PREFACE. TO THE REVEREND ROWLAND HILL, MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL AT SURREY CHAPEL. REVEREND SIR, HAVING been repeatedly informed of the many public cautions and warnings that you have given to various congregations against me and my doctrine, which have all been drawn from the Fifth Chapter of Matthew's Gospel; I have therefore prefumed to fhew mine opinion of every text in that chapter which you have either opened, brought forth, or mentioned: and, having published them, I fend the first Copy for your perufal, and the rest to the Church at large, that our brethren may judge betwixt us, Gen. xxxi. 37. The Sermon that you delivered against me at Deptford, I have got in my hand, and have deliberately confidered it. I did not treat it with that contempt a 3 contempt with which you treated a book of mine, "which you took up with a pair of tongs, and or"dered your fervant to take it down stairs, and do "what fhe would with it." A teftimony of divine truth is not fit fuel for fire. No fmall degree of anger has burnt in your heart against me, for the fpace of almost seven years, ever fince I published my Tidings from Wallingford; which fo exasperated you in the company of Mr. Carnal at Wooburn, that you said, "You cared not "what I might have faid or wrote against you, but "the great offence was writing against your friend." They are the best friends, Sir, who love our Lord Jefus Chrift in fincerity and truth. The gentleman whom I opposed, either does preach the doctrines of the Church of England, (which he subscribed) or he does not. If he does, why do you not vindicate his doctrine? But, if he does not, and my Tidings are true," why am I become your enemy for telling cr you the truth?" Gal. iv. 16. Are we not commanded by God himfelf "to ftop the mouths of "fubverters?" (Tit. i. 11.)-Certainly we are. Your warning your Society almost three years, (I will not fay day and night with tears, A&ts xx. 31.) not to read my books, or even to hear me preach,” was'needlefs; for I have no defire to "take one "fheep out of your fold, or he-goat out of your "ftall." Your Your digging into all the follies of my youth, and bringing them forth at your church-meeting before än hundred people, concerning my Name, Child, &c &c. which I had published to the world at large, can never be called fulfilling the Royal Law, James, ii. 8. Yea, yourself had some doubts whether this would bear the light, because you enforced a Roman edict, and enjoined fecrefy; but, alas! as it was in the beginning, is now--the more you "charged them, the more they spread it abroad." If God fends his minifters to plead againft (his own children) their reproach, (Job, xix. 5.) much might have been faid against Mofes's killing the Egyptian; against Paul, for perfecution and bloodshed; and against Peter," for excess of wine, revelling, ban"queting, and abominable idolatries," 1 Pet. iv. 3. But they left this branch of the work to the accufer of the brethren, and preached the Gofpel; and it would be no grief of heart to you, Sir, in a dying hour, if you were to go and do likewife. Furthermore, if you were kept entirely free and pure from every vice throughout your childhood and youth, all the better: glory in this. I neither envy nor covet either your purity or happiness, any more than the "Prodigal Son, in his ring and robe, "envied his elder brother, who had never at any "time tranfgreffed the commandment.” Luke, xv. 29. a 4 "But "But you would never preach in Greenwich Ta"bernacle while I was permitted to speak there." Be it fo, I took no offence at that; nor will I fay that you are without a precedent in fo doing: other pious fouls, as well as you, have faid-" Stand by "thyfelf; come not near to me, for I am holier "than thou." Ifai. lxv. 5. And far be it from me to make you lefs holy than you are. When your abfence, Sir, and other holy brethren's dislike, had procured my difmiffion from Greenwich, I took it patiently without gainfaying; and I thought that, when I had opened a place for myself in another parish, the offence would have ceafed-but no: for although you would never appear in Greenwich pulpit while I was admitted there, yet you have never appeared there once fince, and left me out of it. I must not go in, yet you carry me in; and, though I may not fpeak for myself, you are fure always to speak of me. "Your charge to the people to read the fifth "chapter of Matthew's Gofpel before they came to "hear me," I have confidered; and, left they fhould not be obedient to you in all things, and to let you know that I am not afraid to read that chapter, I have published an explanation of thofe texts that you referred them to, and beg of you to refute me, if you think I am wrong. At Mr. T-d's meeting, you informed them that, "if you fhould fay the Law is not a Rule "of Life, you should expect horns to grow out of your head, and your feet to be cloven." Then, Sir, what muft Paul be, who tells us that the believer is not under the Law, but under Grace; and that the righteoufnefs of the Law is fulfilled in them that believe; and that the Grace of God teaches men to deny ungodlinefs and worldly lufts, and to live foberly, righteously, and godly, in the world? You quoted a paffage out of my Arminian Skeleton in B- Fields; and faid, "Before a man got into the pulpit, and advanced fuch things, he fhould put on a fool's cap." Does afferting that "God is our Father, and the Church our "Mother," entitle a man to fuch an ornament? Can you prove the faying to be either falfe or foolish? If you can, it lies upon you to do it, and - upon me to defend it. If you can difprove any doctrine that I hold-you know they are publifhed to the world-do it; and if you cannot, or will not, then leave off calling me "Antinomian, Bad Spirit, "that Fellow, and Spiritual Bl-kg-d." That firft word is fadly matched; for the fifth chapter of Matthew's Gofpel gives no licence for fuch hard fpeeches, efpecially against a fervant of Chrift, whofe doctrines you cannot overthrow, whofe ufefulness you cannot deny, and whofe life you cannot cenfure. But I am informed, by one of your own people, that " you have long, wished that I would take up my pen against you, that you might profecute me "for b |