Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 3.djvu/260

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Nor had He in this appointment a view to those times only, in which the appointment was made; but He designed that it should be extended to all future ages; for so we must understand the words which he pronounced immediately after giving His apostles their authority to baptize: "lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." A promise this which cannot be supposed to have respect to the persons of the Apostles alone, who in the common course of nature were soon to be taken from the world, to the end of which the promise itself was to extend.... In conformity with this meaning, the Apostles, who were themselves holy men and full of the Holy Ghost, did send other persons; to whom again, they gave power and authority to send others, through whom the office of ministers of the Gospel has been handed down in regular and uninterrupted succession from the Apostles to the present time.