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Julian Pe- self (d). Lord Barrington's opinion, therefore, though derived Antioch. riod, 4760. from other considerations, that a lower degree of prophecy is Valgar Æra, here understood, appears to be correct; as is likewise his ad

49.

ditional remark, that in the word prophecy must be included
the gift of teaching. As a necessary consequence, or as the in-
separable attendant of this gift, was the power of discerning of
spirits; which was the talent or faculty of discerning both the
truth and certainty of what was spoken by other prophets, and
likewise of ascertaining the thoughts and secrets of the hearts
of those who might enter the Christian assemblies, and conse
quently of knowing the precise mode of teaching which his cir-
cumstances might demand.

The persons who possessed these lesser gifts of prophecy, and
knowledge of the thoughts of men, are called 'Avres, and
Rubeρvnoεis. The first of which answers to у, help, Ps. xxi.
19. (ap. LXX,) and xxii. 19. of the English version.

The word rubeрvýσeis, says Lightfoot, is used by the LXX to translate bann, (Prov. i. 5. xi. 14. xx. 18. and xxiv. 6.) which word imports not the act, but the ability to govern; and the words ἀντιλήψεις and κυβερνήσεις, in 1 Cor. xii. 28, 29, 30. imply helps to interpret the languages, and sense of those who spake with tongues (y).

The speaking with tongues was the gift more commonly imparted than any other, as we read in the narrative of the conversion of Cornelius and his household. It was therefore of inferior estimation to those which were more rare. This consideration harmonizes with the rest of this perplexing division both of the miraculous gifts, and of those on whom they were conferred. The speakers with tongues were the assistants to the higher ministers, and were often of inferior degree; they possessed the ability to govern, and were thus prepared for the higher offices in the Church; they received the lower gift of prophecy, and the discerning of spirits.

The last of these miraculous gifts requires no discussion. It appears to refer to a further division, of a still lower and infe rior miraculous endowment. The converts who were baptized with Cornelius spake with tongues. I should conclude, from this division of the miraculous gifts, not that every convert was able to speak every known language, but only a certain number: and, with respect to the interpreters here mentioned, we may conclude that they were persons who repeated to some of the people, in their own language, those addresses of the prophets which were spoken to another portion of the congregation, in their native tongue. As the Jews were every where dispersed, the congregations of the primitive Christians must have generally consisted, of the Israelites who spake the Aramaic or Syriac dialects, and of the natives of the countries where they sojourned. In commercial towns there would be frequently assemblies, composed of strangers from the most opposite quarters of the world, to whom these divisions of the miraculous gifts would be the most convincing of all arguments.

Whatever might have been the nature of the miraculous gifts which were imparted by the Spirit of God to the first teachers of the Gospel, it is certain they were all subject to the apostles, and the apostles to each other, in council. Their powers were not derived from the people, though they were imparted for the instruction of the poorest, and meanest, and most despised among them. They were accountable to God and to his apostles. The caprice of the multitude was not their rule of action: and while they sedulously laboured for the common benefit, they never derived their doctrines from those whom they were ordained to superintend and teach; nor did they allow their

Julian Period, 4760. Vulgar Era, 49.

separate congregations to dictate to them as to the doctrines Antioch.
they were to inculcate.

The flocks did not then choose their shepherds; the children
did not ordain their spiritual fathers, Free from all inferior mo-
tives, unambitious of honour and popularity, careless of wealth,
undaunted by persecution, unsubdued by danger and difficulty,
the first teachers of the Gospel regarded with equal affection,
the favour or the hatred of the rich or poor. Bold, zealous,
firm, and holy, their lips preserved knowledge, and the people
learned the law from their mouth. Happy is that Church whose
clergy are thus devoted to the service of the people committed
to their charge-who are faithful in the discharge of their sacred
duties, not with eye-service, as men pleasers, but with singleness
of heart, as unto God.

Such were the gifts, titles, and offices, by which the Christian Church was now united. It formed, at this time, wherever it was dispersed, one large society. The persons who presided over it (and no society can exist without some order or form of government,) derived their authority not from the people, but from God. These divinely appointed heads in the process of time ordained fit persons, who were generally known to and approved by the people, among whom they lived, to the office of teacher. If these teachers deviated from the form of sound words and the apostolic doctrine, they were responsible to the authority which had empowered and commissioned them to teach: and the apostles themselves, as in the instance of St. Peter, were controlled by their equals in power. Christ was the invisible head of the Church, and the supremacy of Peter, or of Rome, was unknown; all was rightly and efficiently organized for the building up in this evil world the outward and visible Church of Christ, by which the invisible and the spiritual Church, as in the days of Noah, might be conducted safely to the kingdom of Christ and God. Wicked and inconsistent Christians, as we learn from the Epistles, were members of the visible Church even in the apostolic age-it is so at present. God alone can separate the good from the bad at the last. It is our duty, while we are in the body, to continue to build up the visible Church; to establish and to insist upon external religion, the means of grace, the right administration of the sacraments, the purity, honour, and independence of the Christian priesthood; and to maintain, "in spite of scorn," its scriptural government in the world. Thus by obedience to the example of the apostles of God, we may bring many millions of our forsaken brethren of mankind from among every nation under heaven, within the visible Church on earth, and lead them by the power of the Spirit of God to the spiritual Church above (ƒ).

