II. CORINTHIANS 12, 12. 291

things which by divine appointment were made the evidence of a mission from God. When these were present an obliga- tion rested on all who witnessed them to acknowledge the authority of those who bore those insignia. When they were absent, it was, on the one hand, an act of sacrilege to claim the apostleship ; and, on the other, an act of apostacy from God to admit its possession. To acknowledge the claims of those who said they were apostles and were not, was (and is) to turn from God to the creature, to receive as divhie what was in flxct human or Satanic. This is evidently Paul's view of the matter, as appears from 11, 13-15, where he speaks of those who were the ministers of Satan and yet claimed to be the apostles of Christ. Comp. Rev. 2, 2. These signs of an apostle, as we learn from Scripture, were of different kinds. Some consisted in the manifestations of the inward gifts of the apostleship (i. e. of those gifts the possession of which consti- tuted a man an apostle) ; such as plenary knowledge of the gospel derived by immediate revelation from Jesus Christ, Gal. 1, 12. 1 Cor. 15, 3; inspiration, or that influence of the Holy Spirit which rendered its possessor infallible in the com- munication of the truth, 1 Cor. 2, 10-13. 12, 8, in connection with 12, 29 and 14, 37. Others of these signs consisted in the external manifestations of God's favour sanctioning the claim to the apostleship. Gal. 2, 8. To this class belongs fidelity in teaching the truth, or conformity to the authenticated stand- ard of faith, Gal. 1, 8. 9. Unless a man was thus kept faithful to the gospel, no matter what other evidence of being an apostle he might be able to adduce, he was to be regarded as accursed. Gal. 1, 8. To this class also belong, success in preaching the gospel, 1 Cor. 9, 2. 2 Cor. 3, 2. 3 ; the power of communicating the Holy Ghost by the imposition of hands, Acts 8, 18. 19, 6 ; the power of working miracles, as appears from the passage under consideration, from Rom. 15, 18. 19, and many other passages, as Heb. 2, 4. Mark 14, 20. Acts 5, 12. 14, 3 ; and a holy walk and conversation, 2 Cor. 6, 4. Without these signs no man can be recognized and obeyed as an apostle without apostacy from God ; without turning from the true apostles to those who are the ministers of Satan. 1)1 all patience^ or constancy. This does not mean that the patient endurance of severe trials was one of the signs of his apostleship, but that those signs were wrought out under ad- verse circumstances requiring the exercise of the greatest constancy. In signs^ and wonders^ and mighty deeds. These