A treatise of miscellany questions wherein many useful questions and cases of conscience are…A treatise of miscellany questions wherein many usefull questions and cases of conscience are…

2. And they watched him, and they followed him [Greek or Hebrew], that is Jesus, Mark 3. whether he would heal him, here is [Greek or Hebrew] for Jesus, and [Greek or Hebrew] for the man, which had the withered hand, Gal. 1. 16. to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him, here is [Greek or Hebrew] ipsius, for God the father, and [Greek or Hebrew] illum for Christ. So then the Churches of Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, after choosing of Elders, who were also solemnly set a part with prayer and fasting, were willing to let Paul, and Barnabas go from them to the planting and watering of other Churches, and commended them unto God, that would open unto them a wide and effectual door, and prosper the work of Christ in their hands, Ephes. 6. 18. 19. Or they commended them unto God for their safety and preservation, as men are said to commend their own spirits to God, Luke 23. 46. 1 Pet. 4. 19. This sense and interpretation which I have only offered to be considered, doth not bring any harshness, and much less, offer any violence, either to the text or context in the Greek. But if another sense be liked better, whether to understand ⟨p. 13⟩by [Greek or Hebrew] the Elders ordained or the Churches commended to God by Paul and Barnabas, or to understand all the particulars mentioned in that 23. verse to be common and joint acts done by Paul, Barnabas and the Churches, that is, that they all concurred in making them Elders by suffrage, in prayer and fasting, and in commending themselves to the Lord; I shall not contend so long as the proper and native signification of [Greek or Hebrew] is retained, yea; although we should understand by this word, an act of Paul, and Barnabas alone, distinct from the Churches suffrage and consent even in that sense, we lose not the argument; For first it cannot be supposed that the business was put to the lifting, or stretching out hands in signum suffragii, between Paul and Barnabas, as if it had been put to the question between them two alone; whether such a man should be Elder in such a Church. But how then can it be an act of Paul and Barnabas? Thus if you will, Their two did [Greek or Hebrew] creare suffragiis, vel per suffragia, id est; They ordained such men to be Elders as were chosen by the Church.