asserted, as an acknowledged fact, that they are the weaker vessels; more liable to be imposed on, and more ready to yield to the impulse of excitement, than men. This is the necessary consequence of the peculiar nature of their virtues and duties. They are formed for the solace of man, and therefore their sensibilities are habitually more on the alert than his. They are required to be, comparatively, keepers at home; and have, therefore, fewer opportunities than he of acquiring that experience which can only be reaped among the more active scenes of life. Their understanding, generally speaking, is more easily deceived than his, and their enthusiasm more readily excited. Add to this, that an atmosphere of persuasiveness floats around them, which belongs not to our sterner mould. Satan has thus a double temptation to exert his skill for their seduction, and a double facility for accomplishing it.

Accordingly, in those superstitious and idolatrous systems of religion, which, throughout the heathen world, long superseded the original light of revelation, women usually formed a considerable and most influential portion of the priesthood. Instances it would be superfluous to enumerate. And women have ever been foremost in the train of almost every false prophet, and pestilent heretic, under the Christian dispensation. The too-successful career of Montanus was speeded by the ministry of Priscilla and Maximilla, and others of their sex. When Pope Urban the Fourth wished, for the purpose of perpetuating the impious doctrine of transubstantiation, to institute the Feast of Corpus Christi, or the body of Christ, he availed himself of the credit of two fanatical women, who declared it was revealed to them in a vision. Among the raving and sanguinary Anabaptists, that sprung up in Saxony about the year 1522, under Nicholas Stork, and soon afterwards established themselves in Holland, some of the women prophesied. Anne Lee and Joanna Southcott boldly took the field in the cause of error, without condescending at all to employ the services of a male leader or director. The catalogue might easily be swelled to an indefinite extent. (50.)

Very different is the station allotted to the female sex by nature, and occupied by them in the true church of Christ. They yield not, indeed, to us in extensive usefulness,—but it is always unostentatious. They far excel us frequently in that most excellent gift of charity, which, it was predicted by the Holy Spirit, shall survive, when prophecies shall have failed, when tongues shall have ceased, and when knowledge shall have vanished away. (51.) They, from the first, loved much. They ministered to our Redeemer's wants, and sat at his feet, and anointed his feet with ointment, and his body for burial. They were the last at the cross, and the first at the sepulchre. In educating children, in lodging strangers, in washing the saints' feet, in relieving the afflicted, as the word of God enjoins, they have ever been exemplary, and have diligently followed every good work. But when have they cried, or lifted up, or caused their voice to be heard in the street? Where could they find encouragement in the Scriptures for such masculine displays? Not in the evangelical narratives. The only instance we meet with, in the Acts of the Apostles, of women prophesying, is that of the four daughters of Philip, and it is no where intimated that they exercised their gift in public. (52.) A severe practical rebuke of such a custom occurs in the sixteenth chapter. A certain damsel, possessed with a spirit of divination, met and followed Paul and his company, at Philippi, and cried, saying, "These men are servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation." And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned, and said to the spirit, "I command thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her." And he came out

C

the same hour. What induced Paul to judge that the spirit which possessed her was evil? Was it the substance of her exclamations? No: that was unexceptionable. She bore a fearless testimony to the mission of God's faithful servants. (53.) It was her conduct, so incompatible with female modesty :—it was her crying in the street, and courting attraction, that betrayed the impure source of her inspiration. Priscilla, indeed, is mentioned as having assisted to expound the way of God more perfectly unto Apollos, that eloquent Egyptian Jew, so mighty in the Scriptures. But, then, she, with her husband, took him home unto them for that purpose.

Does St. Paul sanction any such breach of decorum? Far from it. He peremptorily forbids it again and again. "Let your women keep silence in the churches; for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home; for it is a shame for women to speak in the church." And in his charge to Timothy: "Let the woman learn in silence, with all subjection; but I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence." (54.) St. Peter speaks to the same purpose, exhorting wives "to adorn themselves with the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is, in the sight of God, of great price, and to be in subjection to their own husbands."

One very obscure passage of St. Paul is by some most inconsistently considered as neutralising all these positive injunctions. It will be found in 1 Cor. xi. ‘Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head; but every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered, dishonoureth her head; for that is even all one as if she were shaven." Now, the apostle is not necessarily speaking here of assemblies in the church, or public meetings of any description. In those days, as at present, women were surely sometimes the heads of families, as well as men'; and were they to neglect the instruction of their household, (which was often much more numerous than in the same rank of life now, and in this country, slavery then prevailing throughout the Roman empire,) were they, I say, to neglect the instruction of their household, and daily family prayer, because they had no husband? And may not the praying and prophesying spoken of be, that they were bound to engage in in their own houses? Surely such an interpretation is more rational, and more accordant with the general scope of Scripture, than that quibbling one which makes the distinction consist in speaking by inspiration or otherwise. St. Paul expressly says, he suffers not a woman to teach. He makes no exception of any mode of teaching. He requires of her, not a conditional, but an absolute silence. He sums up the whole of her duty, in public, in one word. He would have her learn. How ingeniously blind do those become who will not see!

