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1. A power of commanding the agency of any particular member:

2. A power of combining the agency of all her members:

3. A power of providing for her nourishment and health:

4. A power of expelling impurities and corruptions.

These things are essential to her organization according to the description given of her in the word of God. We may have occasion to illustrate them more particularly hereafter; we close, at present, with one remark-that a number of particular churches not united in mutual dependence, and not furnished with a principle of living efficiency in one common system, so as to bring the strength of the whole to operate in any part, or through all the parts collectively, as occasion may require, no more resemble the visible church of Christ, than the limbs of the human body, dissevered, and not "fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part," resemble a healthy man.

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CHURCH OF GOD.

No. VIII.

Officers.

A COMMUNITY So large, and yet so compact; formed, preserved, and perpetuated with so much care; directed to so high an end; and furnished with principles of such universal application, as we have proved the church of God to be, requires a suitable regimen. God is the God of order: no order can be kept up any where without governmènt; and no government can exist without officers to administer it. Our next inquiry, therefore, relates to the officers whom Christ hath appointed.

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4. PASTORS and TEACHERS,-Ibid. Acts xiii. 1.

who ruled,

who also laboured in word and 1 Tim. v. 17. doctrine,

5. ELDERS, who ruled" without "labouring in word and doctrine,”- -Ibid.

6. DEACONS, -Acts vi. 1-6. 1. Tim. iii. 8. It is evident that the great object of all these offices was the religious education of the world. We mean that they were intended to instruct mankind in the knowledge of divine truth; to inspire them with pure principles and spiritual affections; to form their individual and social habits to practical holiness, and moral order; in one word, to render them "meet for the inheritance of the saints in light."

It is also evident, that some of these offices were only temporary. Which of them were designed to be permanent, and in what form, is an inquiry which we must postpone till we shall have settled a previous question.

It has been, and still is, a received belief among almost all who profess Christianity, that the Redeemer has instituted a regular ministry to be perpetuated in an order of men specially set apart and commissioned by his authority, for the purpose of inculcating the doctrines and duties of Christianity; and that no man may lawfully en

ter upon its functions without an official warrant from them who are themselves already in office.

Others contend that this whole system is of human origin; is founded either in ignorance or in fraud; and militates directly against the nature and privileges of the Christian church.

Others again, attempt a middle course; allowing the general principle of a ministry, but leaving the application of it at large; and conceiving the exercise of gifts with the approbation of the church, that is, a number of professing Christians met together for public worship, to be a valid and sufficient call.

To clear up this matter, let us consider,

1. What the scriptures have determined concerning the fact in dispute: and

2. What are the uses, qualifications, and mode of preserving, a standing ministry.

1. As to the fact. These things are worthy of regard.

1st. It is undeniable, that from the time God set up his church in her organized form, (and even before,) until the Christian dispensation, there was an order of men consecrated, by his own appointment, to the exclusive work of directing her worship, and presiding over her interests: insomuch that no man, but one of themselves, not even a crowned head, might meddle with their functions; nor undertake, in any way, to be a

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