct and convincing nature are within our reach; let us examine the evidence afforded by the language of Scripture, in support of the positions which it is our object to illustrate and confirm. That the Church, from the first, possessed a form of government of its own, in its origin and its object independent of the civil institutions of the countries, in which it existed, is a matter of fact; to be proved, as all facts are, by reference to authentic history. That this form of government was originally established under divine direction, and that it was administered by persons, whom Christ himself authorised to exercise it; that these persons, acting under the same guidance, appointed their assistants and successors in the ministry, expressly enjoining them to consecrate others, by whom the power they possessed might be handed down from age to age; are truths, respecting which the declarations of the inspired writings are explicit and decisive. So that we may confidently affirm, that the evidence of that divine commission, by virtue of which the holy office of the priesthood is now exercised in the Christian Church, is at least as complete and satisfactory as that, on which we are contented to receive any historical fact whatever; inasmuch as the authenticity of the holy Scriptures rests upon authority more unquestionable perhaps than that of any mere human composition. It will not be denied, that the Apostles themselves were invested with plenary power, before they entered upon the duties of their high office. t❝ As the Father "hath sent me," said our Saviour, "even "so send I you; and when he had said "this, he breathed on them, and saith "unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: "whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remit t John xx. 21, 22, 23. E |