tions directly affecting themselves, it is in as fair a way of being decided well, as the imperfection of man admits. When such a court, then, fixes the pastoral relation between a minister and a congregation, it does not surrender him up absolutely to them; nor wed them to each other for life. It places him there, because it believes that his labours there will be, upon the whole, most useful to the church at large. And the principle which regulates the formation, must also regulate the continuance, of his pastoral relations. He is to remain so long as the church of God shall gain more by his continuance than by his removal, and no longer. Whenever it shall clearly appear that his labours may be turned to better account by his removal than by his continuance, he ought to be removed: not, however, at his own discretion, or the discretion of his people, but upon the same careful examination by the church representative, as preceded his first settlement. We repeat, that it would be unreasonable and unrighteous, to let an individual or a congregation possess the power of sacrificing to their narrow gratification, the interests of the Christian community. Ministers, then, must be in that situation which shall render their labours of the greatest utility. They are ordinarily joined to parochial charges; because this, upon the whole, is the best practical system; and not because their charges have an exclusive property in them. The claims of the church at large, always supersede the claims of any particular part; so that whatever be the attachment of a people to their minister, or of a minister to his people, when the general claim is set up, their particular feelings must give way; and that upon this self-evident truth, that the whole is greater than a part. Pursuing the same reasoning,

we perceive, that whether a minister shall have a congregation or not, is a question of secondary importance; and is to be answered by a prudent consideration of the previous question,-whether he is likely to be more extensively useful with or without a congregation?

That removals from charges where men are beloved and useful, ought not to be rash; ought not to take place, without the most solid reasons; ought, in all cases, to be managed with circumspection and with dignity; that the very uneasiness excited by such removals, ought to be weighed in the balances among the strong reasons against them, are dictates of common sense and equity; and no wise judicatory will ever disregard them. But that the principle is sound-that a minister may lawfully be removed from one charge to another; or from one species of labour to another, cannot be controverted, without tearing up the foundations of the whole church of God.

Finally. A very important result from our foregoing discussions concerning the nature of the church is, that no form of church government can be scriptural, which is not adapted to this broad and master-principle, that the visible church is

ONE.

Her external organization must be such as shall show her to the world, as a living body, according to the apostle's figure. Eph. iv. 12, 16. She must, therefore, have principles, and means, of common action. The whole must control the parts-She must have a power of self-preservation, which includes,

1. A power of commanding the agency of any particular member:

2. A power of combining the agency of all her members:

3. A power of providing for her nourishment

and health:

4. A power of expelling impurities and corruptions.

These things are essential to her organization according to the description given of her in the word of God. We may have occasion to illustrate them more particularly hereafter; we close, at present, with one remark-that a number of particular churches not united in mutual dependence, and not furnished with a principle of living efficiency in one common system, so as to bring the strength of the whole to operate in any part, or through all the parts collectively, as occasion-may require, no more resemble the visible church of Christ, than the limbs of the human body, dissevered, and not "fitly joined "together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part," resemble a healthy man.

REVIEW.

ART. I.

A CONTINUATION OF LETTERS Concerning the CONSTITUTION AND ORDER of the CHRISTIAN MINISTRY; addressed to the Members of the Presbyterian Churches in the City of New-York. Being an examination of the strictures of the Rev. Drs. Bowden and Kemp, and the Rev. Mr. How, on the former series. By Samuel Miller, D. D. one of the Pastors of the First Presbyterian Church, in the said City. New-York, published by Williams & Whiting. pp. 434,

12mo. 1809.

RELIGIOUS controversy, properly conducted, has often proved highly beneficial to the interests of truth. It usually excites a greater attention to the subject, procures for it a more close and extensive investigation, and thereby produces a more intelligent profession of the truth. Prove all things: Hold fast that which is good. We have seen more cause of alarm than of congratulation in the growing aversion to every thing like controversy, about the order of the Christian church, in this country; because we are persuaded that it proceeds more from indifference to the ordinances of God, than from the superior intelligence or liberality of the age. While the first talents of the country have, with great zeal, been directed to the consideration of political questions, there was danger that the present generation should become totally ignorant of those important principles, which had received ample discussion from the great and pious divines of preceding ages, relative to the constitution of the

church of God on earth. Professing Christians began, already, too generally, to connect themselves with some one of the existing churches, rather from motives of convenience, or of personal attachments, than from a preference which is the result of a previous impartial inquiry. We shall never, indeed, place the forms of church-government upon a footing with its evangelical purity, or its practical holiness; but we shall not cease, notwithstanding, to recommend the divinely appointed order of the church, to the pious attention of the disciples of our Lord. It is an ordinance of Christ; it is one of the means of grace; and it tends greatly to the preservation of sound doctrine, and to the promotion of true godliness. Walk about Zion, and go round about her: Tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks; consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following.

Whatever may have been the ultimate design of those Episcopal writers, who first sounded the alarm, by denouncing all Christians who are not within the pale of the Prelacy, as "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel," and beyond the reach of "covenanted mercy," they deserve to be considered, so far, as ministers of good to the church, as they have been the means of awakening its ministers and members from their slumbers, and of constraining them to a more diligent and thorough examination of the first principles of evangelical order. Upon this event, we accordingly congratulate the public. Already has a mass of information been laid before them, on the subject of the Christian ministry, which will be found useful many days hence.

We cheerfully recommend to the attentive perusal of all Christians, the volume now under review.