With regard to the false apostles and judaising teachers who opposed St. Paul, and taught the absolute necessity of circumcision, and the observation of the Mosaical rites in order to men's being justified and saved; it cannot be proved that any of them wrought miracles in confirmation of that doctrine. The contrary seems plain from that question the apostle proposeth to the Galatians. Received ye the spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? He that ministereth the spirit to you, and worketh miracles amongst you, doth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Gal, iii. 2, 5. Would he have said this if miracles had been wrought, and the gifts of the Spirit communicated in confirmation of the doctrine he was opposing? He appeals to themselves as in a matter of fact that could not be contested, that miracles were only wrought, and the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit communicated in attestation of that true doctrine of the Gospel which he had preached, and not of that other Gospel, as he calleth it, which the false teachers would have imposed upon them. And accordingly in all the accounts that are given in the New Testament, and particularly in the writings of the apostle Paul, concerning the false teachers and seducers in the apostolical age, it is never so much as once intimated, that they exercised the extraordinary gifts and powers of the Holy Ghost, particularly that of working miracles in confirmation of their scheme of error and false doctrine. He represents them as persons of great cunning, 'who by good words. and fair speeches deceived the hearts of the simple,' Rom. xvi. 8 : as great pretenders to excellency of speech and wisdom' and making an ostentation of learning and philosophy, in opposition to whom he declareth concerning himself, that his preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power,' that is, it was accompanied with the power of the Holy Ghost, which theirs was not. 1 Cor. xi. 1, 4, 5; see also 1 Cor. iv. 19, 20. He represents his opposers as 'commending themselves,' but himself as one whom the Lord commended: that is, by his gifts and graces vouchsafed to him, and the power attending on his ministry. They gloried after the flesh,' they boasted that they were Hebrews, and called themselves apostles, &c. 2 Cor. xi. 18, 22, 23. Phil iii. 4, 5, 6, but as to himself he declares, that 'truly the signs of an apostle were wrought by him in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.' 2 Cor. xii. 12. So elsewhere he represents those false teachers as endeavouring to beguile men with enticing words, and to spoil them through philosophy and vain deceit, through the traditions of men; and making a show of wisdom, in will worship, and humility.' Col. ii. 4, 8, 18, 23. And in his epistles to Timothy and Titus, where he particularly describes them, they are represented as giving heed to Jewish fables, and given to vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely so called.' But there is not one word in all that he saith concerning them of their working miracles, or abusing the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost to confirm their false doctrines. The same observation may be made on the account the apostle Peter gives of the false

teachers mentioned in his second epistle, whom he represents as 'through covetousness with feigned words, making merchandise of men, and speaking great swelling words of vanity; and alluring men through the lusts of the flesh, and through much wantonness, and by promising them liberty.' And Jude gives pretty much the same description of them: and among other characters represents them assensual, having not the Spirit,' ver. 19, i. e. they were destitute of the Spirit of God both in his graces and in his extraordinary gifts. This author therefore has no reason for asserting with so much confidence as he does, that the false prophets and teachers had the extraordinary gifts and powers of the Holy Ghost in the apostolic age as well as the true,' pref. p. 9. which he there lays down as a principle capable of being maintained against all opposers.

