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rupt and mercenary motives, are to be treated according to their offences or characters, either by admonition, by censure, or by rejection from the church. "Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly," says the apostle in his letter to the Thessalonians (1 Thes. v. 14); and in a second letter to the same church, he commands them to withdraw themselves from every brother that walketh disorderly. These disorderly brethren were those who, instead of eating the bread of honesty and independence, had made themselves chargeable to the church for their pretended services. "Busy indeed! (says the apostle) but to no good purpose."* He continues, " now we charge such, and entreat them by our Lord Jesus Christ, that they labour and eat their own bread in peace." "And if any one disobey our orders in this letter, note that man, nor keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother." (2 Thes. iii. 11, 15.) To the Romans also he enjoins, "I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them; for they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.”—(Rom. xvi. 17, 18.) Characters such as these, after being sufficiently admonished of their error, are to be cut off from the church, according to the apostle's direction to Titus (iii. 10, 11.) "A man that is a heretic,† after the

* Wakefield.

+ "A fomenter of divisions," according to Wakefield; one who, in the language of the apostle, "is condemned of

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first and second admonition, reject, knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth, being condemned of himself."

6th. PENITENT OFFENDERS are to be treated with kindness, and to be received into the approbation of the church. Sufficient for such a man (says the apostle) is the punishment which was inflicted of many, so that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest such a one should be swallowed up with over-much sorrow, wherefore I beseech you, that you would confirm your love towards him." (2 Cor ii. 6, 8.)

himself."-Such was the ancient heretic; the modern heretic, however may be a man of the most virtuous and blameless life, who, endeavours to regulate his faith and practice by the docs trines and instructions of the apostles.

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ORDER OF THE CHURCH IN ITS ASSEMBLIES.

LET all things be done unto edifying-let all things be done decently and in order, for God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. (1 Cor. xiv. 26, 33, 40.)-Such, according to the apostle, was the spirit which should characterize the meetings of the church. "Prophane and vain babbling," "foolish and unlearned questions," are recommended to be avoided, as engendering strife, and tending to evil. Any unbecoming attention or deference to the rich man, or marked neglect of the poor, who come into the Christian assembly, is reprobated by James in pointed terms, as proceeding from improper dispositions, and evincing a partiality of judgment unworthy of Christianity. (James ii. 1, 4. See also 2 Tim. 16, 23; 1 Pet. iv. 11.)

* This order and decorum was particularly necessary in the Christian assemblies, inasmuch as the church, as the repository of divine truth, was to be the means of presenting it to the world. Paul supposes the unlearned or the unbeliever to be instructed and converted by coming into the Christian assembly, and hearing their teaching. (1 Cor. xiv. 24, 25.)-The church at Phillippi is represented as "shining forth aluminary to the world, holding out a doctrine of life." (Phil. ii. 14, 15, 16.)

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To instruct the church and the world are the objects which bring Christians together in their public assemblies. The writer to the Hebrews recommends believers to provoke one another to love and good works, and not to neglect the assembling themselves together, as was the manner of some. (Heb. x. 24,25.) The church of Thessalonia are exhorted to comfort themselves together, and to edify one another,"even also as ye do," adds, the writer. (Thes. v. 11.)-The teachers speak one by one. "Let (says the apostle) two or three teachers speak, and the rest determine !" The right of teaching belongs equally to all, "for ye may all teach one by one, that all may learn and all be admonished," adds the same apostle.* "If

may

* The whole of the 14th chapter of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians is decisive in favour of the right of teaching being enjoyed by all, and proves demonstrably that such was the plan of the primitive assemblies. No method has yet been discovered of getting rid of the force of this portion of the New Testament in favour of the liberties of Christians; and in spite of the efforts of a corrupt translation, the object of the apostle appears sufficiently obvious, and his argument unequivocal. "Ye may all prophecy one" by one is absurd-our translators have thrust the term prophecy into the very teeth of the apostle's reasoning, which is to draw the distinction between miraculous gifts and the plain exercise of the understanding and abilities of men"In the church (says he) I had rather speak five words with

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any man speak (says Peter) let him speak as (or according to) the oracles of God." And to the Romans Paul directs, that the several gifts of the church should

my understanding, that I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue." He that prophesieth (that is teacheth, says the writer) speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort." Surely this is not foretelling future events! If (says the apostle in arguing the superior advantages of teaching over miraculous powers) "if therefore the whole church be come together in one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned or unbelievers, will they not say ye are mad? but if all prophecy (if all teach) and there come in one that believeth not, or unlearned, he is convinced of all-he is judged of all; or, as Wakefield has it, "he is led by all to conviction he is led by all to an examination of himself." If all teach is not such language decisive on the question? Is it possible such language could have been applied to a state of things in which teaching was confined to a man in a pulpit? "Let your women (adds the apostle) keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak." An incidental circumstance this, but proving at the same time to a demonstration, that teaching was not the office of one man only. Such a recommendation would have no point in the present day, when it is not permitted even unto the men to speak in the churches.

We hear frequently in the scriptures of preachers of the gospel, and it is necessary to say a word or two on this head, to distinguish them from a race of modern hirelings who pretend to that character. The word which is translated preach, in our Bibles, signifies to proclaim, to heraldize. The apostles were appointed to proclaim the gospel, the good news, that the kingdom of heaven was at hand-they had to proclaim this dispensation, and in a given time, throughout the vast extent of the Roman empire, for Jesus had declared, that before the destruction of the Jewish polity, his gospel must first be published among all nations. The apostles preached to unbelievers, not to believers. Paul declared, "that from Jerusalem round about unto Illiricum he had fully preached the gospelnot where Christ was named, lest he should build upon another man's foundation." To the Corinthians also he

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