Star.
London, England, 1808-07-22 00:00:00

THE GRAND EXPEDITION.

The wind having shifted round, General MOORE'S
Army, from the Downs, all got to Portsmouth on
Wednesday evening. The General Officers there
are, Generals Sir JOHN Mooaz, FRAMS, Hors, Mini.
RAY, PAUET, SONTAG, and STEWART.

We understand, that from the preparations made
for them, and through the exertions of General Wan-
!lA M and Admiral OTWAY, (the Military and Naval
Commanders) as well as by those of Commissioner
%taut of the Transport Board, who was sent from
London, that this Army will be supplied with every
necessary, and again completely fitted for sea, by
Sunday evening.—By noon yesterday all of the trans-
ports had taken in their water—an example of dis-
patch unexampled in the service of this country.
The command of this army is now given to Sir
H. BIiKRARD of the Guards ; Lord PAGET, and Ge-
neral SONTAG of the German Legion, have likewise
been appointed to Brigades in it; but, to the joy of
the Army, those highly-esteemed Officers, Sir Jon);
NiGoax and Hors, remain with it. The Honourable
General STEWART, brother of Lord CASTLIMEAGIR, if
ppointed Deputy Adjutant-General to it; and Lord
Pitonv is on the Stall.

The Honourable General FINCH of the Guards is
o command the Army now embarking in Kent, and
will have under him several excellent officers.
" PORTSMOUTH, JULY 21.

,‘ The forces which have returned from Gotten-
bursh are already now completed for a further
expedition, which, doubtless, is meant for either
Spain or Portugal. Such was the dispatch which
was used, that many of the ships were victualled,
wooded, and watered, in a single day. Sir HAVY
BURRARD, ho goes second in command, is hourly
expected. Si: Join MOORE, it is supposed, will corn-
mand the light troops. Besides the troops embarked
at Ramsgate, the 4Sd and one other regiment are on
their march from Dover to this place. However, the
troops at present in thib harbour will not wait for their
arriv..!, hut will sail with the first fair wind.

It is rumoured that the North of Spain or Gib-
raltar will be the general place of rendezvous."

A sarTIC.RI. INTELLIGENCE.

PLYMOUTH, JULY 20.

Came in the William, Captain TUCKER, from Salo
with wine, last from Gibraltar ; Isabella, Captain
LINCOLN, from Gibraltar, with wine ; Wateham,
Capt tin CtiAnnuli, from Villanova, with wiue and
cork ; ANN gun-brig, from a cruize ; Minerva, Cap-
...tin LAMER, from Gibraltar with wine; A Linos
armed cutter with three vessels from Guernsey, bound
foreign.

PORTSMOUTH, JUI.Y 21.
Arrived the ZEBRA bomb, and HARDY gun brig,
from the Downs, with a convoy.—Wind W. S. W,
DEAL, JULY 21.
Arrived the Ar.r.ar sloop of war, from Portsmouth,
with a convoy, which are sailed for the River ; also
the Minerva, WlLLtasts, from Surinam. Sailed the
CHALLENGER sloop, BVSTLER and DESPERATE gun-
brigs, and PHOSPHORUS fire vessel, on a cruize off the
coAst of France; Coux-rnss of ELGIN cutter, with a
Convoy for Harwich. A number of transports ar-
rived from the River last evening.

IN TILE DOWNS.
/ Princess of Charge, St. Alban's, Clyde, Trusty, Fisgard, Os.
trey, Alert, and tearless.

FROM LLOYD'S LIST.
Ga•vrs N D J4Lr gl.-Passed by the Union, Whizehoorn,
front: Guernsey ; Arrtd a, Rickets, front Oporto ;
and Clara, Johns ; and Puroka,Piges, front Gotten-
burgh. Sailed the Fanny, Bouslield; and Princiye, Peirrra, for
.tke Brazils ; Jane, Graham, for Madeira ; Uuum, :..almon, for
Cork; Argo, liendexson, for Gibraltar ' • relycir Castle, ("rim,
for Lomionderry ; rantor, Conway, forßelList ; Vortiwo, Meld
end Mary, Smith, for Uottenburik.

TO tHE EDIMR OF THE St diR.

ON THE PROPHECIES. '
No. XIII.

TWE TUTRD TRUMPET.-PART L.
§ .IV. Of the Election of Bishofis or r,•esbyters, and

their elutie:.

