was used synonimously with miracu leus," miraculous powers, with a correspondent extraordinary measure of the Holy Spirit." In the opening of these chapters we have a passage which, excepting a new use of this word extraordinary, we should quote with much approbation to the point of a distinction between gifts for Edification and those for Sanctification. "The influences of the Holy Spirit on the hearts of men are both general and extraordinary. By the general influences the Spirit I mean the work of grace,— points of a very practical and even vital nature, which seem not to have met with all the notice they demand, we shall add a few words, still under the head of Edification. On the doctrine of the ministry, Friends, in many, and indeed in most points, touch upon what is right; and then, by a small and sudden excess, seem to dart forward into all those conclusions which, but for the respectability of many who hold them, we should be ready to call absurd. In the question of the ministry, they are not really in principle so widely different from the Anglican church, as they at first appear to be. We have a ministry. We support a ministry. We educate a ministry. We authorise a ministry by human sanctions; requiring still in our ministers a primary Divine call. We do all this: and do not even Friends virtually do much the same? And yet, by the help of a little assumption, and a little mysticism, and a little casuistry, and a little philology, and above all a constant appeal to the direct, perceptible, and infallible influences of the Divine Spirit, we have five whole chapters, extending from the 130th to the 241st page, occupied with discussions on the Nature and Character of the Christian Ministry; on the Selection, Preparation, and Appointment of Ministers; on the Pecuniary Remuneration of the Mi"These extraordinary influences are nisters of the Gospel; on the Mi- usually denominated the gifts of the Spinistry of Women; on Silent Wor- rit, To one,' says Paul, is given by ship-all conveying a silent or an the Spirit the word of wisdom; to ano open condemnation of every Chris- ther the word of knowledge, by the same tian community except their own, rit; (that is, probably, such faith as quaSpirit; to another faith, by the same Spion these several points, and claim-lified for the execution of some peculiarly ing for themselves that respect and important service ;) to another the gifts of attention which we are persuaded healing, by the same Spirit; to another will always be given to their virtue the working of miracles to another proand their worth, whatever may be phecy; to another the discerning of spigiven to their arguments. 718 6/1 rits; to another divers kinds of tongues,; We always suspect some confu- to another the interpretation of tongues: a work essential to the salvation of the soul, and by which alone we are tormed from our evil ways, enabled to serve God out of a pure heart, and preserved alivė as members of the body of Christ. The grace of God which bringeth salvation,' says the Apostle Paul, hath appeared to all men; teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this he says, By grace are ye saved, through present world.' Tit. ii. 11, 12. Again, faith; and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God.' Eph. ii. 8. The extraordia nary influences of the Spirit are those which qualify individuals for particular, religious services: they are by no means indispensable to salvation; it is not by them that we maintain our spiritual life neither are they as a whole, the common allotment of all the living members of the true church, but are variously bestowedone upon one person, and another upon another. and the sion in ideas, where we find a con- but all these worketh that man fusion in words. The use of the word extraordinary, at the opening of these remarkable chapters, is entirely different from the use of it in the forty-second page.io:There it SIG self-same Spirit, dividing This apostolic description of the dis severally as he will.' 1 Cor. xi. 8-17 tribution of Divine gifts in the church, is introduced by the declaration that's the manifestation of the Spirit is given t every man to profit withal (or, as in the Greek, in order to that which is profitable or useful.)' And as every member of the natural body contributes by the exercise of its own functions to the welfare of the ham's Antiquities; and we should all readily confess, if the notion of extraordinary inspiration were given up, that the Christian church, very soon after the cessation of supernatural gifts, consigned the office of preaching, which otherwise occasionally fell to laymen, entirely to the clergy, who had ever been the most usual and especial instruc whole body, so it may be presumed that there is no real Christian who is not, sooner or later, endowed with some particular spiritual capacity for usefulness in the church, and called to the performance of some specific services, in the great cause of truth and righteousness." Gur-tors of the church. Again, we both ney, pp. 130, 131. Here, in the main, we do not at all differ from Mr. Gurney, provided that in his claim of these extraordinary gifts, he does not include any thing really supernatural or miraculous, as vouchsafed to the Apostolic Church; for whatever is not extraordinary in these ministerial gifts, we claim as strongly as Friends do. We distinctly claim the grant of ministerial gifts, both as designating our ministers, and as supporting them in the discharge of their office. Nay, we allow to all Christians indiscriminately, a certain power to edification in their several ranks and stations in life; in their families, amongst their friends would it be too much to say, over their minister himself, in the way of silent example, or of general advice and suggestion? Where then do Friends and the Anglican church part company 2 We shall find, if we mistake not, from first to last, that the whole substance of our difference lies in this very point of direct, perceptible, and infallible influences from the Holy Spirit. As to all other differences on this head, we seem in a measure persuaded that they might be adjusted between us. For instance, referring to what we have before ventured to assert: We both have a ministry, set apart and called to the office of preaching; only they find that this is a distinct order in the Christian church from bishops, presbyters, and deacons, who though perfectly" apt to teach," are yet not the only persons to whom the