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and precedents for the employment of evangelists who could not be recognised as the evangelists of the New Testament;" for this would imply that scripture authorises the appointment of unscriptural officers; an absurdity which I cannot charge upon the Bible; nor upon Mr. Tucker, till he formally avow it. His illustration drawn from "the divine appointment of bishops, to show that though the office be liable to abuse, yet it ought to be continued, could have no application to his subject, only on the supposition that the evangelists which he recommended were those of "divine appointment."

The state of the case then is this. Mr. Tucker on the ground of "scriptural practices and scriptural precepts" recommended the Protestants to employ evangelists. They adopted his suggestions; and inform us in their rules, page 4, that their system is drawn up "in accordance with the usages of the New Testament;" and they had scripture precepts and precedents by wholesale to justify their employment of "itinerant ministers, evangelists, or missionaries," and every other regulation they had made. The whole concern was so accordant with the New Testament, that it would have done a poor distressed soul nearly as much good to study their immaculate rules, as to study the Bible. But now, since the appearance of my letter, they have made the wonderful discovery that the evangelists which they received on Mr. Tucker's recommendation, were intended by him, and admitted by them, as unscriptural evangelists; and they actually boast in their last Magazine, in these words, "We can unequivocally declare that we have no Bible evangelists among us." I shall not feel much surprised if their next unequivocal declaration be, " We have no Bible amongst us!"

But what profound critics are Mr. Glover and the Magazine writer. They have found it out that the word" evangelist, literally denotes, one who announces good news." And they seem almost half willing to admit the use of the term, in this sense, if we will but

extend it to local preachers. But we demur; because, 1. In the Magazine it is admitted that such would not be "evangelists of the New Testament." 2. We fear the consequences. An errand boy will by and by, perhaps, insist upon being called an apostle, because this word literally donotes a messenger, one who is sent. 3. We object to local preachers being called evangelists, because though all evangelists are preachers, yet all preachers are not evangelists. I have given an example in my second letter of an evangelist presiding over local preachers. I am astonished that men of such amazing erudition should need to be informed, that all the duties of an office cannot be expressed by a single term.

When I had demonstrated that our travelling preachers, and not theirs, answer to the evangelists of the Bible, they immediately made the discovery that the evangelical office was not to be perpetuated in the church, because of the extraordinary gifts of the primitive officers; and I am hectored in the following strain: "We must tell Mr. Isaac, that his claims are not valid, and we call for his testimonials. Has he been endowed with the extraordinary influences of the Holy Ghost? Can he cast out unclean spirits, heal palsies, cure the lame, etc. And, if not, then we must maintain that he has no right to the powers of an evangelist of the New Testament." Take breath, Mr. Critic, while, in my turn, I catechise you a little. Will you be so obliging as to inform me where it is written, that either Timothy or Titus performed these wonderful works? I find nothing of that sort in the New Testament attributed to them. And though Philip's preaching at Samaria, (see Acts viii.,) was accompanied with miracles, I think I may be excused producing these testimonials, when Timothy and Titus could perform this part of their office without them. However, I promise to produce them when your own preachers set me an example. Another of the powers I claim as an evangelist, is that of baptizing. May I venture to administer this rite without working a miracle?

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Protestant elder claims this power; and I cannot for the life of me comprehend how he, more than myself, may be excused the production of a miracle. So, if we go through all the powers I have ascribed to evangelists, you will find the same powers claimed by the Protestants. Let us instance, in the appointment of elders. The evangelists of scripture exercised this prerogative, and I claim it for our evangelists. But says the learned critic, the evangelists of scripture authenticated their claim by miracles; but where are yours? I answer, that Timothy and Titus are my authorities; and they wrought no miracles to prove their right to appoint elders. But, Mr. Critic, who appoint your elders? "They shall be elected by the quarterly meeting, who shall also appoint one of them to be the presiding elder."* And pray what miracles are performed by the quarterly meeting? I should think they ought to raise the dead, in proof that they can produce such a thing as a presiding elder, an anomalous being about which the Bible is entirely silent.

With regard to immunities, I showed in my first letter that the Protestant elders exceed the Conference preachers; and instanced in their having no law by which a delinquent elder can be tried, though special directions are given in all other cases. On this they observe in the Magazine for the present month, that the elders, of course, are amenable to, and can be deposed by, the same meeting which appointed them." But if this follow of course, there was no necessity to legislate on the trial of any one. They happened, however, in their wisdom, to forget none but themselves! But how does this follow as a matter of course? Do those who inaugurate our king, possess a power of dethroning him? If they were to attempt it, they would, of course, be soon taught a different lesson. If our preachers, therefore, in order to support their claims, ought to "heal palsies," your imaculate elders should be able to remove mountains."

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If it be true, what these writers and some others, have said, that the evangelical office was to cease, when the officers could no longer work miracles, the argument will carry them much further than they seem to be aware of. The primitive elders possessed miraculous powers. "Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up." p." Can anything be plainer than that the eldership was an extraordinary office, to continue during the age of miracles, and to cease with it? Can your elders, any more than our evangelists, work such miracles? But there is this difference in the two cases, which is all against you, that the miracle was a part of the duty connected with the elders' office, which is not the case with the evangelists. But we must go much further yet. Private christians, in the primitive times, had miraculous gifts. Cornelius and his family and friends, had the gift of tongues prior to their baptism; and the Ephesians spake with tongues and prophesied immediately after baptism. (Acts x. 46; xix. 5, 6.) More evidence to the same effect might be produced. Now if it be a good argument, that, because the first evangelists had extraordinary powers, therefore their office was to cease with the extinction of those powers; then it will equally hold, that, because the first private christians possessed the same powers, the profession of christianity was to end with them!

As the Protestants can produce nothing out of scripture against the permanency of the office, they have made an attempt in their Magazine for the last month to overwhelm us with human authorities. On these I remark, that neither Hammond, nor Doddridge, nor Macknight, say one word on the office being either extraordinary or temporary. One of the quotations from Mr.Wesley does not mention evangelists at all; and the other speaks of them merely as extraordinary officers. But this is no proof that he believed the office to be tem

porary; for he was persuaded, as he often affirmed in his writings, that both himself and his preachers, had an extraordinary call from God to the work in which they were engaged. Mr. Benson merely quotes Mr. Wesley's words, which was a matter of course, as he incorporated into his own Commentary the whole of Mr. Wesley's notes; and there is no indication that he understood the words in a different sense. The other authors cited, with only one exception, were ministers of particular churches, who seem to have been satisfied with their own local inclosure, and left the world to perish. It was not till lately that the protestant world became alive to the injunction, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." It has at length come home to the consciences of many, with all the weight of divine obligation, that they must exert their best ability to fulfil this precept. This has issued in the employment of an order of men like our itinerants and the evangelists of holy writ; and without such labourers as these, it seems very improbable that the world should ever be evangelised.

Evangelists, it is admitted, were useful, and even nenecessary, in the first plantation of churches; but after christianity had become pretty well established, it is supposed the great Head of the church intended their office should become extinct. If this representation were correct, they ought still to be employed, because there are hundreds of thousands of places where, instead of churches well established, there are no churches at all. There is, therefore, the same reason for perpetuating the office, as there was for its original institution. I have shown in my first letter, in the case of an African missionary, that he must exercise the powers of a primitive evangelist. And that the apostle intended the order to be perpetuated in the church, seems evident from 2 Timothy ii. 2, where Timothy is enjoined to commit to faithful men the same ministry he had himself received. If the office be retained, I am not anxious about the name by which it is designated. Call the officers itinerant ministers, evangelists, or mission