That the election of the Bishops was in the whole
congregation, is not expressed in so many words in
the New Testament ; but may be most certainlyin-
ferred from the instructions given to Tommy and to
Tirus, respecting those who were to be appointed to
offices. They were to be persons of irreproachable
character on the most positive proof, adduced-..-By
whom but by the congregation ? Without this proof
they could not be set apart to their office, by the im-
position of hands, which was the method employed,
anti therefore TIMOTHY is charged " lay hand: suddenly

en .19 man." The same inference maybe drawn from

the injunctions given to the churches to live in unity,
being trerfect..ly joined together m the tame mind and in The
tame judgment, avoiding all contentions (1 C. i. 10) ;
for how could this be, if they were not agreed respec-
ting the character of those set over them? But how
was their mind and judgment to be ascertained in any
case, if not as publicly expressed as we know it was in
the election of the 7 deacons at Jerusalem ? From this
consideration a probable interpretation may be offered
of two passages in I Tim. which have embarrassed all
the commentators I have seen. excepting those who are
never embarrassed with any thing. In chap i. v. 18s
PAUL says, ‘. This charge I commit unto thee, son TINto-
Trot, according to the PROPHECIES which went before on
thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare"—

and in chap. iv. v. 14, he says, " Neglect not THE din'
Mat is in thee, which was given Mee Br rkornscr with Me
I,:y;nz en of the hands of Me Presbytry [rosrfr.rrepsou]."
With these compare 2 Tim. i. 6. " Wherefore I put
thee in remembrance that thou stir up THE GIFT OF Gory
which is in tkee•by the putting on of my hands. Here is
something conferred oft TIMOTHY, sr PROPHECY, and
tie LAYING ON or HANDS. That miraculous gifts are
not intended here, is plain from all the contexts. In
the first PAUL informs him, that our LORD had inir
him (PAUL) into the ministry, who had been before a Ala:-
phernie—this ministry is THE CHARGE committed to
TIMOTHY, who was properly appointed to his office,
that he might war a good warfare, holding faith (viz.
" the true saying worthy of all credit" mentioned in v. 15)
and a good conscience. In the second, the charge is called
"THE GIFT that is its thee," 1. e. the charge with which he
was vested ; and what this was we are plainly told—
" Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine; me-
ditate upon these things,givethreY wholly to them," &c. In
like manner THE GIFT which he is exhorted to excite in
the second Epistle relates to the same duties. " Be
net thou ashamed of the testimony of our Lord"—" Hold
fro the form of sound words which thou hart heard of me,"
&c. This office conferred on TIMOTHY is called
GOD'S GIFT, because those who are elected in the man-
ner appointed by Goo, are considered as appointed
by Pori himself—as being made overseer: by rns Hoy-
SPIRIT (Acts xx. 28). Now the manner in which
TISIOTIIY received his charge was by prophecy, and
the laying on of the hand: of the Presbytry, of which
Palm was one (i. e. he' was an elder as well as an
Apostle). Of the meaning of the imposition of hands
there is no question : but what is meant by a gift or
charge conferred BY PROPHECY ?—One thing appears
plainly respecting it—it preceded the laying on of
hands, and is twice mentioned as a proceeding that
was necessarily previous to it. Now if we examine
the instructions given to TIMOTHY respecting the ap-
point-nent of office bearers to discover what was ne-
cessary previous to the imposition of hands upon
them, we see that the thing required was, that their
blameless character should jr:t be proved. The pro-
f:haying here spoken of appears then to allude to the
testimony of the congregation to the conduct and qua-
lifications of the party ; for we may be store that
TIMOTHY would be appointed agreeably to the method
enjoined to be observed in all the congregations of
CHRIST. Nor is this imposing any new sense on the
word prophet or prophecy ; for PAUL, in his epistle to
Titus (i. 12, 13), says of the Cretans, that one of their
Mit PROPHETS WM:MED TRIILT when he called them
liars, evil beast:, and slow bellies.
Besides, if the voice not of the Apostles only, but
of -the whole Church, was necessary in the appoint-
ment of an Apostle, to be a witness with the eleven
of the resurrection of CHRIST, that he might take
that place in the Apostleship from which Judat by
transgression fell, which we are expressly informed
was the case (Acts i.) ; and if the election of the
Deacons belonged to the whole multitude (Acts vi.),
can it be doubted, for a moment, that they also elected
their own Elders ? An Elder, it is true, is not an
Apostle, but we know that the Apostles were Elders
(1 Peter v. 1. ; 1 John v. 1.) ; and therefore in elec-
ting an Apostle they elected an Elder.
To this I shall add the testimony of a man, who
could not he mistaken in his assertions respecting the
primitive practice, having hiinself been set apart to the
office of presbyter in the apostolie age—_a testimony
which will also prove that the office of bishop and
pres‘byter "%MS in his time the same. I mean that of
Ci.rstENT; whom PAUL (Philip iv. 3.) calls one of his
,‘ fella:la-labourers whose names are written in the boa of
In his first epistle to the Corinthians* (who, as
• Or rather, as its own title. runs s " The Epistle f the Cox-
grogatioa of GOD at Rome, to to Comp...polo. of Goa at Corinth:`
—A late learned sod ingenuous writer speaks of this epistle in the
toilowing walls ;—" Nest to the sasred canon, the roost salient

