and says not a syllable about any other. But can it be supposed, that if another rank of ministers were intended to be established, there would not be at least some hint dropped as to the fact, or the qualifications requisite, or the mode of their induction into office? As to the deacons, for whose election Paul gives directions, they were not ministers, but, as we are expressly told,2 laymen elected by the members of the church "to serve at tables," in order that the apostles might be released from that duty and be able to give themselves "continually to prayer and the ministry of the word." 4. There are no peculiar duties any where in scripture assigned to different orders of ministers. 5. The final charge of our Saviour3 addresses them all as equal. 6. History affords us not a vestige of evidence that imparity actually existed in the ministry prior to the third century.

c) No man has a right to assume this office without a regular call.4 This call may be divided into internal and external. By the former is meant the conviction of the individual, that God has designed him for this office. This conviction is not at the present day produced in an immediate, extraordinary or miraculous manner, as in the case of the ancient apostles and prophets. God has prescribed a regular mode, according to which the ministry is to be perpetuated, and we have no right to expect a needless deviation from it. These ordinary eviden

1 Tim. 3: 8.

2 Acts 6: 3. 4. Wherefore brethren look ye out among you, seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business (serving at tables :) but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. v. 3.— It is not reasonable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.

3 Matth. 28: 19. 20.

* Rom. 10: 15. And how shall they preach unless they be sent ?

ces of a call are, first, undoubted piety, secondly at least mediocrity of talents, thirdly a desire or at least an ultimate willingness to serve God in the ministry; and fourthly, the cooperation of divine providence by the removal of all insuperable difficulties. Oftentimes the Lord trains up men for his service by leading them through trials and obstacles of the most afflicting character, in order that they may become inured to hardships, like good soldiers of Christ; but if he suffered any obstacle absolutely impassable to obstruct the way of the ministerial candidate, he would thus absolve him from the obligation any farther to pursue his course. By the latter, or external call, is intended the regular induction of an individual into the ministerial office by one or if possible several5 existing ministers with prayer and the laying on of hands, or, as it is usually termed, by ordination.

d) No one ought to be ordained to this office who is not both intellectually and morally well qualified. Because 1. The apostle expressly requires, that they be qualified to teach. 2. They are by their example to excite others to the practice. of all christian virtues, and therefore must possess them themselves. 3. If not morally qualified, they are a stumbling block to others. 4. If intellectually incompetent, they are the subjects of ridicule to the enemy, exert little influence among men, and bring disgrace on the church.8

1 John 3: 3. Luke 6: 39. And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? Shall they not both fall into the ditch?

21 Tim. 3: 2. A bishop then must be-apt to teach (adapted, suited for teaching.)

3 Matth. 4: 20. 22. And they straightway left their nets and followed him-and they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him.

4 Titus 1: 5.

5 1 Tim. 4: 14. Acts 13: 2. 3.

6 1 Tim. 3: 2. 9. 2 Tim. 2:24. Tit. 1: 9.

7 Matth. 18: 6. Psalm 50: 16.

8 Roin. 2: 24.

e) The duties of ministers are principally these: to expound the word of God, to conduct the public worship, to administer the sacraments, to admonish men of their duties, and by all proper means both public and private to edify the church of Christ and extend it throughout the earth.'

"Let your women

For it is only

Greek word for These are, first to

f) Women are not permitted to teach. keep silence, says Paul, in the churches (that is, in the assemblies for religious worship: The Christians had no public houses of worship in the first century ;) for it is not permitted unto them to speak." This language, as also that which he uses to Timothy,3 is absolute and unequivocal. Nor is it inconsistent with what he had said in the same epistle to the Corinthians, a few chapters earlier (ch. XI.) where he had used these words: "every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered, dishonoureth her head." necessary to know the significations of the "prophecy," and the difficulty vanishes. possess and exert the miraculous power of foretelling future events, and, secondly, to sing the praise of God in sacred hymns. Now, if we suppose, that the former is its signification in the passage before us, it will follow, that the Holy Spirit did, in the apostolic age, at least in a few instances, inspire females to utter predictions of future events, accompanied by prayer, and that Paul in this passage directs them to wear a veil, whilst exercising this gift in public. Should any females, in any other age, possess the same miraculous power, it would doubtless be right to exercise it. If the second meaning be adopted, the passage is alike free from all difficulty and would teach, that

'See Formula of Gov. and Discip. Ch. III. Sect. I.

21 Cor. 14: 34. 35.

31 Tim. 2: 11. 12.

In this sense it is used by the Septuagint in Exod. 15: 20. Num. 11:25. 29. 1 Kings 18: 29. and is equivalent to 22, divinas laudes canere, sacris hymuis celebrare Deum.

when females attend public worship, to join in singing the praise of God, it is becoming and proper, that they should have their heads covered, and not unnecessarily expose themselves to the gaze of the other sex.

The other officers of the church are

ELDERS AND DEACONS,

whose duties are defined in the Formula of Lutheran Church government Ch. III. and IV.

Duties of Church-members.

The duties of church-members as individuals, have been sufficiently discussed in different parts of this volume. A few remarks only would we here make on a particular duty devolving on the church collectively.

The duty of affording a reasonable support to the ministry.

This duty is inculcated in the clearest and most unequivocal language in the sacred volume. Indeed when a church engages the entire services of a minister, and those services are faithfully afforded, every such church should regard it as a matter of common honesty to support the labourer who spends his strength amongst them.

The sacred volume does not however specify the manner in which this money shall be raised, nor determine how much is a reasonable support in any given situation. This of course must vary much in different sections of the country, with the different price of the necessaries of life. In Europe generally, and in the Methodist church in this country, the salaries of ministers are fixed. In Europe they are paid by the government, and ultimately raised by tax on the people. a) This is in direct op

position to the spirit of the gospel, which requires that our aid of religion be voluntary. b) It is opposed, moreover, to the example of Christ and his apostles, who though they maintained, that those who preached the gospel should live of the gospel, inculcated with equal force the maxim, that contributions for religious purposes must proceed from a willing heart, be a freewill offering to the Lord. c) Nor is there a syllable found in the New Testament, specifying the amount which a clergyman shall receive. d) It destroys one of the strongest safeguards of the liberty of the people. If they have lost confidence in their minister, and yet cannot prove any overt crime against him so as to remove him by course of discipline, they need but withhold their support, and as a matter of necessity he must either change his conduct to regain their confidence, or must seek his bread elsewhere. But in Europe the people are of ten compelled to contribute to the support of men of acknowledged impiety, without any certain relief. It is true, in all the churches of the land except that of our Methodist brethren, a man who enters the ministry places himself in a situation, which, in nineteen cases out of twenty, amounts to a renunciation of all prospects of accumulating wealth, and in the majority of cases presents the expectation of a mere scanty subsistence. It is an undoubted fact, that three-fourths of the ministers of our land, those of the denomination above-mentioned generally excepted, are doomed to spend their life in straightened circumstances. Still this very fact presents one of the strongest safeguards to the purity of the ministry, and excludes from the clerical ranks thousands, who under different circumstances, would "for filthy lucre's sake" undertake to feed the flock of Christ. We suppose that a minister of Christ should ask no more than a decent, competent support; yet it is to be acknowledged that in many cases the churches hardly afford this to their spiritual guides. The support of Methodist ministers, we would regard as a full competency, and have only often been surprised that they should