ministerial call ought to be confined. This then may soon be adjusted by the help of Bing support a ministry; only Friends confine their support to itinerant ministers when on their journeys, to the very letter, as Mr. Gurney philologically remarks, of the text, "whilst the ox is treading out the corn." But surely, if our ox is constantly so employed, they cannot but allow that he should be constantly fed. It would be a hard case indeed to stop an itinerant Friend half way on his journey, and say, "Here thou shalt stay, and exercise thy ministry for our benefit, away from thy connexions, thy friends, thy business but mind, how that thou art stationary, thou must contrive by some means to support thyself; for if thou didst travel to the ends of the earth, we should keep thee the whole way but the moment thou becomest a stationary pastor, thou must, without any visible means of doing so, feed thyself, as well as spiritually feed thy flock." And yet such would be the case, we presume, of more than half the slenderly provided clergy by whom our parishes are filled. As to stationary "hirelings," we can have no possible objection to the term, which the reflecting Friend would not equally feel to that of itinerant "hirelings."Again; we both educate a ministry: aye, and we must confess, at least till of late, in something of the same heathenish style; for, till of late, an express theological education was very little the course in either of our universities. Now, Mr. Gurney states, that Friends still decline any direct ministerial education, for fear of prejudging either the man of his destination by the Divine Spirit, itself a directly edifying tendency—the acquirement of Christian knowledge, espe cially through the study of the holy Scriptures. An accurate acquaintance with that Divine book will be found of no little services which may be allotted to us in the avail in the performance of almost any church for where is the moral condition, where is the religious engagement, to which something applicable may not be discovered among the examples, the doctrines, or the precepts, recorded in the Bible? But it must on all hands be But, in lieu of this particular education, the late system of our universities seems again revived in Mr. Gurney's pages. Though he proscribes an "academical," which he seems, we fear without any just foundation, to think always synonimous with a "theological," preparation for the ministry; yet, in page 176, he is particularly anxious that Friends should not be understood as discouraging the general pursuit of literature. And he allowed, that to the Christian minister, a proceeds: "George Fox informs us, in one passage of his interesting journal, that he advised the institution of an academy for the children of Friends, that they might be instructed in whatsoever things were civil and useful in the creation,' fol. ed. A. D. 1765, p. 395; and I am persuaded that many Friends in the present day entertain an earnest, I hope an increasing desire, that their young people may be so instructed. Whatever be our calling in the world, and whatever our station in the church, it is unquestionable that the exercise of our intellectual faculties, and the collecting of useful knowledge, will enlarge our capacity for the service of our great Master; and on this principle it is to be freely admitted that learning may produce, collaterally and subordinately, a desirable effect, even on the ministry of the Gospel. Not only may the powers of the mind be strengthened for that, and every other good purpose, by means of a liberal education; but occasions frequently occur in which information upon various points may be made to subserve the great object of the Christian minister. Thus, for example, when the Apostle Paul was engaged in preaching to the polite and fastidious Athenians, it gave him no slight advantage with his audience, that he was able to illustrate his doctrine by an apposite quotation from one of their own poets. Acts xvii. 28." Gurney, pp. 176, 177. Our readers, however, must not suppose that this provisional education for the ministry is confined to heathenish studies; for he adds knowledge of the Bible is of peculiar and pre-eminent use and importance." Gurney, p. 177. Where then, after all, is practically our difference upon the subject of education, except only (to our shame be it spoken) that whereas we in former times took very little pains to educate any fitly for the sacred office, Friends on the contrary have long seen, and we hope acted upon, the propriety of educating all? That we both authorise a minis try by human means and sanctions, is a fact so very clear, that we need but to substitute our own collegiate and other subscribers to much-abused testimonials, in the first instance; then the examining chaplain; and finally the supreme officer of the church in the exercise of his high responsible duty of ordination:-all these we need but to substitute for the body of elders officially designated to the same responsible duties in the Friends meeting; and the following description of human check and supervision over the direct and perceptible call of the Spirit, will, we think, then equally suit both the society of Friends and the Anglican church." "Let it not, however, be imagined that, in the decision of the question whether or not he is truly appointed to that office, the minister is to depend exclusively on his own judgment. Christians are ever to be subject one to another in love; and it must, in great measure, devolve on their brethren, to determine whether those who speak the word are rightly invested with their functions, or whether their communications rest on no better foundation than their own will. The generality of my readers are probably well aware that one of the principal duties of the elders in our religious society is to watch over the ministry, to guard against the encroachments of unsound and unauthorized doctrine; to encourage the feeble and the diffident, and to restrain the forward and the hasty among the Lord's servants. Nor is the office of judging respecting the ministry confined to the elders alone. As the whole body of the church in any place is interested in the question respecting the authority of its ministers, so is the whole body concerned in the decision of that question. When a congregation of Christians have bestowed on the ministry of any individual a due and patient attention-when they are brought to a satisfactory sense that it is attended with the life