xxiii.

will add another confideration here, which, I think, will remove any doubt that can remain with the candid; which is this, that the apostles are called " wife men;" as will appear by comparing Luke xi. 49. with Matt. For those that are called apostles 34. in the first place, are called "wife men" in the fecond: and, no doubt, on account of this word of wisdom that was to be committed to them. And, therefore, when Peter fpeaks of the epiftles which Paul had written, he fays," according to the wisdom given unto "him". him "." This is perhaps what Polycarp alludes to in his epiftle, when he fays" that "none could attain unto the wifdom of St.

46

Paul, who had written epiftles to them." I think this word of wisdom is what he (Paul) calls revelation, as it relates to himself; because it was all communicated to him by "the revelation of Jefus Chrifty." For, fays he, "I neither received it of man, nor was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus "Chrift." And he speaks in the fame strain to the Ephefians 2, where, fpeaking of the Gospel which he preached to the Gentiles, he fays, how that by "revelation it was made "known unto me." And fo likewife to the Romans". "To him that has power to ef

"tablish you according to the gospel, ac"cording to the revelation of the mystery,

which was kept fecret from ages, but now "is made manifeft, &c." For this reafon it is that he places revelation in the first place, and immediately preceding knowledge 1.

To the apostles likewife was committed "the word of knowledge;" by which I understand not barely the discovery or revelation of things concealed before fuch discovery or revelation; but a discovery, or revelation of some future event that was very great and important, and that related to the ftate of the whole church; and is from thence called a mystery: a name ufually, if not always, given to the revelation of a thing future, that is of the greatest moment to the church. And fo the word of knowledge, or the higher gift of prophecy, is to be diftinguished from that branch of lower prophecy, which is generally denoted by prophecy in the New Teftament; and which fignifies the foretelling of fome leffer future event, discerning of fpirits, and the performing fome public acts of worship, by the gifts of the fpirit. I have given my reafon for understanding the word of knowledge thus in the First Essay. All that I have here to do is, to fhew, that this word of knowledge, thus understood, was committed to the apoftles. Now thus we • See p. 54.

b1 Cor. xiv. 6.

I

fee

fee in fact it was. Our Saviour had foretold them several great events relating to the kingdom of God before his death; these were fome of those things which the Spirit " was to bring “to their remembrance,” and which he who was to lead into all truth, and to teach them all things, was to instruct them in more fully. But his farther office alfo was "to fhew them 66 things to come." And thus after Chrift's ascension we accordingly see that apostles and prophets are mentioned as the fame men; and to them as prophets are these mysteries in fact revealed. The mystery of calling the devout Gentiles was committed to Peter; and the mystery of calling the idolatrous Gentiles to the full communion of the christian church, to Pauls. The calling of the idolatrous Gentiles in the manner he called them, without fubjecting them to any of the laws of Mofes, was the peculiarity of his gofpel. And this having been a mystery, till it was revealed to him, is the reason why St. Paul fo often calls his gofpel a mystery h: whilft the word of wifdom which was committed to him was the fame that was committed to the rest of the apostles; being the gofpel, which they as well as he preached in common to "Jews

"and Gentiles, Barbarian, Scythian, bond "and free." I have had occasion to speak a little more fully of the diftinction between the gofpel of St. Paul and the other apostles, in the Preface; to which I beg leave to refer my reader, as alfo to what I fhall have occafion to add farther, before I conclude this head. Befides this mystery, there was also revealed to Paul, the "myftery of casting off "and of recalling the Jews ;" and "the myftery of iniquity k" and to St. John,

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the mystery of the beaft '," as well as divers othermyfteries contained in the book of the Revelations. Thus, while fome leffer future events were revealed to prophets of a lower order, as'a dearth" and "the binding of St. Paul at Jeru"falem" to Agabus"; and the " foretelling "who should be proper persons to be employ❝ed in the fervice of the church," to others °; which branch of lower prophecy I have confidered more fully in the First Essay; the revelation of thefe greater events, relating to the fpreading, corrupting, or reftoring the christian religion, was given to the apoftles. For as we fee they had this fort of revelation, in divers inftances; fo we do not find any inftance of it was ever made to any of the other prophets, or minifters of the church.

i Rom. xi. 12.

1 Rev. x. 7.

a Acts xxi. II.

The word of wisdom and the word of knowledge feem to have been that high illumina- 7 tion which was peculiar to an apoftle; how far this excelled the revelation to all other prophets, even to Mofes himself, may be feen in the First Essay, where I had an eye chiefly to the illumination of apostles.

If it be objected, that fuch difcoveries and revelations as thefe are of the prophetic, and not of the apoftolic kind; of how high a prophetic kind foever they may be: I agree that it is fo. But as thefe were revelations, that we do not find were ever made to any of the New Testament prophets, that were not at the fame time apoftles, it comes to the fame thing. So that the word of knowledge may be as truely faid to have been only committed to the apostles, as the word of wisdom.1

Under this word of knowledge I likewife think the "understanding the full scope and "intent of the law, the prophets, the types "and allegories," is comprehended, of which Peter's difcourfes are full (particularly that which immediately followed the firft defcent of the Holy Ghoft); and Paul's also to the Jews; of which he has given us a ftrong inftance, in his epiftle to the Hebrews. Nor do we find any inftance of this fort of

See the First Essay. VOL. II.

E

• Acts xi. 29-37.

knowledge