According unto the divine commands, the same course was observed in the Acts of the Apostles;" whereof he gives instances in the election of Matthias (Acts i.), and of the deacons, (chap. vi.)

And afterwards speaking of ordination, "De universe fraternitatis suffragio," "by the suffrage of the whole brotherhood of the church," he says, "Diligenter de traditione divina, et apostolica observatione servandum est et tenendum apud nos quoque ut fere per universas provincias tenetur-" According to which divine tradition and apostolical practice, this custom is to be preserved and kept amongst us also, as it is almost through all the provinces."

Those who are not moved with his authority, yet I think have reason to believe him in a matter of fact, of what was done every where, or almost every where, in his own days; and they may take time to answer his reasons when they can, which comprise the substance of all that we plead in this case.

But the testimonies in following ages given unto this right and power of the people, in choosing their own church-officers, bishops, and others, recorded in the decrees of councils, the writings of the learned men in them, the rescripts of popes, and constitutions of emperors, are so fully and faithfully collected by Blondellus in the third part of his Apology for the Judgment of Jerom about Episcopacy, as that nothing can be added unto his diligence, nor is there any need of farther confirmation of the truth in this behalf.

The pretence also of Ballarmine (the great champion of Popery), and others who follow him, and borrow their conceits from him, that this liberty of the people, in choosing their own bishops and pastors, was granted unto them at first by way of indulgence or connivance; and that being abused by them, and turned into disorder, was gradually taken from them, until it issued in that shameful mocking of God and man, which is in use in the Roman church, when at the ordination of a bishop or priest one deacon makes a demand-Whether the person to be ordained be approved by the people? and another answers out of a corner-That the people approve him,-have been so confuted by Protestant writers of all sorts, that it is needless to insist any longer on them,

Indeed, the concessions that are made, that this ancient practice of the church, in the people's choosing their own officers (which to deny, is all one as to deny that the sun gives light at noon-day), is, as unto its right, by various degrees transferred into popes, patrons, and bishops, with a representation in a mere pageantry, of the people's liberty to make objections

against them that are to be ordained, are as fair a concession of the gradual apostasy of churches from their original order and constitution, as need be desired.

This power and right which we assign unto the people, is not to act itself only in a subsequent consent unto one that is ordained, in the acceptance of him to be their bishop or pastor. How far that may salve the defect and disorder of the omission of previous elections, and so preserve the essence of the ministerial call, I do not now inquire. But that which we plead for is the power and right of election to be exercised previously unto the solemn ordination or setting apart of any unto the pastoral office, communicative of office-power in its own kind unto the person chosen.

THE END.

JOHN JOHNSTONE, Printer, 104, High Street, Edinburgh.

ARE THE OPINIONS

OF

THE CHRISTIAN PEOPLE

IN REGARD TO

THEIR PASTORS,

DESERVING OF SERIOUS CONSIDERATION? *

BY PHILIP DODDRIDGE, D.D.

Interdum VULGUS rectum videt.-HOR.

It was the observation of Dr Burnet, almost forty years ago, in his incomparable discourse on the pastoral care, "That the Dissenters had then, in a great measure, lost that good character for strictness in religion, which had gained them their credit, and made such numbers fall off to them." + Whether that good character has since been recovered, or has not been more and more declining, some others are more capable of judging; but I think it calls for our serious reflection. And if we find, upon inquiry, that this our glory is departing, it surely deserves to be mentioned, as one cause, at least, of the decay of our interest; and that all who sincerely wish well to it, should express their affection, by exerting themselves with the utmost zeal, for the revival of practical religion amongst us.

This must be our common care, according to the various

*Abridged from "Free Thoughts on the most probable means of Reviving the Dissenting Interest, occasioned by the late Inquiry into the Causes of its Decay. Addressed to the Author of that Inquiry."--First printed in 1730. (These remarks are, of course, doubly applicable to a National Church, whose ministers profess to offer instruction to the whole people of a kingdom.) † Cap. viii. p. 204.

No. 5.-Price 2d.]