I think the observations that have been made, destroy the force of all that he advances to show that no argument can be brought to establish the truth and divine authority of the Gospel revelation from the extraordinary gifts and miraculous powers of the Holy Ghost in the apostolic age. Those gifts and powers were evidently supernatural, above all the art or power of any man, or of all the men upon earth, and showed a very extraordinary interposition. And as it was only in the name of a crucified and risen Jesus, and upon their professing their faith in him, and becoming his disciples, that any received those gifts and powers, so the imparting those gifts of the Holy Ghost as thus circumstanced, was an illustrious confirmation of the Christian faith and doctrine published to the world by the apostles of our Lord. For it must be considered that it was by the laying on of the hands' of the apostles, that the Holy Ghost was ordinarily communicated. See Acts viii. 14-18. xix. 6. Rom. i. 11. And where it was given immediately from heaven without the laying on of the apostles's hands, as in the case of Cornelius, and those that were with him: Acts x. 44; yet still it was in confirmation of the doctrine taught by the apostles. As they were properly speaking immediately commissioned by Christ himself to be the authorized publishers of his doctrines and laws to the world, so they were eminently distinguished above all other teachers in that age, and had an authority which no other teachers had; and that not only because they had those extraordinary gifts of the Spirit of which others also were made partakers, in a far greater abundance, and in a more excellent measure and degree. see 1 Cor. xiv. 18. 2 Cor. xii. 12. But they were invested with some extraordinary powers of a peculiar kind which no other persons had, and which were especially designed to confirm their divine mission and authority, and to engage men to pay an entire submission and regard to what they delivered in the name of Christ. Such was the power already mentioned of communicating the Holy Ghost in his extraordinary gifts by the laying on of their hands. What could have a greater tendency to convince the world that God had sent them, and that the doctrine which they published in the name of Christ was true and of divine original, than this, that

after having instructed persons in the Christian faith, they could by laying on of their hands upon them in his name, communicate some or other of those extraordinary gifts and powers in such measures and degrees as seemed fit to the Holy Ghost, who distributed them according to his will, in testimony of the truth and divinity of the doctrine they had taught them. And a most illustrious testimony it was, and which none of the false apostles or teachers of that age ever did or ever could give in confirmation of their doctrines. We may also reckon among the extraordinary powers peculiar to the apostles, and which gave them a great superiority above false teachers, the power of inflicting bodily punishments in some extraordinary cases, such was the striking Elymas the sorcerer with blindness, Acts xiii. 8-12. And some such thing is probably intended by that 'delivering unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus,' which the apostle speaks of as a power committed unto him by the Lord Jesus, 1 Cor. v. 4, 5. see also 1 Tim. i. 19, 20. which seems to relate, as the ancients explain it, to some pain, or disease, or grievous correction inflicted on the flesh or body, by the sharpness of which the guilty person might be awakened to a sense of his sin, and brought to a true repentance for it. And perhaps something of this kind is what the apostle means, when he threatens those amongst the Corinthians that had not repented of the great sins they had committed, but still persisted in them, and in an opposition to his authority, that if he came again he would not spare;' and speaks of his using sharpness according to the power which the Lord had given him for edification and not for destruction,' and of his 'having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience,' see 2 Cor. x. 6. xii. 20, 21. xiii. 2, 3, 10. Though he there intimates that he was loth to use this power without necessity, and that he could not do any thing,' he could not use this power he spoke of against the truth, but for the truth,' vers. 7, 8. This power, like that of miracles, was not to be exercised by the apostles whenever they themselves pleased, and merely to gratify their own private passions, but was exercised by the extraordinary impulse and direction of the Holy Ghost, whenever it seemed fit to God that it should be exercised to his glory, and for promoting the interests of important truth and real religion and godliness.

6

This also seems to have been the proper design of that remarkable judgment that was inflicted upon Ananias and Sapphira, who both fell down dead by an immediate stroke from heaven at the rebuke of the apostle Peter for lying to the Holy Ghost.' This was wisely ordered in the beginning of the Gospel dispensation, to procure a greater regard to the apostles who were mean in their outward appearance. Their being thus enabled to know the secrets of the heart, and the signal punishment that was inflicted on those that had formed a design to impose upon them, was a remarkable proof that they were indeed guided by 'the Spirit that searcheth all things,' and tended to give a greater weight to the testimony they gave, and the doctrine they taught in the name of Christ. Thus it

