been effected as well by an evangelist, or by the presbyters of that particular church, no imposition of hands being then necessary to constitute a gosdiws, presiding presby. ter. That the blood relatives of the Saviour should have been convened, as though by their relationship, they had authority or grace, which might aid the consecration, is just as credible as the rest of the story, which had rested upon mere report if it had any existence for two centuries, and as such is given by the credulous historian. The circular, by which the synod of Antioch promulgated their excommunication of Paul of Samosata has been preserved by Eusebius. After specifying sixteen by name, it proceeds," and all the rest present, who live in the adjacent cities and countries, the bishops, and presby ters, and deacons, and the churches of God, to our beloved brethren in the Lord greeting."(t) An evil had arisen beyond the control of a single church; its repression was important. The apostles and evangelists being long before removed by death, and the presiding presbyter having assumed powers beyond the restraint of his co-presbyters,a necessity was created that the neighbouring christians, both clergy and people, should concur in correcting the evil. Had lay presbyters existed, they must have been here included. If supposed either in the word presbyters, or churches; the hypothesis must extend to every church, and a class of such officers existed in every christian assembly, yet never discriminated in any enumeration, or by any occurrence, or circumstance, recorded by any writer, orthodox or heretical, during the first three hundred years of the church. The ruling presbyter, golws,(u) we have had in full detail. He was the primus presbyter on every bench, (t) Lib. vii. c. 30.—twinowes nas wgroßuΤερος και διακινοί, και ες εκκλησίας του θεού, &c. (u) 1 Tim. v. 17. Rom. xii, 7,8. equal in commission, but presiding in duty; his accumulated power and dignity, before the days of Eusebius, had come to be distinguished by the name bishop. The helps and governments”(v) have been erroneously represented as "those who rule well, but do not labour in word and doctrine." If these mute officers had been found in every church, we should have heard of them. The man who can suppose, that such an office could have exist ed in the societies, in the days of the apostles, and no trace of it have remained afterwards; or that such officers could have been continued in the churches, but have escaped, so much as a whisper in all the divisions and agitations, in all the lists of martyrs and councils, and every mention among the friends and enemies of the church, for three hundred years, has a mind capable of any extravagance of credulity. He can adopt an erroneous and imaginary meaning of scripture, and afterwards adhere to it, not only without, but in opposition to, all evidence. A charge, severe but probable, has been hrought against Eusebius, of suppressing certain passages, particularly 1 John v. 7, from his edition of the New Testament. He was commanded by Constantine to cause fifty copies of the scriptures, legible and fit for use, to be written on prepared parchment, by skilful artists, and to send them to Constantinople by two public coaches, under the care of some deacon of his church. (w) These copies, having the influence of Constantine must have been received by the churches, for whom they were provided by the Emperor, with veneration. That in these copies Eusebius suppressed certain passages tending to establish the consubtantiality of the Father and the Son, particularly 1 John v. (v) 1 Cor. xii. 28. (w) De vit, Courtant, Lib. iv. c. 36. ness. 7, has been lately alleged, and too well supported. He excepted against the doctrine of those texts, in the council of Nice, but escaped censure by covering his regard for Arianism under the pretence of a fear of the heresy of Sabellius. In a letter to his charge, he defends his inconsistency, by softening the language of the creed he had reluctant ly signed.(x) The disposition of the man, his opposition to the doctrines, the Emperor's coincidence with him in sentiments, the oppor tunity afforded him by Constantine, the complexion of the Greek copies generally, over which his edition must have had a decisive influence, and on the contrary, the supports which the text receives from Latin copies, and writers, Tertullian, Cyprian, Facundus, Vigilius, and others, all conspire with the certainty of his having omitted a portion of Mark's Gospel, to attach the blame of the defective copies to his disingenuousJ. P. W. Miscellaneous. For the Christian Spectator. On the difference in the religious feeling of men of taste and oth ers. The Christian religion, being adorned with every excellence that either moral subjects can contain, or the mind is capable of conceiving, has been presented to men by its author under every form of inviting grace and beauty, that can compel to it the attentions of the intellect, or attract the soul's affections. God, in the same manner as he has shed on his angels an evident glory; and given to all beings of spotless virtue, robes of beauty and light that to the whole universe would show as the emblems of their honor and exaltation, so in presence of every faculty and power of the mind, he has chosen to exalt his religion by those circumstances of greatness that shall best express its divine nature, or gain it an audience before the interior feelings, that sit as the ministers and chief counsellors of the heart. To wonder, it opens subjects whose amazing import may excite its activity, and the mystery of which may fix all its deep meditations. (x) Socrates Scholart, lib. i. c. 5. To curiosity, it shows fields of boundless and increasing knowledge; objects that may draw upon, but never drain its exhaustless fountains. To admiration, it offers not merely the surprising beauties that truths clearly discovered always afford, nor the splendors of a common magnificence; but calling its view to all that the eye can see in the heavens or on the ample earth, it speaks of the day in which they came into being-of the high purposes of