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Acts viii. 30, 31. Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me?

THE subject of human teaching is rather a delicate one to touch upon, as we have the Romish Priest on one side of us, and the Unitarian on the other, the scriptural path between the two being very narrow. The Romanist practically does away with the necessity of searching the scriptures, by demanding a blind submission to the teaching of the Church (as he calls it); while the Unitarian makes a boast of despising all human creeds and human teachers, and thinks he justifies himself for so doing by declaiming against priestcraft and spiritual despotism, mental thraldom, &c., &c. Our present business, however, is only with the latter, though a few words may be necessary just to guard against the opposite danger.

No one can have read much of Mr. Barker's writings, without seeing that the real object of his outcry against paid ministers is to throw discredit on the Christian ministry altogether. He knows, as well as I do, that a minister may receive pay, and yet not be what our Lord calls a "hireling;" but he knows also, that calling them all hirelings together lowers them in the eyes of ignorant people, and so far weakens their influence. If he can only get people to shut their ears against the ministers of Christ, on the ground that they are paid for teaching certain doctrines, and therefore are not worth attending to, he will then be able to instil his own teaching into their minds, with little danger of having his mistakes corrected or his deceptions exposed. To accomplish this end he spares no pains, and is not afraid of using such wholesale calumny, as I have given a specimen of in the preceding Lecture. Let us then briefly prove from scripture, First, that the Christian ministry is a thing ordained by God; and, Secondly, that a paid ministry is a thing sanctioned by God,

1 Cor. xii. 23, 23. "And God hath set some in the Church, first Apostles, secondarily Prophets, thirdly Teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all Apostles? Are all Prophets? Are

all Teachers?" Yes, to be sure, we are; every man is his own teacher: "The people have been too long held in bondage by an interested and money-loving priesthood; but their eyes are getting opened, and they are now determined to think and act for themselves." No doubt they are; it is one of the most striking signs of the times. But let me beg you to consider, whether, when God set teachers in the church, he thought every one capable of teaching himself; and whether those, who despise one of the divinely appointed means of learning the truth, are ever likely to be taught it. If it be replied, that these "teachers were only required in the early days of Christianity, we refer you to Eph. iv. 11, 13, where both their purpose and duration are fixed. "And he gave

some apostles; and some prophets; and some evangelists; and some pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ; till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, into a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." No one, I suppose, will say, that this state of universal Christian perfection has yet arrived; and if not, "the ministry" is still a Divine ordinance. Again, "We beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake." 1 Thes v. 12. Who talks of any one being over us? Such language "might have been expected from a Roman Catholic Priest, and in a Popish country, but it won't suit the present age and country." Quite true, it will not indeed; but it is the language of an inspired Apostle notwithstanding; and language which he used more than once. Hear him again; "Let the elders which rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine" 1 Tim. v. 17. "Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God; whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, to-day and for ever." Heb, xiii, 7. And lastly, "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account." Heb. xiii. 17. From these texts we might have learnt for ourselves, even if another Apostle had not told us, (Jude ii), that it is quite possible, under the Christian dispensation, where there is no Priest to commit the sin, in spirit at least, of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram-" And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy every one of them, and

*The only Priesthood now is the High-priesthood of Christ, and the universal Priesthood of Christians, 1 Pet, ii. 9. The word "Priest" in our Prayerbook is a contraction of Presbyter, which means an elder. The Church of Rome does claim to have Priests, that is, persons appointed to offer sacrifice.

the Lord is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord? Numbers, xvi. 3. If some professedly Christian ministers, alas! "Run greedily after the error of Balaam for a reward," are none of the people in danger of perishing in the gainsayimg of Core 2"

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You will now, it is to be hoped, see through the fallacy of the Unitarians' favourite question, which is boasted of as unanswered and unanswerable"-If you had never seen any religious book but the Bible, and had no other opportunity of gaining religious information, would you have known anything of orthodox doctrines? Let us put another question; If the Eunuch had had no other opportunity of gaining religious information but the Bible which he was reading in his chariot, would he have understood the 53rd chapter of Isaiah? If so, why was Philip sent to explain it to him, and what did he mean by replying to Philip's question, whether he understood what he read, How can I, except some man should guide me? God never intended the Bible to be our only opportunity of gaining religious information; he never intended, that when the Bible was put into our hands we should be left without any human help or teaching, to learn the truth out of it by ourselves; he never intended that our minds should be left unprejudiced, to form our own religious opinions; in other words, that we should grow up from childhood without any religious instruction. No, besides the knowledge of Divine truth, which every child should receive from its parent with the first dawn of intellect, God has given us "evangelists, pastors, and teachers;" this shews that he does not mean us to be left to ourselves, but to be taught, guided, and instructed. It is true that all may not have this privilege; and whether a person, who really had no other means but the Bible of gaining religious information, would attain to a saving knowledge of the truth, depends entirely upon whether he had been given a sincere desire to know and do God's will. The Holy Spirit can open a sinner's eyes and shew him the way of salvation without, just as easily as with, a human teacher; for we contend resolutely against the Romanist, that all necessary truth is contained in, and may be proved by, holy scripture; that we are to receive no doctrine on the authority of any man or set of men whatever, unless they can give us full proof for it out of the Bible; that it is our duty to follow the example of the Bereans, who "searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so ;" and that the Bible, being the only authoritalive and infallible rule of faith and practice, should be in the hands of every Christian, that the word of man may be tested by the word of God. On the other hand, we contend as resolutely against the Unitarian, that, while the Bible professes to contain all saving truth, it bids us seek the assistance of teachers to help us to a right understanding of it; and that they, who in the proud self-confidence of their hearts despise

the means God has appointed, are not likely to be guided from above, or attain to the truth as it is in Jesus.

