rapid and extensive propagation of the christian religion that should serve as a proof of its divine origin to all future ages,-the Apostles have no successors. In point of official dignity, they were placed by their Divine Master on a footing of the most perfect equality with each other. From desiring

or consenting to be called of men Rabbi, they were peremptorily prohibited; and were distinctly informed, that he of them who should be least in humility should be greatest in the kingdom of God, which was the only pre-eminence after which they might lawfully aspire. Nor, in our apprehension is there any thing to be found in the writings of the NewTestament, or in the practice of the primitive Apostolic churches, that furnishes a plausible pretext for prelatical distinctions among their successors in the ministry. The Elders of Ephesus, whom the Apostle requested to meet him at Miletus, as he was on his way to Jerusalem, in his farewell address to them after they were assembled, are styled Overseers or Bishops. Elders and bishops, then, are obviously used in this instance as correlative terms. But of these Elders, it seems, there were several, and all of them belonged to the city of Ephesus. But the entire city of Ephesus, in point of extent, was greatly inferiour to the jurisdiction of a single Diocesan Bishop of modern times. The Elders of Ephesus, therefore, could not possibly have been bishops in the sense in which this term has since been employed by the advocates of the Hierarchy; but simply the bishops or pastors of particular churches or congregations.

IV. Another topic presented for consideration in the text, is the field of labour which the Apostles were fo оссиру.

They were directed to go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter not: but to go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The Samaritans were a sort of mongrel Jews, who had taken possession of a portion of the Holy Land after the ten tribes were carried captive to Babylon under Shalmaneser, and who, in consequence of the evils which they experienced in their new settlement from the incursions of wild beasts, with which it was greatly infested, made application to Esarhaddon, the king, for the appointment of some one who should teach them the religion of the country, by way of averting the calamities which they supposed were sent upon them as a judgment for their previous neglect of the Deity who presided over that region. The king, agreeably to their request, sent to them an Hebrew priest, who instructed them in the Jewish religion, and gave to them a copy of the law of Moses, of which, it is said, there are versions still extant in the Samaritan dialect, though corrupted with many mistakes. In this way the Samaritans blended the Jewish religion with their own idolatries, and adopted only so much of the former as they imagined would be necessary to ensure their temporal safety. Their religion of course was a heterogeneous mixture of truth and falsehood. They worshipped they knew not what; and by their opposition to the Jews, while engaged in re-building the temple under Ezra and Nehemiah, as well as by their improper conduct in many other respects, they had rendered themselves so completely obnoxious to the Jews that all intercourse between them was cut off: And though our Lord himself on one occasion went and preached the gospel to them with surpri

sing success, at present he would not allow the Apostles to do it, but strictly enjoined it upon them to conduct towards these people precisely as if altogether heathen. The field of labour, therefore, which was prescribed to the Apostles at this time, was merely that part of the land of Judea which was inhabited by the lineal descendants of Abraham :—And even when the restriction in question was subsequently removed, and they were directed by their risen Master to go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature, still to this extended commission was appended the special limitation that they should begin at Jerusalem :-a limitation by which they were prevented from making any considerable exertions to extend the light of the gospel to the Gentiles until after the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, which happened, if I mistake not, about ten or twelve years from the crucifixion of Christ.

But why, it may be asked, this restriction of the labours of the Apostles for so long a time to the lost sheep of the house of Israel? We answer, because they were beloved for the fathers' sakes. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were their progenitors, and on account of the eminent piety of those distinguished Patriarchs, with whom the Almighty entered into solemn covenant, he was pleased to regard their posterity with peculiar and strong affection. For centuries, too, as a nation, they had borne the burden of a costly and painful ritual, which was designed gradually to prepare the way for the Advent of the Messiah, and the attendant blessings of his gospel,-which forms another consideration that entitled them to priority, in enjoying the privileges of the christian dispensation over all other people. In ad

dition to this, on account of their singular abuse of their religious privileges, their depravity at this period had risen to a higher pitch, and consequently, their condition was more deplorable and calculated to excite the commiseration of the Saviour than that of any other nation. Theirs, if experienced, was to be a condemnation of the most woful and aggravated description. By making the restriction in question, it is probable, also, that our Saviour designed at the very outset to preclude an objection which infidelity might otherwise have started, that christianity, shrinking from difficulties with which it had not been able successfully to conflict at home, had sought for an easier conquest over the credulous abroad, who had not the same opportunity for sifting its pretensions as those with whom it originated. To cut off at once all cavils of this kind, and to evince that christianity could force its way against obstacles the most formidable, its Divine Author directed that it court inquisition in the first place at home ;—that its establishment be effected among its most bitter despisers ;and those who had been his most virulent and bloody persecutors.

By this invidious restriction, however, with which the Apostolic commission was originally fettered, we have reason to bless God that the ministers of the gospel are no longer bound. The middle wall of partition is at length completely broken down, so that now there is neither Jew nor Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but all are admitted to a full and an indiscriminate participation in the blessings of redemption. Instructions of a liberal and expanded nature are now to prompt and control the exertions of the ministers of Jesus. The wide world

they are to consider as their field of labour; and to every creature under heaven they are to aim, as far as practicable, to extend the glad tidings of salvation. By a fair and obvious construction of the commission from which their ministerial authority is derived, they are required to be missionary,-if not in their actual operations, at least in their spirit and design-to consider themselves to be the property of the church universal, and not the exclusive possession of any particular and minute section of it.

By these observations it is not intended to question either the propriety or the wisdom of the arrangement which assigns to some of the ministers of Christ a stated charge, to the spirital improvement of which their efforts are principally to be directed. If judicious and faithful, the stationary labourer will acquire and exert over the flock a salutary influence, which an itinerant sojourner cannot possibly gain. Regularity will be observed in his administration of divine ordinances. Appropriate and systematic instructions will be communicated. Order and discipline will be more likely to be maintained; and the word sown will be watched and watered with deeper solicitude and more fervent prayer. But while these concessions in favour of permanent charges are cheerfully made, we would at the same time strenuously insist, that the arrangement which supplies one congregation while others are left entirely destitute, can be defended only in cases where its operation is clearly for the general good. Whenever it can be shown that the labours of a minister will probably be more useful to the church at large on a different plan, and in a different place, he is bound by the spirit of his commission immediately