knowledge recorded of other ministers of the church. 66 It is from these two gifts of the spirit, namely, the word of wisdom and knowledge, which were peculiar to the apostles, that I apprehend, the power of binding and loofing;" and the "power of remitting and re"taining fins" (foretold to them by Jefus), "did flow." They exercised these powers, by declaring all men bound to faith and repentance, love and charity, temperance and righteoufnefs: by declaring the Jews, after their converfion to christianity, bound to obey the laws of Mofes, and the profelytes of the gate to four of them; and the idolatrous Gentiles free, or discharged from all of them: not being civil laws to them, as they were, in fome fenfe, to the Jews, and to the profelytes of the gate: they declared all men bound to the laws of the country where they lived, and to `domeftic and relative duties in the Lord: they declared, that on these terms men's fins were remitted; and that, if they led a life contrary to these rules, their fins were retained: they declared, that the Jews and profelytes of the gate were releafed from all the laws of Mofes, as the terms of juftification and eternal life; whilft they declared them bound to them, as the laws of their country; and Mat. xviii. 18. John xx. 23. the the terms of enjoying the privileges of Jews, or of profelytes of the gate. 66 It is of confequence to obferve, that the word of wisdom, and the word of knowledge, which the apostles taught, together with the power of binding and loofing, and remitting and retaining fins, came to them "directly from Chrift, or the Spirit of Chrift." Christ and his Spirit alone taught them: they did not learn from others. St. Paul lays great stress upon it, that even the "other "apostles added nothing to him;" fo careful is he to let us know, that though he was moft liable of any of the apoftles, to the fufpicion of learning his gofpel from others; yet that he learned nothing of it even from the apostles of the circumcifion themselves; who were the teachers of all, but of the Gentiles; of whom he was the teacher himselft. But it is certain that, befides the knowledge which the apostles had by immediate illumination, they gained ftill farther knowledge by deduction and inference from that illumination. The former they deliver as that which they had received from the Lord, or as what the Spirit faith. But as the latter had a mixture of their own reasoning in it, they do not deliver that with the authority they do the other. Under this head I fhould rank what Paul fays he speaks "by permiffion," or as * See Irenæus, 1. iii. c. 13. • Gal. ii. 6. E 2 one 66 W ប one that thinks « he has the Spirit of God or when he fays, "they, that is, the apoftles, fpake from comparing spiritual things with fpiritual ";" for I cannot fuppofe with fome very_learned men, that the only diftinctions Paul makes in the 1 Cor. vi. and 2 Cor. viii. is between what Chrift expreffly taught in his life-time, and what the Spirit taught after its defcent. For fure Paul could not have faid, “this fay I, and not the Lord,” if the Spirit of the Lord faid fo. Nor could he in that case say, “I have no commandment, "but I give my advice." Is what he received from the Spirit no commandment? and is it but bare advice? If he had them from the Spirit they were of equal authority with what Chrift had faid himself, which was but by the fame Spirit: and if it was not fo, Jefus could not have faid that the Spirit should fupply his abfence, and in fuch a manner as to give them more light and instruction, as well as more power and courage, than if Chrift had ftaid with them; as he plainly does : and as the apoftles fometimes fpeak by inference, fo fometimes they fpeak from a plain quota tion 2. It likewife very well deferves our notice, that as Chrift, or the Spirit, were the only "See 1 Cor. vi. 10. 12. 25. 40. 2 Cor. viii. 8. io. W I Cox. tee Mill. Poe . p. 3. 15. 21 Cor. vii. 10. teachers 66 teachers of the apoftles; fo were " they of all "chriftians:" being the fountains of all that divine knowledge which chriftians ever had, or shall have, in that or any subsequent age of the world; either in relation to the doctrines or the myfteries of the gospel; other than what was taught by Jefus himself. It is of these apoftles alone, that he fays, " as my Father hath fent me, fo fend I you;" and he prays for all believers under thefe two heads, namely, "his apoftles and them that "fhould believe through their word," for "the word did but begin to be spoken by the Lord, it was chiefly confirmed by thofe "who heard him." And he that despised (the precepts, namely, referred to in the verfes preceding the 8th, given by the apoftle) defpifed "not man, but God; who had given them "his holy Spirit. d" Thus the whole of the christian religion (befides what our Saviour taught) being nothing but the teftimony, teaching, and the predictions of the apostles, confirmed by the Spirit, (fometimes called the Spirit of prophecy; we (as the Ephefians were) are built on the "foundation of the apostles and prophets f;" fuch New Teftament prophets, as were at the fame time alfo apoftles. For the Ephefians were Gentiles, 66 and could not be faid to be built on the pro phets of the Old Teftament. They were chriftians, in all probability, before they knew any thing of the writings of thofe prophets. But they were built "on thofe prophets," to whom St. Paul fays, it was "revealed by "the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fel"low-heirs, and of the fame body, and par"takers of his (God's) promife in Chrift by "the gofpel; which in other ages had not "been made known to the fons of men." For which reafon prophets are here put after apostles, though immediately after them, as the New Teftament prophets of the highest rank always are; whereas, in all probability, if Old Teftament prophets had been meant, as they were firft in time, they would have been put first here too. So likewife St. Paul fays to the Romans, that "the mystery which "was kept fecret fince the world began, but 66 now is made manifeft by the fcriptures of "the prophets" (that is, by the writings of fuch apoftolical prophets as himself, particularly fuch epiftolary writings as thefe to the Romans), "according to the commandment "of the everlasting God (was) made known "to all nations for the obedience of faith h." And because the compleat discovery of the gofpel, is nothing but the teftimony and preaching of the apoftles; as it follows on the Ibid. iv. II. and I Cor. xii. 28, 29. 6. f Eph. iii. 5, one |