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church, under the grace and providence of God, which has enabled us to refiit all the shocks we have lately felt from the fatanical fpirit of divifion, and to remain firm as a rock.

We may just add, that it is customary for the prefiding elders, or in their abfence the preachers who have the charge of circuits, to hold quarterly, or half-yearly conferences with the local preachers and exhorters respectively under their care, to examine into their grace, gifts and usefulness, and into the state of the work of God- -a custom of exceeding great utility, and, therefore, such as, we trust, will never be neglected.

SECTION XI.

Of the Trial of those who think they are moved by the Holy Ghost to preach.

HOW

Quest. 1. T OW shall we try those who profess to be moved by the Holy Ghost to preach? Anfw. 1. Let the following queftions be asked, viz. Do they know God as a pardoning God? Have they the love of God abiding in them? Do they desire and feek nothing but God? And are they holy in all manner of conversation?

2. Have they gifts (as well as grace) for the work? Have they (in fome tolerable degree) a clear, found understanding, a right judgment in the things of God, a juft conception of falvation by faith? And has God given them any degree of utterance? Do they speak juftly, readily, clearly?

3. Have they fruit? Are any truly convinced of fin, and converted to God, by their preaching?

As long as these three marks concur in any one, we believe he is called of God to preach. These we receive as fufficient proof that he is moved by the Holy Ghost.

NOTE S.

We have enlarged on the prefent fubject in our notes on the 8th fection of this chapter. Every reader may from hence perceive the care we take in receiving our preachers and ministers. As the prefiding elders, or those who have the charge of cir

cuits, are attentive to the examination of the local preachers and exhorters, fo the yearly conferences are attentive to the gifts, grace, and usefulness of all the travelling preachers and minifters. Nothing will do for us without the life of God. Brilliant parts, fine addrefs, &c. are to us but tinkling cymbals, when deftitute of the power of the Holy Ghoft.

At the fame time we are far from defpifing talents which may be rendered ufeful to the church of Christ. We know the worth of improved abilities: and nothing can equal our itinerant plan, in the opportunity it affords of fuiting our various focieties with men of God, who are endued with gifts agreeable to their reSpective wants.

The following texts may illuftrate the prefent fubject. Gal. i. 15, 16. "When it pleafed God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood." You may here obferve, that Christ was revealed in St. Paul, that he might preach. This is an effential requisite for every preacher of the gospel: and he who attempts to enter into the fheepfold by any other door, than Christ-Christ revealed in him, and moving him by his Spirit to preach the word, is a thief and a robber; but, bleffed be God, "the fheep will not follow him, but flee from him!" See the 10th chapter of St. John. Again, St. Paul defires his Ephefians to pray "always with all prayer and fupplication in the Spirit, and" to watch "thereunto with all perfeverance and fupplication for all faints; and for me,” adds he, “that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds; that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to fpeak," Eph. vi. 18-20. If the apostle had need of the prayers of the faints, that he might have the Spiritual gift of utterance, how much more need, alas! have we? Once more, "Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men; forafmuch as ye are manifeftly declared to be the epistle of Chrift, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of ftone, but in flefhly tables of the heart, 2 Cor. iii. 2, 3. Here was fruit! The Lord grant

us much of this fruit!

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Of the Matter and Manner of Preaching, and of other public Exercifes.

Quest. 1.

W

HAT is the best general method of preaching?

Anf. 1. To convince: 2. To offer Chrift: 3. To invite: 4. To build up: And to do this in fome meafure in every fermón.

Queft. 2. What is the moft effectual way of preaching Chrift?

Anfw. The moft effectual way of preaching Christ, is to preach him in all his offices; and to declare his law, as well as his gofpel, both to believers and unbelievers. Let us ftrongly and clofely infift upon inward and outward holinefs in all its branches.

Quef. 3. Are there any smaller advices, which might be of ufe to us?

Anfw. Perhaps thefe: 1. Be fure never to disappoint a congregation. 2. Begin at the time appointed. 3. Let your whole deportment be ferious, weighty, and folemn. 4. Always fuit your fubject to your audience. 5. Choose the plaineft text you can. 6. Take care not to ramble, but keep to your text, and make out what you take in hand. 7. Take care of any thing aukward or affected, either in your gefture, phrafe, or pronunciation. 8. Print nothing without the approbation of the conference, or of one of the bishops. 9. Do not ufually pray ex tempore above eight or ten minutes (at moft) without intermiffion. 10. Frequently read and enlarge upon a portion of fcripture; and let young preachers often exhort without taking a text. 11. Always avail yourself of the great festivals, by preaching on the occafion.

NOTE S.

