Page:Some Reflections on the Importance of a Religious Life.djvu/17

 each to worship God in the temple of his own heart, and were, we cannot doubt, enabled in this way to worship him acceptably. Even when no words were uttered, they were made sensible that the Lord is nigh unto all that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. As they were not taught in the New Testament that human learning is a needful qualification for the ministry of the Gospel, they acknowledged those only in that sacred office, whom they believed to be called of the Lord to the work; and through the immediate operation of the Holy Spirit, men and women among them were qualified to speak to exhortation, edification, and comfort.

Finding, on scriptural authority, that in our Lord’s charge to his apostles, when he sent them forth to preach the Gospel, his command was, Freely [or gratuitously,] ye have received, freely give, they conscientiously refused to receive pay for preaching. They accepted not that system of the Christian religion which was imposed upon them by the civil government, hence they felt it to be their duty to withdraw from its ministers, and not by their conduct in any way to countenance the compulsory maintenance of them, believing that if they did so, they should contribute to a violation of this injunction of our Lord. There were many things in the ecclesiastical establishment of that