ON APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION.

[THE venerable and esteemed DR. JOHN PYE SMITH was very properly requested to deliver a Lecture before the Baptist Missionary Society, in October last. That Lecture was delivered at the London Tavern, and has since been published in the form of a shilling pamphlet. It is a neat, concise, plain, and pungent thing, altogether worthy of its amiable author, and the interesting occasion of its delivery. One thing in it, especially, has pleased us much. We have been urged by several to say something more at large on the proud pretensions of the pompous Puseyites. Here we have it done to our hands by a master in Israel, who does not mince the matter, but rebukes them sharply, because they are to be blamed.]

But, when "the fulness of time" was come, the Son of God "became flesh and dwelt amongst us, full of grace and truth." He came to kindle light in our darkness. He gave himself for us a ransom and a sacrifice. He triumphed over sin and death and hell. He rose from the grave. He ascended on high. He has shed forth the blessings of his gospel, to be the light and life of men. When he had gained this triumph, he commissioned and coinmanded appropriate persons to communicate the tidings of it. He chose a few men, such men as the world would not have chosen; and to them he gave supernatural qualifications, and an express commission, to "go into all the world, and to proclaim these glad tidings to every human creature,"-every mind capable of receiving them. This command, this commission, they laboured to fulfil honourably, zealously, faithfully, till, often by a martyr's death, " they rested from their labours; and their works have followed them;" not in dying, but in a new and perpetual life.

But their testimony died not. Those twelve apostles, and the seventy disciples whom the Lord also called, associated with themselves other persons, who had received the same truth, who felt its power, and who were animated by a similar spirit,— "faithful men, able to teach, apt to teach, teaching the wholesome words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the doctrine according to godliness."

But some there are who put in a claim, and say that there must be a succession of commission and authority from those apostles; and who have the exemplary modesty to affirm that this commission, this succession, has come down upon them and their like, their own precious selves. What they lack in FEBRUARY, 1843.

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proof they abundantly supply by assertion; and they find too many of our fellow-creatures weak, credulous, and willing to yield a base submission to their arrogant and impudent pretensions. In their doctrine it is involved, if not directly affirmed, that happiness in the life to come may be ensured by an implicit faith in what they call the Church, by reliance on the self-styled prieshtood and episcopacy, and by the observance of some outward ceremonies, either Divine institutions shamelessly perverted, or what are purely inventions of men; but both apart from the renewal of the heart unto holiness. And these puerile pretences, or rather, in apostolic language, "doctrines of demons," are eagerly embraced by multitudes of our countrymen; the willingly ignorant, the petty but haughty dominants of many a parish, the small-minded ritualists, the self-justifying ascetics, some worn-out worldlings, glad to catch at the hopes of salvation from their own woful works, and proudly contemning the gospel of grace and the righteousness which is by faith. Unhappy men; blind leaders of the blind; deceivers and deceived!-To these persons, when they speak of an authority and commission besides the general contents of Holy Scripture, we have a few words to say, though we have little hope of a candid hearing.

With respect to their claim, truth obliges us to say, that it is an insult to common sense, a fraud upon history, and an audacious trampling on the word of God. The message of Christianity does not require, to circulate it, a special set of men succeeding one another by a train whose principle, according to its own showing, is a kind of of magic, flowing through fingers and heads, in a way which cannot be thought of without exciting the smile of mingled contempt and pity for its unhappy dupes, or more unhappy teachers.

But, if this juggler's charm of a mechanically transmissible authority were not so broad an absurdity, if it were a possibility, where is the necessity for it? What is the message of Christianity, the preaching of the doctrine of the apostles? It is, "that God hath given to us eternal life; and this life is in his Son." It is an announcement, a proclamation from the supreme authority, uniting in itself doctrine and command and promise. It is not baptizing; it is not the administation of the Lord's Supper: they are indeed divine ordinances; but their value lies in their signifying aud setting forth, in an auxiliary manner, the primary doctrines of Christianity; a real influence by the Almighty Spirit, making the soul holy and keeping it so; and the pardon of sin by the propitiation of the Saviour's body and

blood. "Christ sent me, not to baptize, but to preach the gospel," said the great apostle; evidently meaning that the latter was his grand commission, and the former but an inferior and subservient instrumentality. It is the" word of the cross.” Great truths, laid down in a clear and intelligible manner; and preached, that is, proclaimed, for the acceptance and obedience of all to whom the word of God comes. Of these truths, the

evidence is presented; and thus they are proved to be the testimony of God, who cannot err, who cannot mislead. Promises great and precious accompany these truths, and from them arise a set of preceptive directions, the commands of eternal authority. Is it not plain and clear as a sun-beam, that what is true, ought to be believed; that what is worthy of confidence, the promises of" Him who cannot lie," ought to be received and depended on; and that which stands upon the ground of righteous authority, ought to be obeyed? This is the message. And who is to carry it? Who may tell the glad news? Surely reason and the word of God reply, ALL that CAN. "He that hath my word, saith the Lord, let him speak my word faithfully." Let us suppose that one of us were in possession of a remedy for some painful and dangerous disease. What would be thought of us if we were to say, that this remedy was not to be made known or administered, except by one family, or one class of people, while our fellow-men were dying around us? Would humanity, would reason, be satisfied? Again; my neighbour falls into the water. Am I to say, Where is my commission to draw him out? What authority have I to save him from being drowned? A house is on fire must we leave the inhabitants to be burnt to death, while we stand waiting for a commission and authority to help them out of the flames?

us.

