might be on his guard against their impositions, should they chance to intrude themselves into his company, inasmuch as they had forfeited the character of legitimate ministers, presbyters, or bishops, by their want of fidelity to the apostle in the awful crisis in which he was placed; otherwise there can be no justifiable reason why the apostle should thus announce their names and parade their apostasy in this public manner, and thus contradistinguish them from those Asiatic Christians who had also forsaken him in his perilous condition.

Allowing these views to be correct, and they certainly obtain a high degree of probability from the views above expressed, it follows, of necessity, that a title to minister in holy things depends not only upon antecedent qualifications, but also upon a perseverance in the discharge of every known duty. Those who, like Judas-who lost his apostleship by his base treachery—have vitiated their office by unworthy conduct, are no longer to be considered in the line of succession, however canonically they may have been inducted into the order of presbyters or bishops. Hence our apostle warns Timothy against such cowards as Phygellus and Hermogenes had proved themselves to be, and exhorts him not to imitate their fatal example by being "ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel, according to the power of God." Chap. i, ver. 8.

And that the apostle designed that Timothy should be careful to select suitable men, who should not be easily turned aside from the path of duty by persecution or any other occurrence, whether significant or trifling, in chap. ii, 2, he says: "And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men,"-not to those who, like Phygellus and Hermogenes, prove themselves weak and unfaithful in the hour of danger, and demonstrate their instability by forsaking their old friend and spiritual father merely because he has fallen into the hands of his enemies, who load him with reproach, imprison and condemn him; but select such as "shall be able," both by precept and example, "to teach others" the way to the kingdom of heaven, though it may lead them through the thorny path of "much tribulation." Why insist on Timothy's selecting FAITHFUL men-a word of ominous import, especially considering the time when it was spoken, comprehending every ministerial virtue-if it were a matter of little moment whether their religious and moral character was good or bad, provided only they were regularly consecrated according to a prescribed ritual to their sacred office? This absurd dogma never entered the heart of the apostle Paul. It is fit only for the brains of a madman. The

note of Dr. Adam Clarke on Ezekiel xxv, 23, is worthy of consideration. He says:—

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'By the kind providence of God, it appears that he has not permitted any apostolic succession to be preserved; lest the members of his Church should seek, in an uninterrupted succession, that which must be found in the HEAD alone."

And in his note on 2 Tim. ii, 2, he has the following remarks:

"But where is the uninterrupted apostolic succession? Who can tell? Probably it does not exist on the face of the world. All the pretensions to it by certain Churches are as stupid as they are idle and futile. He who appeals to this for his authority as a Christian minister, had best sit down till he has made it out; and this will be by the next Greek Thalends."

Again, on Heb. v, 4, his remarks are still more pointed :—

"It is idle to employ time in proving that there is no such thing as an uninterrupted succession of this kind. It does not exist; it never did exist. It is a silly fable invented by ecclesiastical tyrants, and supported by clerical coxcombs."

We have dwelt the longer upon this topic because this spurious and obsolete dogma has been revived of late, and asserted with all the confidence of infallible certainty; as much so as if the salvation of the world were suspended upon its truth. Indeed, it has been affirmed, with cool deliberation, that there is no well-authenticated ministry, and, of course, no valid ordinances, except they are derived in a regular line of apostolic succession! To those who are familiar with ecclesiastical history-who have read of the bitter rivalry of popes-the hot disputes of bishops contending for supremacy-who are acquainted with the undeniable fact that two, and at one time three, popes reigned at the same time, each claiming infallibility,-and recollect the wickedness by which the greater proportion of them were distinguished, their venality, their licentiousness, their meanness, all mixed with imbecile igno-. rance, such an assertion will appear not barely ridiculous, but blasphemously absurd. It is tantamount to saying that the Holy God, the immaculate Head of the Church, the Lord Jesus Christ, is dependent upon a rotten priesthood-upon polluted bishops-upon perjured prelates-upon a licentious hierarchy-to hand down his ordinances pure and uncorrupt, uncontaminated by any moral pollution, from one generation to another!* What a monstrous suppo

In 1044, two popes, namely, Sylvester III. and Gregory VI., after many turbulent disputes and mutual anathemas, reigned at the same time, while a third, Benedict, who had been deposed, still claimed the pontifical throne. Finally, Henry III. terminated the discord by declaring all the three unworthy of the

sition is this! Were it proved true, the infallible maxim of holy writ would be found a falsehood, namely, that no "fountain can send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter;" and the words of the Master Teacher would be equally void of meaning, "Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." For, according to this absurd dogma, the stream of succession has continued to flow on regularly through this muddy channel, and yet never mixing with its filth, but maintaining its pristine purity down to the present time! Such a doctrine is both theologically and philosophically absurd.

If this were the only legitimate ministry the Church possessed, what a world should we have! "Darkness would cover the earth, and gross darkness the minds of the people." Is it any wonder that Wiclif, Huss, Jerome, Luther, Zwingle, and a host of others, lifted up their voices in denunciation of this and other absurdities of the Roman Catholic Church? Little did they think, we apprehend, that any of their successors in the Protestant world would revive the same dogma, and claim to themselves the exclusive right of administering the rites of consecration, of baptism, and the Lord's supper.

