FOR THE CHRISTIAN'S MAGAZINE

CHURCH OF GOD.

No. XV.

Officers, &c.

To a O a critical knowledge of the original tongues, a scribe well instructed in the kingdom of God must add an extensive acquaintance with facts necessary for explaining scriptural subjects.

These facts are greatly diversified in their nature, and are to be gathered from various provinces of human research. The more immediately important may be classed under the general heads of historical and physical facts.

To the historical class belong

1. Annals; which record distinguished events, ecclesiastical, civil, political, military, commercial,

&c.

2. The government, resources, and institutions of a country.

3. The biography of famous individuals.

4. Public and private customs and manners.

5. The state of the sciences, of literature, and of the arts.

The physical class comprehends facts relating, 1. To the system of the world

2. To those phenomena, the study of which forms, what is commonly called, Natural Philosophy; and in which the progress will be short and slow without the help of mathematics

3. To natural geography, geology, &c.

4. To the natural history of animals, especially of

man.

The catalogue might easily be enlarged; for there is no department of human knowledge or skill which does not furnish something of value to a good Divine. The design of the foregoing specification is merely to exhibit a summary of things which embrace copious details, and with which an accomplished and well-armed theologian ought to be conversant. An adept in all of them he can hardly become; but such an acquaintance with them as shall enable him to turn their lights in upon obscure parts of the holy writings; and to dissipate the artificial darkness created by the foc, he may and should acquire.

"And can so much human learning-such vo"lumes of history-such long narratives of political "things and political men-so much natural philo"sophy, and astronomy, and geography, and all the "rest of it, be necessary to preach the Gospel of "salvation? Cannot a minister prove from the Bible "that men are lost and perishing, but he must fetch "his argument from the story of kings and kingdoms "whereof not one of his audience in twenty ever "heard the names? Can he not tell them of Jesus "Christ, without telling them of Alexander the "Great, or Mahommed, or Genghis Khan? Can " he not display the grace of God, without the diagrams of Euclid? nor treat on scriptural symbols, "without an algebraical equation? May not his "doctrine be heavenly, unless he calculate eclipses? "And must he be unable to dig for the hidden treasures of wisdom, without plunging into the belly

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"of a mountain, or the bottom of the sea? Where "did the Apostles get such qualifications? What "had your human learning to do with the mouth "and wisdom' with which Peter and John, two igno"norant and unlearned men, put to silence all the "Rabbis of the Sanhedrim ? By what means do

"numbers of the most devoted, faithful, and success"ful labourers in the Lord's vineyard, make full "proof of their ministry, and commend themselves "to every man's conscience in the sight of God?"

Against such glowing interrogation, reason wages an unequal war. Confounding and jumbling together things which have no alliance; tacking an absurd conclusion to an acknowledged truth, and pressing the fiction home upon the untutored mind with an air of pious triumph, it cannot fail of persuading multitudes, who fancy they are convinced because they are anıazed; and, arguing much more from their wonder than from their understanding, become the intractable converts of zeal without knowledge.

Our reply is short.

The Apostles furnish no precedent. All their defects were supplied by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. What progress would they have made without it? It will be time enough to quote them when we are placed in their circumstances, and can claim their supernatural aids. Let the Spirit of God be the miraculous instructor, and we shall immediately dispense with human learning. In that case we will leave the feet of Gamaliel, and hang upon the lips of a fisherman or a scavenger. Till then, we hold our. selves excused. But it is with the worst possible grace that we are referred to the Apostles as patterns of an illiterate ministry, when the Holy Ghost was at the pains to teach them, by miracle, things of which we are confidently told the Christian ministry have no need whatever!

As little can be gained by the examples of an illiterate ministry in later times and among ourselves.

That a plain, uneducated man, of good native sense, may unfold the elementary, which are the essential, doctrines of the cross, with propriety, with interest, and with effect-that God has often used, and still uses, the ministry of such men in calling sinners to the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ, is both true and consolatory. Nay, he has made individuals, alike destitute of information and of talent, the instruments of conversion and confirmation to other individuals of superiour minds and attainments. But we are not, therefore, to pick out all the unlearned lack brains among Christians, and set them to instruct the men of sense and education. God's sovereignty over-rules our infirmities, our mistakes, and even our follies, for the production of good; when, without his interposition, they could have produced nothing but evil. Yet this does not alter the nature of things. It magnifies, by contrast, the greatness of God; but shows no respect to the littleness of man. Our infirmity is infirmity still; and our follies are follies still. They are not converted into strength, correctness, and wisdom-nor are they to be repeated by us-because God has graciously controlled them for our own benefit and the benefit of others. Talent is his gift; learning is obtained by the favour of his auspicious providence. His people are under a sad delusion when they affect to despise his bounty; and to honour that which it is given to destroy-we mean-Ignorance. He is also a sovereign. He may do as it pleaseth him. He can fit his instruments for their work. But his sovereignty is no rule of our action; and we must take instruments as we find them; i. e. such as he has made them. When we come with our offerings, we must bring of our best. As we cannot change the nature of means, we are

bound to select those which are, in themselves, best calculated to insure the end. Now ignorance is not so well adapted to instruct as knowledge is: nor can stupidity acquire or apply knowledge as talent can. God employed an ass to rebuke the madness of a prophet; but it does not follow that other asses are destined to a similar office; and are expected to bray as often as they encounter a prophet. We have no objection that modern Balaams shall be put to the same school; but we must first see the same power exerted to qualify the Teacher, and enable the "dumb ass to speak with man's voice;" or we shall heartily join in requiting the noise of His Dumbness with a sound cudgelling; the precedent in the book of Numbers to the contrary notwithstanding.

If good is effected by ignorant imbecility, the true conclusion is, that means make no difference when God chooses to act; as all difficulties are equal, that is, are nothing, to omnipotence. But we abuse our reason; injure the truth; and affront the HOLY ONE, when, from such a fact we conclude, whether formally or practically, that we are to clothe ignorance and imbecility with the authority, and assign them the duties of knowledge and power. We tacitly put ourselves on a level with God; we indirectly assert our omnipotence. Grant, as we cheerfully do, that, through the divine blessing, good has often been done, and much good too, by persons whom we should have pronounced unfit, on account of either talent or literature, or both, for the ministry of reconciliation-Does it follow, that, with the same blessing upon proper qualifications, the good would not have been much greater; especially as we do not argue on the supposition of miracles? It is a law of God's own enacting, and it is kept in operation by his continual agency, that all bodies shall gravitate, or tend in their motion, toward the center of the earth.

But