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Having thus seen the scriptural ground on which the christian ministry rests, let us now look at the means by which Mr. Barker tries to throw discredit on it. In the first place, he condemns its ministers in a body as "the worst, the most filthy, the most abandoned of all." Whether the worst of all those ministers of religion, who alas! may have "held the truth in unrighteousness," ever provoked God more fearfully than the writer of the above passage did, when he bore that and such like false witness against the servants of Christ, the day of judgment alone will shew. The charge, however, even if true, would not touch the question, as our Lord's command to the Jews clearly proves: "The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses's seat; all therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do ;* but do not ye after their works, for they say and do not." Matt. xxiii. 2. The teacher's ungodliness cannot make truth to be falsehood; we are not to disbelieve his doctrine, if proved from scripture, because his life does not adorn it. The favourite weapon however of this accuser of the brethren" is calling us hirelings, and charging us with teaching things we ought not for filthy lucre's sake. Now this deserves rather a closer examination, because it contains a fallacy not perhaps seen through at once by minds unused to thinking, but which I fear such a mind as his must see through. I only wish I could believe that he does not know what a gross deception he is practising upon the ignorant, when he applies the name of hirelings to all paid ministers. The deception is this. The word hireling is used in two senses. The first means a person who receives pay for any kind of service done by him: in this sense, scripture, as we shall presently shew, sanctions a Christian minister being a hireling; that is, sanctions his being supported by others, in order that he may devote himself exclusively to the work of the ministry. The second sense is that in which our Lord uses the word, meaning a person who cares nothing for the work be is engaged in, and does it only because he is paid for it. Now Mr. Barker tries to confound these together, and to throw the odium of being a hireling in the latter sense upon every minister, who is a hireling in the former sense. Our Lord says, that "the hireling careth not for the sheep :" if therefore a minister does care for the sheep, he cannot be a hireling in Christ's sense of the term; and will any one dare to say that not one of all the paid ministers, who ever

There must have been some limit implied to this command, because the Scribes bid the people reject Jesus as the Messiah, and he could not have meant them to follow their teachers in this, Whatever their authorised teachers taught them out of the law, they were to obey; but when they taught them anything contrary to the law, the final standard of appeal was open to them, and they must, of course, obey God rather than man. The same limit is also implied in all those passages, where Christians are told to obey their "pastors and teachers,' "Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy." 2 Cor. i. 24.

lived, cared for the sheep? If there is, or ever was, such a case, it proves of course that a minister may receive pay, and yet not be a hireling. But we need have no ifs in the matter; for scripture is quite positive on the point. When sending out the twelve to preach, Jesus bids them, "provide neither silver, nor gold, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves, for the workman is worthy of his meat." Matt x. 10. When sending out the seventy he gives similar directions: "And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give; for the labourer is worthy of his hire." Luke x. 7. And St. Paul devotes half a chapter (1 Cor. ix.) to arguing out the question, and proving that he, as well as all other preachers, had a right to be supported by those to whom they preached; although from the peculiar circumstances of the case he thought it better to forego his right at that time; "Even so hath the Lord ordained, that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel." Whatever then may be Mr. Barker's opinion of a paid ministry, Paul's opinion is clear enough that it was ordained by the Lord; and this is sufficient for any Christian.

That there are hirelings in the ministry, no one, alas! can deny; but it cannot be the simple fact of receiving hire, that makes them so; for Jesus says "the labourer is worthy of his hire." Everything depends on the motive-"the hireling careth not for the sheep." Take two ministers, in the same church: they both believe its doctrines and approve of its discipline; they receive the same amount of pay, and do the same amount of work; and yet one of these may be a hireling, and the other not. What makes the difference? Their motives-One "cares not for the sheep," has no love to his work, and would not do it at all, if he were not paid for it; he does it for the sake of the pay, and therefore he is a "hireling." The other does love his work, does care for the sheep, and only receives the pay, that he may "give himself wholly" to their service. Will any one dare to say, that he is a hireling in the bad sense of the term? Here is a man, who is willing to devote his whole time to the work of the ministry, but cannot do so, because he has not the means to live without working. A number of persons, forming a Christian Church, come forward and say to him, Well, we will provide you with a maintenance, as long as you choose to "do the work of an evangelist;" while we reap your spiritual things," you shall "reap our temporal things." Pray, what's the harm of this? Why even if scripture had not said a word on the subject, common sense would have been sufficient of itself to decide such a question. But there is one circumstance, it may be thought, makes a man a hireling, namely, when he receives pay on condition of preaching particular doctrines, which if he did not preach, his pay would be withheld. I answer, If he preaches doctrines he does not believe for the sake of the pay, he is a hireling; but if he does believe what

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