The preaching of the gofpel is of the first importance to the welfare of mankind; and, confequently, the mode of preaching must be of confiderable moment. It is not the fine metaphyfical reasoning; it is not the philofophical difquifitions of the works of nature under the pretext of raising up our minds to the great Creator, which regenerate the heart, and stamp the image of. God upon the foul. No. The preacher muft,

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1. Convince the finner of his dangerous condition. He muk "break up the fallow ground.' "Cry aloud, fpare not," fays the Lord to his prophet, " lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and fhew my people their tranfgreffion, and the house of Jacob their fins," Ifai. lviii. I. He must fet forth the depth of original fin, and fhew the finner how far he is gone from original righteoufnefs; he must describe the vices of the world in their juft and moft ftriking colours, and enter into all the finner's pleas and exaufes for fin, and drive him from all his fubterfuges and ftrongholds. He must labour to convince the formalift of the impoffibility of being juftified before God by his ceremonial or moral righteoufnefs. Myriads are continually perishing, yea, thousands of thofe who acknowledge in fpeculation the great truths of the gofpel, through their dependance upon ordinances or upon an outwardly moral life. "In Chrift Jefus neither circumcifion availeth any thing, nor uncircumcifion, but a new creature," Gal. vi. 15. See the texts on the 8th and 9th articles of religion.

2. He must fet forth the virtue of the atoning blood. He muft bring the mourner to a prefent Saviour: he must fhew the willingness of Chrift this moment to blefs him, and bring a prefent falvation home to his foul. Here he must be indeed a fon of confolation. He raft fay nothing which can keep the trembling mourner at a diftance: he must not provide for him a rich feast, and hand it up to him in difhes too hot to be touched. There must be nothing now held forth to the view of the penitent but the everlasting arms, and the mercy which is ready to embrace him on every fide. "Come unto me," fays our Lord, " all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you reft," Matt. xi. 28, "Him that cometh to me, I will in no wife caft out," John vi. 37. "Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jefus,- -let us draw near with a true heart, in full affarance of faith," &c. Heb. x, 19—22.

3. He muft, like a true thepherd, feed the lambs and sheep of Chrift. He must point out to the newly juftified the wiles of Satan, and ftrengthen them if they ftagger through unbelief. He must set before them the glorious privileges offered to them in the gospel. He muft nourish them with the pure milk of the word. Those who are more adult in grace, he must feed with ftrong meat. He muft fhew them the neceffity of being crucified to the world, and of dying daily: that "if they mortify not the deeds of the flesh, they fhall die." He muft not fpare the remaining man of fin: he must anatomize the human heart, and follow felf-will and felf-love through all their windings. And all this being addreffed to the children of God, he must do it

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with great tenderness. "I proteft by your rejoicing which I have in Chrift Jefus our Lord, I die daily," fays the apoftle, I..

Cor. xv. 31. "J£ ye live after the flesh ye fhall die: but if ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye fhall live," Rom viii. 13. "Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jefus Chrift," 2 Pet. iii. 18.

And now he muft again turn the son of confolation. He muft hold forth Chrift as an all-fufficient Saviour, as "able to fave them to the uttermoft that come unto God by him, feeing he ever liveth to make interceffion for them," Heb. vii. 25. He muft defcribe to them, in all its richest views, the bleffing of perfect love. He must now declare how our great Zerubbabel> is this moment able and willing to reduce the mountain into a plain. And all the above he muft endeavour more or lefs to introduce into every fermon which he delivers to a mixed congregation. "The very God of peace fanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole fpirit, foul, and body be preferved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it," I Thess, v. 23. "This is the will of God, even your fanctification," iv. 3. He must preach the law as well as the gofpel. He must hold forth our adorable Redeemer as a prophet to teach, a prieft to atone, and a king to reign in us and over us. the flony heart, as well as bind up the broken. inward and outward must be his end: holiness must be his aim: and antinomianifm and every doctrine which oppofes holiness, he muft contend with, till he gain the victory, or render his hearers utterly inexcufable. Who is fit for these things? O Lord God, help us all! Let us do our utmoft," and leave the bleffing to the Lord.

He muft break But ftill bolinefs

Acts iii. 22. "A prophet fhall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren." Heb. v. 6" Thou art a Prieft for ever." Ifai. xxxii. 1. “Behold. a king fhall reign in righteousness." O let us never be wearied. of exalting Chrift, as living in us, as well as dying for us.

Some ufeful fmaller advices are now given, I. Never break an engagement. This we have enlarged upon under the 8th fection of this chapter.

2. The fecond advice belongs only to town-congregations, where they have clocks and watches to direct them. In fuch cafes, if they attend not exacly at the appointed time, they will be equally tardy, if the preacher habitually wait for them ever fo long. But every where let him be always at the time. It is inexcufable in one to make a thoufand, or even a hundred, wait for him. Let t no man put a ftumbling-block, or an occafion to fall, in his brother's way," Rom. xiv. 13.

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