God to be the author of all the wonders done by his apostles. Luke x. 21, 22, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth,-who hast revealed these things,' &c. The Father gave Christ the spirit without measure, and '‹ gave all power into his hand.' John iii. 34, 35. And he assures the Jews in the stiongest manner, v. 19, Verily, Verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing from himself." And Christ freely acknowledged, that all authority was given to him. Mat. xxviii. 18, All things are delivered to me from my Father, the Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.' See also xi. 27, and John iii. 35, xiii. 3.

Jesus Christ being thus empowered, and authorised by "God the Father,' might well say to his disciples. John xx. 21-23, 'As the Father hath sent me, I also send you,-and breathing upon them, he said Receive ye a holy spirit:' (that is, the gift, or authority to forgive sins) as I received from the Father, when he sent me: whosesoever sins ye also forgive, they are forgiven to them; and whosesoever sins ye do retain,' that is, not forgive, they are retained";' that is, not forgiven.

N. B. This was a gift extraordinary, (to know the proper objects of forgiveness) and was imparted to them only at that time; and is not to be claimed by others, or their successors, who are not gifted and authorized in the same extraordinary manner.

What kind of power or prerogative was given by Jesus Christ to St. Peter and the other apostles in these words, Mat. xvi. 19, I will give thee, Peter,' saith Christ, the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven?'

Answer. Binding and loosing may mean, 1. admitting into, or excluding out of the church: or signify, 2. pardoning, and not pardoning: or, 3. declaring what laws of God, Christ's followers are to be bound, or not bound to obey. In all these senses,

St. Peter, as an apostle of Jesus Christ, and the rest of the apostles, had no doubt an extraordinary privilege above, and superior to any of their successors; Mat.'xviii. 18, because the mission, power, and authority of the apostles must by all sober judges be allowed to have a pre-eminence, to which the succeeding guides and teachers in the Christian church cannot pretend without the highest arrogance.

1. It follows hence, that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (and not Christ himself) doth only and authoritatively forgive sins.

2. Jesus Christ himself forgave sins only declaratively, and by interpretation, Luke xxiii. 34. O Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.'

3. Jesus Christ taught his disciples to pray to the Father to forgive sins, Mat. vi. 12, but never ordered or required them to pray to himself for forgiveness.

4. That to forgive sins is the prerogative of God alone it is therefore an instance of the highest arrogance in any order of beings to assume it, especially in sinful men, who must be absolute strangers to God's secret and unrevealed purposes, and to the true state of the minds of all men.

Some critics indeed among the Protestants, and most of the Popish commentators, suppose the words of Christ to Peter, Mat. xvi. 19, I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven I say, many suppose these words conveyed to St. Peter an extraordinary power of jurisdiction and absolution.

Now it is certain, that the phrase, I will give the keys,' is generally and rightly understood to mean a power, privilege, or authority, delivered, &c. But, Jike all other figurative expressions, it must be interpreted by the subject and design of the discourse whereof it is a part; and by the ordinary use of those words among the hearers. And it being customary among the Jews, at the ordination of their doctors of

the law, to say, Take or receive thou power to bind and loose; that is, declare what is binding, or obliging by the law, and what not; as appears by numerous passages in Lightfoot in locum, and Grotius, Luke xi. 52, then the design and intent of Christ in these words to Peter was evidently this: I will appoint you, Peter, as a teacher or minister in my church (called the kingdom of heaven), and whatever laws you shall declare (after you are endued with power from on high,' Luke xxiv. 49,) are to be binding, or not binding in my church, shall be so. The Jewish lawyers, or doctors of the law, had taken up, Luke xi. 52, or taken away, the key of knowledge from the people, by their erroneous interpretations of their law: and Christ, in the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of St. Matthew, restores and applies this key of knowledge, by the true interpretation of the commandments, and by shewing the true sense, and a more spiritual meaning, than the ordinary expositions given by the Jewish doctors. A like power Christ gave to Peter, and to the rest of the apostles, Mat. xvi. 19, xviii. 18. Who, after the descent of the Holy Ghost, Acts ii. (when they were endued with power from on high') all set themselves to declare the laws and the true sense of the laws of the kingdom of God. But the binding and loosing, Mat. xviii. seems also to refer to church eensures; by which an offending or injurious brother was to be shut out of, or restored to, communion. And the power also seems to be, or, it may be, is given to the church, or whole assembly, and not only, though chiefly, to the apostles; for the words shew, that the complaint was to be brought, in the last resort, to the church; and so may fairly be expressed in these words, Whatever censure ye of the church shall bind the injurious person under, or free him from, &c. shall be ratified in heaven.

I think it has been rightly observed by Lightfoot and Grotius, that the neutral words in both the foregoing texts relate not to persons but things declared in the first text; and censures in the second text.

But a third text, John xx. 21, 22, 23, may here well deserve to be considered: As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost (or a Holy Spirit). Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.' It is plain that these words relate to the mission of the apostles. As my Father hath sent me, so am I now sending you,' that is, to preach the gospel.

There seems to have been a threefold mission of the apostles, 1. Mat. x. Mark vi. Luke ix. 2, 3, with 'power to heal, &c. and to preach repentance in Judea only.'

2. Mat. xvi. 19. When a further power and authority was given, to declare and interpret the laws of the kingdom of heaven.'

3. John xx. 23. When the apostles received extraordinary gifts; and Matt. xxviii. 19, were ordered by a general commission to preach to all nations.' For which purpose it was necessary, that they should be 'endued with power from on high,' that is, with the gift of tongues, Acts ii, whereby they were enabled to preach the gospel to all nations,' in their own several languages.

It is apparent, I think, at least, in these three noted passages, that three different occasions were taken by Jesus Christ to qualify and send forth his apostles.

1. To heal- to cast out devils--and to preach repentance to Judea only. Mat. x.

2. To declare what laws, and in what sense, the laws of God's kingdom, were, and were not binding." Mat. xvi. 19, and xviii. 18.

3. After he had imparted to his apostles extraordinary gifts, and fully prepared them for their great undertaking by their extraordinary gifts to discern what penitents, that is, converts, were or were not to be pardoned; that is, to be received,' or 'not to be received,' into the communion of the church, as members of the kingdom of heaven,' John xx. 23.4

Thus qualified and impowered, the apostles are ordered, Mat. xxviii. 19, to preach to all nations; and for that end were endued with the gift of languages,' Acts ii. Whereupon we find, in the history of the Acts, they travelled into several distant countries, and made converts in many nations. When did any of the great Gentile philosophers engage in a like hazardous undertaking, to instruct and reform mankind, over-run with idolatry, superstition, and all kinds of impiety?

CHAP. XXIX.

On the worship of God.

GOD the Father alone, and his divine perfections, were acknowledged, worshipped, adored, and praised, by Jesus Christ and his apostles, &c. as will appear from all the words used for that purpose by the writers of the New Testament.

AINEQ. This word signifies to praise, and is used as in the following passages:

Luke ii. 18. A multitude of the heavenly host, upon the occasion of the birth of Christ, praised God and said, Glory be to God in the highest,' &c. They raised their thoughts from this event to God, the great and sole author of all good events; and so should even men as well as angels.

Thus did the shepherds, when they had seen the infant Jesus at Bethlehem: at their return, they 'glorified and praised God, for all the things they had heard and seen,' ver. 20. Neither the angels nor the shepherds thought of worshipping the child Jesus as a second God, or person in the Godhead, as some of the ancient and modern heretics speak.

6

xviii. 43. The blind man, when cured by Christ, glorified God,' and all the people praised God.'

Thus did also Christ's disciples and followers, at