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which he himself explains of a special protection and defence; two verses later,-"God hath not suffered him (Laban) to hurt me." The peculiar providential care, which watched over the innocent Joseph, and made him ever successful, is recorded in the same phrase, with a sufficient explanation. Thus, (Genesis xxxix. 33,) we read,—"And the Lord was with him, and he was a prosperous man in all things, and he dwelt in his master's house, who saw that the Lord was with him, and made all that he did to prosper in his hand.” And in the 23d verse, we read again, "The Lord was with him, and made all that he did to prosper." In the New Testament, the phrase is used in the same sense. 66 Master," says Nicodemus to our Saviour, "we know that thou art come a teacher from God; for no man can do these signs which thou doest, unless God be with him."*

To most of these texts, we have a paraphrase or explanation attached, which clearly defines the sense of the phrase to be, that any one with whom God was, He blessed and made to prosper in all things. Such, then, in the first place, is the definite meaning of that phrase in our text. In the ancient and authoritative Greek version of the old Testament, commonly called the Septuagint, precisely the same words are used in rendering all the passages which I have quoted, as occur in the original text, in the place under consideration, of St Matthew.

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2. Christ then was to watch over His Apostles, and use towards them an especial providence," all days to the consummation, or end, of the world." Here, again, a controversy arises regarding the meaning of the expression. The word translated 'world”† has also another signification; it may mean the term of a person's natural life. Why not, therefore, adopt this meaning; and then the text will signify that Christ would be with His Apostles so long as they remained upon earth? This suggestion must be judged precisely by the same rule as I laid down just now; and what will be the result? Why, that the word has sometimes the proposed meaning, but only in profane authors, † Αἰων.

* Jo. iii. 2.

and not in any single passage of the New Testament; for wherever it occurs, in this, it can be translated in no other way than, "the world."

The only passage that can be brought to give plausibility to the other meaning, is Matt. xii. 32; where our Saviour, speaking of the sin against the Holy Ghost, says, "It shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the next." Here it might be said, that "this world" means the term of a person's natural life, during which his sin might be forgiven him under ordinary circumstances; and therefore, the same meaning may be attached to the same word in the text under discussion. But a slight reflection will satisfy you that even in that passage the word has not the supposed meaning. For, as the sentence is antithetic, having yet that same substantive for both members, this must have the same meaning in both. Now, the "next world" cannot signify the term or duration of a natural life, but clearly signifies a future order or state of things. And therefore, "this world," which is opposed to it, must mean the present or existing order.

But, even this reasoning is unnecessary; for, allowing that in the alleged passage it had that meaning, it could not by any analogy, have it in Christ's promise. For, it is acknowledged by the best commentators, that in every instance where the word is used in conjunction with the word " consummation," it unquestionably and invariably means "the world;" that is, the duration of the present state of things. In this sense it occurs, Heb. i. 2, and ii. 5, also 1 Tim. i. 17. In Matthew xiii. 39, 40, and 49 verses, we have it used in the compound form to which I have just alluded, so as to leave no alternative in determining its meaning. "The harvest is the end of the world. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall go out, and shall separate the wicked from among the just." The same expression is used by the disciples when they ask their Master, what should be the sign of His coming, "and of the end of the world." For, according to a Jewish notion, they confounded the destruction of the Temple, which Matt. xxiv 3.

* Συντέλεια.

it was supposed the Messiah would render imperishable, with the end of all things.

3. We have thus gained the meaning, and the only meaning, as given in Scripture, of another of our expressions. But it may be asked, is not this signification necessarily modified, and restricted to the Apostles, by the use of the pronoun" you?" Can we suppose this pronoun to be addressed to the successors of the persons then present? Most undoubtedly; and first, because similar expressions occur in other parts of the New Testament. For example, when St Paul speaks of those Christians who were to live at the end of the world, he uses the pronoun of the first person, which in extent of application, corresponds to the second. In the First Epistle to the Corinthians, chap. xv. v. 52, he writes, We shall be changed.' And so again, writing to the Thessalonians, (1. iv. 16,) he says, "Then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up, together with them in the clouds." The pronoun here is applied to those Christians who shall be living after the lapse of many ages; and consequently, there is no reason why it should not be in our text, nor why it should restrict that only meaning which the phrase just now discussed—" the end of the world" has throughout the Holy Scriptures.

