for what they taught He taught. St. John, therefore, says, " He that knoweth God heareth us ; he that is not of God, heareth not us." (1 John iv. 6.) Nevertheless, although Christ required all men to hear his Apostles as though He himself were speaking ; yet no man was bound to hear them unless they preached Christ's gospel. Therefore St. Paul said, " Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." (Gal. i. 8.) If the Apostles taught anything contrary to the authenticated revela- tion of God, they were to be rejected. If they undertook to bind or loose, to remit or retain sin on any other terms than those pre- scribed by Christ, their action amounted to nothing ; it produced no effect. In teaching and in absolution their power was simply declarative. In the one case, they, as witnesses, declared what were the conditions of salvation and the rule of life prescribed in the gospel ; and in the other case, they simply declared the conditions on which God will forgive sin, and announced the promise of God that on those conditions He would pardon the sins of men. A child, therefore, may remit sin just as effect- ually as the pope ; for neither can do anything more than declare the conditions of forgiveness. It once required the heroism of Luther to announce that truth which emancipated Europe ; now it is an every-day truth.
There is, of course, a great difference between the Apostles and other Christian teachers. Christ bore witness to the correct- ness of their testimony as to his doctrines, and sanctioned their declarations, by signs, and wonders, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, thus giving the seal of infallibility to their teachings as uttered by the lips and as we have them recorded in the Bible. And, there is also a difference between the official ministers of the gos- pel and other men, in so far as the former are specially called to the work of preaching the word. But in all cases, in that of the Apostles, in that of office-bearers in the Church, and in that of laymen, the power is simply declaratory. They declare what God has revealed. What difference does it make in the author- ity of the message, whether the gospel be read at the bed of a dying sinner, by a child, or by an archbishop ? None in the world.
There is another class of passages analogous to those under consideration. When our Lord says, Ask and ye shall receive, Whatsoever ye ask in my name I will do it, no one understands these promises as unconditional. No one believes that any prayer
764 PART IV. Ch. I — STATE OF SOUL AFTER DEATH.
of the Christian is ever heard, if it be not for something agreea- ble to the will of God. When then it is said, " Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted," why should it be inferred that no condition is implied ? The language is not more explicit in the one case than in the other. As no man's prayers are heard un- less he asks for things agreeable to the will of God ; so no man's sins are remitted unless he truly repents and truly believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. One man has no more power to forgive sins, than another. The forgiveness of sin is the exclusive pre- rogative of God.
Thirdly, there is another remark to be made about this power of binding and loosing. Christ has ordained that the terms of admission to the Church, should be the same as those of admission into heaven ; and that the grounds of exclusion from the Church, should be the same as those of exclusion from heaven. He, there- fore, virtually said to his disciples, Whom ye receive into the Church, I will receive into heaven ; and whom ye exclude from the Church, I will exclude from heaven. But this, of course, implies that they should act according to his directions. He did not bind Himself to sanction all their errors in binding and loos- ing ; any more than He was bound by his promise to hear their prayers, to grant all the foolish or wicked petitions his people might offer ; or by his promise in reference to their teaching, to sanction all the false doctrines into which they might be seduced. If we interpret Scripture by Scripture, we escape a multitude of errors.
Fourthly, Romanists rest their doctrine of absolution and of the power of the keys over souls in purgatory, very much upon the special gifts granted to the Apostles and to their successors. In reference to this agreement it may be remarked, —
1. That the Apostles never claimed, never possessed, and never pretended to exercise, the power assumed by Romanists, in the remission of sins. They never presumed to pronounce the absolution of a sinner in the sight of God. Christ could say " Thy sins be forgiven thee ; " but we never hear such language from the lips of an Apostle. They never directed those burdened with a sense of sin to go to the priest to make confession and re- ceive absolution. They had no authority in this respect above that which belongs to the ordinary officers of the Church. They could declare the terms on which God had promised to forgive sins; and they could suspend or excommunicate members, for cause, from the communion of the visible Church. In the case