preference; and every trace of popular election and of ministerial ordination is excluded.

Among other objections of the adversaries of St. Paul, it was maintained, that his commission was of inferior authority to that of the other Apostles, as he was called subsequently to the decease of the Lord, and had therefore no opportunity of personal communication with him. Such insinuations he repelled with the strongest indignation, and was jealous of the authenticity of his doctrine, which he received by immediate revelation, and of the validity of his commission, for he was an Apostle of Jesus Christ, not of men, neither by men, but by the will or by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ our hope; and he was made a minister of the Gospel, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto him. Strenuously maintaining the honour of his divine Apostleship, he introduces himself under the authority of it in most of his Epistles', and is ready on all occasions to compare himself with the other Apostles', even with those, who were most highly distinguished by the favour of the Lord. There is no man so unacquainted with sacred history, as to be ignorant of the circumstances of his conversion, which was simultaneous with his divine appointment, when in the midst of a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun, and with an audible voice from heaven, Jesus, whom he was persecuting, manifested

o Gal. i. 1. P 1 and 2 Cor. i. 1. Ephes. i. 1. Col. i. 1. 1 and 2 Tim. i. 1. 9 Eph. iii. 7. Rom.i. 1. 1 and 2 Cor. i. 1. Gal. i. 1. Eph. i. 1. Col. i. 1. 1 and 2 Tim. i. 1. Titus i. 1. ' 1 Cor. ix. 1. xv. 10. 2 Cor. xi. 5, 23. xii. 11. t Acts ix. 3. xxii. 6. xxvi. 13.

D

himself to him, saying unto him, I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of those things which thou hast seen, and of those in which I will appear unto thee; delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom I now send thee; to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God; that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them that are sanctified, by faith that is in me ". Convinced and converted by the evidence of this miraculous vision, which was followed by a loss of sight for three days, he was led to Damascus, where a man of the name of Ananias was prepared by revelation to receive him, and was directed to lay his hands upon him, that he inight recover his sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost*. And immediately on the recovery of his sight he was baptized'; after the example of his divine Master, not venturing into the sacred office, without fulfilling all righteousness, and partaking of that baptismal regeneration, which the Lord had appointed for the admission of disciples into his Church. It is not asserted, but it is highly probable, from the circumstance of his being appointed to receive and acknowledge the chosen Apostle, and to instruct him concerning his conduct, and the nature and end of his conversion, that Ananias was invested with minis terial power, and that he was the person by whom St. Paul was baptized: it is also probable, that some settled minister resided at Damascus, and presided

"Acts xxvi. 16, 17, 18. *Acts ix. 17. xxii, 10. ix. 18. xxii. 16. z Matt. iii. 15. * John iii. 5.

y Acts

over a numerous congregation, as the commission which Saul received from the chief priests", to bind ALL that called upon the Lord, would hardly have been directed against an inconsiderable or disorderly association. St. Paul certainly remained some days. with the disciples, and preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God, and confounded the Jews that dwelt at Damascus, proving that he was very Christ. In this whole transaction, there is no trace of any human election or ordination of St. Paul; he was not chosen by the people of Damascus, who were amazed at his conversion, and in doubt of its sincerity; he was not ordained by the ministers of Damascus, of whom no mention is made; nor by Ananias, to whom he was commended as a messenger to the Gentiles, and who acknowledged his commission from God, before he recommended him to be baptized; he was not ordained by the Apostles at Jerusalem, who hesitated to acknowledge him, and avoided his society, till Barnabas introduced him, declaring the circumstances of his conversion, and the zeal and efficacy of his ministry. He derived his doctrine and his authority immediately from God; and in vindication of his Apostleship, he addresses his Galatian adversaries; When it pleased God to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood, neither went I up to Jerusalem to them that were Apostles before me, but I went into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. Then after three years

Acts ix. 2, 14. xxii. 5. xxvi. 12. Acts ix. 21.

• Acts ix 26, 27.

e Acts ix. 15.

Acts ix. 20, 22. xxvi. 20.

f Acts xxii. 14, 15, 16.

I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days; but other of the Apostles saw I none, save James the brother of the Lord ".

These then were the fathers, chosen by God, from whom the whole ministerial family derives a traditional and hereditary authority; the Son of God, eternally designated and visibly approved and recommended; the twelve apostles, tried, ordained, and gradually exalted; the seventy disciples, sent by Jesus to the places which he was about to visit; Matthias numbered with the eleven apostles, by virtue of the divine preference; and Paul, exalted to be an Apostle, by an audible voice from heaven, and by a visible exhibition of the divine Majesty. The immediate descendants of these fathers of the ministerial family, whose right of succession is registered in the Scriptures, are the seven Deacons; Timothy and Titus the elders whom they were commissioned to ordain i and other persons, whose office and title are mentioned with less explicitness and precision.

The office of the seven Deacons was instituted by the Apostles, when their number was completed by the accession of Matthias, and when they had received power to administer the affairs of the Church, by the visible descent of the Holy Spirit. The occasion of their appointment was the complaint of the Grecians, or Gentile converts, that their widows were neglected in the daily ministration of the bounty of the Church; and the design of it was, that they might superintend the distribution of alms, and relieve the i Acts i. 26. ii. 4.

h Galat. i. 15-19.

Apostles from an office, of which the irksomeness increased with the daily increase of the Church, and that the Apostles might have leisure to devote themselves exclusively and without interruption to the ministry of the word and to prayer. "In those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there was a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in, the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables: wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business : but we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch; whom they set before the Apostles; and when they had prayed, they laid their hands upon them." The multitude of the disciples is an ambiguous expression, designating either the people generally, or those especially who had been previously authorized to preach the Gospel. To the former interpretation may be objected, the difficulty of collecting the multitude, enlarged by an accession of three thousand persons on the day of Pentecost', of whom many, after celebrating the festival, would disperse, and return to their own homes in different parts of the world, to whom the Lord daily added the redeemed ", when the word was preached to the peo

kActs vi. 1—6. .

1 Acts ii. 41.

m Acts ii. 47. ·