door of grace, mercy, opportunity, prosperity to feeble Churches, none can shut; when he shuts, none can open. The exercise of his office is, like himself, sovereign and divine. It is a supreme and irresistible dominion which no man can obstruct. And this in whatever view we consider it.

If we apply it to the opening the gate of mercy to the individual penitent, and to the closing the door of pardon and acceptance to the obstinate and rebellious, "he openeth and no man shutteth; and he shutteth, and no man openeth." Christ unfolds the door of admission into the visible Church, according to the terms of salvation laid down in his gospel, and he also shuts it. He gave to his apos tles, when upon earth, the ministerial and declarative office of assuring all true penitents of remis sion of sins in his blood, and admitting them as guests at his holy mysteries; and of excluding the impenitent and unbelieving. "I give unto thee," said our Lord, in this view, to one of his apostles in the name of the rest," the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven;" and on another occasion he declared to the whole body of them, "Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are. retained;" sentences which Christ, the chief shepherd, confirms in heaven, so far as the absolution or retention is duly declared. For it is he, and he alone, that authoritatively and effectively openeth the gate of pardon to all who believe in his name, and then none can shut and it is he, and he alone" the holy One and the true"-that shutteth it upon the impenitent, and then none can open.

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Or, if we apply the words to his opening or closing the door of heaven and the invisible world after death; to the admission of the righteous into the

glorious inheritance prepared for them, and the shutting up of the wicked into "outer darkness, where is weeping and gnashing of teeth," they are equally authoritative and conclusive. It is in this sense that our Lord speaks to St. John in the Apocalypse, "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and be hold, I am alive for evermore; and have the keys of hell and of death"-of the invisible world, and of the grave as the entrance to it. And thus in the parable we read of our Lord's shutting the door of heaven on the foolish virgins, notwithstanding their importunate cry for admittance; whilst to those that were ready, he opened wide its portals, and they went in with him to the banquet.

But the words chiefly import, as I conceive, in the present connection, Christ's supreme control over the events of providence, in subserviency to the designs of his redemption. In this sense also, which lies between and unites, as it were, the two others, our Lord " openeth and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth." He opens the door of instruc tion, of faith, of utterance; he opens the gate of opportunity and usefulness to a Church or to individual Christians, and then none can shut it; no power in heaven or earth. He shuts the door to an unfaithful Church or body of Christians, or to a family or individual; and none in heaven or earth can open. He

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removes the candlestick out of its place" from a declining Church, if it repent not. He quenches the star in his right hand, if the sins of a people provoke his indignation. He lights up the star again, and replaces the candlestick, when they seek his face. Events in providence obey his will. Kingdoms and states and princes rise and fall, as he opens or closes the portals of spiritual and temporal prosperity. Churches and Christians, means of grace, buildings for the decent worship of God, nursing-fathers and nursing-mothers to the Church, a learned and pious

ministry, Christian missions and institutions of various kinds, translated copies of the Bible in all languages are multiplied and strengthened, as Christ turns the golden key, and throws wide the

entrance.

When the door of utterance is thus opened, the interior work of God also advances; souls inquire after the way of salvation, converts are added to the Church, ministers and their flocks are united in love, public worship and sacraments are administered in purity and spirituality, and the body of believers have their "6 conversation as becometh the gospel of

Christ."

This is, then, the repose of the souls of feeble Christians and ministers, under the difficulties and trials of their position, that Christ is "the holy One and the true," that he hath " the key of David," that "he openeth and no man shutteth; and that he shutteth, and no man openeth.”

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These names therefore and attributes of the Divine Savior, speaking to the weak Philadelphian Church, constitute the first source of encouragement. Let us only strive to keep Christ's word and not deny his name," however little our strength is, and he will apply the key of office to the golden doors, and then none can shut them; for when Christ acts, he acts independently of the will of man, and transcendently above all the power of man.

II. Let us proceed then to consider, The circumstances and conduct of those to whom the encouragement is addressed,

1. The Church of Philadelphia is thus described, "For thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and not denied my name." That Church had a little, and but a little, strength. She had been placed amongst great and manifold dangers. Many who professed to belong to her, were found to be

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liars and of the synagogue of Satan." She had few helpers, little external aid. Civil governments, whether Heathen or Jewish, were hostile. Her pastors and chief ministers were persecuted. The Angel or presiding minister (what we now term the Bishop, such as Timothy was amongst the numerous presbyters of Ephesus, and Titus amongst those of the hundred cities of Crete, and such as the apostles themselves, during their lives, had been in a peculiar and more exalted sense) had probably been driven into exile. The faith and strength and patience and hope of the Church were small; and "because iniquity abounded, the love of many waxed cold." She was not vigorous, bold and growing exceedingly in grace, and filled with the fruits of righteousness; but weak and imperfect and unstable and timid. She could but just stand her ground. Many things were wrong in her, which her pastors had not strength to set right.

Still as a Church she had kept, upon the whole, Christ's word. This word of Christ is the deposit of the faith committed to the care of the Church, to be kept by her with unvarying fidelity, and handed down from age to age. This word which is none other than the great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh,"-must be kept in all essential points, in these ways-in doctrine, in worship, in conduct.

The Church of Philadelphia had kept the doctrine of Christ, the truth of his proper Deity as one with the Father and the Holy Ghost, his incarnation, the atonement of his death, pardon and justification by faith in his obedience and sacrifice, the gracious operations of his Spirit in renewing and sanctifying the heart, the necessity of love to him as the constraining motive of a disinterested life, and the ascription of every thing spiritually good in us to his merciful will. Any great defection in this doctrine of Christ would have been to "deny his name."

She had also kept Christ's word as to the public worship of Almighty God, by sanctifying the blessed day of rest, by assembling the Church in solemn meetings, offering "supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks for kings and all in authority," reading Christ's holy word to the people, administering the sacraments which he had instituted, preaching and expounding the blessed gospel, visiting the sick and afflicted, catechizing the young, ordering all things according to the constitution of Christ's Church as settled by the apostles, and being in unity and love with the Angel or presiding minister placed over her. Any material defection in the purity of Christian worship would have been to "deny Christ's name."

And as to the rule of conduct, she had also kept Christ's word, following the blessed steps of his own holy life, maintaining the perpetual obligation of the ten Commandments, and in no respects compounding for moral delinquencies by any number of outward rites and usages.

In none of these respects had the Philadelphian Church denied Christ's name, which almost all the seven Asiatic Churches had done. Ephesus had "left her first love." Sardis had "had a name to live, but was dead." Pergamos "suffered the doctrine of Balaam and of the Nicolaitanes, which Christ hated"some gross corruptions probably, springing from the love of "filthy lucre," and from sins of uncleanness. Thyatira "allowed the woman Jezebel”—a false prophetess perhaps, or pretender to new Revela tions-to seduce" the flock. Laodicea was "lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot." These Churches had not kept, but had in fact denied, Christ's word and name, in doctrine or worship or morals.

Smyrna only and Philadelphia had, though with but little strength, yet struggled on, and retained" the word of Christ's patience and denied not his name."