ROMANS ix. 21.

"Hath not the potter power over the clay?"

(WHITEFIELD.)

"I have now," said Whitefield,

"such large in

comes from above, and such precious communications from our dear Lord Jesus, that my body can scarcely sustain them. I have a garden near at hand, where I go particularly to meet and talk with my God at the cool of every day. I often sit in silence, offering my soul as so much clay, to be stamped just as my heavenly potter pleases; and whilst I am musing, I am often filled, as it were, with the fullness of God. I am frequently at Calvary, and frequently on Mount Tabor; but always assured of my Lord's everlasting love.

"Our dear Lord sweetly fills me with his presence. My heaven is begun indeed. I feast on the fatted calf. The Lord strengthens me mightily in the inner man."

Southey's Life of Wesley.

ROMANS X. 12.

"Is rich unto all that call upon him."

(BOGOMILES.)

In the twelfth century there arose a sect, which received the name of Bogomiles, from their constantly suing for Divine mercy; the word bogomilus, in the Mysian language, signifying calling for mercy from above." Basilius, the founder of this

66

sect, adopted the opinions of the Gnostics and Manichæans, with regard to Christ's body, &c.

See J. C. Wolf's Historia Bogomilorum.

ROMANS X. 15.

"How shall they preach unless they be sent.”
(ROMAN CATHOLICS.)

"Note this against all new teachers, who have all usurped to themselves the ministry without any lawful mission, derived by succession from the Apostle to whom Christ said, St. John xx, 21, As my Father hath sent me, so send I you'."

Note to the Roman Catholic Version.

ROMANS xii. 2.

"Be not conformed to this world."

(QUAKERS.)

Hence the refusal of the Quakers to conform the changes of fashion in dress, furniture, &c. as a their custom of absenting themselves from places public amusement, and even abstaining from pl sures which are generally considered harmless, Music, &c.

See Tuke.

The following extract is from one of the pri epistles of the yearly meeting of Friends:

"We clearly rank the practice of hunting shooting for diversion, with vain sports; and we lieve the awakened mind may see that ever

207

leisure of those whom providence hath permitted to have a competence of worldly goods, is but ill filed up with these amusements. Therefore being not only accountable for our substance, but also for our time, let our leisure be employed in serving our neighbours, and not in distressing the creatures of God for our amusement."

Book of Extracts, Conduct, and Conversation, p. 25.

Mr. Gurney denies its being a matter of religious principle among Friends, to insist upon a certain form of dress.

“The laws by which the discipline of Friends is regulated, and the moral and religious principles by which the society is distinguished, will be found recorded under various heads, in a volume intitled the 'Book of Extracts,' a book consisting of selections made by the authority of the yearly meeting of Friends, from the public acts and advices of that body."..

ROMANS XIV. 5, 6. (QUAKERS.)

(See Note on Gal. iv. 9.)

ROMANS XIV. 10.

(UNITARIANISM.)

Sauce we shall all present ourselves before the tribunal of God."

Belsham's Translation.

Dr. Priestley remarks, that "the judgment seat of Christ, and that of God, are the same; not because Christ is God, but because he acts in the name, and

we ought not to neglect the dictates of a sound and enlightened discretion: but we believe that we must not limit the Holy One of Israel, or oppose to the counsels of infinite wisdom our own fallible and unauthorised determinations. We dare not to say to the modest and pious females, Thou shalt not declare the word of the Lord,' when from an infinitely higher authority there is issued a directly opposite injunction, Thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.'

"Among the early ministers of the Gospel dispensation, particular mention is made of the four daughters of Philip, who prophesied or preached; Acts xxi. 9. comp. xv. 32.; 1 Cor. xiv. 3. The same office probably devolved, in a very eminent manner, on Priscilla, the wife of Aquila, to whom all the churches of the Gentiles gave thanks, and whom Paul expressly denominates his helper,' or, as in the Greek, his fellow labourer in Christ;' Rom. xvi. 3, 4. comp. Greek text of ver. 21.; 2 Cor. viii. 23.; Phil. ii. 25; 1 Thess. iii. 2. Again on another occasion, the Apostle speaks of the women who ' laboured' with him in the Gospel;' Phil. iv. 3." Gurney on the Religious Peculiarities of the Society of Friends.

No. 2.

(MONTANUS.)

The followers of Montanus admitted women to the priesthood and also to episcopacy,

Epiph. Hær. 49.

Wesley observes, in his account of the people called Methodists, alluding to the great number who volunteered to attend to the sick, "I chose six and forty of them, whom I judged to be of the most tender, loving spirit; divided the town into twenty three parts, and desired two of them to visit the sick in each division.

Upon reflection, I saw how exactly in this also, we had copied after the primitive church. What were the ancient Deacons? what was Phæbe the Deaconess but such a visitor of the sick?"

Wesley's Letter to the Rev. Mr. Perronet:

ROMANS XVI. 12.

"Persis, which laboured much in the Lord."

(QUAKERS.)

Mr. Tuke observes, that "the adjective for beloved being in Greek in the feminine gender, it is apparent that Persis was a woman; also that the Greek word here rendered laboured,' is the same as the Apostle uses, when he speaks of himself labouring in the Gospel."

(See Note on first verse of this chapter.)

ROMANS XVI. 16.

"Salute one another with an holy kiss."

(GLASS AND SANDEMAN.)

(See Note on Acts ii. 42. 44.)