(a) Lib. i. cap. cxi. p. 151.3. ♫ coronam sequuntur ordine

and

sapientia et intelligentia, quas ad caput referendas esse, res ipsa loquitur. Quis ignorat, binas hasce virtutes Domino nostro Jesu Christo frequenter admodum attribui in Codice sacro? En verba Jesaia by anɔ

-et quiescet super ipsum spiritus Jehova : spi רוחיהוה רוח הכמה וכינה הכונה vel כינה solet jungi חכמה

ritus sapientiæ et intelligentiæ.

aut mys, ut et Paulus σοφίαν καὶ φονησιν aut γνώσιν sæpe con-
jungit. Sapientiæ comes est prudentia et circumspectio, qua secun-
dum sapientiæ regulas per amorem et timorem Dei reprobatur ma-
lum et eligitur, quod optimum est, in bona conscientia. Et alibi

est prudentia, povnois. Dexteritas Judicandi et eligendi secun-
dum boni conscientiam, Nam prudentia utitur sapientia ἐν πρακτ
τοῖς. Hinc junguntur : η σοφία καὶ φρόνησις, Prudentia
mater est sapientiæ, sapientia est virtus intellectus, qua res intelligimus
in caussis et finibus prudentia judicii, qua res et actus ad fines illis
convenientes disponimus, et dirigimus.-Vitringæ Dissert, sccunda de

:

Julian Period, 4761. Vulgar Era,

50.

CHAPTER XII.

St. Paul's second Apostolical Journey.

SECTION I.

After remaining some time at Antioch, St. Paul proposes to
Barnabas to commence another visitation of the Churches.

ACTS XV. 36.

36 And some days after, Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren, in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do'.

SECTION II.

St. Paul separating from Barnabas, proceeds from Antioch
to Syria and Cilicia.

ACTS XV. 37. to the end. xvi. 4, 5.

Antioch.

37 And Barnabas determined to take with them John, Syria and whose surname was Mark.

38 But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work.

39 And the contention was so sharp between them,
that they departed asunder one from the other': and so
Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus:

Sephiroth Cabbalistarum. Observ. Sacr. lib. i. cap. iii. vol. i. p. 151, 152.
See also Burnet's Archæologiæ Philos. p. 48. (b) Etymol. ined. ap.
Schleusner, Lexicon in LXX-γνῶσις σοφίας διαφέρεται. γνωσις μέν
ἐστι τὸ εἰδέναι τὰ ὄντα· σοφία δὲ καὶ τὸ τὰ ὄντα γινώσκειν, καὶ τὸ
τὴν τῶν ἀντιπιπτόντων λύσιν ἐπίστασθαι. (c) In Arius Mon-
tanus Bible, in the Septuagint, and in our own Bibles this passage
is chap. ix. ver. 38. But in Bagster's small Hebrew Bibles it is
Nehem. x. ver. 1. (d) Alter Revelationis internæ modus est, quo
vigilantes rapiuntur in ecstasin, cessante ad tempus usu sensoriorum
exterorum, dum a spiritu divino, aut Angelo Dei jussu imaginationi ex-
hibentur et alte infigantur imagines quædam, sive figuræ rerum mystica
et propheticæ; aut Deus ipse, vel angelus, verba veluti cum iis faciens,
eos de præsentibus aut futuris edocet. Hâc specie Deus se præcipue
prophetis, certe illustrioribus, manifestum fecit, diciturque ea stylo
Scripturæ V.T. n visio dokáλvic.—Vitringa, Observ. Sacræ, lib.
vii. cap. ii. p. 7. (e) Life of Lightfoot, by Strype. The assembly of
divines wished to justify the lay eldership of the Presbyterians from the
word kubeρvýσeis, in this passage, which Lightfoot answered by the
above criticism. (f) Lord Barrington's Miscellanea Sacra, vol. i. p.
166, 167. This treatise is one of the tracts in the collection of Bishop
Watson.-Hales's Analysis of Chronology, vol. ii. part ii. p. 968.-
Doddridge's Family Expositor, vol. iv. p. 67.-Morgan's Platform of
the Christian Church.

