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the Christians of his time, and told them, on his own authority, what the true faith was, in opposition to corrupt teachers! But does he so? By no means: so far from it, that he gives them another rule to examine the faith by, and sends them to inquire what the faith was, which was once or from the beginning delivered to Christians.

Church authority is one of those unhappy subjects which is seldom seen but from one of its extremes: in some places, and with some persons, it can do every thing; in others, it can do nothing. I cannot propose to consider justly so copious a subject in the compass of a sermon; and therefore I shall content myself with laying before you some observations on the apostolic rule in the text, which may be of use if duly considered. And,

First, since an Apostle of Christ, in the early days of the church, sent Christians to inquire after the faith delivered from the beginning, it follows manifestly that the Apostles themselves were but teachers and witnesses of the faith, and had no authority or commission to make new articles of faith. Had it been otherwise, how absurd was it in St. Jude to send Christians to an inquiry after the faith once delivered,' when he and they could not but know that there was a standing authority to make articles of faith, and that no such inquiry was wanting.

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The truth of this conclusion may be abundantly proved by considering the commission and authority the Apostles received from Christ, and their conduct in the execution of them: 'Go ye,' says our blessed Lord, into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature:' Mark xvi. 15. The gospel then was the thing committed to them to be taught to the world, and not to be made or to be altered by them; which sense is delivered in terms more express in St. Matthew, for there the words are, Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you :' ch. xxviii. 20. The promise annexed, And lo, I am with you to the end of the world,' must be relative to their commission, and they could depend on it no longer than whilst they kept within the limits of their commission, which was to teach what Christ had commanded.

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When the time of our Saviour's leaving the world drew near,

he told his Apostles he would not leave them comfortless, but pray the Father to send them another Comforter, to abide with them for ever:' John xiv. 16. The office of this Comforter is described, ver. 26. The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.' If then the office of the Spirit was to bring to their remembrance' what Christ had said to them, their office, as teachers, could only be to publish the doctrine of Christ. The Spirit was likewise to teach them all things,' that is, to teach them to understand rightly all things, and to preserve them from mistaking the meaning of what our Lord said to them, which was frequently their case whilst they conversed with him on earth.

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Let us consider, in the next place, the conduct of the Apostles, and how they executed the commission with which they were intrusted.

One of the first things they did was to elect an Apostle into the place of Judas. When they were to choose an Apostle, without doubt they considered the qualifications necessary to the office; and for that reason St. Peter declared that the choice was necessarily confined to such as had 'companied with them all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out, among them, beginning from the baptism of John, unto the same day that he was taken up from among us;' so that no man was capable of being an Apostle, who was not capable of being a witness of the doctrines and works of our blessed Lord: a plain evidence that their business was to report the doctrines of Christ, and not to deliver doctrines of their own. Accordingly the four gospels, published to instruct the world in the Christian faith, are an history of what our Saviour did, taught, and suffered: and St. Luke particularly tells us that he wrote =his gospel, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first.' So that St. Luke, in writing his gospel, followed the rule prescribed by St. Jude, and reported the 'faith once delivered to the saints.'

St. John, in his first Epistle general, refers likewise to the beginning and first revelation of the gospel to show the authority of the doctrines which he delivered. Hear his own words;

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked on, and our hands have handled of the word of life-that which we have seen and heard, declared we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us.' St. John's referring in this manner to what he had heard and seen, to establish his authority as a preacher of the gospel, plainly shows that he thought himself bound to preach only what he had heard and seen, and that he had no authority to preach any other doctrine. It is observable that St. John, in the passage before us, says expressly that he wrote the things he had heard and seen from the beginning, that those to whom his epistle came might have fellowship with the Apostles' a plain proof that a right of fellowship with the Apostles, or, in other words, a right to church communion, depends on receiving and embracing the 'faith once delivered to the saints,' and not on any other doctrines of later date, by what authority soever published or declared.

St. Paul's case was a singular one: he was not called in our Saviour's life-time, and consequently had not the qualification required in the first of the Acts, when a new Apostle was to be chosen he was not one of those who had 'companied with the Apostles during the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among them:' but if we consider how this defect was supplied in his case, it will justify the observation we are on in the strongest manner imaginable.

As St. Paul conversed not with Christ in the flesh, so neither did he receive the gospel from any of the Apostles, who did; but had it by immediate revelation from Christ himself; so that his preaching had this apostolical character, that he taught the things which he had seen and heard of Christ. When he was miraculously called to be an Apostle, to qualify him for the office Christ promised to be his instructor: 'I have appeared unto thee,' says our Lord, for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee:' Acts xxvi. 16. Accordingly St. Paul, speaking to the Galatians of his own authority as an Apostle, tells them that he was an Apostle not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead :'

Gal. i. 1. And again, in the 11th and 12th verses, 'I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man; for I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.'

This revelation to St. Paul extended not merely to points of doctrine, but conveyed to him likewise the knowlege of historical facts as is plain from 1 Cor. xi. 23. where, speaking of the institution of the sacrament of the Lord's supper, he says, 'I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it;' and so goes on to give an historical account of what was said and done at the last supper; agreeing with the account given by those Apostles who were present at the transaction.

From these things laid together, it is evident that the Apostles were witnesses and teachers of the faith, and had no authority to add any thing to the doctrine of Christ, or to declare new articles of faith.

Now if the Apostles, commissioned directly by Christ himself, and supported by the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, had not this power, can any of their successors in the government of the church, without great impiety, pretend to it? Did the bishops and clergy of the ninth and tenth centuries know the articles of the faith better than the Apostles did? or were they more powerfully assisted by the Holy Spirit? No Christian can think it or say it. Whence is it then that the church of Rome has received the power they pretend to, of making new articles of faith, and dooming all to eternal destruction who receive them not? Can any sober serious Christian trust himself to such guides, and not tremble when he reads the woe denounced by St. Paul; Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel-let him be accursed?'

When the corruptions of the church of Rome were generally felt and complained of, and no applications whatever could prevail to obtain any alteration; the fear of owning an error, and thereby weakening the authority claimed, being more powerful to continue the old errors than the force of truth or even of conviction was to reform them; what had serious

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Christians left to do, but to seek after, if happily they could find, the faith once delivered to the saints;' to separate between the old doctrines of the gospel, and the new inventions of men; and to build up a church on the foundation of the Apostles, Christ Jesus himself being the head corner-stone?'

What has hitherto been said relates merely to the doctrines of the gospel; to points of Christian faith in these neither the Apostles of Christ nor the church after them had any authority, but to preach and publish to the world what they had received. If we extend this farther, and say that the Apostles and church after them had no more authority in any thing else than they had in articles of the faith, we run into an extreme that can produce nothing but disorder and confusion; which must be the destruction of all Christian societies, and end in making every man a church by himself.

It may be worth our while to consider the grounds of this distinction, as they are to be found in holy Scripture.

In the eighteenth chapter of St. Matthew, in the fifteenth and following verses, we have this direction from our Saviour: If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. But if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen and a publican.'

In cases which fall under this direction (and some there are without doubt, or there would have been no direction about them) the church has a judicial authority, and a right to inflict the punishment mentioned. This power may be, and often has been, most flagrantly abused; but to say the church has no authority in cases which come under this direction, is to deny not only the authority of the church, but the authority of Christ likewise, who gave the direction.

This authority of the church is taken notice of by St. Paul; and he rebukes the church of Corinth for not making use of it, to separate from them the incestuous person, who had given offence not to one, but to all Christians.

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