2d.  Some passages of Scripture are urged, wherein it is supposed all Christians are enjoined to exercise their qualifications in public teaching or preaching:  particularly Rom. xii. 6-8; 1 Pet. iv. 10, 11.  These Scriptures, on the contrary, restrict the public ministry of the word to those invested with an office, and it is that ministry which belongs to their office that is spoken of.  In Rom. xii. persons in office are exhorted to apply themselves faithfully and diligently to that ministry to which they are called, whether it be a ministry of the word, and of spiritual things, or a ministry of temporal things, and that without envying others who have a different office and ministry.  And, to enforce this exhortation, the apostle compares the Church to the natural body, ver. 4, in which all members have not the same office, but one member is appointed to one office, and another member to a different office:  and so it is in the Church of Christ, ver. 5.  The same allusion is applied more largely, 1 Cor. xii. 27, 28, to illustrate this very point.  The other passage, 1 Pet. iv. 10, 11, is of the very same import:  those in office are called to exercise their ministry faithfully, whether it be in spiritual or temporal things, and are addressed as stewards, ver. 10; “As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”  Some are led to mistake the meaning of these Scriptures, by misunderstanding the word gift, as if it meant only talents or qualifications; whereas, in these and many other passages, it means a certain office and ministry to which one is appointed.  Eph. iv. 8, 11:  He gave gifts unto men; he gave some apostles, some prophets, &c. 1 Tim. iv. 14:  “Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.”  Timothy was ordained to the office of the ministry in consequence of special direction of the spirit of prophecy.  See 1 Tim. i. 18.

3d.  It is also supposed and much insisted on by some, that both precept and example for the preaching of the gospel, by what they call every gifted brother, may be found in 1 Cor. xiv. 31, which is particularly urged in support of their opinion:  “For ye may all prophesy, one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted.”  But universal terms, such as are here used, are limited or extended according to the subject; and that even in the same verse, as in chap. xv. 22.  In like manner here, the all that may prophesy are not the same all that may learn and be comforted.  The latter may extend to all the members of the church, and even to strangers who might come into their assemblies; the former could apply only to a few.  Some members of the church are expressly prohibited from public teaching, ver. 34.  Besides, all were not prophets, chap. xii. 29, and therefore all could neither prophesy, nor could warrantably attempt it.  The state of