u Rom. x. 2, 3. x Zech. xiv. 9.
Acts xv. 36. And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do.
IT is of the nature of divine grace to be always operative, and never to remit its exertions, whilst there is any good to be done. Under its superabun-
dant influence, Paul and Barnabas were carried through all the labours and difficulties to which they had been expressly called by the Holy Ghost, and for which they had been set apart by the Church at Antiocha. But Paul, not content with having exe- cuted the work assigned him, desired to renew his labours, in order to the further advancement of it in all the Churches which he had planted : and for this end he proposed to Barnabas to go and visit all the Churches again, and see in what state they were: " Let us go again, &c. &c."
We will,
I. Consider this proposal, in reference to the Churches then formed —
It is impossible not to admire the spirit by which it was dictated, or to withhold our approbation from the proposal itself. It was,
1. A desirable proposal —
[Churches, like plantations in the natural world, are liable to great variations : they may thrive and flourish, or they may be blighted and wither. If we examine all the Churches founded by the Apostles, we shall find, that in some there were abuses, in others errors, in others divisions ; and in all there were many things which needed to be checked by apostolic wisdom, and to be rectified by apostolic authority. But in Churches planted by these two Apostles, it might well be expected, that they should possess peculiar influence ; because, in addition to the respect with which they would be regarded as Apostles of Christ, they would be considered by every one as standing to him in the relation of a father : and hence there would be in all places a ready acquiescence in their wishes, and a willing obedience to their injunctions. This was the effect which the Apostle expected to be produced at Corinth, when he said, " I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will ; and will know, not the speech of them that are puffed up, but the powerb :" and again, " The rest will I set in order when I come0."
Such, we doubt not, was the original design of episcopal visitations : and, if this great end were kept more in view, we
a Acts xiii. 2, 3, with xiv. 26. h 1 Cor. iv. 19.
c 1 Cor. xi. 34.