of view.

established clergy. In preaching written sermons, they have had time to digest their ideas, before they shall appear in the pulpit. They have sifted the chaff from the wheat. They have dismissed irrelevancies, obviated repetitions, retained a connected argument, and arranged a regular discourse. They can thus adhere closely to their text, and pursue their reasoning with accuracy and method. They can select and polish such language as shall exhibit their subject in a luminous, forcible, and elegant point The extemporary preacher, on the other hand, cannot pause for the task of choosing and of rejecting, amongst different thoughts and expressions which rush upon his mind. His business is to speak on, without interruption; parler bon, parler mal, parler toujours; so that he is compelled to adopt every sentiment and every phrase, unpruned and rude, and out of order, as it arises. Hence the total want of method, the wild incoherency, the endless repetitions, which appear in such discourses. Hence, too, the low vulgarisms, the awkward attempts at illustration, the diffuse tautology, the tedious circumlocutions, the homely allusions labouring in vain after perspicuity, which not only fail not to disgust every hearer of taste, sense, and judgment, but degrade the solemnity of the subject, excite smiles of contempt, and admit sinful man to an impious familiarity with

his Maker. Hence, in a word, all that rant, and noise, and nonsense, which pass among the gaping multitude for supernatural gifts.

Besides, in the name of common sense, are not those men better qualified for public instructors, who are versed in all the erudition necessary to fit them for the duties of their sacred profession; whose time and studies have been devoted for a number of years, to preparation for the work of the ministry; who are acquainted with the Scriptures in their original languages; who possess all the learning that can elucidate and explain them; than mechanics who have started but yesterday from the loom or from the anvil, hardly knowing their own language, despising the aids of human learning, and having neither had time nor opportunities for acquiring it? Christ in himself was the wisdom of God; and the twelve, being unlettered, received miraculous tongues and gifts to supply their deficiencies; but Moses was learned in all the knowledge of the Egyptians, and Paul was educated at the feet of Gamaliel.

Of the necessity of endowments acquired by study, the Methodists have of late years become sensible to a certain extent. Institutions have been raised for education; and certain qualifications are demanded of their regular ministers; but these consist more of facility in praying and preaching, than of languages, critical science,

or the general course of a liberal education: and there still remains the whole tribe of approved exhorters, and sooty-faced supplicators, to vent their ignorance and absurdity at the prayer and class meetings.

The clergy of the Establishment are not sent forth for the instruction of their unenlightened brethren, until it has been ascertained by superiors commissioned and competent to examine their ability, that they are qualified for so important a task. Equal caution is exercised in regard to their moral character; testimonials of their good behaviour for several years prior to their ordination, being required from the ministers or public teachers under whose inspection they have lived. Besides, they are called upon at their ordination to subscribe their solemn assent to the Thirty-nine Articles of our Church; which affords their hearers a security as to the orthodoxy of their principles. They are ordained by the bishops (as the Apostles ordained the priests and deacons of their time), to preach the Gospel in the churches to which they are appointed. They are expressly licensed to the cures, where they are to exercise their respective functions; not dismissed as vagabonds to ramble up and down the world, without home, character, flock, or specific destination. They appear, not earlier than the age of twenty-four, once more before the bishop; when reason may be supposed

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to have attained higher maturity, study a wider range, and principle a surer anchoring; that they may undergo a new examination, and be invested with ampler authority. And finally, they are answerable to the diocesan for their character, and for the due performance of their holy duties.

How different is all this from the institutions of enthusiasm! which frequently sanction self-elected teachers, who, untaught themselves, are incapable of guiding others; or which, if they exact any pretensions in candidates for the ministry, look more to fervours and pretences to illumination, or, at best, to volubility in prayer, and prompt, though unapt reference to Scriptural language, than to intellectual endowments and moral qualifications.

The Methodists have thought fit to employ lay-preachers in their societies. Now, without retracing the ground formerly traversed in this work, it shall suffice to observe, that, by the appointment of Christ himself, a regular succession of men has been ordained to minister in his church. That an outward commission, mediately or immediately derived from God, is requisite to authorize a man's execution of any sacerdotal act of religion, is manifest from the word of Scripture, and the example of our Saviour and his Apostles. Heb. v. 4. "This honour no man taketh unto himself, but he that

is called of God, as was Aaron." But what was the calling of Aaron? Not an inward summons, a secret whisper, which could not well be distinguished from the wild imagination, the self-deception of enthusiasm. It was a solemn consecration from the hands of Moses. His sons were ordered to be consecrated in the same manner, the promise being annexed, that their anointing should surely be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations. Our Lord himself, not content to rely, exclusively, on personal holiness, or inclination, or the gifts of the Spirit, as a call to the ministry, "glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but He that said unto him, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee." In like manner, when Christ delivered the aposto lical charge, on commissioning the eleven dis ciples, he employed the words, "As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." The selfsame principle was observed by the Apostles, in the administration of the primitive church: though many had received the Holy Ghost, as well as these friends of our Lord, none were permitted to enter upon any ministry, but such as were ordained by Apostolical authority. The divine commission necessary to qualify every minister of holy things, was thus handed down from our Lord and the Apostles, through an uninterrupted succession of men. A reformation