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be the least objectionable part of their services. The mischief that is dreaded is not likely to be done by the repetition of any portion of the inspired writings; but by establishing a precedent of known pernicious tendeney, and paving the way for the introduction of universal misrule into the church of God. Long,-long enough, it would seem already, to convey a lesson never to be forgotten,-has the church bled at every pore from the wounds that have been inflicted on her by men of ignorant minds and restless spirits, who have aspired to be teachers of the law. Possessed of a meager stock of information, novices in grace, and novices in science, their career of popularity has usually been short, and their materials soon exhausted; or, vainly puffed up in their fleshly minds, and lifted up with pride, they have quickly fallen into the condemnation of the Devil, and drawn their deluded followers along with them. A few may have been converted by their instrumentality, but more have been confirmed in their obduracy and their rejection of the gospel. Happy will it be for the church in the nineteenth century, if she shall, betimes, open her ears to the warning voice which is sent to her on this subject from the ages that have gone by.

III. The third topic suggested for consideration in the text, is the character which the Apostles sustained as religious teachers, which, in several important respects, was altogether of an extraordinary kind.

They had seen Christ with their bodily eyes, which was a privilege that was necessary to constitute a title to the distinguished appellation which they bore, as appears from the attempt of Saul of Tarsus to establish his claims to the Apostleship by putting

them precisely on this footing. Am I not an Apostle? Am I not free! have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? If not when the other Eleven beheld him, did I not see him while on my way to Damascus, when a light shone round about.me that was above the brightness of the sun?

They were also endued with the power of working miracles; of healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, raising the dead, and casting out Devils; and while acting in their official capacity, in whatever they said, wrote, or did, were under the superintending control, and assisted by the influences of the Holy Spirit to such an extent as to render them wholly infallible. These considerations should be attentively pondered by those who adopt the opinion, that because the Apostles are said to have been illiterate men, and to have been destitute of the advantages of a liberal education, acquired endowments are at present unnecessary in the preachers of the gospel. Though it be true that the Apostles, with the exception of an individual, were illiterate men, it is equally true, that they enjoyed advantages which were vastly superiour to those of any of their successors in the ministry. For the space of at least three, and some have supposed, of five years, they were under the particular inspection, and listened to the private and public instructions of Him who spake as never man spake. If inquiries were started, he was present to solve them. If error was cherished, to correct it. If prejudices existed, to remove them. If ambition was indulged, to repress, and if resentment, to reprove it. They witnessed the whole of his movements, and were spectators of the humility, the meekness, the zeal, the condescension, and compas

sion which so conspicuously shone in his deportment. They heard his sublime and heavenly discourses. They saw with what adroitness he extricated himself from the toils in which his adversaries attempted to entrap him; with what fidelity he unmasked the muffled hypocrite; with what awful solemnity he brought to the view of his hearers the retributions of the eternal world; and with what earnestness and tenderness he invited the labouring and heavy laden to come to him for rest. None, it is confidently believed, who have enjoyed the most distinguished privileges that are afforded in Literary and Theological Institutions of modern times, enter upon the duties of the sacred office with a preparation so ample; and, therefore, before the example of the Apostles can be adduced as an argument for entering the christian ministry without a liberal education, it is incumbent on those, who, assuming to be their successors, deny its necessity, to evince that like them they are supernaturally endowed. We ask for a proof of Christ speaking in them.

If any shall here inquire, whether the faithful ministers of Christ, at the present day, in the execution of their office, are not to expect the assistance of the Holy Spirit; we answer, undoubtedly they are, and contend that all such will unquestionably receive it; but not to the same extent that the Apostles did. The age when miracles were demanded has long since ceased; and the loud pretensions which some illiterate men, who call themselves preachers, make, to being taught and impelled in their ministrations by the Spirit of God, are nothing less than a blasphemous attempt to palm all their errors, and crudities, and incoherent rhapsodies, which are by no means few or

inconsiderable, upon the Third person of the Adorable Trinity-As though this Divine Agent were the immediate Author of their frequent and flagrant offences against piety and decency. The Great Head of the church, it should be remembered, except in extraordinary cases, and for extraordinary purposes, never bestows his grace in a way that shall supersede the necessity of industry and application; but designs that his ministers shall qualify themselves for performing their professional services by the diligent use of the abilities which he has given them.

The Apostles were far from indulging that rude spirit of Vandalism that decries human learning. Till I come, is the direction of one of them, who was both a man of learning and filled with the Holy Ghost, -give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.-Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.-Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. The erudite author of these inspired declarations was a decided advocate for human learning in a preacher of the gospel. He well knew the value of the acquisition when accompanied by divine grace, and consecrated to the service of Christ; and because it was liable to abuse in the hands of unprincipled men, he was not for proscribing it from the christian church, or leaving it as an implement to be wielded in opposition to the truth by the enemies of God. It is a remarkable fact, and one that shows the deference which the Spirit of truth pays to human science, that this same Apostle, who was distinguished above the others

by his literary attainments, was selected by our Lord to indite a larger portion of the epistles of the New Testament than all the rest of them put together. Of these, which consist of twenty-one, no less than fourteen are from the pen of the great Apostle of the Gentiles. And those expressions which occur in his writings, in which he affirms that he came not to his hearers with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto them the testimony of God, and that his speech and his preaching were not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power,— are not to be construed as a disparagement of human learning; but as intended merely to condemn the philosophical rant, and that tawdry, meretricious species of eloquence, which are known to have been of such high repute with the effeminate and voluptuous Greeks and Romans of his day.

We cannot but advert in this place to a censurable affectation which some public speakers betray, who would be thought to be able on any emergency to rise and address an assembly from the impulse of the moment, and without the labour of a previous preparation. Generally speaking, the individuals, who are so solicitous to pass themselves off for geniuses, might spare themselves the pains which they not unfrequently take to apprize their audience that they speak entirely without premeditation, for, if possessed of only a very scanty share of discernment, their hearers will quickly make the discovery for themselves.

In this connexion, too, it will not be improper to observe, that in their extraordinary character,— which enabled them more successfully to effect a

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