and _Barnabas_, were sent as delegates from
the church of _Antioch_, Acts xv. 2. 2. They were all sent as well to
the _elders_, as to the _apostles_ at _Jerusalem_, about this matter,
ver. 2. 3. They were received at _Jerusalem_, as well by the _elders_,
as the _apostles_, and reported their case to them both, ver. 4. 4. The
_elders_, as well as the _apostles_, met together to consider thereof,
ver. 6. 5. The letters containing the synodal decrees and
determinations, were written in the name of the _elders and brethren_,
as well as in the name of the _apostles_, ver. 23. 6. The _elders and
brethren_, as well as the _apostles_, blame the false teachers for
troubling of the Church, _subverting of souls_; declaring, that they
gave the false teachers _no such commandment_ to preach any such
doctrine, ver. 24. 7. The _elders and brethren_, as well as the
_apostles_, say, "It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us," ver. 28.
8. The _elders_ and _brethren_, as well as the _apostles_, did impose
upon the churches "no other burden than these necessary things," ver.
28. 9. The _elders_, as well as the _apostles_, being assembled,
"thought good to send chosen men of themselves," viz. _Judas_ and
_Silas_, with _Paul_ and _Barnabas_, to _Antioch_, to deliver the
synodal decrees to them, and to tell them the same things by mouth, ver.
22, 25, 27. 10. And the decrees are said to be ordained as well by the
_elders_, as by the _apostles at Jerusalem_, Acts xvi. 4. So that
through this whole synodal transaction, the elders are declared in the
text to go on in a full authoritative course of judgment with the
apostles, from point to point. And therefore in this synod, the apostles
acted as ordinary elders, not as extraordinary officers.

Fourthly. Here was the ordinary way and method of synodal proceedings by
the apostles, elders, and brethren, when they were convened unanimously,
ver. 25. For,

1. They proceeded deliberatively, by discourses and disputes,
deliberating about the true state of the question, and the remedy of the
scandal. This is laid down, 1. More generally, "and when there had been
much disputing," ver. 7. 2. More particularly, how they proceeded when
they drew towards a synodal determination, Peter speaks of the Gentiles'
conversion, and clears the doctrine of justification "by faith without
the works of the law," ver. 7-12. Then Barnabas and Paul confirm the
conversion of the Gentiles, "declaring the signs and wonders