commandments St. Paul particularly gave by the Lord Jefus &. And St. Peter fays", "I "write unto you, that ye may be mindful of "the-commandments of us the apostles of "our Lord and Saviour." Thefe commandments the believers were to obey, not only when the apoftles were prefent, but absent1. And if any one obeyed not the word or commandment of their epiftle, they were to be noted, avoided, and admonished. I remember no place where any minifter of the church is faid to have had a commandment of the Lord, but the apoftles; or where obedience is required to any commandments, but what came from the apostles. They, indeed, had the power of binding and loofing: and Christ faid, "He that heareth you, heareth "me." It was through their word that all were to believe. And it was by them that the word of the gospel went forth, and that form of doctrine which all men were to obey. And perhaps the reason why St. Paul directs the Hebrews, in the clofe of this epiftle, to remember the dead, or abfent apoftles, who had been their guides, ver. 17. and to obey the living ones now refiding at Jerufalem, and watching over their fouls, ver. 7. might be, to free himfelf from any imputation of going too far out of his province, who was * 1 Theff. iv. 2. 2 Theff. iii. 6, 10. 2~Pet. iii. 2. * 2 'hef. iii. 14, 15. the apostle of the Gentiles only. And as he had not only written to the Hebrews, but written very freely, of the infufficiency and meannefs of the Jewish law (though not in the character of an apoftle, as I fhall obferve more fully in the third Effay); that he might not seem to invade the province of the apostles of the circumcifion, much less oppose them (who had only received the right-hand of fellowship, as an apoftle of the heathen "); he here bids the Hebrews remember their apoftles, who were dead or abfent, and who had spoken the word of the Lord; and obey those that were prefent, and watched for their fouls and immediately adds, ver. 18, 19. "Pray for us, for we truft we have a good "confcience." As if he had faid, "Obey the 66 apoftles of the circumcifion, and pray for "me the apoftle of the Gentiles; and the ra"ther, that I may be reftored to you the "fooner, and bring the alms of the Gentile"chriftians to you; "which he had brought from Afia, Macedonia, and Greece, before; and probably now defigned to bring from Italy and Spain; according to the agreement between him and Barnabas, and the three great apoftles of the circumcifion ". I wish I have not tired my reader on this fubject. But as it is of fome importance, and is wrapped up in a great deal of obfcurity, I thought it proper to treat it in this manner. Ga!. ii. a Ibid. ver. 10. The The reader will now better judge, in which of these fenses he is to understand helps, or helpers, and xubepvσes, which we tranflate governments; as well as the other words in the New Teftament brought to fupport that rendering of the word ubegroes. If he underftands all these words in the first fenfe I have given them, I believe it is in a fenfe agreeable to, other places of fcripture; if he understands them in the last, I apprehend he will be much more like to understand them in the precife fense which they have in each of thofe places where they ftand. If the connection was clear and full, there is not the leaft doubt, but we ought to understand them in this laft fenfe only: but as the connection is fomewhat doubtful, and cannot be proved, but from many confiderations laid together, I think it becomes me to exprefs the uncertainty I do about them,, till I receive more light than I have been able to get at prefent. All that I have further to add about them is, that if the reader concurs with me in the last sense of helps and ubegroes, I must then defire him to confider what I have faid about helps and Cepois (as ftanding, as it does in our verfion, for governments) in the first place, from page 159–161. only as an occafion taken by me to explain thofe gifts of the Spirit, which fitted men to be deacons, meffengers, evangelifts, and advifers; and not to confider them as the proper meaning of άντιλήψεις and κυβερνήσεις. N 4 Ubers. And that he will forgive me, if fome degree of uncertainty, and a greater degree of modefty, in a cafe where it may become me to yield as far to it as I would in any of the like nature, has made me run into a method that may at first seem somewhat perplexed and embarrassed. Thus I have explained the gift of wisdom, knowledge, prophecy, teaching, helps, and governments, in the feveral fenfes and acceptations in which I have confidered them. And to thefe inftances may the teaching of the Spirit be reduced. I fhall now confider fome things that relate in general to them all. In the first place, I apprehend this teaching confifted in a fudden illumination of the mind, by which it was furnished in an instant with fome or all of thofe kinds of knowledge; which perhaps a man of the best parts could not have acquired by the hardest study in the courfe of a long life. And fome of them fuch as could not be acquired by any art or study whatsoever (as the word of knowledge, and feveral of the gifts of lower prophecy), which continued with thofe to whom they were imparted, as a fund of that learning and knowledge communicated to them; and which confequently they could ufe as there was occafion. Upon which account I fuppofe it was, that the cloven tongues fat, or refted, or con tinued for fome time upon them; namely, to fhew the permanency of the gift, and that it should be ready for their ufe on all proper occafions: as" the Spirit abode upon our "Saviour at his baptifm," to denote the fame thing. A like expreffion is used of the feventy, at their first appointment for judgement and government; for it is faid, "That "when the Spirit refted upon them, they "prophecied, and did not ceafe " Upon this account too the receiving these gifts is called, the being enlightened and illuminated, as well as being made partakers of the Holy Ghost. St. Paul fays, that "God, who commanded "the light to fhine out of darkness, hath "fhined in our hearts, to give the light of "the knowledge of the glory of God in the "law of Jefus Christ $." And he prays for the Ephefians, that the "God and Father "of our Lord Jefus Chrift, might give them "the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the "knowledge of him; the eyes of their un"derstanding being enlightened, &c." And that the enlightening he prays for is the gift of the Holy Ghoft, does not only appear from the words, but from what immediately precedes"; that "; that "after they had believed, they • Acts ii. 2. "Ibid, ver. 14. P John i. 32. Heb. vi. 4. x. 26, 32. Eph. i. 17, 18. ❝ were |