their existence, and of God who created, and who rules them from his throne. taste it shows a higher employment, than that of refining from their dross, and heaping up in its treasures, the enjoyments of this world. It teach es how it may clear the sight of mortals that should look upward, how it may invite them to gather the joys that give immortal freshness and youth to those that taste them. To To every man therefore who looks upon religion as God has revealed it, there is an argument of persuasive force addressed to each different feeling in its turn. But in men of different natures, or in those whose minds cultivation has raised above the faculties that fall to the lot of most men, the thoughts which religious subjects excite will assume a different character and one that is tinged with the peculiar tendencies of each separate mind. The soaring intellect, charmed with the magnitude of the subjects presented to it, will pass the minuter parts and more delicate shades of religious science, following with intense eagerness and grasping with giant strength, the great lines and mighty relations of truth. The light and playful imagination will find an abundance of objects to amuse its labours, and ample fields in which to try its wing; ever bringing back at its return the sweets of happiness and piety to its possessor. The man who bas made sadness the companion of his thoughts, and the attendant of his daily walks, will find that she has not forsaken him here; and will witness the softening of his feelings by the power of melancholy, and a shade of pensiveness mingling in his secret reflections. And in proportion as these, or other qualities of the mind have grown to preponderance under the hand of cultivation, will be their power over the course of religious thought. In like manner the taste that has been raised to high refinement by long acquaintance with the objects of its delight skilful in all things of nature or of art to discover where their pleas ures are contained, and practised to gather and retain them-that has not lifted her eye in vain to embrace the broad ocean and the swelling. land, nor without profit to view the sky spreading above; but has stood on the mountain tops to see the landscape around; or walked on the shore when storms were agitating the deep; or watched the bright courses of the evening and morning star, such a taste will bring from all the beautiful and sublime in nature, the first fruits of its delight, and the best occasions of its pleasure, an offering to God. It is therefore a false view of the nature and importance of taste that would restrain its exercise from the high subjects of revealed religion. For if God has addressed his word to every faculty of the mind, then it is evident that none should be inactive when he speaks; and if it be true that the character and feelings of the man have a natural effect to fix the complexion of piety; then it is also true that a mind whose faculties are cultivated, whose feelings are chastened and whose sympathies are active. is capable of receiving the truth of God with a clearer and more lively interest, than one of which the apprehensions are more dull and the taste less exercised. Where then shall taste find the sources of its religious pleasures? In the scriptures of revealed truth which contain all that we know that concerns us as the creatures of God. And it will perhaps appear that in reading them, the man of regulated judgment acquires not only pleasure but advantage. For the scriptures are written in the language and style of men; and carry with them in these things, the common force of human productions. Where it is their motive to convince, their methods are the arguments of men; where it is their end to illustrate, their subjects are pictured in the imagery of the world, and when the deep emotions of the pious mind are seeking to express themselves, they break out in the same natural language of the soul, which orators and poets so diligently seek after. The Bible, for the enlightening of our consciences, to judge of what is right, has given many precepts. But for the right ordering of our lives it has often adopted the more clear and more persuasive method of example. Here the lives of saints are put down for our imitation. It is easier to conceive and copy what stands before us in warm life, than what is laid down by ever so clear definition. Here are no characters drawn; but men moving, speaking, and thinking appear; and as a child learns from the tender looks of its mother, what are the feelings of maternal love, so do we learn from the expressions and conduct of these holy men, what motives and what ardor prevailed in them. The unthinking reader would lose half the picture; but the taste that has been used to regard the expressive incidents, and the interesting though slighter shades that escape a hasty observation, would descend into these scenes, live in them, and walk among them. Suppose then one of this character to have looked into the word of God. And suppose him to have opened at that history, most lowering on one page with the disclosure of human guilt, and on the other most brightened with forgiving mercy,-the relation of our Saviour's suffering and death. Here, in common with other men, will his heart be deeply affect ed by each sorrow of our suffering Lord as he follows him from the garden to the judgment seat, and from judgment to the cross. But in the closing scene how will his soul stand amazed at the cry that banish es the cheerful light, and makes the earth tremble in its deep foundations. Why did nature thus give signs of consternation. Why did all inanimate things thus tremble and start as if expecting their own dissolution. Why, but to awaken in all who marked these things, reflections that should force them to conviction. To make them ask what the heart is made of that can resist impression while the rocks are rending? What is the fibre of the soul that can stand unaffected in the midst of these terrors? What has shut up the sluices and dried the fountain of its sorrows, when God has hung in the heavens the signs of his mourning. And for what