fon, into which Paul and Silas were caft at Philippi, and opened all the doors".

In other refpects Paul elegantly compares himself with them. "I fpeak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak; howbeit, whereinfoever any is bold (I fpeak

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foolishly), I am bold alfo: Are they He"brews? fo am I. Are they Ifraelites? fo "am I. Are they the feed of Abraham ? so "am I. Are they minifters of Chrift? (I fpeak as a fool) I am more: in labours more "abundant, in ftripes above measure, in pri"fons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty ftripes "fave one; thrice was I beaten with rods, "once was I ftoned, thrice I fuffered fhip“wreck, a night and a day I have been in the

deep. In journeyings often, in perils of "waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by "mine own countrymen, in perils by the "heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in "the wildernefs, in perils in the fea, in perils "among falfe brethren. In wearinefs and "painfulness, in watching often, in hunger "and thirft, in faftings often, in cold and "nakedness: befides thofe things that are "without, that which cometh upon me daily, "the care of all the churches. Who is weak, ❝and I am not weak? who is offended, and “ Į burn not? If I must needs glory, I will a Acts xvi. 25, 26. K 4

"glory

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glory of the things which concern mine in"firmities. The God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, which is bleffed for evermore "knoweth, that I lye not. In Damafcus, "the governor under Aretas the king kept "the city of Damafcenes, with a garrison, "defirous to apprehend me; and through a "window, in a basket, was I let down by the "wall, and efcaped his hands "."

Upon the whole, I think, the apostles may be very properly faid to be chief and primary minifters of the kingdom of Christ, commiffioned and commanded by God to witness the refurrection of Christ, on their having feen and heard him, after he was risen from the dead, and the other great facts of christianity, as far as they had been eye or ear-witneffes of them; and to publish the doctrines and myfteries of the gofpel; being first endued with fuperior courage, in order to enable them the better to testify and publish the gofpel, to the greatest audience, and in times of the greatest danger; and vefted with extraordinary and uncommon powers of inflicting grievous distempers and death on obftinate offenders, and of curing difeafes, and of imparting tha Holy Ghost to believers, for the confirmation of the truth of what they were to teftify, teach, and foretell.

Thus I have confidered the apostles, in their general, fpecial, and comparative characters. It seems a more difficult matter to fix the precife notion of an "Elder," Elder," as it ftands here; the name occurring but once before this in the Acts, and then without any defcription; "Then the difciples-deter"mined to fend relief unto the brethren which "dwelt in Judea-which also they did, and

fent it to the elders, by the hands of Bar"nabas and Saul." It feems as if it was known that the apostles were absent from Jerufalem at this time; or how came the difciples at Antioch to fend it to the elders, and not to the apostles?

It is pretty plain that Peter was not then there; he having left the city, on his being delivered out of prison by the angel; and his being gone from Jerufalem was, in all probability, one reafon of Mark's going from Jerufalem with Barnabas and Saule (the other was that Mark was nephew to Barnabas f, and that Barnabas had likewife been a great companion of Peter's, as well as Mark); as he, in all probability, left Paul and Barnabas, and returned to Jerufalem, on hearing that Peter was then returned thither, on the death of Herod, who had put him in prison.

c Acts xi. 29, 30. f Col. iv. 10.

a Ibid. xii. 17.

• Ver. 23.

Acts xiii. 13.

For

For Mark affected Peter extremely, as he was extremely affected by him ".

Besides, it may be very juftly inferred, that none of the apostles were prefent at Jerufalem at this time, which was the second time of Paul's being there after his converfion; because Paul makes' no mention of his being there this time, in his epiftle to the Galatians, chap. i. when he mentions his being there the firft and the third time after his converfion : whereas, if any of the apoftles had been there at this time, it would have been neceffary to the thread of his argument, to have given as particular an account of what had paffed between him and the apoftles at this fecond time of his being there, as at the first, or third : his scope being to fhew the Galatians, that he did not learn his gofpel from any of the apoftles, but from Chrift alone. To which end he tells them, that he faw none of the apoftles the first time, but Peter and James; and that the third time, he would not let Titus be circumcifed; and was fo far from learning from the three chief apostles, that he communicated his gofpel to them, and them only; and was owned as a fellow-apoftle by them. What reafon can be imagined, why St. Paul did not give the Galatians as particular an account of what paffed at the fecond, as at the

first and third time of his being at Jerufalem, after his converfion; but that, there having been none of the apostles this fecond time of his being there, it was altogether unneceffary for him to fay any thing to them about it?

And though fome have thought, that by the elders, to whom the difciples fent their alms, the elders of the Jewish nation" are meant; yet I think that very unlikely, for many reasons, particularly these two: 1. Becaufe that the author of this hiftory takes care that we should not miftake the elders of the Jewish nation, when they are meant on other occafions; and in one particularly, where we are less liable to mistake them than here, by diftinguishing them accordingly, where he informs us, that the centurion" fent the el"ders of the Jews to Jefus." If Paul and Barnabas had delivered the alms to elders of the Jews, I doubt not but he would have added those words "of the Jews" here, as he does there. 2. Because it is evident that "the "disciples at Antioch determined to send re"lief to the brethren, which dwelt in Ju"deal" by which the Jewish believers, and not the Jewish nation, are undoubtedly meant. Juft as after he became an apostle of the idolatrous Gentiles, the alms, which he carried along with him, he carried from the Gentile k Luke vi. 5. 1 Acts xi. 29.

to