prisoner in the grave. At the time he had foretold, he burst the bonds of death, by which it was impossible he should be holden, and rose triumphant ; and in due season ascended to the right hand of his Father, far above all principalities and powers, whether in heaven or in hell. There He possesses all power in heaven and in earth : there are all things com- mitted to his hands : there is He, in a more especial manner, made Head over all things to his Church, to every individual
of which he imparts whatsoever is needful for him
And there will he reign, till he has put all enemies under his feet ]
In connexion with this must we contemplate his power, II. As delegated to his ministers —
The Apostles were invested with miraculous powers : which, when moved to it by him, they exercised, some- times in a way of mercy, and sometimes also in a way of judgment. St. Paul had, by the authority committed to him, delivered to Satan, Hymeneus and Philetus, and the incestuous Corinthian : and, with a similar judgment, he threatened to visit other refractory persons at Corinth, if they should persist in their contemptuous and profane conduct. Those powers have long since ceased in the Church : but others are transmitted to God's faithful ministers in all ages.
Ministers are weak, like their divine Master — [Paul himself was, in all his sufferings, conformed to his blessed Lord ; and, in enduring them, appeared weak as He. And ministers at this day are exposed to the same trials, which they are to bear in the same submissive manner. And so weak do they appear, that persons of every description, the poor as well as the rich, the young as well as the old, will venture to insult and injure them ]
But, through Him, they also are strong —
[Every word which they speak in their Master's name, supposing it to he really in accordance with the written word, shall be ratified in heaven : " what they bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven; and what they loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven." In them the Lord Jesus Christ will evince his own almighty power. He will manifest it in them per- sonally; enabling them to sustain all their trials with fortitude,
and to perform all their duties with fidelity^ And he
will manifest it hy them ministerially, accompanying their word with power from on high, and enabling them to raise to
^ 2 Cor. iv. 10, 11.