principle of a perpetual ministry. "They ordained Presbyters in every church," (Acts xiv. 23.) Paul has left, in his epistles to Timothy and Titus, as a part of the rule of faith and practice, particular directions for the choice of Bishops or Presbyters and deacons And in his epistle to the Hebrews, (ch. xiii. 17.) he charges these widely scattered disciples, to obey their spiritual rulers, under this precise idea that they watch, says he, for your souls as they that must give account.

5th. The New Testament abounds with predictions and warnings of apostasy in the ministers of religion; which, of course, implies the continuance of a ministry.

6th. The book of Revelation expressly recognizes the diffusion of the Gospel, in times yet to come, by the instrumentality of a public ministry, (ch. xiv. 6.)

Since, therefore, the Head of the church instituted a regular ministry in his church thousands of years ago-since he directed his prophets to foretell its existence under the new dispensation-since he gave to his apostles a commission which necessarily supposes its perpetuity-since these apostles themselves acted upon that principle in erecting churches-since the rule of faith has given instructions to guide its application since the prophetic spirit in the last of the apostles has uttered oracles which are founded upon it--no conclusion is more safe and irrefragable than this; that a regular, standing ministry is an essential constituent of the church of God.

FOR THE CHRISTIAN's MAGAZINE.

Remarks on Matt. viii. 34.

And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts.

WERE we without knowing the circumstances

which produced it, to conjecture a reason for this conduct of the Gergasenes, it would naturally be unfavourable to Christ. Surely he whom a whole city besought to depart out of their coasts, must have done something extremely reprehensible, or at least rendered himself justly suspicious of evil designs against them. But no; he had displayed his divine power and benevolence, in casting out a multitude of devils from two poor wretched mortals, and permitted them to enter in and destroy a whole herd of swine in that country. The restoration of their fellow-citizens to reason, to personal happiness, and relative usefulness, did not, however, in the view of these people, compensate for the temporal loss they had sustained. The miracle evidently wrought in this restoration, did not excite their admiration, or reverence for the Saviour; nor did it overawe their carnal propensities, or make them desirous of experiencing his power for their real benefit.

They were alarmed lest they should suffer more seriously by him in their wordly circumstances. Their covetousness made them afraid, and prevented

them from improving the presence of Christ in a suitable manner. They did not even, as the inhabitants of other places had done, bring their sick, and lame, and blind to him, that he might heal them. Their own salvation, and the well-being of their afflicted neighbours, were objects in their opinion, subordinate to the increase or decrease of their substance. They therefore, with most awful infatuation, rejected Him who was the hope of Israel, and the salvation of the Gentiles.

As the conduct of our Lord, in permitting the devils to enter into the swine, has been declared unjust by Infidels and Jews*, and thus a plausible colouring given to the rejection of him by the Gergasenes, it is proper to repel the charge, before we proceed to make any practical use of this historical incident.

The country of the Gergasenes here mentioned, is called the country of the Gadarenes by Mark and Luke. Gergasa and Gadara, were both situated on the other side of Jordan, near the Lake of Gennesaret, in the district of country called Decapolis, and lay within the allotment of the tribe of Manasseh. Their adjacency to each other, is the reason why the Evangelists called the country laying between, sometimes from the name of the greater, Gadara, and sometimes from the lesser, Gergasa. It was at this time annexed to the province of Syria, and inhabited partly by Jews, and partly by Syrians, who were heathens. Though its inhabitants were thus of a mixed sort, it was always reckoned by the Jews as part of their dominions; and as such was treated by the Romans in their war afterwards with the Jews. Such being the state of this country, the Jews there raised great numbers of swine for the profit they made by selling them to their heathen neighbours,

* Woolston and Levi.

who used them for food and sacrifices*. In this they acted contrary to the spirit of the Mosaic law, which pronounced these animals unclean; and to the express letter of a statute of Hyrcanus, one of their kings who reigned a few years before Herod, which was still in force. Being intermixed with heathens, and subject to a heathen government, as also living in the extreme part of the country, they presumed to follow this employment, scandalous and illegal as it was. Where then was the injustice of Christ's conduct? It is an indubitable fact, that the prophets, or persons acting by the Spirit of God, did execute the laws against offenders, even without the assistance of the civil magistrate; as Phinehas did to Zimri, and Elijah to the priests of Baal. Christ therefore did only what prophets and priests had done before him. He acted according to the constitutional order of the Jewish people. Had he been a mere man, he would not have exceeded his power; much less did he do so, being the Son of God. He punished, in his official capacity, as one divinely commissioned, his guilty countrymen for their transgressions in keeping forbidden property in their possession. Independent of this, the action was evidently wise and gracious; inasmuch as it unanswerably demonstrated at once the malice of Satan, and the extent of Christ's power over him.

No miracles are more suspicious than pretended dispossessions, as there is so much room for collusion in them: but it was self-evident that a herd of swine could not be confederate in any fraud. Their death, therefore, was in this instructive and convincing manner, a far greater blessing to mankind than if they had been slain for food or sacrifices. The owners of them, conscious of their guilt, did

* Bishop Pearce's Miracles of Jesus Vindicated.

not accuse Christ of injustice-they knew that they themselves, in their persons, were liable to be punished for their conduct, as also more severely in their property.

The enemies of Christ, in all their malice, never laid this transaction to his charge as criminal, which no doubt they would have done, had it been so; for they seized every shadow of opportunity, every frivolous pretext, of holding him up to public view as a notorious offender. Since they who were immediately concerned, and their countrymen who were cotemporary with Christ, were silent, his modern enemies, infidels and Jews, in their objection to this miracle on the ground of its injustice, display a want of modesty as well as ignorance of the subject which they pretend to examine.

If the conduct of Christ, then, was just, as is unquestionable, what shall we say of that of the Gergasenes? Like the devils who said, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? they besought Christ to depart out of their coast. Displaying a radical dislike to him, they proved themselves children of disobedience, who walked according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit which worked in them. Their own sins had drawn on them the loss of property they sustained; and yet the language of their request charges Christ with being the author or cause of it.

Thus it is with sinners in this world, who know not God and his Christ. Their condemnable pursuits bring along with them deserved punishment; which, instead of softening their hearts to penitence, provokes them to entertain hard thoughts of God; and practically, if not with the mouth openly, to say unto the Most High, Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. As all sinners, with perhaps the exception of a few ju