But you must be aware, that in the giving of all commissions, a similar form of expression is necessarily used:--only the person present is invested with the authority, which has to descend to his successors; so that, if we admit the limitation in this instance, it will apply to every authority, jurisdiction, command, or power, assumed by any Church. For, on the dispensation, or orders, given in the Gospel to the Apostles, their successors, whether real or not, in every Church, ground their claim to authority; much of it perhaps upon the terms of this very text. The Church of England demands obedience to her Bishops, on the strength of passages clearly addressed to the Apostles; those societies which dedicate themselves to the preaching of the Gospel, in distant parts of the world, pretend to rest their right and commission upon the very words, "Go teach all nations." It is consequently evident, that every

class of Christians agrees with us, that the pronoun cannot form any limitation to this or any other similar passage.

Putting now together the various significations thus dis covered for the phrases composing the text under investigation, we have the following plain interpretation of it: that Christ promised to watch with peculiar care and solicitude, over, and exert his most especial providence in favour of, His Apostles; and that this care and providence would not be limited to the lives of those whom He immediately addressed, but should be unfailingly continued, through all successive ages to the end of time, in the persons of those who should succeed them.

But you may perhaps ask, what have we hereby gained in favour of the infallibility claimed by the Church? For so far we have done nothing towards ascertaining what is the object and extent of this peculiar watchfulness and assistance. This important point remains to be discovered; and we will now endeavour with the divine blessing to reach it, by the same tests of truth.

On examining the practice of Scripture, we find that, when God gives a commission of peculiar difficulty, one which to those that receive it must appear almost, nay entirely, beyond man's power, He assures them that it can and will be fulfilled, by adding at the end of the commission, “I will be with you." As if he would thereby say-" The success of your commission is quite secure, because I will give my special assistance for its perfect fulfilment.” A few passages will make this

position quite clear.

In the 40th chapter of Genesis, 3d and 4th verses, God says to Jacob, "I am God, the God of thy father; fear not to go down into Egypt, for I will make thee a great people. I will go down with thee into Egypt." That is, "I will accompany thee, I will be with thee; therefore fear not." This assurance is added as a special guarantee for the truth of the promise, that the descendants of Jacob should be a great people. They were to become, by fulfilling the command given them, subjects of another state; their chances of becoming a mighty nation

seemed greatly lessened or rather quite at an end; yet God pledged his word that He would so protect them, as that the promise should be fulfilled, and this He does by adding the assurance. "I will go down with thee." But this application of the clause is still clearer in the book of Exodus, where the Almighty commands Moses to go to Pharaoh and free his people. He execute this commission! he who had been obliged to flee from Egypt under a capital accusation-who was now not only devoid of interest at court, but was identified with that very proscribed and persecuted race, whose extermination Pharaoh had vowed,-who, should he come forward, could only ensure his own destruction, and the more certain frustration of the hopes which God had given to His captive people! How, then, does God assure him, that, in spite of all these apparent impossibilities, he shall be successful? "And Moses said unto God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? And He said unto him, I will be with thee.”* The fulfilment is secure, no other assurance is given; Moses has the strongest guarantee which God can propose to him, that he will be successful. Again, when Jeremiah is sent to preach to his people, and considers himself unfit for the commission, God promises him success in the same terms, and with the very introductory phrase used in the commission given to the Apostles, "and behold!" and with other, no less extraordinary, coincidences. In the first chapter of that Prophet (vv. 17, 19) we thus read; "Gird up thy loins, and arise and speak unto them all that I command thee; and behold! I have made thee this day a walled city.... And they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail, for I am with thee, saith the Lord." Here is a command given precisely such as we have seen delivered to the Apostles, to tell the people all that God had commanded; and to it is appended the very same form of assurance as is addressed to them.

It will not surely be rash to conclude, that we have thus a clear rulc or axiom not arbitrarily assumed, but deduced from Frodus iii. 11, 12.

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