First, That the apostle ascribes his continuance in life, and in the ministry of the word, to the help that he had obtained of God; which help,

1. Designs the care of divine providence exercised towards him in a fpecial way and manner. The providence of God is common to all his creatures; it is owing to that, the fouls of men are upheld in life; and as life itself is a grant and favour from the Lord, fo it is his providential visitation that preferves the fpirits of men. In him all live, and move, and have their being; they not only have it from him, but they are supported in it by him; and there is a special providence which fuperintends the people of God; though he is the Saviour of all men, yet more especially of thofe that believe; and particularly minifters of the gofpel are in a remarkable manner preserved by the Lord; he holds these ftars in bis right hand; they are his peculiar care and charge, and he continues their ufeful lives for much fervice in his church. This was the happy cafe of our apoftle.

2. It takes in, and has a particular respect unto, the deliverance of him from dangers to which he was expofed, and which Chrift promised him, ver. 17. and he here acknowledges was made good unto him. As foon as he became a convert, and a preacher of the gofpel, the Jews laid in wait for him to take away his life; infomuch that the difciples were obliged to let him down in a basket by the wall of the city of Damafcus, to make his escape; at another time they found him in the temple, and fell upon him, and beat him unmercifully, and would have deftroyed him, had not the chief captain of a Roman band ran to his relief: and after this, forty of them bound themselves under a curfe, not to eat or drink until they had killed him; befides, many perils of life was he in among the Gentiles, as at Lyftra, Iconium, and other places; but he obtained help of the Lord against all his enemies, and deliverance from all dangers; and continued a faithful difpenfer of the word, and stood his ground, through all difficulties, and in fpite of all oppofition.

3. This includes all that help and affiftance which he received from the Lord in preaching the gospel; for notwithstanding his natural and acquired abilities, and the ordinary and extraordinary gifts of the spirit bestowed on him, yet he was confcious of his own weakness and inability in himself to perform such service; and therefore afks, who is fufficient for these things? He knew he was not of himself, and that the grace of Chrift alone was fufficient for him; that it was his ftrength which was made perfect in his weakness; that it was through Chrift ftrengthening him he did all those wonderful things he did; that though he laboured more abundantly than any of the apoftles, yer it was not he,

Pfal. lxvi. 9. Job x. 12.

Acts xvii. 28.

1 Tim. iv. 10.

d Rev. ii. 1.

• Acts ix. 24, 25. and xiv. 19. and xxi. 32, 33. and xxiii. 12, 13.

bat

but the grace of God which was with him"; by which he was what he was, as a minifter, and had what he had as fuch, and did what he did under that character; and by which he was enabled to preach the gofpel fo frequently, fo conftantly, fo fully, and in fo many places, from Jerufalem round about to Illyricum.

Secondly, The apostle expreffes the nature of the work he was engaged and continued in, by witnessing: it was a testifying the gospel of the grace of God1; bearing witness to the truth of it, to the grace of God in it; his free favour in choofing men to falvation, in providing and fending Chrift to be the Saviour of them, and in the whole of their falvation by him: it was a giving teftimony to Chrift, to his perfon, office and grace; hence the gospel is called, the testimony of our Lord: the apoftles of Chrift were made and appointed to be his witneffes, to testify of his incarnation, works, fufferings, death, resurrection from the dead, afcenfion to heaven, and of all things they had heard, and seen, and knew concerning him; and fo was the apostle Paul, ver. 17. and all minifters of the gospel are witneffes, who prophefy, though in fackcloth, and will do fo to the end of the reign of antichrift.

Thirdly, The perfons to whom he witnessed, he says, were small and great; having, no doubt, a fpecial regard to the audience he was now addreffing, confifting of great perfonages, as before obferved, and of a multitude of the common people; he bore witness to the truths of Chrift and his gospel, to all forts of men, of every age, rank and condition of life, high and low, rich and poor; and of every character, wise and unwife; his commiffion being the fame with the rest of the apostles, reached to all; go into all the world, and preach the gofpel to every creature1.