Again, vociferation, and what may be called bodily exercise, seem to be almost inseparable from designing or fanatical speakers with tongues. The instrumentality of such means, for exciting the animal feelings, and bewildering the intellect, has not been neglected by Satan. It was a striking characteristic of the votaries of the heathen deities, and has ever been equally so of false teachers and their disciples. They uniformly appeal to us through the natural man, which receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, and cannot, by whatever intensity of contortion, gesticulation, or utterance, communicate them to the world. It is not through bodily grimace that the presence of the Holy Spirit is evidenced. Its manifestations to us through inspired personages will be found conformable to its imme

diate manifestation to Elijah: "And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks, before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind, an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake, a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire, a still small voice." That was the token of Jehovah's presence. The same holy prophet assailed the priests of Baal with bitter mockery for their infuriate leaping and crying aloud from morning until evening. The priestesses of Cybele and Bacchus, the Roman Sybils,-the British Druidesses,—the damsel at Philippi,—the frenzied sisterhood of Montanus, -the French prophets and prophetesses,-the early Quakers,-the Shakers,-the debauched orphans of Amsterdam and Hoorn,-the, in too many instances, equally debauched Magnetists,-could vie, in point of utterance, with the thrilling screams lately imported from Scotland to this metropolis. (55.) There is not the shadow of a trace of any thing similar having been manifested by females of genuine and rational piety, either in the Scriptures, where it is denounced, or in the history of the Church at any period. This is a remarkable, and ought to be a startling coincidence and contrast.

I would just notice here, the constant, the threefold, fourfold, manifold repetitions of the same ejaculations, in the oracles of our modern sybils; and recommend you to consider this feature of their delusion, with the recollection of our Saviour's precept to his disciples: "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: be not ye, therefore, like unto them." (56.)

The more

Time will not allow me to pursue the parallel farther, between the delusions of our modern fanatics, and those of their predecessors, and of the heathen. Suffice it to say, that a minuter investigation would still further demonstrate its closeness. It is affirmed, that, in the present instance, the strangeness of the tongue, which is declared to be as totally unknown to those who utter it, as to all who have yet heard it, demonstrates the impossibility of its being a trick of man. It demonstrates no such thing; it rather strengthens the suspicion that it is so. cautiously opportunities for its detection are removed, the more evidence are we furnished with of the existence of deliberate collusion. (57.) Nor does any thing but the clumsiness of the contrivance, if it be one, distinguish this from the already detected artifices of Satan. As he can transform himself into an angel of light, so can he invest his agents with every outward semblance of sanctity; and as he is sufficiently well acquainted with the letter of Scripture, to be able to quote it at will to serve his purposes; so can he also cause the language of his inspirations to accord exactly with Scripture, as in the case of the demoniacs mentioned in the gospels, and of the damsel at Philippi.

Let us now compare, or rather contrast, the pretended gift of tongues of which we have lately heard so much, with that really bestowed on the early Christians.

That which first fell on the apostles at Jerusalem was a gift of intelligible tongues. Men out of every nation under heaven heard them speak, every man in his own language, the wonderful works of God. The attempts to contradict this are puerile in the extreme. When Cornelius, with his relations and friends, began to speak with tongues, after Peter's preaching, it is stoutly maintained, that no foreigners were present for them to address. (58.) Was ever any assertion more opposite to plain matter of fact? As if Asiatics were not foreigners to Europeans,-Galileans to natives of Italy. Cornelius is described at the very outset as a centurion of the Italian band, and his relations and friends were, in all probability, officers in the same corps, certainly Gentiles: and the six companions of

Peter, all men, were as certainly Jews, the gospel having never before been preached to the Gentiles, as the entire narrative evinces. Not a hint is given of any woman being present. It is also most absurdly taken for granted, that Paul was the only person present, when the twelve disciples who had been baptized unto John's baptism at Ephesus,-all men, be it observed,-spake with tongues, after he had laid his hands upon them. (59.) The more rational and justifiable inference is, that this took place before the whole assembled church at Ephesus, which was exceedingly likely to consist of persons of various nations, the city being a famous sea-port, and much resorted to by foreigners.