Exclusive right! Where did they get it? From Rome. Then, by granting this right to them, Rome deprived herself of it, if it be now theirs exclusively. But, if the Roman Catholic Church imparted this right to them, when she excluded them from her communion, as she did for contumacy, heresy, or some other supposed crime, she unquestionably deprived them of all she had granted; for whoever grants a privilege, on certain conditions, whenever these conditions cease to be complied with, has the undoubted right to withdraw the grant. And this was precisely the predicament of all these Protestant reformers who abjured the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church, protested against the power of the pope, and ceased to exercise the functions of their office as Roman Catholic priests or bishops. Hence they forfeited all the rights they derived from this source, and, therefore, the line of connexion between them is broken, and they are left in the dilemma of orphan children, or driven to the necessity of admitting a legitimacy from a divorced marriage.

What an arrogant assumption is this claim of exclusive right! How unworthy of the truly Christian minister, and how opposite popedom, and invested Suidger, Bishop of Bamberg, as the legitimate pope, who took the name of Clement II.-Mosh., vol. ii, p. 156.

Let those who wish to see the truth of the above remarks confirmed, consult Mosheim for the ninth, tenth, and eleventh century.

to the doctrine laid down by the apostle in the epistle before us! He says in chap. ii, ver. 1, "Be strong," not in thy outward profession, not in thy external designation to the work of an evangelist, but "in the grace that is in Christ Jesus the Lord." This sentence unfolds the true source of strength to the minister of the sanctuary: whether he be of an inferior or superior order, his soul must be fed continually with the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he may possess the vigour necessary for his important work. In verse 6 he says, "The husbandman that laboureth must first be partaker of the fruits." He must not only cultivate the earth, but, if he would have strength to continue his labour, he must participate in the fruits which the cultivated earth produces. So the minister of the Lord Jesus, if he would have spiritual strength to persevere in his work, must not be content in the mere consecration to his office, but he must partake daily of the "hidden manna" of God's love-he must receive continual supplies of that "grace that is in Christ Jesus," that is treasured up in him expressly for the spiritual strength of the believing soul. It is, indeed, by a constant partaking of these heavenly fruits, that the minister of the sanctuary is made competent for his work.

In the subsequent part of this chapter the apostle shows what is necessary for Timothy to do, that he may receive the strength essential to his success as a preacher of the gospel and a ruler in the Church of God. After adverting to his own example in "suffering trouble," having been falsely charged as "an evildoer," (ver. 9,) though his confinement in prison could not bind the word of God, inasmuch as his soul was yet free to range through the prolific field of theological truth, and his pen ready to write his thoughts for the edification of Timothy, he endured "all things for the elect's sake," (ver. 10,)-after recounting these things as an encouragement to his son Timothy, and charging him not to strive about mere words, which could not profit those to whom he spoke, (ver. 14,) he then issues his command with all the solemnity of a dying man: "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth," (ver. 15.) That he might do this effectually, he must "shun profane and vain babblings," a mere repetition of unmeaning words, or an effort to astonish the hearer by flights of human oratory, which may amuse the fancy for the time, but convey no solid instruction to the understanding, much less that divine food to the soul which is essential to its growth and strength. We know that the Grecian and Roman orators were more solicitous to adorn their discourses with the tinsel of human art, with well-constructed sentences, to

deliver them with a nice modulation of the voice, with studied gesticulations of the body, than they were to store them with sober truth; and hence they lost the "substance in the shadow." And as to Jewish rabbins, they were much more attentive to the sifting of words, to tracing out the endless genealogies of their ancestors, than they were to the real meaning of their prophetic Scriptures, and to those historical facts by which the proper lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ was demonstrated, and thus proved to be the true Messiah. To this fact the apostle alludes in verse three of chapter two, in which he reminds Timothy that Jesus Christ was of the seed of David, and therefore was regularly descended from the royal line of Judah, according to the solemn declaration of Jehovah, (Gen. xlix, 10,) in which it was announced that "the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come." And inasmuch as this Shiloh, the Messiah, the anointed of God, had come in the person of Jesus Christ, who was the veritable Son of David according to the flesh, therefore all the pretences of the Jewish doctors respecting a Messiah that was yet to come, and all the deciphering of their genealogical tables to ascertain that he must be different from Jesus of Nazareth, were but "vain babblings," a mere "strife of words" without any substantial import. Moreover, as this same "seed of David," who had been put to death by an unjust sentence, had actually risen from the dead, (ver. 8,) he had thereby given a visible demonstration that he was the Son of God, and was now seated upon the throne of David, where he should reign forever and ever.

By declaring these truths plainly and pointedly, continually appealing to the prophetic Scriptures for their support, Timothy would be able to go straight forward in the track of truth, not turning aside to dispute either with the Grecian philosophers, whose tinsel might dazzle the minds of superficial observers or the Jewish Rabbins, whose "vain babblings" about their uncertain pedigrees might puzzle the understanding of the simple, unlettered Christian with subtleties which he could not unravel; and thus approve himself unto God a workman that need not be ashamed, rightly divid ing the word of truth-dividing it in such a skilful manner as to give to every one, whether Jew or Gentile, his portion of meat in due season.

As the main object of the apostle was to instruct his son Timothy in the knowledge of truth and of the duties of the high station which he was called to fill as a ruler in the Church, he endeavours to impress upon his mind the necessity of studying attentively the great doctrines of Christ, that he might have a com