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    forth their lots , and the lot fell upon Matthias , and he was numbered with the eleven apostles . " The meaningis , that he was added to them , and made the twelfth : nor can I doubt of his having been duly elected to that office . What was the business of an apostle ? What his essential

    qualification ? He was to proclaim and testify that Jesus , who # died , had risen from the grave : and he was to do this on his personal knowledge of the fact , on his individual acquaintance with the identity of his Master . " Of these men , " says Peter ^ ( 21 , 22 , ) -who have companied with us ail the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out

    among us , beginning from the baptism of John unto that same day that he was taken up from us , must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection . " The event proved that Matthias was rightly constituted an apostle . It is true , he was not literally appointed one by our Saviour : but neither can it be shewn , that

    such an appointment was indispensable . Not more valid is the objection , that we hear nothing afterwards of Matthias , since the same assertion may be made concerning most of the

    apostles . In the number of the twelve , Paul , assuredly , was not comprehended . He himself distinguishes between their situation and his own , 1 Coi \ xv . 5

    / , 8 , where it is evident , that by the twelve we are to understand the collected body of the apostles ; though , at the time referred to , a vacancy existed by the death of Judas of Kerwth ' * ' Acts III . 16 . " — his name , through Acts III . 16 iC — his namethrough

    , , faith in his name , hath made this man strong . " No judicious and candid reader will suppose that any thing like a charm is here intended . We are not to take the word name literally , hi the phraseology of the Scriptures , the name is sometimes equivalent to the per so ft : sometimes , as in this

    v . rse , a denotes authority . From the ( ( for it is a perfect llcbraism ) it For the nature of Paul ' s appointment t <> the apostleship , see Gal . i . 1 , Horn . i . 1 , 5 ; and a curious note in Moahenn da Rebus Christianis ante Con-£ ^ "t . > &ecul . I . § 6 .

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    was transferred , naturally enough , into the New Testament . To speak of the name of a being , or of any class of beings , is not simply to use a form of expression . On the principles of sound criticism , it will appear , that

    there is no real difficulty , and still less any mystery , in the term . They who have doubts concerning' its sense , either separately or in combination , may be referred to Glassii Philology Sacr . p . 100 , ed Dath , to Hammond on 1 Cor .

    i . 2 , and to Schlcusner , in verb . * 1 Cor . xv . 24 , " — when he shall have delivered up the kingdom , " &c . Alexander \ explains the clause in the following manner : " then cometh the end , when Christ shalL deliver the kingdom , which hath so long been possessed by others , to God , even the Father . " To me , I own , there seems

    an incongruity in supposing that the phrase the kingdom , which elsewhere in the New Testament means the kingdom of Christ , has here another and unusual signification , and that the

    word kingdom in ver . 24 , and the word reign in Kthe 25 th , refer to two distinct and even opposite empires . The whole passage is evidently a description of the mediatorial power of the Saviour .

    Heb . ii . 1 < 3 , " — he taketh not hold of [ helpeth not ] angels , " &c . See the marginal reading in the Eng . Bib . I consider this passage as a decisive proof that the mission of Jesus

    Christ , and all the benefits ensuing from it , are limited to the human race , to the rational inhabitants ol this part of God's creation . With what propriety then has Dr . Paley t

    said , " Great and inestimably beneficial effects may accrue from the mission of Christ , and especially from his death , which do not belong to Christianity as a revelation" ? N .

    * The divisions , however , in that valuable Lexicon are too numerous and refined : the explanation of ovofjea ,, No . 6 , f Is properly under the preceding number . f Paraphrase , & < -, hi loc . + Evidences of Christianity , &c . P . ii . Ch . ii ., note .

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    Contributions to Scriptural Criticism . 291

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1822, page 291, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2512/page/35/