Fourthly, The fubject-matter of the apoftle's miniftry is fignified; 1st, More generally, as what agreed with the doctrine of the Old Testament, with Moses and the prophets: 2dly, More particularly, as it refpected, in agreement with them, the fufferings and refurrection of Chrift, and his being a light to Jews and Gentiles. And on these two things I fhall a little enlarge.

תן

I. What the apostle chiefly infifted upon in his miniftry in general, was the fame with what Mofes and the prophets had spoken of; faying none other things than thofe which the prophets and Mofes did fay fhould come, or fhould be as he agreed with them in the following things, which are particularly refpected, fo in every thing they faid; there is an entire harmony and consent between the prophets of the Old, and the apostles of the New Teftament; and especially in every thing concerning Chrift: they agreed in laying him as the foundation of

the church and people of God, and of their faith, hope and happiness; hence he is called ", the foundation of the apostles and prophets. The Old and New Teftaments are like the cherubim over the mercy-feat, which were exactly of the fame form and fize; their faces were to each other, and both to the mercy-feat, a type of Chrift; as the cherubim were of the ministers of the word, the prophets of the Old, and the apoftles of the New Teftament. Thefe two parts of the facred fcripture are the church's two breasts, which are like two young roes that are twins; that are in every thing, in nature, colour and proportion like to each other. Our Lord and his apoftles appealed to the writings of Mofes and the prophets, for the truth of what they delivered; they fetched quotations from them to fupport their doctrines by; and these are faid by them to be able to make men wife unto falvation; and to be profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness; and to make the man of God thoroughly furnished unto all good works: there is not a doctrine of the gospel, but what may be established and confirmed by these facred books. And this will foon and easily appear by a fhort detail of fome of the principal and peculiar doctrines of it. As,

1. The doctrine concerning the divine Being, and the perfons in the Godhead. One branch of which is, that there is but one God. This is the voice of reason and revelation, the language of the Bible, of both Teftaments, old and new. Our Lord frequently fuggefts this truth, and fo do his apostles; and the apostle Paul particularly, in the name of the reft, and indeed of all christians, fays, to us there is but one God; and this is what Mofes faid, Hear, O Ifrael, the Lord our God is one Lord' the prophets say the same, and the Lord by them; before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me-is there a God befides me? yea there is no God, I know not any '; all which is said in opposition to the polytheism of the heathens, but not to the exclufion of any of the divine perfons in the Godhead; for another branch of this doctrine is, that there is a plurality of perfons in God, and that these are neither more nor fewer than three; for as the apostle John fays, There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the holy Ghoft, and these three are one'; and which agrees with the doctrine of Chrift, as appears by his appointing the ordinance of baptism to be administered, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Ghost "; which three divine perfons appeared at the baptifm of Chrift; there was the Son of God in human nature fubmitting to that ordinance; and there was the voice of the Father from heaven, declaring, that this was his beloved Son, in whom

