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be properly directed to the good of the body; " and as we have different gifts according to the favour shewn unto us if to explain the scriptures, let it be agree

asserted, that he was not like those corrupt teachers among them, who were boasting of other men's labours, " but having hope when your faith is increased that we shall be engaged by you, according to our rule, abundantly to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man's line of things made ready to our hands." When, indeed, we consider the amazing extent of country over which the apostles travelled, their labours, their unwearied exertions in the cause of truth; their persecutions, and imminent perils in disseminating the religion of their master, and that they abandoned all means of obtaining their livelihood in the execution of the commission that was en'trusted to them, we must allow that it was but common jus'tice that ordained that they which proclaimed the gospel, (should live of the gospel." But is it to be endured, when the sapostles have completed their commission, when they have appointed no successors, when they have left us their doctrines in their writings, when they have directed Christians mutually to instruct and build up each other therein, when they have established the church as the means of upholding and making known divine truth-is it to be endured, that an order of men, unappointed by heaven, without any commission to execute, or news to make known unto us, should receive regular salaries, and be kept in indolence, simply because they have the effrontery to call themselves "preachers of the Gospel," and to avail themselves of "other men's line of things made ready to their hands?"

The administration of public worship is supposed to require the services of the priest. It ought, however, first to be proved, that such worship is consistent with Christianity. The temple of Jerusalem was the only authorized place of public worship. Jesus declared (John iv. 20, 24,) that the time was coming when men should neither worship at the mountain of Gerizim, nor yet at Jerusalem; but that the true worshipper should worship the father in spirit and in truth. He himself set his followers the example of private prayer to the Deity, and he condemned, in the most pointed manner, the prayer of the pharisee, whether practised in the street, in the

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able to the faith; if a ministry, let us attend to this ministry; let the teacher attend to his teaching: he that exhorteth, to his exhortation." (Rom. xii. 6, 7, 8. Wakefield. Rom. xv. 14.)

market place, or even in the synagogue; directing at the same time his disciples, when they prayed, to enter into their closets, and shut their door about them, and thus to pray to their father who seeth in secret. (Matt. vi. 5, 6.)-No individual passages of scripture can possibly over-rule directions and circumstances so strong as these, and so consistent with the spirit of that religion, which was mental, and established in the heart of man. The Jewish worship, whatever it might have been, was superseded by Christianity. In justice, however, to that worship, let us remark, that though public, it : was individual; in the temple every man prayed for himself, as is evident from the parable of the publican and pharisee. The absurd practice of one man speaking to the Deity the feelings and wants of the congregation, is what was unknown among the Jews. Priests of more modern times may take to themselves all the credit of the invention, as

have had all its advantages..

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CONDUCT OF WOMEN IN THE
CHURCH.

THAT retiring modesty, and diffidence of cha racter, which nature seems to have assigned to the 66 1 woman, is not lost sight of in Christianity. suffer not (says the apostle) a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence." (1 Tim. ii. 12.)—And, again, he commands, in ex: press language, "Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak; and if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home; for it is a shame for women to speak in the church." (1 Cor. xiv. 35, 34.)*

*The passages that give directions concerning women praying and teaching, must, it is presumed, mean under the influence of the spirit, when no particular restraint could have been imposed.

CHRISTIANITY was not intended to unhinge the frame of political society; it was not designed to take men out of the world, but to teach them to live in the world. Hence the man does not cease to be a citizen when he becomes a Christian; on one or two occasions Paul pleads his Roman citizenship, as a protection against illegal punishment; on this ground too he appealed to Cæsar. To the Corinthians, he argues, that their civil relations were not to be disturbed or set aside by their Christian calling. The wife is not to depart from her husband, nor the husband from his wife."Wast thou called when a slave? (says the writer) care not for it, but if thou mayest be made free, use

1 Cor. v. 10.

† Acts xvi. 37; xxii. 25; xxv. 10.

1 Cor. vii. 10, 15. On this delicate subject the apostle gives some admirable advice. "Let not the wife depart from her husband; but if she depart, let her remain unmarried. Let not the husband put away his wife : if the unbelieving wife be pleased to dwell with the believing husband, let him not put her away; but if the unbelieving depart (separate), let him depart; a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases." Wakefield renders it," if the unbelieving wife or husband wish to separate themselves, let them separate; no brother or sister is a slave in such cases."

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it rather. Had ye bought your freedom? become not slaves to men ; as the Lord has called every one, so let him walk, and so ordain I in all the churches. Hence also, an obedience to magistracy becomes necessary, and is enjoined to the Christian, not that he can feel respect for the institutions 'of man, if they are inimical to justice and freedom :* his obedience is an obe.

* The reader will probably call to mind some recommendations in the 13th of the Romans, of a very opposite tendency; they come upon us in a very questionable shape. They set forth that the powers that are ordained of God, whosoever resists them, resists the ordinance of God; that rulers are not a terror, but a praise to good works; that they are the ministers of God to execute wrath upon those who do evil, and that for this cause the Christian was to pay his tribute money to them; "for, says the text), they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing." If this be true, Jesus, it must be confessed, paid his tribute money with rather an ill grace, and spoke with a culpable degree of disrespect concerning these e ministers of God, who attend continually upon this very thing. Where was the apostle's recollection, when he asserted that rulers are not a terror to good works? Did not Jesus announce to his disciples, that for their good works they would be brought before kings and rulers? Were rulers no terror to good works, when the founder of Christianity was put to an unjust death under their sanction-when Paul endured stripes and imprisonment, and every sort of insult at their instigation, or with their permission-when this virtuous and persecuted man was compelled on one occasion to escape from the hands of the governor of Damascus, by being let down the walls of the city in a basket? Is it not then creditable to Christianity, to truth, and to the character of the apostle, to say, that Paul could never have put his name to such pusillanimous sentiments? If the reader will turn his eye to the passage, he will find that, by striking out the first seven verses of the chapter, in which these sentiments appear, the argument of the apostle will be found complete and connected, and the 8th verse of this chapter will follow -the last of the preceding in perfect order.