•
appears, by that epistle, had rarrie4 the spirit or ftt
tion and dissension, for which PAUL before reproved
them, to ilia a length' as tothroiv some df their el-
ders out of the office to which they had been optic:An-
ted), in chap. xi. 11: speaking of the publitatitm of 1
the Gospel bythe Apostles who 'were sent by emusr,
he says, v. Thus preaching its countries and towns
" they appointed their first converts for bishops and
" deacons of those who should believe ; nor was this
“ a new devide, since bishops and deacons had been
" pointed out many ages before ; for thus saith the
" Scripture it a certain place : I will appoint their
" bishops in righteousness and their deacons in faith"}—
Here only two offices, bishops and deacons, are trial-
tinned as of divine appointment. He goes on in chap.
Alit. to chew that to the Apostles it was committed by
GOD, in CmaiAT, to establish these offices,as it had be-
fore been committed to Moses to settle by Goo's ap-
pointment what related to the service of the sanctuary,
that there might be no room left for strife, and that,
in every thing, the name of the true and only GOD
might be glorified :--And then proceeds thus, in chap.
xliv. " The Apostles foreknew, through our LORD
" JESUS CHRIST, that contention would arise about
" the name of the iishoit's dice Dottoicoels—ile

et same word that it used in - 1 Tim. iii. I.] ; and

" therefore, having a perfect foreknowledge of this,
they appointed persons, as we have before said [viz.
" to the offices of bishops and deacons mentioned
" above], and gave directions, that when they should
" die, other sZetet and approved men might succeed
" them in their office. Hence we cannot think that,

44 with justice, those may be expelled from their office,
" who were appointed by them, or by eminent men

" afterward% with the awed of the whole congregation,
" and who have, with all humbleness and purity, mi.

" nistered to the flock of Clump, in peace, and dis-
" interestedly, and were, for a long tithe, commended
"by all. For it is a heinous sin to thrust from the
" bishoy: ere [Eripcoirr,s---elierierrehi,e] those who
" holily and unblameably discharge its duties: Blessed
" are those presbyter! [rczoi3urEFo i] who having
" already finished their coure,have obtained a fruitful
" and perfect dissolution—they have no cause to fear,
ea being thrust out of the situation in which they are;
" [now] established. But Au have thrust out some
" of unblamable life front the office with which they
" were, without Mame, and innocently adorned."--:-
Here those whom it was a heinous sin to dismiss from
the Overseer:hip or Bishop's Gji;:e, are the very Presby-
ters whom these Corinthians had driven, from their
office, though they had been appointed in that manner
which they were bound to admit Was without blame.
That is, they had been appointed by the ApOstlet
themselves, or by eminent men after their decease,
with the con.ent of the whole congregation, their cha-
racters having been first approved agreeably to the
Apostolic injunction given to l'imority and to Taus;
therefot e no exception could be taken to the legality
of their appointment ; and having beldaved themselves !
holily and unblameably in the office, the Corinthians
were altogether inexcusable in their conduct towards .
them. CLLNIT.NT, by his argument, admits, that could
they have urged any solid objection against the man-
ner of their appointment, or the life and conduct of
these elders, their proceeding would have been justi.
fiable ; and indeed this is'evident from the New Tes-
lament, for in Christian congregations uthin, tan be
permitted contrary to the rules of CHRIST, and they
are commanded to separate themselves from everybro-
and valuable monument we have of Christian antiquity,is a very
long letter to the Corinthians, from a Bishop of Rome, Clement,
who had been cotemporary with the Apostles, and is mentioned
by 1'1111,41,0ne of his Epistles. - So truth the reverse do we find
hers of every thing that looks like authority and state, that this
worthy pastor, in the true spirit of primitive and efiristian humi-
lity, sinks his own name entirely in that of the Congregation to
which he belonged, and does not desire that he should be consi-
dered otherwise than as any other individual of the society ; a
manner very unlike that of his successors, and quite incompatible
with their claims."—Campbell's Lectures WI History,
Numerous authorities might be adduced to prove that as thel
Christian congregations had the power to elect their bishops, so
also, for centuries, they bad the power to depose them, if their
Character and conversation were found unbecoming the office,
and to chose others in their room ; but I shall here only mention
the case of MARTIALIS and Bssiiibrr, two Spanish bishops,
who for apostacy and idolatry were set aside by their congrega-
tions, who elected Flux and Ss at Nus in their steeds. By de-
sire of these parishes, several African bishops had a meeting anno
258, in which CePelAs presided, which approved their condacti
stating that the divine law was exp rrrrr that none hat these who were
holy and lelanoden shad approach God's altar ; that had they *dinged
in Jomarsacion with them profane bishops, they would have hem mem-
Isaries to their guilt, and have acted matrary to those examples end mom
maids in scripture, width 'Ajax Christians to separate :Meted and tar
godly ministers fro* their fellowship ; and that they had not meted
irregularly in what they had done, since as the people 4ad the thief
pricer of choosing worthy bishops, so also had they to reject time that'
were un-.crrthy.'.-CYPRIANI Opera, FM's,. 1599. P. 200, 201.-
01:risme—The people had the chief power, not the whole power,
for that lay hi the congregation, including the elates and deacons
as well as the rest of the members.
Almost innumerable testimonies Might be produced to proVe
that k continued for some centuries to be the practice, that every
congregation elected its own bishops. Thus ALttANoea was
appointed bishop of the church at Jerusalem ig the rampultion at-
choke of all the members (Euseb. lib. vi. cap it,) ; At Carthage Cr-,
ea lAN was chosen bishop, " by thp grace of COD and the fey MP
if the people; w POSITIUs, a deacon of the same obtlrcb, testifies.
(in Vita Cypriasi) ; and as Ger:time himself states in several of
his epistles—Nor can it possibly be understood as an election by
the clergy for the people, or by a part of the congregation or even
a majority of it, but by the unanimous missend of the whale for in
one of his letters his words are "Populi linivirsi.rwffregio," (Epiat;
55, § 7.) At Rome, on the death of ANTeit vs, all the brethren mm
in the congrigatiun to slave a successor—and unanimously chose FABIA•
s (Euseb. lib. vi. cap. 28.) :lid whoa COILNELIUS was appoint-
ed bishop OR the death of FARIASIUS, it was 6/the mirage the
dog, and psoltk (Cypriast. Eptst. 67. § 2.).

