SERMONS.'. J 313 



were it * an ordination) it is plainly inferred, ver. 

 3, to have been performed upon the place by the 

 persons mentioned, verse 1. And St. Paul, for 

 his particular, in the front of every epistle, enters 

 his protestation against all this, as if he had fore- 

 seen it; still qualifying himself 'f an Apostle of 

 Jesus Christ by the will of God ; '^ an Apostle, 

 not of men, nor by man, but § by the command- 

 ment of God our Saviour ; and accordingly you 

 may see him contesting it to the height, both 

 against Peter and the rest. Gal. i. and ii. through-^ 

 out, — That the Gospel he preached was not of 

 man, the Apostleship he exercised was not from 

 man : but the one by immediate revelation, the 

 other by assignation from Heaven itself. So 

 that, having received his mission thence, and his 

 instructions too, he thought it unnecessary to con- 

 fer with flesh and blood, to apply himself to any 

 mortal man, for the enhancing of either. He 

 went up indeed to Jerusalem to visit Peter three 

 years after his conversion, and yet once || again 

 fourteen years after, he returned thither, and had 

 conference with James, and Cephas, and John ; 

 but these pillars added nothing to him ; neither 

 established his authority, nor advanced his know- 



* As our church seems to have determined. See the Exhorta- 

 tion before the Litany in the Consecration of B. B. 



t 2 Tim.i. 1. ' ' 



+ Gal. i. 1. 



§ 1 Tim. Chap. i. v. 1. 12. 15, 16. 18. ii. 7. 



II Gal. Chap. ii. v. 1. 6. 9. ' 



