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checked deposit, nor the viva voce perpetuation of any thing which is spiritual and divine. They ever have perverted, and (for human nature remains the same) ever will pervert, in such cases, that which has been given for the general benefit to their own particular or professional advantage. In the Christian church, the remedy for the evil is provided, in the preservation, by a watchful Providence, of the uncorrupted oracles of truth, and the application of that remedy is being made in their general circulation. We can come for God's truth to his own word. "He is not a man, that he should lie." Very unwise are those who trust in man, when God has so unequivocally declared his propensity to deceive, and universal history and experience so lamentably confirm the painful and humiliating fact. To the law and the testimony, must be our exclusive appeal; and whatever shrinks from the decision of this authoritative and infallible judge, betrays itself to be an usurpation, which sooner or later will be compelled to withdraw its head, branded alike with the marks of God's displeasure, and of man's reprobation.

The Bible is abroad, and is spreading through the world; and whatever imperfections necessarily inherent in the work of men, and most glaring in that of those who claim infallibility, may attend its transfusion into the various

languages and dialects of mankind, these facts, which are fatal to the theories on which ecclesiastical usurpations have been constructed, cannot be concealed:-That the apostolic epistles were written to distinct and independent churches, substantially composed of Christian brethren;that the council at Jerusalem consisted of the apostles, and elders, and the brethren;-that the Holy Spirit qualified for the work of the ministry, by the supernatural gift of languages previously unknown, and by the visible authentication of the cloven tongue of fire upon the head, a goodly number, upon whom the Apostles' hands had not been laid;-and that Peter designates the whole of those of whom the church is composed, of course including its ministers, but applying to them only in the same respects as it does to the brethren, a holy and a royal priesthood.

It is a consolatory reflection, that the encroaching tide of usurpation, which floated upon its advancing wave the proud and richly freighted vessel of the antichristian church, has long since reached its height, and ceased to flow. In its ebbing it has left her fairly aground, grappled also to the moorings, which in her confidence she fastened, and which in her embarrassment and perplexity she cannot unloose; while the returning stream of natural events is

wearing her strength, dissolving her frame, and carrying piece after piece of her fabric away in its current. "Her tacklings are loosed, they cannot well strengthen her mast, nor spread the sail; the prey of a great spoil is divided, the lame take the prey.'

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The tide, which is at present setting in upon the world with resistless force, is the tide of popular opinion, flowing through the channels which are opened by popular instruction. That any portion of the Christian church should be identified with the chartered secular rights, which are unfriendly to the interests of the people, is deeply to be regretted, and must be injurious to its general interests. The church, as Christ formed and Apostles left it, instead of towering above the people, was composed of them; instead of exacting from the world, was the treasure-house of spiritual blessings to enrich it; instead of requiring the infliction on others of pains and penalties for its defence and support, was armed with patience to endure them; instead of including within it anything which required the concealment of darkness, by its blended exhibition of christian truth and practice, was itself the light of the world; instead of feeding on its corruptions the multiplying brood of infidelity, it was "the salt of the earth." The day of apathetic insensibility

to its condition is gone.

Tranquil security,

in the spoil derived from its corruptions, can no longer be enjoyed. The signs of the times evidently indicate approaching inquiry, discussion, purification. Whatever may be lost in secular power and glory, will be gained in moral strength and efficiency; in the requirement of ministerial qualifications according with the scriptural standard; in the infusion of popular energy and vigour; in the relinquishment of uncharitable and offensive claims and pretensions; in the clearer exhibition of the grace, and freedom, and joyfulness of the gospel dispensation; in the harmonious co-operation of all those who hold its vital and essential principles; in the frequent interchange of communion, and occasional aggregation of separate communities, in shewing forth the Lord's death at his table :-thus, powerful in the renewal of her primitive simplicity and knowledge, will the church again "look forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners."

SECTION III.

IN SEPARATION TO THE SERVICE OF GOD, THE JEWISH PEOPLE, WHEN THEY WERE OBEDIENT, WERE A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS, AND CHRISTIAN PEOPLE ARE A HOLY PRIESTHOOD.

THAT the whole tribe of Levi was separated from the other tribes for the work which was to be performed in the tabernacle; that Aaron and his sons were separated from the rest of their brethren, the Levites, for the service of the altar; that the family of Aaron, in the discharge of the priestly office, might approach nearer to God than could either the people or the Levites, are admitted facts. But then, if even the high priest himself, who went annually into the holiest of all, had claimed any peculiar personal sanctity in virtue of his office, the sin-offering, which he was required previously to offer for himself and his house, would have neutralized his claim, and exposed his pretensions. No man could be separated from his fellow-men for a purpose more solemn and important, a work

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