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of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us; according as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness; exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature;" i.e. he does not draw any line of difference between himself and his brethren, as if he had miraculous powers which they had not; but rests his teaching on the plain fact of his being commissioned, and commissioned with the simple object of communicating the doctrine which had been disclosed to him. He addresses his converts just as St. John does, not as though they were ignorant or unmindful of the truth, but in order to strengthen their conviction of those holy facts and doctrines to which he and his Brother-Apostles were commissioned to bear witness. "I will not be negligent," he says, "to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. Moreover, I will endeavour that after my decease ye may have these things always in remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of His Majesty,..... and this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with Him in the Holy Mount." Again he says, "This Second Epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy Prophets, and of the commandment of us the Apostles of the Lord and Saviour." For by adherence to the commandment of the Apostles, and the doctrine of the Prophets, it might be known that Christians were building themselves up on the only true foundation, even Jesus Christ.
But it is in St. Paul's writings that we shall find the fullest and clearest view of Apostolical Authority; and it is well worthy of our observation, that the Church upon which the Apostle most strongly enforces that Authority, is the very Church which is most distinguished in the New Testament for the abundance of its Spiritual gifts; so that clearly it was not an exclusive possession of miraculous powers, which constituted the distinction between Apostles and private Christians. He begins his First Epistle to the Corinthians by thanking God on their behalf "for the grace of God which was