end were these things written; but to make the same real to all men in future ages? Nor have they failed in their influence. The reader has been present in the vividness of thought, at the acting of all these wonders, he has felt the interest of an actor in them, he involuntarily exclaims, "Surely this man was the Son of God.” If the faculties that bring up these things in their just and vivid conceptions, with a force on the mind of present realities, add to the impressions of revealed truth, their influence is not less in those glowing productions of the inspired pen, that under the form of poetry or oriental imagery, have challenged the efforts of human taste for a superior. Or in those simple descriptions of pastoral life, to be found so plentifully in the early records of manners, how pleasing is the illusion that transports us to the land of the Patriarchs and places us by their side, the witnesses, almost the companions of their daily walks. We go with them among their households; and observe the conduct of their holy life. It is no longer a history-It is their living example, by which though dead they speak. Among all the feelings which the scriptures inspire in the christian's mind, none are more open to influence from his natural character than those which embrace his hopes of future happiness. Hope is from its nature, closely connected with the imagination. The good we seek must be conceived of before we can desire it. At the same time no class of mental affections is more extensive than that into which our hopes enter. It is impossible for one who expects a life of immortality, not to indulge a constant desire to know what scenes shall break upon bim when he has passed the gloom of the grave. To the country that lies beyond, he will send many a longing enquiry, what is that state in which I aim to dwell; what are those happy employments that shall occupy me forever. On this point the scriptures are full of emblems too expressive to be misunderstood in their general meaning. But with respect to the outward circumstances of our being; the endless advances in knowledge; the manifestation of God's omnipotence that will be witnessed in the works of his hands; the errands on which we shall be sent through the creation, there is room for stronger or feebler conceptions. Every christian indeed knows that it is the favor and presence of God, which will sustain our immortal joys. Experience has taught him, what it is for the soul to be present with its maker. Here no imagination is barren, no conception is feeble; for fixed and certain knowledge is the foundation of hope. He looks to Heaven as a residence full of those sweet influences that sometimes pierce the distance and descend upon him. From this dreary world, he thinks of God and the society of the angels and just spirits, as a stran ger in a strange land, who finds none to relieve his loneliness, thinks of his home, and of the hearts that alone care for him. Here then is the boundary of his wishes and here the measure of his expectation is full. If he has never looked around to consider how God first placed mau in this world, to live by his love and service, no less than the spirits in Heaven; and yet how he has made it beautiful to his eye, and formed all its creatures to be sources of enjoyment, it may escape him that much more in Heaven, where all good things are the reality of what earthly joys are only the shadow, we may expect to find all things the sources and inlets of pleasure. And though he may have noticed how these occasions of our daily happiness are the medium through which God has exhibited his benevolence and raises our gratitude, it may not have occurred to him that the same means of bestowing good and of exciting gratitude are known wherever divine providence extends. He may even consider such hopes unworthy of the meditations of an immortal being. And here I cannot but remark for a moment upon some ideas of the nature of spiritual existence, which it seems to me that the scriptures do not encourage. When the scriptures speak of new heavens and a new earth, of a city that hath foundations, of the natural body that is raised a spiritual body, they would appear to convey an idea of a soul dwelling among things that have substance and reality. But there are some who look upon the soul as being itself nothing distinct from its thoughts and feelings. And when it leaves the body, there are some who consider it as passing into a state where it is conscious of nothing about it but the presence of other minds. So that when this idea is examined it seems to be, that the soul in a separate state is a mere nothing that is connected with nothing, and acted upon by nothing; but has its whole existence, in contemplation. Itself a mere shadow, fading away into the space that surrounds it. But it seems to me that when I have left the body, I shall not appear to my self less real than I do now, nor look upon other things as less of realities than such as are at this moment present to me. I cannot think when I have left behind me the hills and the floods, and the light of day, and passed these visible heavens, that I have taken a last look of the Creator's works of wisdom and pow. er; but that under some new form of being I shall still be made sensi ble by every thing that surrounds and upholds me of the presence of Almighty Power. With these thoughts I pass to a consideration too closely connected with this subject not to be noticed. It is this: That taste adds to the daily exercise of religion, by bring. ing up to notice many striking exhi· bitions of God's goodness to men. For it is after all true that religion comes down to mingle in the common current of our concerns, and is united with those outward things that are ever present, and become the daily and hourly occasions for pious feeling. And it is easy to see how the taste that is conversant with the most refined pleasures, and employs its thoughts in the most noble and just views of common subjects, will gain a propriety of feelingsuperior harmony and proportion to its religion. How the delicacies of thought, the tender shades of emo |