Thirdly. There is the most perfect consistency between a great diffusion of religious light, and great use of religious teachers. We find, by experience, that the most enlightened Christians do most honour and value an enlightened ministry. The ignorant, and the vain are most ready to suppose that they need no instruction. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser; teach a just man, and he will increase in learning, (Prov. ix. 9.) But, seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him, (xxvi. 12.) The "principalities and powers in heavenly places," were no novices in the knowledge of God. But when they wished to obtain still larger views of his "manifold wisdom," they did not blush to take a lesson from the lips of Paul, (Eph. iii. 10.)

There is no difficulty in the appellation of "Priests and Levites;" seeing it was customary with the prophets to speak of New Testament blessings in Old Testament style; and not practicable for them to use any other, and be sufficiently intelligible.

3d. Our Lord Jesus Christ delivered their commission to his apostles in terms which necessarily imply a perpetual and regularly successive ministry. Go ye, and TEACH ALL NATIONS, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you ALWAY, even unto the END OF WORLD, Matt. xxviii. 19.

THE

That this command and promise though immediately addressed, were not limited, to the apostles, is so obvious as almost to shame an argument. But since we are sometimes required to prove that two and two make four, we remark,

First. That as the command is to teach all nations; it must spread as far, and last as long as na

tions shall be found. It is therefore a command to make the Christian religion universal; and to perpetuate it from generation to generation.

Secondly. That as the Apostles were shortly to put off their tabernacles," the command could not possibly be fulfilled by them. It runs parallel with the existence of nations. It must, therefore, be executed by others, in every age, who are to carry on the work which the apostles begun; and who, by the very terms of the commandment, are identified with them in the general spirit of their commission, which is, to preach the doctrines, enforce the precepts, and administer the ordinances, of Jesus Christ.

Thirdly. That the promise, "I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world," cannot without palpable absurdity, be restricted to the persons, nor to the days, of the Apostles. Closely rendered it is, "I am with you always, even until the consumma tion of the age," i. e. dispensation*." But what ? what dispensation? Either the Jewish, or the Christian.

age

Not the Jewish, certainly. It would be very strange if the grace of the Redeemer's promise should abide with his apostles till the end of the old dispensation, and run out exactly at the moment when it was wanted for the new one. The "world," therefore, is that "world" which Paul calls "the world to come," (Heb. ii. 5.) i. e. the Christian dispensation. "I have just introduced it," says the master," and I will be with you to the close of it." The promise, then, as well as the precept, reaches to the end of time; and, like the precept, embraces a successive ministry to whom our Lord Jesus has engaged the continuance of his gracious presence.

4th. The Apostles themselves acted upon the

* Εως της συντέλειας του αιώνος.

principle of a perpetual ministry. "They ordained Presbyters in every church," (Acts xiv. 23.) Paul has left, in his epistles to Timothy and Titus, as a part of the rule of faith and practice, particular directions for the choice of Bishops or Presbyters and deacons : And in his epistle to the Hebrews, (ch. xiii. 17.) he charges these widely scattered disciples, to obey their spiritual rulers, under this precise idea that they watch, says he, for your souls as they that must give account.

5th. The New Testament abounds with predictions and warnings of apostasy in the ministers of religion; which, of course, implies the continuance of a ministry.

6th. The book of Revelation expressly recognizes the diffusion of the Gospel, in times yet to come, by the instrumentality of a public ministry, (ch. xiv. 6.)

Since, therefore, the Head of the church instituted a regular ministry in his church thousands of years ago-since he directed his prophets to foretell its existence under the new dispensation-since he gave to his apostles a commission which necessarily supposes its perpetuity-since these apostles themselves acted upon that principle in erecting churches-since the rule of faith has given instructions to guide its application-since the prophetic spirit in the last of the apostles has uttered oracles which are founded upon it--no conclusion is more safe and irrefragable than this; that a regular, standing ministry is an essential constituent of the church of God.

FOR THE CHRISTIAN's MAGAZINE.

Remarks on Matt. viii. 34.

And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him they be sought him that he would depart out of their coasts.

WERE we without knowing the circumstances

which produced it, to conjecture a reason for this conduct of the Gergasenes, it would naturally be unfavourable to Christ. Surely he whom a whole city besought to depart out of their coasts, must have done something extremely reprehensible, or at least rendered himself justly suspicious of evil designs against them. But no; he had displayed his divine power and benevolence, in casting out a multitude of devils from two poor wretched mortals, and permitted them to enter in and destroy a whole herd of swine in that country. The restoration of their fellow-citizens to reason, to personal happiness, and relative usefulness, did not, however, in the view of these people, compensate for the temporal loss they had sustained. The miracle evidently wrought in this restoration, did not excite their admiration, or reverence for the Saviour; nor did it overawe their carnal propensities, or make them desirous of experiencing his power for their real benefit.

They were alarmed lest they should suffer more seriously by him in their wordly circumstances. Their covetousness made them afraid, and prevented

them from improving the presence of Christ in a suitable manner. They did not even, as the inhabitants of other places had done, bring their sick, and lame, and blind to him, that he might heal them. Their own salvation, and the well-being of their afflicted neighbours, were objects in their opinion, subordinate to the increase or decrease of their substance. They therefore, with most awful infatuation, rejected Him who was the hope of Israel, and the salvation of the Gentiles.

As the conduct of our Lord, in permitting the devils to enter into the swine, has been declared unjust by Infidels and Jews*, and thus a plausible colouring given to the rejection of him by the Gergasenes, it is proper to repel the charge, before we proceed to make any practical use of this historical incident.

The country of the Gergasenes here mentioned, is called the country of the Gadarenes by Mark and Luke. Gergasa and Gadara, were both situated on the other side of Jordan, near the Lake of Gennesaret, in the district of country called Decapolis, and lay within the allotment of the tribe of Manasseh. Their adjacency to each other, is the reason why the Evangelists called the country laying between, sometimes from the name of the greater, Gadara, and sometimes from the lesser, Gergasa. It was at this time annexed to the province of Syria, and inhabited partly by Jews, and partly by Syrians, who were heathens. Though its inhabitants were thus of a mixed sort, it was always reckoned by the Jews as part of their dominions; and as such was treated by the Romans in their war afterwards with the Jews. Such being the state of this country, the Jews there raised great numbers of swine for the profit they made by selling them to their heathen neighbours,

* Woolston and Levi.