The principal reason which prompted St. Paul to com-
mence his second apostolical journey at this time, was probably
his learning that the Churches in the provinces were divided in
opinion; and that the harmony of the infant Church was disturbed
on account of the controversies on the subject of conformity to
the Mosaic law. They were anxions to ascertain, π xov
quomodo sc habeant, ac constantes sint in profitenda doctrina.
* Their dispute about John Mark, is a proof of human infir-

Cilicia.

Julian Pe

Cilicia.

40 And Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recom- Syria and riod, 4761. mended by the brethren unto the grace of God. Vulgar Era,

50.

41 And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches.

ACTS xvi. 4, 5.

4 And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem.

5 And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily.

SECTION III.

St. Paul proceeds to Derbe, and Lystra in Iconium-
Timothy his Attendant.

ACTS xvi. 1-6.

1 Then came he to Derbe and Lystra: and behold, a Derbe and certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a Lystra. certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed: but his father was a Greek :

2 Which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium.

3 Him would Paul have to go forth with him; and took and circumcised him, because of the Jews which were in those quarters: for they knew all that his father was a Greek.

mity, which cannot be justified, though it admits of extenua.
tion. There was some breach of charity between them; on one
side it may be said that Paul's zeal carried him too far, and on
the other that Barnabas was too indulgent to his kinsmau —
ὁ Παυλος έζητει τὸ δικαῖον, ο Βαρναβας τὸ Φιλανθρωπον. This
rupture, however, did not end in hatred, as appears from the
manner in which Barnabas is mentioned by Paul in his Epistles.
Barnabas went to Cyprus, and Paul into Syria and Cilicia.—
Witsius Meletem. Leidens. de Vit. Pauli. cap. iv. sect. 15.

3 It is probable that St. Paul went from Cilicia to Crete; and
having preached there, left Titus to complete his work, and to
ordain elders.-See Witsius, Meletem. Leidens. de Vit. Paul.
chap. v.

The fourth and fifth verses of chap. xvi. are added to the end of chap. xv. on the authority of Lord Barrington, whose opinion is advocated by Dr. Paley and Dr. Clarke.-See Miscellanea Sacra, Paley's Hora Paulinæ, and Dr. Clarke's Commentary.

In order to judge rightly of Paul's conduct in this affair, which some have censured (as they do other things in Christianity), because they did not understand it, we must always recollect that he always openly avowed, "that the Gentiles were free from the yoke of the Mosaic ceremonies, and that the Jews were not to accept salvation by them:" and he also taught, that they were not in conscience obliged to observe them at all, except in cases where an omission of them would give offence. But because bis enemies represented him as teaching people to

Julian Period, 4761. Vulgar Era,

50.

SECTION IV.

They proceed from Iconium to Phrygia and Galatia.

ACTS xvi. 6.

Galatia.

6 Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia.

SECTION V.

From Galatia to Mysia, and Troas.

ACTS XVI. 7-10.

7 After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go Mysia and into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not.

8 And they passing by Mysia, came down to Troas.

9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.

10 And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.

Troas.

SECTION VI.

From Troas to Samothrace.

ACTS xvi. part of ver. 11.

11 Therefore loosing from Troas, we came with a Samothrace. straight course to Samothracia ".

despise the law of Moses, and even as blaspheming it, he there-
fore took some opportunities of conforming to it publicly him-
self, to shew how far he was from condemning it as evil; an
extravagance into which some Christian heretics early ran.
And though, when the Jewish zealots would have imposed upon
him, to compel Titus, who was a Greek, to be circumcised, even
while he was at Jerusalem, he resolutely refused it, (Gal. ii. 3-
5.) yet here he voluntarily persuaded Timothy to submit to
that rite, knowing the omission of it in him, who was a Jew by
the mother's side, would have given offence; and being the
more desirous to obviate any prejudices against this excellent
youth, whose early acquaintance with the Scriptures of the Old
Testament (2 Tim. iii. 15.) might render him peculiarly capable
of preaching in the synagogues with advantage; which, had he
been uncircumcised, would not have been permitted. Grotius
observes, this was probably the beginning of Luke's acquaint-
ance wiih Timothy, though Paul knew him long before.-See
Doddridge's Family Expositor, in loc.

"Much service would be rendered to the world by any stu-
dent who would write a history of Samothrace. This island
was the earliest European seat of the ancient idolatry which
overspread Europe from India, Canaan, and Egypt. Mr. Faber
has prepared the way for the successful prosecution of all re-

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