CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

And 1. Let us begin with their Office, It's called a sending, This doth imply that they did not intrude themselves into it, They did not usurp upon the Office, but they were called and lawfully authorized thereunto; It had been sinful presumption in any of the Apostles to undertake that Office till Christ gave them this Commission: There is no difficulty in the words, only it's questioned why our Saviour speaks in the preterperfect tense, I have sent them, seeing they were not yet sent to publish the Gospel to the whole world, for that was not done till his Ascension; But it's answered, that it's ordinary with the Scripture to put one tense for another, and besides, Christ had begun already to send them, though not into the whole world, yet into Judea, and Luk 6. he had already given them the name of Apostles, which is as much as those that are sent, yet because after his Ascension he then enlarges their Commission, To preach to all Nations beside Judea. Hence Joh. 20.21. Christ there speaks in the present tense, As my Father hath sent me, even so I send you: So then the Apostles did not undertake their ministerial Office before they were sent,¹ and for this end are called Apostles: Salmasius thinketh he gave them this Name from the Captain of the Jews at that time, for in their Synagogues the Governors thereof have their proper Messengers belonging to them who were called Apostles. From this Observe,

And 1. Let us begin with their Office, It's called a sending, This doth imply that they did not intrude themselves into it, They did not usurp upon the Office, but they were called and lawfully authorized thereunto; It had been sinful presumption in any of the Apostles to undertake that Office till Christ gave them this Commission: There is no difficulty in the words, only it's questioned why our Saviour speaks in the preterperfect tense, I have sent them, seeing they were not yet sent to publish the Gospel to the whole world, for that was not done till his Ascension; But it's answered, that it's ordinary with the Scripture to put one tense for another, and besides, Christ had begun already to send them, though not into the whole world, yet into Judea, and Luk 6. he had already given them the name of Apostles, which is as much as those that are sent, yet because after his Ascension he then enlarges their Commission, To preach to all Nations beside Judea. Hence