noured of God towards families, as they are in their pulpits. Let heads of families feel and understand the difference between deputies and substitutes; between requiring help to perform their own duty, and casting off that duty on the shoulders of others. The popish priests, taking advantage of the deference which was their due as ministers in the Church, set themselves up for a distinct body from the rest of the community, and assumed titles, authorities, and immunities, which are not wholly rejected even in Protestant countries to the present day. Indeed, the very term priest is an assumption. Since the death of Christ, there can be no priesthood, for there is no sacrifice to offer. Every true believer is a spiritual priest; but that is in the resurrection body of the Melchisedec high priest, who is gone within the veil and it would be strange for other Levites to be sacrificing, whilst He is performing the most important of all the acts of the great day of atonement, namely, appearing in the presence of God for us, who are waiting for Him to G 2 : come out once more in his glorious apparel, and bless us. This evil arises from not giving that respect which is due to the ambassador of Christ, and from giving a deference which is not due on false grounds: and which again arises from losing sight of the ordinance of God, and the meaning of the functions. The office is described in Scripture under the term MINISTER: that is, a servant of the people, who is to administer, or convey to them, the food which is sent them by the Lord. The very meaning, therefore, of the word, shows the absurdity of a system which would convert a servant into a superior. Another term is PASTOR; that is, one who is to conduct the flock to the food which their Master has provided, and has desired him to give them. Another term is BISHOP or overSEER; that is, one who overlooks the people; warns them of any danger which is coming to them; observes it as it arises, and, by performing this duty, enables the people to pursue their avocations with less interruption. Another term is ANGEL, or the messenger to carry Christ's message to the Church. The most extensive, and at the same time the most detailed instruction for Christian ministers, is to be found in the three first chapters of the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. We are informed therein, that the Great Universal Bishop holds the angels of churches immediately in His own right hand, and that no one intermeddles between Him and them. In that beautiful passage the Lord Jesus is exhibited, in vision, in the dress which the High Priest wore, not within the veil, which was of linen, but in the golden vesture which he wore when he came out to bless the people to indicate that the vision relates to what takes place in the Church on earth, not in the Church in Heaven. An enumeration is given of the whole of the titles of the Lord Jesus Christ, which conbined description is afterwards divided into seven different parts, one of which is prefixed to the head of seven separate Epistles, directed to seven separate Churches. It will : be found, on examination, that the warnings, given to these several Churches, contain all the evils into which it is possible for a Church to fall and that the peculiar character of Christ, which stands at the head of each Epistle, is that, by the contemplation of which, the Church, which has fallen into that evil, will be delivered from it. Thus there is no evil, which a watchful, and active, and jealous minister of a Church, can detect in the flock over which he is the overseer, for which he is not here provided with an antidote. It is to be observed in these Epistles, that Christ views the Church in its minister, and addresses him as responsible for the state of the Church under his charge. As is the minister, so is the Church; and whatever is the distinguishing characteristic of the minister, such is the characteristic of the Church; so that let any one quality abound in undue proportion in the minister, so will it be the predominant feature of the people to whom he ministers. By reflecting on the office of a shepherd, we perceive the duty of a spiritual pastor. It is his province to give to the sheep whatever food the Master has furnished him with for that purpose. A faithful shepherd will not presume to say, "this food is not proper for the flock, and therefore I will withhold it from them;" but he will say, "it is my Master's business to furnish what is proper for the sheep committed to my care; and whatever He gives to me, that will I give to them." This is so obvious, that the contrary could never have escaped censure, still less could it have drawn forth expressions of approbation, if the foundation of the responsibility had been kept in mind. Yet the conduct of Mr. Cecil, in withholding a portion of the food which God had given him to convey to the people, has been held up, by some of his brother clergymen, as an example worthy of imitation. But another character of the minister of a Church, sets this in a still clearer point of view, which is that of an ambassador. The business of an ambassador is to deliver the message with which he is charged. The con |