on the multitude of Jerusalem sinners, couverted on the spot, by his Almighty power. The apostle, having this in remembrance, hastened, if it were possible, for him to be there on that day. He had it in contemplation, do doubt, and looked forward to the full expectation of it, what he afterwards wrote to his beloved Titus, "for the renewing of the Holy Ghost, to be shed abundantly on the church, through Jesus Christ our Saviour." (Titus iii. 5, 6.) But while these glorious objects were in the apostle's view; and he anticipated, already, a renewed Pentecost, in the memorial of it, to himself, and the people; his love would not let him depart from the church, with whom he then was, before that he had first taken a farewell; and as the apostle knew that it would be a long, and last farewell, of the saints at Ephesus. And as he. could not, with safety to his person, nor within the limits of time allowed him, take a journey to them; he sent to call them to him; filling up no doubt the interval of their journey, in the use of ordinances, and the means of grace, with the church at Miletus.

There is somewhat very affecting, in the account of the parting of a faithful pastor with the Lord's faithful people. And the several records of the kind, which the Holy Ghost hath been pleased to make of such scenes, in various parts of his sacred word, serve to shew, in what esteem it is held by the Lord himself. When Moses, the man of God, was about to die, we have related to us the blessing wherewith he blessed Israel, before his death. (Deut. xxxiii. 1, &c.) And when the time of Joshua's departure was near, he also took occasion to remind Israel of the faithfulness of God. (Joshua xxiii.) Nay, to lose sight of the Lord's servants-what a very large and very blessed representation, hath God the Holy Ghost recorded, for the church's continual meditation of the Lord Jesus, himself, thus address

ing his disciples, before his departure. That sweet, and costly supper; and that lovely, and all-loving discourse, with which the Lord closed in his divine ministry, are standing memorials of the kind. So that backed with such authority and example, they shew the loveliness of the thing itself, as well as the divine pleasure, in the sympathy of souls, when faithful pastors and faithful followers of the Lord, are separated from each other. (See Luke xxii. throughout. John xiv. xv, xvi. xvii.)

In relation to the interesting record before us, of Paul's taking leave of the church of Ephesus; let the reader figure to himself, the faithful apostle encircled by the elders of the church, arrived from that city; and no doubt, the whole of the brethren of Miletus also in the throng. Let him behold the apostle, standing up in the midst before them, breathing out his very soul in the warmness of affection; while, for the last time, holding forth to them the word of life; let him thus figure to his imagination, the solemn circle; and, if the Lord gives, both to the writer and reader, a spiritual and scriptural apprehension of the great truths contained in the apostle's discourse, we shall derive both pleasure and profit from the divine record; and find cause to bless the Holy Ghost, for causing the history to have been preserved to the church, and handed down to us, in the present hour.

HOLY SCRIPTURE.

"And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons.

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Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befel me by the lying in wait of the Jews:

"And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house.

"Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." (Acts xx. 18-21.)

NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS.

THE first part in this animated address of Paul is his appeal to the whole church of God, concerning himself, and the character which he had sustained among the people. "Ye know (said he) from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons." And this exordium of his discourse became the more necessary; that in both his conduct and doctrine their own consciences might bear witness to the integrity and faithfulness of his character. He had called himself an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God. It behoved him, therefore, to prove that he was so legally constituted; and that he had not assumed to himself, that high and sacred office, uncalled, unauthorized, unsent.

Let us examine, and on Scriptural testimony, what Paul asserted. The right apprehension of the apostle's character, in the church of God, even in the present hour, is of the utmost magnitude. For it is to be feared, by what is going on in life, that the ordination of God, in this momentous concern, is not regarded, even by professors of the gospel, in the sacred light it ought. For, if the whole of the apostle's ministry, both in preaching and in writing, be not received, as the effect of inspiration, in which there could be no possibility of any mixture of error; their inspired authority, being in a single instance questioned, the doctrines delivered by them will be questioned also; and the private opinion of men, as

their several fancies may vary, will, more or less, prompt them to slight or regard, the authority of God.

Such indeed, is the high dignity and character, both of the prophets of the Old Testament, and the apostles of the New; that the church of Christ is said to be built upon this foundation; "Jesus Christ, himself, being the chief corner-stone." (Eph. ii. 20.) That is, Christ, and only Christ, himself, the foundation which God hath laid in Zion: the whole sum and substance of the holy Scriptures, delivered by those men, being under the entire inspiration of the Holy Ghost; the foundation of the church upon Christ, is according to those Scriptures. Hence, therefore, the most cordial belief in their authority, as apostles; the most perfect conviction, that all they wrote or preached, concerning the truths of God, is wholly unmixed with error; that however, as men of like passions with ourselves, they lived and died, in the knowledge of the plague of their own heart; and needed in themselves, as much as the humblest and weakest of the Lord's family, salvation, complete and finished, in the Lord Jesus Christ; yea, and confessed and owned, and rejoiced in it, too; yet, their whole preaching and writing, had, and hath, infallible marks of divine inspiration; and as is said, under that authority, concerning the Old Testament dispensations, so the same holds good under the New: "No prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." (2 Pet. i. 20, 21.)

In relation to the claim of Paul to the office of an apostle, we are furnished in the Scriptures of truth with very ample testimony. He was called to from heaven, and ordained to be an apostle, by Christ himself. (See Acts ix. 1—16.) Indeed, but for this mani

festation of the Lord Jesus, to him thus personally, (I speak with reverence) he could not have been an apostle. For when Peter, under the authority of the Holy Ghost, proceeded with the rest of the apostles to chose an apostle, in the place of the traitor Judas, and addressed the college of apostles on this subject; this was made the qualification; "One (said Peter) must be ordained to be a witness, with us, of his (Christ's) resurrection." See the whole sermon,

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Acts i. 15. to the end. Hence we find Paul modestly appealing for the testimony of his apostleship both from this sight of Christ, after our Lord's resurrection; and from the unction of the Holy Ghost, accompanying his ministry in his word. (See 1 Cor. ix. 1, 2.) The proof therefore, of Paul's claim to the apostleship, is most amply proved. But reader! what shall be said of such as impose upon the credulity of mankind, in assuming the name of apostle, in direct defiance of this qualification, marked by the Holy Ghost; and without any authority from God? What a trembling Scripture is that, from the Lord Jesus Christ himself, in his message to the church at Ephesus: "These things, saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. I know thy works and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil; and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars." (Rev. ii. 1, 2.)

I pause for one moment, just to ask the reader, what his own personal views are of this statement, concernthe true apostles of Christ? It is a momentous question. And the decision of it, when formed under divine teaching, must lead to the most important consequences. If you really believe that these holy men of old both spake and wrote, as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, it will undeniably follow, that in