greatest familiarity and affection. They were his companions on all occasions; and though he knew what was in man, and needed not that any man should testify unto him, or that any circumstances should indicate their private character and disposition, he had by these means experience and opportunity of ascertaining their temper, their ability, and their fitness for the ministry. The circumstances, under which they were called, were marked with singular preparation and solemnity, becoming the consideration of the important office which he was about to confer upon them. He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God; and while his mind was impressed with this holy converse with his heavenly Father, and divested of every human consideration, he appointed them to undertake their work; and having delivered to them their commission privately in the mountain, he came down with them into the plain, and there presented his chosen ministers, where the company of his disciples and a great multitude of people were assembled. This private conference of our Saviour with his Apostles bears a strong resemblance to the manner of God's delivering the plan for the service of the tabernacle to Moses in the mount: and although it is not a necessary inference, that the Apostles received from Christ the same explicit instruction concerning the Evangelical Church and ministry as Moses received concerning the service of the tabernacle, the analogy merits consideration, and renders such a conclusion highly probable, "and ought in our judgment to more than balance against any supposed i Luke vi. 12. k Luke vi. 17. 1 Exod. xxv. 40. Heb. viii. 5. want of information on this subject in the Apostolic writings." By virtue of their first commission the twelve were to preach the Gospel; they were to visit every city, with exception only of Gentiles and Samaritans; they were to inquire in the towns for such persons as were worthy to receive them, and with them they were to remain and to confer their blessing upon their houses and families they were to make no provision of their own, but to eat freely of such things as were set before them. A curse was pronounced upon those who despised them, and a blessing upon those who received them it was foretold that they should be brought before kings and princes, a prediction, which implies the extent and duration of their commission; and they were assured, that, without premeditation, they should be spiritually instructed to defend themselves, and in time of persecution they were authorized to flee from city to city, for they were not to finish their circuit through the cities of Israel till the Son of man should comem. With reference to this continuance of their labours, their commission on a future occasion was enlarged, and it was promised to them, that in the regeneration, on the establishment of the kingdom of the Messiah, they should sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel". That this promise was of a temporal nature appears from the corresponding passage of St. Luke, who speaks distinctly of this life, and from the sense, in which the disciples themselves evidently understood it, and which inflamed the ambition of the sons of Zebedee P, to solicit the principal m Matt. x. 5-42. Mark vi. 8-12. Luke ix. 1—5. xix. 28. • Luke xviii. 29. Luke xxii. 23. n Matt. P Matt. xx. 20. Mark x. 35. seats and distinctions of the approaching kingdom; nor is this interpretation inconsistent with our Lord's subsequent recommendation of mutual subjection to his disciples, or with his forbidding them to aspire to the lordship and authority of the Gentile princes, by which he meant to prevent any contention among themselves for superiority one above another, to restrain their secular ambition, and to correct their false notions of the nature of his kingdom, and not to deprive them of that authority, which he at the time possessed over them by the appointment of the Father, which he afterwards, formally conveyed to them, the nature of which he illustrated by a reference to his own ministerial service, and by contrasting it with the luxury and magnificence of the temporal dominion of the Romans. The twelve were elevated to yet higher power, when the keys of the kingdom of heaven, which had before been committed personally to Peter, were entrusted generally to the twelve, and they were invested with the privilege of retaining and absolving sins', the peculiar prerogative of God, which he alone can communicate, and their commission was extended to the comprehension of all nations, of all the world, and of every creature, whom they were to baptize, and to convert to the faith. Finally, before his ascension, he sent them as the Father had sent him, breathing on them, and saying unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost"; a symbol, which was fulfilled, when, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit fell on them, in the form of cloven tongues as of fire, and sat upon q Matt. xvi. 19. r Matt. xviii. 18. John xx. 23. xxviii. 19. u John xx. 22, t Mark xvi. 15. Matt. each of them, and they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. In all these several gradations of election, as private friends, as public ministers, as judges having power of forgiving and retaining sins, the twelve assumed nothing to themselves; they intruded not into the sacred office without invitation; they waited till they were called; they executed the office which they received. As the Father sent the Son, so the Son sent the twelve; and as the authority of the Son was recommended, that of the twelve was confirmed by the visible descent of the Holy Spirit. "He sent out his Apostles, even as the Father sent out him; with a full commission to act in his stead, as he did in that of God. And accordingly we may observe, that as the Father gave judgment to the Son", so in effect the Son gives judgment to the Apostles ; that as the Father gave the Son power to forgive sins upon earth", so the Son gives power to the Apostles to forgive sins likewise; that as the Father gave the Son the honour to sit down with him on his throne, so the Son gave the Apostles the privilege to sit with him on thrones"; and that as the Father gave the Son to be the foundation or corner stone of the Church, so the Son gave the Apostles to be foundations upon a foundation; for so the Church is said to be built upon the foundation of the Apostles, Jesus Christ being the chief corner stonef." The call of the Seventy is reported but by one y John xx. 21. z John v. 22. Acts ii. 3, 4. xix. 28. Luke xxii. 30. Matt. xix. 28. Luke xxii. 30. b Matt. ix. 6. e Matt. xxi. 42. a Matt. c John xx. 23. f Eph. ii. 20. Evangelist, and the history of their receiving their commission, and of their manner of executing it, is briefly related in the Sacred Volume. It appears to have been made by our Lord himself, without any communication with the twelve, in consideration of the exigencies of the time, when he saw that the promise of the harvest was great, and that the labourers were few. After having stated the difficulties of the service to one who was desirous of undertaking it, and remonstrated with two others, who hesitated to accept his invitation", the Lord appointed other Seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself was about to come. Their commission and power nearly corresponded with those previously delivered to the twelve. Their labour was worthy of hire, and they were to live at the expence of those, who received them, with whom they were to remain, and on whom they were to confer their peace. They were empowered to heal the sick; and having conciliated the favour of their hearers by this mark of divine authority, they were to preach the Gospel of the kingdom. They were to shake the dust from off their feet as a testimony against those who despised them; and their authority was recommended under the solemn assurance, "He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me; and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me." In the execution of their commission the devils were obedient unto them'; and when they made their report to the Lord, he congratulated thein i Luke x. 1. * Luke x. 1, 2. h Luke ix. 57, 59, 61. |