then the _ordinance_ was _changed_, as Isaiah foretold it should,[7] among the causes why the earth is defiled under the inhabitants thereof. The Apostolic Epistles contain little, if any thing, to establish the pastoral authority in a single person of each church or congregation: and the omission of all allusion to such an office is often very remarkable from the occasion seeming to assure us, that it would have been mentioned had it existed. The Epistles of the Lord to the seven churches are therefore resorted to for proof of the existence and nature of the place of a single pastor with peculiar and exclusive powers. But neither there nor elsewhere is the fact of ordination once referred to, in relation to the receiving or rejection of those who claimed to speak in the name of Christ. In these very Epistles there is a commendation for disregarding for the truth's sake the highest titles of ecclesiastical office. "Thou canst not bear them which are evil: thou hast _tried_ them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars."[8] I believe, "not to bear them which are evil" pastors, evangelists or apostles, is as commendable in England as in Ephesus in the eye of the Head of the Churches. Is there a syllable in the Bible to lead us to suppose that these liars were detected by any other means than those which Paul had already taught the Church? "Though _we_, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." As for the ordinance, such passages as Titus i. 9, make _selection_ a part of that ordinance: the bishop is to be one "holding fast the word of truth as he hath been taught." Now, on what authority shall this part of the ordinance, viz. selection, be omitted, and no flaw follow: while the presence or omission of a manual act in certain hands is to constitute the reality or absence of Divine ordination? A. J. SCOTT. _Woolwich, Aug. 16th, 1832._ [1] Page 155. [2] Page 169. [3] Page 122. [4] Page 146. [5] See "Narratives of two Families exposed to the great Plague of London, 1665; with Conversations on a Religions Preparation for Pestilence," and "God's Terrible Voice in the City," by Vincent; both republished by Rev. J. Scott, of Hull. [6] And yet what security is afforded by a present abatement of the visitation? In Glasgow, cholera was regarded as departing, and all but departed. The number of cases has since risen, for some time, to above 300 at once, and the deaths not seldom to between one and two hundred a day, in a population small compared with that of London. [7] Chap. xxiv. ver. 5. [8] Rev. ii. 2. * * * * * JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE AT BAGDAD. _Bagdad, April 2, 1830._