. •
. •
the! that "Vimlketh disorderly. t Rauh** ward
Uri* neither the one ground nor ilia othirjos• las*
they had done, and thereto's* hi censures then 5!..•
vitay for their conduct (Ch. :W.) gg' It is aSNOW,'
yea a very great thime, beloved,
is of yoUr Christian institution, Unit the most
" and ancient songregatioh of thiCorinthiatis should,
" by the instigation of one or two persons, rise up
gi Against its Presbyter:. Not only We but those that,
" are without have heard Of it—insomuch that the
it name of the Loan is reviled, through your wick-
" t clness, and even ye yottiselves are brought into ,
" danger,"
The duties of 'elders Or bishops are plainly pointed
out in the New Testament. They are' requited to
take had unto themselves aid to the flati over which they
have been made overture 4 THE HOLY SPIRIT, for Air,
very pupate, that they may feed the congregatithi of Von,
which he bath purchased-With/tie own blood (Actsxs 28) ,
holding fan the form of the round words taught lty the apos-,
-tlet,in faith and love (2 Tim. i. 13). But as thtir du-
ties must necessarily be an object
_of discussion in
treating of their joint acts along with the congregn-'
tion, I shall not here take up more of the Readeris
BIBLiCUO.

----
t CLEMENT quotes this passage from Isitan (11.: PA !which Is
thus rendered in our version—" I will make thine ears peace,
and thine evaders righteousness." fits translation, however,
Comes heater to the settee of the original than ours. The word.
e7lll, which our translators have tendeted exactors isby,the
LXX rendered overseers [steiounnue, bishops]' and suck is really;
the sense Of the wofd, though in different places it is tendered
tad-oe.rtets in out version, merely because the overseers spoken of
were appointed to bee that the children of Israel performed the
*work required of them. But they were equally bishops, odes;
we choose to alter the natural meaning of words. The other term
"INTO, efeeers,is by theLXX rendered aexorrac, reeks.: but
"I'"b from which it is derived, sigLifies properly to fool after
to inspect, to tale care e, to tale amend of, which is the very-duty of
a deacon of the church. Theoriginol word imports sot only of,
firers, but the hied of officers: The Vulgate gives the sense of the
passage much more correctly than our version, thus : uptown wi-
eitatiosteit teem pastes : et INA:Ito: twos juatitiatie.--littNat 505 qua,
ting the prophet, renders the passage thus :• "dale feri.4ei teat he
pate, d epimpor twos in Militia?' Li 6, 4.. c. 44.1). 278. Folio, 1580:-.-
On the whole, we may conclude that CLEMENT'S version gives
that sense which the apostles themselves held to be the meaning
of the prophecy, for he could not be ignorant of their interprets.
tion. But however this may be, the purpose for which he quotes
the passage cannot be mistaken.