and power of the Spirit of truth-when they have fully experienced its enlivening and edifyfully experienced its enlivening and edifying influence-they are enabled to form a sound and valid judgment, that such an one is inwardly moved to the work by the Holy Ghost; and then, though they have no concern with his appointment to the ministry, it is required of them, by the order of Christian discipline, (and it is a practice universal in the society of Friends,) to acknowledge that he is a true minister of Christ, and to YIELD to him that station in the church which so imprtant a calling demands." Gurney, N. 181, 182. Considering the partial views whch the education of friends, however literary, imparts on some fungmental points, we must say, that,with a candour that does Mr. Gurn the greatest credit, and which at all mes, indeed very eminently, distingishes him, he is able to see the full ofference between the abuse and negct into which a system may fall, nd the actual foundation in princip on which it rests. Indeed his cocessions are by far the most remarble and sensible part ...of his work: ad we have full reason for quoting following admission, as it appears, with regard to their Fown ministers. Happily, there is still another class of ministers among various denominations of Christians (as I can testify from my own observation), whose views on the present subject are of a much more spiritual character. In the first place, they enter into the sacred office under very decided impressions of Christian duty, and in the humble yet full persuasion that they are called into this field of service by the great Head of the Church. And in the second place, when invested, according to their own apprehension, with the office in question, they exercise its important functions, not only with zeal and fidelity, but with a real feeling of dependence upon the Divine Spirit. Such persons are evidently the servants of the Lord Jesus Christ; and we can scarcely fail to observe how frequently their labours are blessed to the conversion and edification of the people. Nevertheless, it must be confessed respecting even these preachers of the Gospel, that their ministry is unmixed offspring of the Lord's Spirit, The principle upon which they generally (I will not say universally) conduct their religious services appears to be this-that, having been called to the work and invested with the office of preachers, they Snot the are constantly to seek for the assistance of Divine power in the exercise of its functions nevertheless, that the discourses which they actually utter, are not to be immediately prompted of the Lord, but, under the more general and indirect influences of the Holy Spirit, are to be the produce of their own minds, and mostly of previous study, research, and reflection. "Little as I am inclined to cast any blame upon others who are evidently accepted and assisted by their Own Master,' I conceive it to be a duty plainly laid upon the society of Friends to hold up a still higher and purer standard respecting the Christian ministry. It is a principle generally understood and admitted by the members of that Society, that the faculty of the Christian ministry is a gift of the Spirit, which cannot be rightly exercised, otherwise than under the direct and immediate influence of that Spirit. Friends are not, therefore, satisfied with any general impression that it is their duty to preach the Gospel; nor do they venture, under such impression, either to employ their own intellectual exertions as a preparation for the service, or to select their own time for performing it. If it be the Divine will that they should minister, they believe it will be manifested to them by the Divine Spirit, when they are to speak, whom they are to address, and what things they are to express. In the exercise of so high and sacred a function, they dare not depend either in a greater or less degree upon their own strength or wisdom; but they feel constrained to place their sole reliance upon Him who searcheth the reins and the hearts; upon Him who hath the key of David; who openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth. Rev. iii. 7.” Gurney, PP. 133–135,0 For ourselves, and for our readers too, we must be content with one observation. "If it be the Divine will that the Quaker should minis ter," it yet fully appears that “this purpose may, in its operation, be disappointed by the negligence, as well as perverted by the activity, of fulness and neglect of the Shepman." And if, "through unwatchherd's voice," even the Quaker (as we understand) may "fall short of the station designed for him;" may not 2 1 "the manifestation by the Divine Spirit" be equally disap pointed in its operation, through the negligence or activity of man, when that manifestation is supposed to intimate "when they are to speak, whom they are to address, and what things they are to say?" If then this disappointment may under any circumstances take place, we should ask the Friend when, in point of fact, and how, he judges that it has not taken place? Will he say, can he say, any thing but this, that he judges of it by the fruits and effects produced? "By their fruits y shall know them;" as Mr. Gurney had formerly quoted. When, the person, and his ministry, his saying, his doing, his praying, or prophecying, shall, under the judicious interpretation not of himself only, but of others, the elders for instance, be that the manifestation is recognized.. pronounced to edification; then it is to be a true manifestation of the... Here then we fully see what is Spirit, and that permission is given the point really at issue between to the persons, addressed to profit the Quakers and the Anglican withal. Now what is there in this church on the subject of the sacred that, mutatis mutandis, does not ministry. And must we again go happen in every scriptural and over our whole ground respecting spiritual ministry under heaven? so direct, perceptible, and infallible, And when the minister of the or as they are now become direct Anglican church has felt it to be and immediate, influences from manifested to himself by the Divine above? Or may we not, availing our Spirit that he should minister; and selves more especially of Mr. Gur when he goes forth to his work ney's own important concessions, say prompted by a judicious interpreta at once, upon a view of the whole tion of the mind of the Spirit, both matter, that practically we are here" when he is to speak at allt u 1 6 I ་་ |