he was well pleafed; and there was the holy Spirit, which defcended as a dove upon Chrift; hence the antients used to fay, "Go to Jordan and learn the doctrine "of the Trinity: " and this is no other than what is to be found in the writings of Mofes, and the prophets. Mofes plainly intimates a plurality of perfons in the Deity, when he reprefents God as faying, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:-Let us go down, and there confound their language; and his account of the creation, plainly fuggests there were three, and no more. God, the first perfon, the Father, made the heavens and the earth; and God the Word, the effential Word, the fecond perfon, faid, Let there be light, and there was light; and the Spirit of God, or the Spirit of the Meffiah, as the Jews call him, the third perfon, moved upon the face of the waters, and brought the dark and unformed chaos into a beautiful order. All which is fummarily comprehended in the words of the Pfalmift; by the Word, the effential Word of the Lord, of Jehovah the Father, were the heavens made; and all the host of them, by the breath or fpirit of his mouth 2. And the prophets all agree in, and bear teftimony to this truth: not to mention any other than those words in Isaiah, and now the Lord God and bis Spirit bath fent me; here are Jehovah and his Spirit spoken of, as concerned in the miffion of Chrift into this world. Another branch of this doctrine is, that each of the divine perfons is God; not to fay any thing of the Father, the first person, about whom there is no queftion: the second perfon, the Son of God, is exprefsly called by the apostle John, the last of the apostles, with whom the reft agree, the true God and eternal life; and this doctrine clearly appears in the writings of the Old Teftament, for to the Son, be faith, Thy throne, O Gad, is for ever and ever; and he that is promised as the child that should be born, and the Son given, is named the mighty God; he who is prophefied of as the Saviour of loft finners, is called their God, your God will come and fave you; he that is spoken of that fhould be incarnate and become man, is faid to be not a mere man, but the man, Jehovah's fellow; his equal, who thought it no robbery to be equal with God. And as for the bleffed Spirit, who, in the New Teftament, is called the Lord the Spirit; and lying to him is represented as lying to God; fo in the Old Teftament fuch things are afcribed to him, as clearly fhew him to be a divine perfon: fuch as, his concern in the creation of all things; his bringing the earth into proper form and order, by moving on the face of the waters; garnishing the heavens, and bespangling them with stars; making man, and giving him life and understanding ".

2. The doctrine respecting the perfon and offices of Chrift, is the fame in both teftaments. Is he called in the New Teftament the Son of God? is the doctrine of his divine Sonship written as with a fun-beam, in the books of it? is he owned to be the Son of God, by angels and men, good and bad, as well as declared to be fo by his Father himself? is this an article of the apoftles creed, in which they all unite, faying, We believe and are fure that thou art Chrift the Son of the living God? not by office, but by nature; for this is not a term of office, but of relation. The writings of the Old Teftament agree herein, in which the fecond person is often called the Son of God. Daniel knew him as fuch, and had inftilled such a fentiment of him into the mind of Nebuchadnezzar, an heathen monarch; or otherwise, how could he have said, that the form of the fourth person, in the fiery furnace, is like the Son of God? Solomon, long before him, under the name of Agur, fays' of God, and his divine Word, What is his name, and what is his Son's name, if thou canst tell? And David his father, before him, introduces the second person, as declaring what his divine Father had faid unto him; The Lord hath faid unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee: hence David exhorts the kings and judges of the earth to kifs this Son of God; that is, to ferve, worship, and obey him; who appears to be a divine perfon, by his being a proper object of truft and confidence; bleffed are all they that put their trust in him.

Do the writings of the New Teftament speak of Christ as God and man in one perfon, this being the great mystery of godliness, God manifeft in the flesh"? The writings of the Old Teftament speak of him alfo in both natures as meeting in him when they reprefent him as a child to be born, they declare him to be the mighty God and everlasting Father; and when they intimate he should be a branch of David's family, they give him the name of Jehovah our righteousness; and when they speak of him as a man, they call him Jehovah's fellow °. Is he in the New Testament faid "to be the mediator between God and men ?" the writers of the Old Testament speak of him as drawing near to God, engaging his heart to approach unto him; as becoming the furety of his people; as being the daysman that lays his hands on both; as fignified by Jacob's ladder, which reached from earth to heaven, and united both; as the mercy-feat, from off of which the Lord communes with his faints; and as the Angel of God's prefence, who appears for his people in it, and introduces them into it. Do the apostles of Chrift make mention of him as invefted with the offices of prophet, priest, and king? This is no other than what Mofes and the prophets said should be. Mofes foretels that God would raise up a prophet like unto him out of the children of

Ifrael,

Pfal. ii. 7, 12.

Jer. xxx. 21. Job ix. 32. Gen. xxviii. 12. Exod. xxv. 22. Ifai. lxiii. 9.