to any other people, to act justly and kindly, and to behave peaceably; for all these men are (as the Lord's Prayer implies) God's creatures, nay, God's children; hence these words which begin the Prayer, and which may be used by all men, "Our Father which art in heaven," and so on. All nations, it is true, are not the same in character, any more than all the sons of a family are the same in temper and conduct. Some sons are dutiful, others are undutiful; some are clever fellows, others are great blockheads; still they should in a family be all kind to each other. These members of the human family, the rascally Chinamen, as they are sometimes called, are shrewd fellows; and I am sorry to say, they too often take in the honest-hearted British Sailor. They sell him bad poisonous grog or spirits, and they pretend to be friends till he is drunk, and then they rob him of his money. These fellows should be shunned and guarded against. All Chinese are not so bad. They have both good and bad men amongst them. But all of them, even when saucy, are not worth fighting with. A British seaman's courage is well known; he need not show it in fighting with the Chinamen, but he should try to be quite as sober, and as well behaved as the best of these people are and he should not allow himself to be taken aback by a spirit-drinking breeze, whilst the bad Chinamen are sipping tea with a final intention of coolly robbing poor Jack's pockets. This simplicity of the Sailor is what every body blames; and those who most love and admire a True British Tar, still weep over his too frequent thoughtlessness and folly. Wishing you, Men and Lads, health and every good, and I say it very seriously, Peace with God, by repentance and faith in the merits of our Saviour; for then you will study to" live a godly, righteous, and sober life," wherever you go. I remain, Your's sincerely, AMICUS. SAILOR'S PRAYER. Written in the Atlantic Ocean, on board the Ship Mexico. Guide us, O! thou great Jehovah, Bid the breeze propitious blow. Be our safe guard thro' the night-watch, To our destin'd port in safety, Give us fleet and gladsome way; Be thou still our strength and shield. And when life's short voyage is over, In the haven of the blest, Find an everlasting rest; For the great Redeemer's sake. A BRIEF INQUIRY INTO WHAT MAY REASONABLY BE EXPECTED OF (αποστολοι εκκλησίων) "MESSENGERS OR APOSTLES OF THE CHURCHES," TO UNEVANGELIZED NATIONS.* 1.-"The great principles of moral science require every individual first to study and practice virtue himself, and then to communicate the knowledge and practice of virtue to others."-(CONFUCIUS.) 2.-"Touching the preferment of the contemplative, or active lifeChristianity decideth it against Aristotle." For contemplation, which should be finished in itself, without casting beams on society, assuredly (Christian) divinity knoweth it not." "There is formed in every thing a double nature of good: the one, as every thing, is a total in itself; the other, as it is a part or member of a greater body, whereof the latter is in a degree the greater and the worthier, because it tendeth to the conservation of a more general form. Therefore we see the iron in particular sympathy moveth to the loadstone, but yet, if it exceed a certain quantity, •The English Version renders АTоσтоλOS-Apostle and Messenger ; Yanрerns-Minister, Officer and Servant ; This, in my opinion, is a defect, because it does not afford the English Reader an opportunity of judging for himself of the use of these and suchlike epithets. Jesus himself is called The Apostle" of our profession. The difference between the Twelve Apostles, and other Messengers, did not consist in, nor is it marked by, the term employed to designate them, but in the Person sending, and in the qualifications he bestowed upon them. The immediate "Apostles of Christ," and the "Apostles of Churches," either in the primitive or any subsequent age, hold very different offices in degree, although similar in kind, for both carry God's message of mercy to perishing sinners. it forsaketh the affection to the loadstone, and, like a good patriot, moveth to the earth, which is the region and country of massy bodies; so may we go forward and see that water and massy bodies move to the centre of the earth; but rather than to suffer a divulsion in the continuance of nature, they will move upwards from the centre of the earth, forsaking their duty to the earth, in regard of their duty to the world.-But it may be truly affirmed, that there never was any philosophy, religion, or other discipline, which did so plainly and highly exalt the good that is communicative, and depress the good which is private and particular, as the holy (Christian) faith; well declaring, that it was the same God that gave the Christian law to men, who gave those laws of nature to inanimate creatures that we spake of before."-(BACON.) 3.