But these suppositions fall infinitely short of the case before Here is a world in flames! Here are millions of our fellow-creatures, capable of the highest enjoyment, possessing minds susceptible of improvement to eternity. They are in a condition which, to the heart of real sensibility, is infinitely more distressing than that of him who is exposed to the worst temporal calamity. Are we, then, who witness this state of facts, to hearken to something which presumes to call itself THE church, and says, "You are not warranted, you are not authorized, to make known to a perishing world the way of salvation ?" If it be possible for pleasure to be felt by an infernal mind, 1 speak no language of exaggeration when I utter my conviction, that the prince of darkness experiences his greatest malignant joy, from the efforts at this moment made to propagate this pestiferous heresy in our country.

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In ages past, and in our own day, men have "spoken great swelling words of vanity," in representing bishops as the successors of the apostles. It is painfully surprising that any should be bold enough to make this allegation; and still more so, that any should be imposed upon by it. The apostles were both "eye-witnesses of the sufferings, and the glory, power, and majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ;" and they were also "fellow-elders" of the churches, and preachers of the gospel, 'beseeching men to be reconciled to God." In the latter two capacities, all faithful pastors of Christ's flock, all faithful preachers of his holy word, are the real successors of the apostles. But in the first of the functions, in the more strict, and as it were technical meaning of the term apostle, they had not, they could not have, successors, beyond the men of their own age. Three things were essential to the constitution of the apostleship; the having been personal witnesses to Christ's earthly ministry, the awful sacrifice of his death, and his actual existence in life after he had unquestionably died; the having been expressly sent, charged, or commissioned by HIM, in his visible person; and the being accredited by miracles.

These peculiarities the twelve apostles actually possessed. They could say, that with their own eyes they had seen, and with their own hands had touched, the Saviour of men. They, or at least the most of them, had consorted with him before his sufferings, and were personally familiar with him, had enjoyed his personal instructions during his three years' ministry; and after his resurrection he sojourned among them for six weeks, granting them frequent interviews, and giving them ample opportunities of ocular and palpable conviction of the reality of his human nature. There was one "born out of due time," called to be an apostle four or five years after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Yet even he, we have great reason to believe, had seen the Lord Jesus, and heard him before his death; for Paul says that he also had "known Christ after the flesh;" and it is exceedingly credible, that, in the temple and perhaps in other parts of Jerusalem and Judea, he had looked upon and had heard the Saviour, though, with many others of his class, his heart was filled with enmity against the doctrine and person of Christ. However, Paul did see the Lord after his resurrection, and hold personal intercourse with him near Damascus, as well as afterwards.

The apostles were also sent by the charge and commission of Jesus, in his visible personality; and, further, their peculiar commission was evinced by miracles, wrought not indeed

properly by them, but by their Lord, in whose name they spoke and acted.

These, then, were indispensable requisites in the constitution of the apostolic office; and every one must perceive that they are incapable of being transmitted to any successors. Hence, then, we see how absurd and nugatory is the boast, by any men in following times, of apostolical succession. The peculiar office of the apostles was to lay the foundation of gospel truth, by affording the evidence of Divine authority on which the edifice was to be built of the whole Christian system. The constructing of that edifice was by the preaching of the gospel, and the subsequent building up of its converts; and this was the great work both of the apostles and of their coadjutors, evangelists, teachers, pastors, elders, bishops, or by whatsoever names they might be called, the ordinary ministers of the church. All who tread in their steps are their successors; successors not to the apostolic office, but to the doctrine and labours of the apostles. Hence they declared, "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." "Christ in you the hope of glory; whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." The ascended Saviour provided that there should be a succession of faithful men, 66 apt to teach." With the plentitude of his heavenly gifts, he has supplied the church, not only with apostles, and prophets, and evangelists, but with pastors and teachers, men peculiarly fitted to transmit the truth, and convey it to all nations.

There is a fact, of which I am not aware that it has been mentioned in the controversy to which I have been alluding; but it is worthy of attention. You know that after the first martyr, Stephen, had been cruelly put to death, there followed a great persecution of the church that was at Jerusalem." If we desire to know of what that church consisted, we shall find, from the early Acts of the Apostles, that it was a number of persons who, in the pentecostal preaching of Peter, had been touched with salutary convictions of guilt; who had heard the announcement of the glad tidings of salvation, who then joyfully received the word, and united in fellowship, observing those simple institutions which had in them nothing mystical, nothing mysterious, nothing like the detestable degradation of charm or magic, but were all calculated to bind the new believers together, and so build them up in the knowledge and practice of this truly apostolic Christianity. The book of