St. Paul says expressly, Except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak unto the air. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification." (60.) As if he had said, "Speak to them that are in the world," at the Exchange, or some other place of public concourse, among whom may be some who will understand what you say; and not to those already numbered with the brethren, who understand you not." He also tells us, “Tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not.”—The whole scope of the 12th, 13th, and 14th chapters of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, is to show the folly and impropriety of speaking such of them in the church as none of its members could understand. He that should thus speak in an unknown tongue might possibly edify himself, but he could edify no one else. "For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue, speaketh not unto men, but unto God for no man understandeth him [of those present;] howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries." He forbids any one in future to do so except he, or some other, have the gift of interpreting: (61.) for it is likely enough some Gentiles might have the gift of speaking other languages besides his own, and yet not that of the Jews, or of those among whom he sojourned. He also restricts such exercises, even where an interpreter is present, to two, or, at the most, three persons, on each occasion, requiring further that they should occupy but a small portion of time. It is clear, that the Church of Corinth, like all self-righteous persons, was "puffed up" with spiritual vanity, and lamentably deficient in that charity which "edifieth." Its members had already forgotten one express command of him on whom they professed to believe.-They neglected the duty of 'preaching the gospel to every creature:" for which purpose the gift of tongues was conferred on them. (62.)

How different a gift is that of screaming out an unintelligible jargon in a place of worship, in direct defiance of the injunction of the great Apostle of the Gentiles to the Corinthians; who adds, as one having authority, "If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.”

The acknowledged gift, then, and the pretended one, have quite a different test. The former was known to be of God, because every one understood what he heard. How are we to know whence the latter comes? How are we to distinguish it from the imitations of any man, woman, or child, who may choose to present us with a counterfeit ? Away with such "profane and vain babblings; for they will increase unto more ungodliness; and their word will eat as doth a

canker."

The first gift fell only on men. There is not a single instance, from the first chapter of Matthew to the last of Revelations, of a woman being thus endowed.

(63.) The only persons who were taught to expect the "promise of the Father” at a specified time, were the Apostles, as is manifest from the evangelical narratives. (64.) They were accordingly the ALL who were with one accord in one place in prayer and supplication awaiting the Spirit's advent; and they were exclusively the speakers with tongues on the day of Pentecost. Of this a careful perusal of the 1st and 2nd chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, can leave no doubt on an unbiassed mind. (65.) Nor is there the slightest intimation that this gift was conferred at any time on any other Jew, male or female. The Spirit fell on the three thousand who were added unto the church, by Peter's preaching, in its general and permanent influences; for "they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." But nothing is said of their receiving a single miraculous gift. If such gifts had then been generally bestowed, should we not have heard something of their exercise? Many wonders and signs were indeed done; but they were explicitly stated to have been done "by the Apostles." (66.) At present, on the contrary, the pretended gift has fallen almost exclusively on females.

A visible sign, the "cloven tongues, as of fire," announced the miraculous energy in the Apostles, and the house in which they were sitting was filled with a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind." Why are there no such accompaniments in the nineteenth century?

On the day of Pentecost general astonishment was excited, no such thing having ever before been heard of, and great multitudes assembled together to see and hear for themselves, of whom three thousand were convinced and converted. At present, the lookers-on evince more of derision than astonishment, remembering the frequency, and resenting the audacity, of such impostures; while a great secession from the church first and chiefly infected has taken place, and few have as yet come forward to supply the vacancies.

There were no reasonable grounds of suspicion in the primitive communication of the gift. The Apostles were Galileans, inhabitants of a province proverbial for stupidity. They had grown up to middle age as ignorant and unlettered as the rest of their countrymen, They were poor, and could not purchase instruction in foreign languages. They were going about continually, like their Lord, doing good, until his death; and after that event they continued, without inter mission, in prayer and supplication, till wisdom, and knowledge, and utterance, were simultaneously communicated to them from on high.-There are, on the other hand, very strong grounds of suspicion in the present instance. The females who have lately acquired such unenviable notoriety, are inhabitants of the capital of the most enlightened nation on earth, during the most enlightened age of the world. Though still young, they have arrived at those years when languages are most readily acquired. They belong to a class of society in which mental culture is much attended to. They have leisure in abundance. They are stated to be in affluent circumstances; at any rate they have affluent abettors and supporters. What facilities have they for imposing on us in a matter of this nature, if they should be so disposed! Of old, God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and the weak things of the world, to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, yea, and things that are not, to bring to nought things that are,—in the distribution of his miraculous gifts. In the present day, the respectability and talent of the parties, their worldly and natural advantages, are appealed to as confirmatory of their claim to inspiration! What a contrast! There would be