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stations in which Providence has placed us; and as for ministers, nothing can be more evident, than that they, by virtue of their office, are under peculiar obligations to it. And in order to pursue it with the greater advantage, I cannot but think that it should be their concern, TO STUDY THE CHARACTER AND temper of their people; that, so far as they can do it with conscience and honour, they may render themselves agreeable to them, both in their public ministrations and their private

converse.

This, Sir, is so obvious a thought, that one would imagine it could not be overlooked or disputed; yet it is certain our interest has received considerable damage for want of a becoming regard to it, especially in those who have been setting out in the ministry amongst us. It was therefore, Sir, with great surprise, that I found you had entirely omitted it in your late Inquiry, and had dropt some hints, which (though to be sure you did not intend it) may very probably lead young preachers into a different and contrary way of thinking; than which hardly any thing can be more prejudicial, either to them, or to the cause in which they are embarked.

The passage of yours to which I principally refer, is in the 33d and 34th pages of your Inquiry; where, amongst other things, you observe, that "a great many of those things that please the people, have often a very bad tendency in general." And you add, "the being pleased, which they so much insist upon, seldom arises from any thing but some oddness that hits their peculiar humour, and is not from any view to edification at all, and therefore too mean to be worthy any one's study. The people do not usually know wherein oratory, strength of speech, the art of persuasion, &c., consist; and therefore it is vanity in such to pretend to be judges of them. I wish I could deny, that, amongst us, they generally fall into the falsest and lowest taste imaginable."

There is, no doubt, Sir, a mixture of truth and good sense in some of these remarks; but, for want of being sufficiently guarded, they seem liable to the most fatal abuse. I frankly confess, that when I began to preach, I should have read such a passage with transport, and should very briskly have concluded from it (as many of us are ready enough to conclude without it), that, with regard to our public discourses, we had nothing to do but to take care that our reasoning were conclusive, our method natural, our language elegant, and our delivery decent ; and after all this, if the people did not give us a favourable reception, the fault was to be charged on a perverseness of humour, which they should learn to sacrifice to good sense, and

the taste of those who were more judicious than themselves; and, in the meantime, were the proper object of contempt, rather than regard.

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I say not, Sir, that what I have now been quoting from your letter, would lay a just foundation for such a wild conclusion; but I apprehend, that a rash young man, ignorant of the world, and full of himself, might probably draw such a conclusion from it. And if such a conclusion were to be universally received and acted upon, by the rising generation of ministers, it must, in a few years, be the destruction of our interest, unless the taste of our people should be miraculously changed. I am not so absurd and perverse as to assert, that learning and politeness will be the ruin of our cause,' nor have I ever met with any that maintained so extravagant an opinion. But surely, Sir, a cause may be ruined by learned and polite men, if, with their other furniture, they have not religion and prudence too; and I hardly conceive how a minister, who is possessed of both these, can be unconcerned about the acceptance he meets with from the populace; or can ever imagine that the dissenting interest is generally to be supported in the contempt or neglect of them.

I cannot believe, Sir, that a gentleman of your good sense intended to teach us such a contempt. Had religion, and the souls of men, been entirely out of the question, and had you considered us only as persons whose business it is to speak in public, you well know that such a thought had been directly contrary to the plainest principles of reason, and the rules of those amongst the ancients, as well as the moderns, who were the greatest masters in that profession. You will readily allow (what no thinking man can dispute), that a true, skilful, unpopular orator, is a direct contradiction in terms. And I question not, Sir, but that you could, in a few hours, throw together whole pages of quotations, from Aristotle, Quintilian, Longinus, and especially from Tully (not to mention Rapin, Gilbert, Fenelon, and Bishop Burnet), which all speak the same language. You know that Tully, in particular, declares, not only that he desired his own eloquence might be approved by the people,” † but that his friends might accommodate their discourse to them; and therefore says to Brutus," Speak to me and to the people." And this he carries so far as to say, "that * Inquiry, p. 36.

+ Eloquentiam autem meam POPULO probare velim.-Cic. Orationes, quas nos multitudinis judicio probari volebamus; POPULARIS enim est illa facultas et effectus eloquentia est audientium ad probatio.- Tusc. Disp., lib. 2, sub. init.

Mihi cane et populo, mi Brute, dixerim.-Ibid.