GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. 327 



" Christian doctrine is unfolded to faith, with dogmatic 

 " completeness. One may confidently say, a priori, 

 " that these could not be left to the indefinite admixture 

 " of human opinion, without frustrating the very purpose 

 " for which the Father sent the Son ; it would be to 

 " undermine that edifice for which He had hitherto laid 

 " the most solid and stable foundation. 



M But we are not left to conjecture here. The Lord 

 " Jesus, engaging to build His Church upon the Rock, 

 " and conferring on Peter the privilege of the keys to 

 " unlock the kingdom (Acts ii. and x.), promised first 

 " to him (Matt. xvi. 19), and then to all the Apostles 

 "(xviii. 18), that whatsoever they should bind or loose, 

 M He would ratify from heaven. For this end He pro- 

 " mised them the Holy Ghost, to abide with them ; to 

 " guide them into all [the] truth ; to take of His, and 

 " the Father's, and show to them ; to bring all Jesus's 

 " words to their remembrance ; to show them things to 

 " come ; to enable them to be witnesses for Him (John 

 " xiv.-xvi., passim}. He sent them into the world, 

 " exactly as the Father had sent Him (xvii. 18). 



" The Holy Ghost in due time was given, the witness 

 " of Jesus-Messiah's ascension to the Divine Throne ; 

 " and they, thus endowed, and distinctly accredited 

 " (Acts i. 8), went forth ' witnesses to Him, ... to the 

 " ' uttermost part of the earth.' 



" Here, again, my confidence finds an impregnable 

 " fortress. Whatever I read in the Evangels, or the 

 " Epistles, is no longer the utterance of a mere man, 

 " however pious ; it is not Luke or John, or Peter or 

 " Paul, that I hear ; it is God the Holy Ghost from 

 " heaven, bearing witness to the Sent of the Father, now 

 " that the Sent Son has gone up in resurrection life and 

 " power to the Father's Throne. 



