He expresses without effort, what effort never could attain. The simple grandeur of these plain words bespeaks the character of Him, with whom Omnipotence was familiar and inherent: "Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”

"Go ye therefore." Go forth with alacrity, resolution, and certainty of success. Go, for it is the great Administrator of Heaven and earth who sends you forth; to whom all power is given; and, who will so exert that power, that earth and heaven shall combine, to prosper you in all your

ways.

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Go, and teach all nations," or, as it is more correctly rendered in the margin of our English Bible, "Go, and make disciples of all nations. Or, more briefly, and more literally, "Go, and disciple all nations." That is, receive whole communities into the outward, visible profession of Christianity. Make collective bodies of disciples, whom you may afterwards instruct. Let nations be united in the common bond of Catholicity. And let them transmit, from generation to generation, the means of religious worship, and the light of religious truth.

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Baptizing them, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Admitting them within the pale of the Church, by

the Sacrament of Baptism in the name of the Tri-une God. “Baptizing Baptizing them," not individuals, but nations, in their collective capacity; old, and young; learned, and ignorant; one, with another. "The kingdom of heaven," said our Lord, on another occasion, "is like a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind."

"Teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you." Here, be it observed, the order is the reverse of that which obtains in the Gospel of Saint Mark. For, whilst, in the individual plan of adult conversion, instruction and belief are prior to Baptism, in the Collective scheme of national Christianity, Baptism is the first in the order of time. Communities are first to be baptized; then, formed to habits of goodness and piety, by moral and religious training.

"And lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." A promise, not occasional or temporary, like that of miraculous powers: but conveying an assurance, that Christ himself, will, in spirit and in power, be continually present, with his Catholic and Apostolic Church; with the Bishops of that Church, who derive from the Apostles, by uninterrupted succession; and with those inferior, but essential orders of the Church,

which are constituted by the same authority, and dedicated to the same service. It is a pledge of the divine faithfulness and truth, that, amidst the vicissitudes of human affairs, the decay of nations, the obliteration of languages, the dissolution of empires, that, even at that prophetic period, when the spirits of devils, working miracles, shall go forth into the kings of the earth, to gather them together to the battle of the great day of God Almighty," that, even then, "the gates of hell shall not prevail," but Christ will comfort, will protect, and will enlarge his little flock; whilst, "unto the principalities and powers, in heavenly places, shall be known, by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God." (2)

This wisdom, manifold in its operation, but uniform in its design, while it is especially exercised in the guidance of the Church, can be adequately apprehended, only by superior beings. Men "see but in part, and prophesy in part;" and much, probably, of their instrumental usefulness depends on the fact, that they know not what they do. Not so, with those angels of God, who perform his pleasure: they have a nearer prospect of his great designs; and what mortals view but partially, they contemplate as a whole; and what, to us, may seem irregular and confused, is, to them, a scene of regularity and

order. Amidst the collision of jarring interests, and the tumult of conflicting passions, they discern the hand of the Supreme Disposer, controlling all events for the improvement of his. Church. The surface of the waters may be vexed with storms, but the ark of Christianity they know to be secure (3); they know, that the under-current of Providence is bringing, and will bring it, to "the haven where it would be."

For,

And we too, after the measure of our capacities, may share in these consolatory views. though much be hidden, much, also, is revealed; and though much be obscure, much, also, is discernible. Let but our inquiries be guided by the light of Scripture, and confined within the limits of historical experience, and moderated by sobriety of mind, and pursued with integrity of purpose, and then we may, in some degree, be qualified to adore, and, in our humble walk, to co-operate with, the high providence of God.

It must, indeed, be admitted, that ecclesiastical historians have seldom regarded or exhibited the Church, as the great sphere of providential wisdom. Their gloomy estimate too generally presents a revolting detail, of persecutions on the one hand, and sufferings on the other; of heresies in faith, and enormities in practice; of ambition, descending to the vilest artifices of intrigue; of

controversies, wrought to the last edge of exasperation; of superstition, devoting her victims to voluntary torments; of fanaticism, violating the common decencies of life; every where the name and pretext of religion, her spirit and power no where; or, if, indeed, she be allowed an existence amongst men, we are sent to seek her obscure and casual asylum, in mountains, and valleys, and dens, and caves of the earth. Such is the portraiture commonly drawn of the Christian Church; especially from the fourth, to the sixteenth century. The picture might, probably, have been less aggravated and extreme, if writers had been mindful, that, while such flagrant abuses were foretold in prophetic Scripture (4), the same Scripture also foretold, that, in the Church itself, God's faithful worshippers shall never fail; that, though "the Holy City was given to the Gentiles, to be trodden under foot," very special care was, at the same time, taken, "to measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein."

The truth is, two very important considerations have, for the most part, been overlooked namely, the continuous character of the Church; and the inevitable mixture of evil in its progress, towards eventual improvement and perfection.