m

to the Jewish believers, and not to fuch as were barely of the Jewish nation ; according to the agreement made between the apoftles of the Circumcifion and the two apostles of the Gentiles". And that therefore he was by no means likely to put these alms into the hands of the elders of the Jewish nation, but of the elders of the church. Now, by the elders acting here in the absence of the apoftles, as well as by their being placed next to the apoftles in the letter, it feems very plain that they held the next rank to the apoftles. But what should give them that rank, deserves well to be confidered.

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It seems to me to have been this, "That

they were fuch as had been the difciples of "our Saviour, and had accompanied with "him from the beginning, heard his doctrine, "faw his miracles, and his perfon, as well "after as before his refurrection from the “dead; and who, being of the one hundred "and twenty, at the feaft of Pentecoft, had "the Holy Ghost fell upon them, filling them "with a plentiful measure of his choicest

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gifts, without the laying on of hands;" and who, if I mistake not, are called “the аро❝ftles company "."

* See Rom. xv. 25, 26, 27. 31. 1 Cor. xvi. 1. 2 Cor. ix. 1-15.

n Gal. ii. 10.

• Acts xv. 23.

As

As these were great and high "privileges " and endowments," they could not but " give “`a a man a rank in the church." Age gives a man a rank and authority in the world; especially where it is attended with remarkable degrees of wisdom and experience. This was all the authority that the elders of the children of Ifrael can well be fuppofed to have had, which are mentioned in Exodus, when Mofes, being fent to the children of Ifrael, or to the elders of the children of Ifrael, went and gathered their elders together, or the fathers or heads of families; for fo jealous a government as that of the Egyptians, and who oppreffed the children of Ifrael fo feverely, were not like to let them have any magiftrates of their own nation. They were all under Egyptian tafk-mafters. And that these elders were not judges, or officers of the people, is plain, becaufe Mofes found no fuch officers, or judges, among them; but appointed them, on finding the trouble of judging all caufes himfelf, and on Jethro's advice, to eafe himself of all caufes in the first inftance. And this, if I mistake not, is the first time that we meet with the word "Elder" in fcripture. In analogy to these firft elders, the feventy, and the chief magiftrates

• Ver. 18.

9 Exod. ii. 11-16. Exod. xviii. 13-27. See Seid. de Syn. l. i. c. 15. p. 624. el. Lond. See Exod. xviii. 25. xxiv. i. 9. Num. xi. 25.

of

of cities are called "the Elders, the Elders of "the People, or of the City," through the Old and New Testament. They were generally men of age and experience, but always taken from those who were thought to be the most wife and prudent.

And in analogy to the first and second fort of elders among the Jews, it is highly probable, that thofe Chriftians who had been the first and oldest difciples of Christ, and had thereby had fuch advantages of being perfonally acquainted with the doctrines, miracles, and history of Chrift, fhould be stiled the Elders in the Chriftian church, and have a rank in it accordingly. We fee that being a Christian early is always reckoned an honour. St. John fays", "I write unto you, fathers, "because ye have" (this vaft advantage and peculiar privilege, to have)" known him that "was from the beginning" (an apñs); that is, Chrift, as is plain from the context and the phrase itself (rov an apps). St. Paul speaks of it as the glory of the Jewifh believers, "that they first trusted in Chrift "." And fo

See Vitring. de Synag. 1. iii. part. 1. p. 613-620. And that Elders fignified men of age and experience among the Jews, I think, will fully appear from 2 Kings xix. 2. though I do not remember that Vitringa quotes it. there it is faid, that "Hezekiah fent Eliakim—and the ❝ elders of the priests."

u

" I John ii. 13.

V

▾ Eph. i. 12.

St.

St. James fays to the twelve tribes, "That "God begat them of his own will, that they "should be a kind of first-fruits of his crea"tures w" (or new creatures). And St. John gives this high character to the heavenly affembly, which he faw in vifion, that they "were the firft-fruits unto God and to the "Lamb. St. Luke mentions one Mnafon of Cyprus, with a note of diftinction, that he was an old difciple v." And St. Paul “an v.” gives it as a mark of honour to the house of Stephanus and Epenetus, that "they were the " first-fruits of Achaia ;" and to Andronicus and Junia, his kinfmen, " that they were in "Chrift before him "." And I believe in this fense we are to understand St. Paul, when he gives thanks to God for the Theffalonians, "That God had chofen them from the beginning " (a apxs), or perhaps it should be read anαexas), that he had chofen them. to be the firft-fruits, or the beginnings of converfion in Macedonia, which always had a greater portion of the gifts of the Spirit ; for fo they were in that which was properly and antiently called Macedonia, which Philippi was not. And if Philippi be excluded, Theffalonica was then the firft-fruits of Ma

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a

cedonia. For St. Paul only paffed through Amphipolis and Apollonia to go to Theffalonica. The fenfe may be, that he thanks God that he had chofen them as the firstfruits of that part of Macedonia where Theffalonica ftood. I incline to this fenfe the rather, because it gives a particular force and beauty to St. Paul's thanksgiving for thefe Theffalonians. In any other sense there can be no reafon affigned, why he fhould thank God for choofing them from the beginning, rather than others. For in any other fenfe all other churches, as well as they, were chofen from the beginning.—And the advantage that age, either in years or christianity, gave, we may learn from St. Paul's direction to Timothy ", " Rebuke not e, "an elder (man), but intreat him as a father; " and the younger men as brethren; the elder "women as mothers, the younger as fifters, "with all purity:" And from the direction that St. Peter gives, 1 Pet. v. 5, 6. where, after he had defcribed the duty of the elders, from ver. 1 to 5, he adds, "Likewife, ye younger, fubmit yourselves unto the elder: yea, all of you be fubject one to another,

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"and be cloathed with humility: for God "refifteth the proud, and giveth grace to the "humble. Humble yourselves therefore," &c. Nothing can be plainer, than that age

d Acts xvii. I.

с

1 Tim. v. 1, 2.