appears that as it was of great importance to establish the credit and authority of the apostles, who were the principal appointed witnesses of Christ, and the authorised publishers of his doctrine to the world, so it pleased God in his great wisdom and goodness to take care of this many ways. And to suppose that he would do all this, and interpose in so extraordinary a manner, and by such wonderful gifts and powers to confirm their authority, and to bear witness to the doctrine and religion they taught, and yet not guide and assist them in delivering that doctrine and religion, so as to preserve them from error in teaching and publishing it to the world, is absurd, and too inconsistent a conduct to be attributed to the wise and good God. Accordingly the Christians in general paid a peculiar regard both in that first age, and ever since, to the apostles of our Lord; their continuing in the Christian faith is expressed by their continuing in the apostles' doctrine,' Acts ii. 42: and believers are represented as 'built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,' Eph. ii. 20. And God hath so ordered it, that the laws and doctrines they delivered and published in the name of Christ, and which were confirmed by such glorious attestations were committed by themselves to writing for the lasting use and instruction of the church in succeeding generations, under the guidance and inspiration of the same divine Spirit of truth, that assisted them in publishing the gospel, and enabled them to work such illustrious miracles in confirmation of it.

CHAPTER XIV.

The gospel taught by the apostles was the same. The author's account of the Jewish gospel, preached by them, false and groundless. The pretended difference between St. Paul and the other apostles, concerning the obligation of the Law of Moses on the Jewish converts, examined. None of the apostles urged the observation of that law, as necessary to justification and acceptance with God, under the gospel; though they all judged it lawful to observe the Mosaic rites for a season. The wisdom and consistency of this their conduct, and the entire harmony between St. Paul and the other apostles in this matter, shown. The pretended difference between them relating to the law of Proselytism to be urged on the Gentile converts. The decree of the apostolical council at Jerusalem, considered; and the reasons and grounds of that decree inquired into. No proof that the apostle Paul disapproved or counter-acted that decree. The conduct of that apostle at his trial, justified.

ANY one that impartially considers the New Testament will find one and the same uniform scheme of religion going through the whole. It appears from the writings of the apostles, and the ac

count that is given us of their preaching, that they all published the same doctrines concerning the attributes, perfections, and providence of God, and the pure and spiritual worship that is to be rendered to him, concerning the methods of our redemption and reconciliation by Jesus Christ, concerning the design and end of his coming into the world, and of his grievous sufferings and death, which they all represent as a propitiation for our sins, concerning his resurrection from the dead, his ascension and exaltation at the right hand of God, his perpetual mediation and intercession, and his second coming to raise the dead, and to judge the world, and concerning the eternal retributions that shall then be dispensed unto all men according to their behaviour in the body. They all published the same pure and excellent laws and precepts, the same refined morals, far exceeding, by the author's own confession, what any others have advanced, and the same noble and powerful motives for engaging men to the observation of these precepts. They all taught the same gracious terms of acceptance, and made the same merciful offers in the name of God, of pardon, and grace, and eternal life upon condition of faith and repentance, and new obedience; and denounced the same awful threatenings of eternal misery and ruin against those that should persist in obstinate impenitency and disobedience. These things they all agreed in, the apostle Peter as well as the apostle Paul; the gospel they all preached which they professed to have received from the Lord Jesus,' and by the inspiration of his Spirit, and which they confirmed with signs following,' was entirely the same, and perfectly harmonious and consistent in all its parts. But this our moral philosopher will not allow. He endeavours to show that they differed among themselves about the most concerning points of revelation.' And he thinks this is an evident demonstration that they were not infallible, insomuch that had they pretended to any such thing, they must openly, and in the face of the whole world, have contradicted themselves in fact. pp. 80, 81. And indeed in one point there would be a very great and essential difference between them if he could prove it, viz. that whereas the apostle Paul preached Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world, both Jews and Gentiles; the other apostles believed in him, and preached him only as a temporal Messiah' and the Saviour of the Jews only.

After having observed, that the Jewish populace or mobility had generally a notion of Jesus Christ as their Messiah, national deliverer, or restorer of the kingdom,' he expressly asserts, 'that his own disciples had all along adhered to him upon this vain hope, and even after his resurrection, they never preached Jesus as the Messiah or Christ in any other sense,' that is, in any other sense than that of the Jewish populace, as one that was to erect a temporal kingdom, and was to be the national deliverer of the Jews. He adds, that no christian Jew ever believed in Jesus as the common Saviour of the world without distinction between Jew and Gentile. This is St. Paul's gospel which he had received, as he declared, by immediate revelation from Christ himself; and had