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in years, or christianity, or both, made the elder here, fince the younger are only called upon to fubmit to them, and fince the reafon for their fubmiffion is couched in the relation that the younger bear to the elder. And to fhew the vaft advantage that an elder had, in the view it ftands in here (that is, one who from his early discipleship was well acquainted with the doctrines, miracles, and hiftory of Chrift), when they were going to fill up the room of Judas, Peter fays', "Wherefore of thefe "men which have accompanied with us all "the time that the Lord Jefus went in and "out among us, beginning from the baptifm "of John, unto the fame day that he was "taken up from us, must one be ordained to "be a witnefs with us of his refurrection." Our Saviour tells his apostles, "And ye alfo "fhall bear witnefs of me, because ye have "been with me from the beginning" & (27 dexs). St. John, knowing how much ftrefs was laid on this reason for their being appointed witneffes, fays, in his Epiftleh, "That "which was from the beginning (aπ' de̟xs), "which we have heard, which we have feen "with our eyes, which we have looked upon, "and our hands have handled of the word of "life-that-declare we unto you." And fo likewife St. Luke fays, "Forafmuch as "many have taken in hand to fet forth in & John xv. 27.

f Acts i. 21.
h1 John i. 1. 3.

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"order a declaration of those things which "are most surely believed among us, even as they delivered them unto us, who from the

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beginning were eye-witneffes and ministers "of the word " (άπ aρxñs avтónu). And St. Peter feems to give it as a defcription of what he meant by calling himfelf" an elder," when he adds, " and a witnefs of the fufferings "of Chrift." In analogy to the advantage that an elder had in this view, in the times of the apoftles, the aurónu (those who had seen Chrift) were in high efteem in the fecond century; for this reafon, as alfo for others which I fhall mention foon', and the dragxal or firft chriftian converts. After them the πρώτη wpain diadoxy (the firft fucceffion, or those who had feen them that were contemporaries with the apostles) were afterwards had in great veneration. Such were Irenæus and his contemporaries, as mentioned by Eufebius. And the esteem paid to the auróla and the πρώτη διαδοχὴ had not only that foundation in things on which I have just now hinted, but was derived from this first notion of elders, in the view that is now under confideration. And on this account it is, that feniores and prefbyteri fometimes fignify men of age, and not of office, even fo low down as Irenæus and Tertullian, who ftile fome fo, whom

i Luke i. 12.

1 P. 152.

k

Pet. v. I.

they

they themselves had feen, who had heard and feen the apoftles ". The auróla aniwer to the original elders, or to thofe of the one hundred and twenty, who are called “the "apoftles company." The απαρχαὶ are the fecondary elders, or the firft converts of particular countries and churches; who, having the choiceft gifts imparted to them, are made or pointed out by the Holy Ghoft to be overfeers. The purn diadoxn anfwer to the third or lowest fort of elders, or the moft knowing and gravest men, who are fittest to be made overfeers and deacons, when ordo could no longer be confidered, but the mere merit and ordinary qualifications.

But if to this advantage, which the state of things gave them above other chriftians, we add the "distinction that the Holy Ghost "put upon them, by falling on them," without the intervention of others, and " filling "them" with an uncommon measure of the choicer gifts, there is little room left to doubt, whether these two together, giving them fo great an advantage, did not, in confequence, give them an high rank and esteem above others. I do not find that the Holy Ghost himself fell or was poured out on any but on the one hundred and twenty (that is, the elders), on Saul, on Cornelius and his family,

m Iren. adv. Hær. i. c. 2, 3. Tertull. Præfcript. 1. ii. c. 39. 1. v. c. 33. 1. iv. c. 45.

L 2

and

and on the first great harvest of heathen converts at Antioch in Pifidia". And in the cafe of Cornelius, it is remarked by St. Luke, as a thing of great importance, and that highly deferved their obfervation, that "the Holy "Ghoft fell, or was poured out, upon them

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phraseology, that, as I obferved in the First Effay, denotes the immediate descent of the Holy Ghost). And Peter takes notice of it, as that which was the great juftification of his baptizing these first-fruits of the Gentiles, That" when he began to fpeak, the Holy "Ghost fell on them, as it did on us (that is, "the one hundred and twenty) at the beginning "." And in his fpeech to the apostles, elders, and brethren, he takes notice of this circumftance again, "that God gave them (that is, Cornelius and his family) the Holy "Ghoft, as he did unto us, and put no dif"ference between us and them 9."

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Befides, where the apoftles conferred the gifts of the Holy Ghost on Christians, they "feem to have done it in a leffer degree and proportion:" to one believer one gift, to another, another. But the one hundred and twenty, on whom the Holy Ghoft fell, "were "filled with it," as they were faid to be when he fell on them the fecond times. Nor

See the First Effay.
Ibid. xi. 15.
Ibid. ii. 3.

• Acts x. 44, 45•
• Ibid. xv.

8,9.

. Ibid. iv. 31.

is this expreffion ufed of any afterwards, but fuch as we have reason to think were of thefe one hundred and twenty (befides Saul, Cornelius and his family, and the Gentiles at Antioch in Pifidia), on whom the Holy Ghost also fell, without the laying on of hands, and filled them with a more plentiful measure of his gifts.

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From hence we may fee how the "eleven apostles, and Matthias, were elders,” though elders were not apoftles. St. Peter calls himself "an elder,” faying to thofe to whom he wrote ", “The elders which are among you "I exhort, who alfo am an elder." So does John. And I am the more confirmed in this notion of an elder, becaufe, whilft Peter and John style themselves elders, Paul never styles himself fo; but, as in contradiftinction to the rest of the apostles, fpeaks of himself" as of "one born out of due time w;" having never feen our Lord till after his afcenfion. Nay, he is fo far from taking the style of an elder, that he seems carefully to avoid it, and only calls himself" the aged," where he was giving himself the greatest weight and credit. I think " Paul the aged," percúτns, the true reading and rendering, and not peσCEUTns, the ambaffador; a reading, which is not only

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1 Pet. v. I.
I Cor. xv. 8.

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