-" Christianity never expects that men will, of their own accord, originate that movement by which they are to come in contact with the faith of the Gospel; and therefore, instead of waiting till they shall move towards the Gospel, it has been provided from the first that the Gospel shall move towards them. "It is no where supposed that the demand for Christianity is spontaneously, and, in the first instance, to arise among those who are not Christians; but it is laid upon those who are Christians, to go abroad, and, if possible, to awaken out of their spiritual lethargy those who are fast asleep in that worldliness which they love, and from which, without some external application; there is no rational prospect of ever arousing them."-(CHALMERS.) 4.-" The Lord Christ, having ascended up far above all heavens, gave some Apostles, some Prophets, some Evangelists, and some Pastors and Teachers."-" God hath set in the church gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues," &c.—(ST. PAUL.) 5.-" Prophets may denote such as possessed the word of knowledge as well as the gift of prophecy."--(BOOTHROYD.) 6." The office of Apostles is acknowledged, on all hands, long since to have terminated. "Of Prophets it is only necessary to observe, that their office must terminate, of course, when inspiration terminates. Evangelists are universally acknowledged to have been extraordinary officers, and to have ceased in a very early period of the church. "There remain then only Pastors and Teachers-but the same person was Pastor and Teacher. We We are (thus) come to one class of permanent Ecclesiastical officers, viz. that which is known by the word Pastors."-(DWIGHT.) 7. Thus it is that some men get rid of a variety of officers, i. e. of a diversity of Labourers and Helpers in the church, in order to suit their own local wants, or their modern systems, by assuming and exaggerating the " extraordinary" character and circumstances of the primitive church; just as some others in our day get rid of primitive doctrines and duties on the same plea."(MORRISON.) 8.-" All our long conversation on the subject of religion ended in nothing. My friend was convinced he was right; and all the texts I produced were, according to him, applicable only to the times of the Apostles.”—(MARTYN.) 9.-" Evangelists:-Under this name they are to be understood whom the Apostles used as their attendants, in performing their office; because they were not sufficient for every thing. Of this kind were Timothy, Titus, Silvanus, Apollos, whom Paul joined with himself in the inscription of the epistles, yet so as to call himself alone an Apostle : this office, therefore, was only temporary."-(BEZA.) The opinion of this venerable Reformer, in the last clause, seems not well founded. The office of "Evangelists," in the primitive times, was in most respects similar to that of Missionaries in subsequent times. They were preachers of the Gospel without full apostolical authority and without any stated charge; going among the heathen to found churches, visiting the churches already planted, &c. -When zeal for propagating the Gospel subsided, this office sunk into disuse; and thus, for ages, the heathen have been in a great measure neglected: and it seems to have been one GRAND DEFECT at the Reformation, that no part of the funds, which had been appropriated to religious purposes, was reserved for the special object of supporting Evangelists to the heathen world.—The office of Evangelist must revive along with the spirit of evangelizing the nations."-(SCOTT.) 10." Those employed in preaching the Gospel to those who had not yet received it, the Scripture calls Evangelists.”—(HAMMOND.) 11.-"The motives that ought to determine a man to dedicate himself to the ministering in the church, are a zeal for promoting the glory of God, for raising the honour of the Christian religion, for the making it to be better understood, and more submitted to. He that loves it, and feels the excellency of it in himself, that has a due sense of God's goodness in it to mankind, and that is entirely possessed with that, will feel a zeal within himself, for communicating that to others; that so the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent, may be more universally glorified and served by his creatures. And when to this he has added a concern for the souls of men, a tenderness for them, a zeal to rescue them from endless misery, and a desire to put them in the way to everlasting happiness; and from these motives, feels in himself a desire to dedicate his life and labours to those ends; and in order to them, studies to understand the Scriptures, and more particularly the New Testament, that from thence he may form a true notion of this holy religion, and so be an able minister of it: this man, and this only man, so moved and so qualified, can in truth, and with a good conscience, answer, that he trusts he is inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost."-(Bishop BurNET.) |