[217:3] Col. iv. 16; 1 Thess. v. 27.
[217:4] 1 Cor. xiv. 29. It would appear from this that only two or three persons were permitted to speak at a meeting. By him that "sitteth by" (verse 30), a doctor or teacher is meant. See Vitringa, "De Synagoga," p. 600, and Matt. v. 1.
[217:5] 1 Cor. xiv. 27. The gift of "interpretation of tongues" (1 Cor. xii. 10) was quite as wonderful as the gift of "divers kinds of tongues" (1 Cor. xii. 10).
[218:1] Censers were introduced into the Church about the fourth or fifth century. Bingham, ii. 454, 455.
[218:2] 1 Cor. xvi. 19; Col. iv. 15; Philem. 2.
[218:3] Matt. iii. 4.
[218:4] The rite of confirmation, as now practised, has no sanction in the New Testament. The "baptisms" and "laying on of hands," mentioned Heb. vi. 2, are obviously the "divers washings" of the Jews, and the imposition of hands on the heads of victims. The laying on of the apostles' hands conferred miraculous gifts. Had the apostle referred to Christian baptism in Heb. vi. 2, he would have used the singular number.
[218:5] Lightfoot affirms that the use of baptism among the Israelites was as ancient as the days of Jacob. He appeals in support of this view to Gen. xxxv. 2. "Works," iv. 278.
[219:1] Lightfoot's "Works," iv. 409, 410. Edit. London, 1822.
[219:2] Acts x. 2, 44-48, xvi. 15, 33, xviii. 8; 1 Cor. i. 16.