they represent, shall be received as members of the council.

3. All ministers of the gospel in regular standing and fellowship with this or any other Association of Universalists, shall be considered as members.

4. Each member shall be entitled to one vote, and all matters determined by a majority.

5. The business of the Association when assembled, shall be, to choose a moderator and clerk, and other officers, when necessary; to examine the state of particular churches and societies duly represented; and to give or withdraw fellowship, as may be necessary; to consider the conduct of its members, and approve or rebuke as occasion may require; to appoint particular committees and hear their reports; and to adopt all such measures from time to time, as may tend to promote general order, instruction, and harmony.

6. The Association shall appoint, annually, three of its members, a committee of discipline, who shall have the power of hearing complaints and of suspending from fellowship, when necessary, the labors of ministers, until the next meeting of the Association.

7. If any preacher of this Association or any of its branches shall be charged by public fame, with unbecoming or irregular behavior and conversation, inquiry shall be made into the cause of complaint, and fellowship continued only on satisfactory evidence of innocence; and if the Association shall have given letters of fellowship to any person, who discontinues his ministry,without sufficient cause, said letters shall be recalled. 8. The request of any candidate for ordination, who being an approved laborer, has had a letter of fellowship for one year; and sustained during the same time, an unimpeachable moral character, shall be granted, and ordination conferred at the annual meetings of the Association, or by councils appointed for that purpose.

9. It shall be the duty of every member to give atr tendance in council to all business coming before the Association, and not to withdraw without permission from the moderator.

10. This Association disclaims all authority to pass any further judgement against any offending church, society or individual, than the withdrawing of fellowship.

11. This Association reserves to itself, under the direction of Divine wisdom, the right of making any alterations in this constitution, which circumstances may require, provided they be in conformity with the plan of the General Convention.

From the Christian Disciple.

REMARKS ON 1 CORINTHIANS ii. 14.

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."-1 Cor. ii. 14.

These words have been frequently understood as denoting the natural inaptitude or incapacity of man to receive and discern the truths of religion; and they have been regarded by many christians as an evidence of the corrupt and disordered nature of man before it is regenerated by the special influences of the spirit of God. A candid examination of the passage, however, may show that this is not its meaning, and point out the important instruction it really conveys.

The word natural in this passage, has no relation to the condition or character of men by nature, or as they are formed by the hand of their Creator. If we consider simply the nature of man, we shall find in him nothing worthy of blame or deserving of punishment; nothing, which violates any law, or is opposed to goodness; for that nature is the work of God, and the works of his hand are good. But rational beings, who are

formed aright, may become sinful by the voluntary perversion of those powers which were originally pure. This is admitted by all to have been the case with the angels, who sinned, and with our first parents. The single fact then, that mankind betray an inclination to sin, when they become capable of moral action, is no proof of any thing wrong in their nature, or in their original constitution. If temptation could operate on angels in heaven, and on Adam and Eve in Paradise, without a sinful nature, then it may operate on mankind in the early period of their existence, without indicating, that they are sinners by birth, or are born with depraved hearts.

Our first inquiry is, what is meant by the natural man? The answer, which most readily suggests itself to many, and with which they rest contented, is that it denotes man, as he comes from his Creator, as he is born, or created. And at this answer from one, who confines himself wholly to the import of the word as it stands in our translation, and has no other means of understanding its sense, we should not have occasion to be much surprised. But he, who undertakes to be a teacher, and should quote this passage as a proof of what man is in his natural state, convicts himself of ignorance, or of something worse, for which he has no excuse. The truth is, the word here translated natural, (agreeably to the interpretation of Doddridge, Macknight and many judicious critics) has no relation to the character or condition of men, as they are formed, or as they come into the world. It denotes not what they are by nature, nor any part of their original constitution, but what they are by the perversion or abuse of their nature, or a character, which is strictly unnatural. The word should have been rendered sensual, vicious, corrupt; and it denotes the character of those, who are under the dominion of base and depraved passions, who

have rendered themselves slaves to their animal propensities, and who have no higher or holier object than the gratification of their animal appetites. We have the same word twice, at least rendered in this manner in our common translation. It is said in James, "This wisdom descendeth not from above; but is earthly, sensual, (or natural xixos) devilish." Jude, speaking of those whom he terms ungodly sinners, declares, "These be they, who separate themselves, sensual, not having the spirit." No intimation is given, that this term is applicable to mankind in a state of infancy, or that it describes their natural state or character. On the other hand, the period of childhood and youth is peculiarly favourable for receiving the things of the spirit of God; the instructions and precepts he has given in his word. Then is the mind most susceptible of those impressions, which the truths of the gospel are designed and fitted to produce. Then is there the least opposition to the genuine influence of Christianity. As yet those evil habits are not formed, which are subdued with so much difficulty, that the change is compared to the "Ethiopian changing his skin and the leopard his spots." But when men have corrupted their ways, voluntarily abused or perverted their nature and faculties; when they have indulged their vicious inclinations, and by indulgence converted them into habits; it becomes exceedingly difficult for them to return to the right way: their aversion to the gospel acquires strength; and they become more and more insensible to the influence of religion and virtue. The course, which they pursue, marks their dislike to the gospel; they undervalue its instructions, promises, and rewards; the consolations it yields here, and the everlasting honors, which it encourages the righteous to expect hereafter. While this is their disposition, they cannot perceive the value, beauty, or excellence of those truths, which the scriptures unfold.

This leads to a second inquiry, very important to a correct interpretation of this passage. In what respects is the sensual, or vicious man incapable of knowing the things of the spirit of God? i.e. as we may understand it, of apprehending the truths and objects of religion? Has he any want of capacity of knowing all, that it is required of him to know? Is there any natural blindness of understanding, which in the use of appointed means he is unable to remove? The reason of things and the plain declarations or deductions of scripture show, that there is not. He has all the powers of a moral agent, and is capable of performing all his duty. The text, and other similar passages imply no more, than that men, while they remain sensual, or vicious, cannot relish the things of religion, cannot love God, and cheerfully perform the duties of piety and morality. There is a strong distaste or indisposition of mind towards these duties. No man can at the same time pursue two courses; or cherish two states of affection, so opposite as those of vice and virtue, of sin and holiness. To choose one of them is to abandon the other. To have a taste for one implies a dislike of the other. He therefore, who prefers to gratify his sinful propensities, cannot, while this is his character, cordially receive the doctrines, cultivate the spirit, or perform the duties of Christianity. This, it may be presumed, will be admitted by all, who consider the subject. But does the text, or any similar passage, denote that wicked men have no control over their hearts, dispositions, characters, or actions? Does it imply the least necessity, that they remain as they are till some supernatural influence takes place within them? Does it imply, that they are dependent on God for the dispositions of their hearts and the obtaining of their salvation in any different sense from that, in which they are dependent on him for other blessings? This were virtually to deny the