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dation in our ministry, as, we trust, will contribute highly to its purity, to the dignity of the ministerial office, and to the ad vantage of our people.

6. We have here also made the fame reftriction for the prefervation of our important itinerant plan, in respect to the deacons withdrawing themselves from the general work, without the confent of the yearly conference, which was made before in the cafe of the elders, and which has been spoken to in the notes on the former section.

SECTION VIII.

Of the Method of receiving Preachers, and of their Duty.

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Queft. 1. TOW is a preacher to be received? Anfw. 1. By the yearly conference. 2. In the interval of the conference, by the bishop, or prefiding elder of the diftrict, until the fitting of the conference.

3. When his name is not printed in the minutes, he must receive a written licence from the bishop or prefiding elder.

Queft. 2. What is the duty of a preacher ?
Anfw. 1. To preach.

2. To meet the focieties, claffes, and bands.
3. To vifit the fick.

4. To preach in the morning, where he can get hearers.

N. B. We are fully determined never to drop morning preaching, and to preach at five o'clock in the fummer, and fix in the winter, wherever it is practicable.

Queft. 3. What are the directions given to a preacher? Anfw. 1. Be diligent. Never be unemployed; never be triflingly employed. Never trifle away time; neither spend any more time at any place than is ftrictly neceffary.

2. Be ferious. Let your motto be, holiness to the Lord. Avoid all lightnefs, jefting, and foolish talking..

3. Converfe fparingly and cautiously with women. 1 Timothy, v. 2.

4. Take no ftep towards marriage without first confulting with your brethren.

5. Believe evil of no one without good evidence; unless you fee it done, take heed how you credit it. Put the best construction on every thing. You know the judge is always fuppofed to be on the prifoner's fide.

6. Speak evil of no one; would eat as doth a canker. in your own breaft, till you cerned.

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elfe your word especially Keep your thoughts with come to the perfon con

7. Tell every one under your care, what you think wrong in his conduct and temper, and that plainly, as foon as may be else it will fefter in your heart. Make all hafte to caft the fire out of your bofom.

8. Avoid all affectation. A preacher of the gospel is the fervant of all.

9. Be ashamed of nothing but fin.

10. Be punctual. Do every thing exactly at the time. And do not mend our rules, but keep them; not for wrath but confcience' fake.

11. You have nothing to do but to fave fouls. Therefore fpend and be spent in this work. And go always not only to thofe that want, but to those that want you moft.

Obferve! It is not your business only to preach fo many times, and to take care of this or that fociety: But to fave as many fouls as you can; to bring as many finners as you poffibly can to repentance, and with all your power to build them up in that holiness, without which they cannot fee the Lord. And remember! A Methodist preacher is to mind every point great and fmall, in the Methodist difcipline! Therefore you will need to exercise all the fenfe and grace you have.

12. Act in all things, not according to your own will, but as a fon in the gospel. As fuch it is your duty to employ your time in the manner which we di

rect in preaching and vifiting from houfe to house: in reading, meditation, and prayer. Above all, if you labour with us in the Lord's vineyard, it is needful you should do that part of the work which we advife, at thofe times and places which we judge moft for his glory.

Quef. 4. What method do we ufe in receiving a preacher at the conference?

Anfw. After folemn fafting and prayer, every perfon propofed fhall then be asked, before the conference, the following questions (with any others which may be thought neceffary) viz. Have you faith in Chrift? Are you going on to perfection? Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life? Are you groaning after it? Are you refolved to devote yourself wholly to God and his work? Do you know the rules of the fociety? Of the bands? Do you keep them? Do you conftantly attend the facrament? Have you read the form of difcipline? Are you willing to conform to it? Have you confidered the rules of a preacher; efpecially the first, tenth, and twelfth? Will you keep them for confcience' fake? Are you determined to employ all your time in the work of God? Will you endeavour not to fpeak too long or too loud? Will you diligently inftruct the children in every place? Will you vifit from houfe to houfe? Will you recommend fafting or abftinence, both by precept and example? Are you in debt?

We may then, if he gives us fatisfaction, receive him as a probationer, by giving him the form of difcipline, infcribed thus: To A. B. "You think it your duty to cali Jinners to repentance. Make full proof hereof, and we fall rejoice to receive you as a fellow-labourer." Let him then carefully read and weigh what is contained therein; that if he has any doubt, it may be removed. Obferve!

Taking on trial is entirely different from admitting a preacher. One on trial may be either admitted or rejected, without doing him any wrong; otherwife it would be no trial at all. Let every one that has the charge of a circuit, explain this to thofe who are on

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trial, as as to those who are in future to be propofed for trial.

But no one fhall be received, unless he first procure a recommendation from the quarterly meeting of his cir

cuit.

After two years' probation, being approved by the yearly conference, and examined by the prefident of the conference, he may be received into full connection, by giving him the form of difcipline infcribed thus: As long as you freely confent to, and earnestly endeavour to walk by thefe rules, we shall rejoice to acknowledge you as a fellow-labourer.

N. B. If any preacher abfent himself from his circuit without the leave of the prefiding elder, the prefiding elder fhall, as far as poffible, fill his place with another preacher, who fhall be paid for his labours out of the falary of the abfent preacher in proportion to the ufual allowance.

NOTE S.

If we duly confider the articles containing the duties of a preacher, and the manner in which he must fill up thofe duties, from the nature and fituation of the work in which he is engaged, we may venture to addrefs him in the words of the great apoftle, 2 Tim. iv. 1, 2. "I charge thee, therefore, before God, and the Lord Jefus Chrift, who fhall judge the quick and the dead, at his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word; be inftant in feafon, out of feafon; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longfuffering and doctrine." And we may add, with the wife man, Ecclef. xi. 6. "In the morning fow thy feed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knoweft not whether shall prof per either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good." To preach almost every day, and to meet focieties or claffes feveral times in the week, and to vifit the fick, not only in the towns, but as far as practicable on the plantations, is a work which re quires no fmall degree of diligence and zeal: and no perfon is fie to be a travelling preacher, who cannot fill up thefe duties inceffantly all the year round, except occafional indifpofitions incapaci tate him for a seafon; or some reasonable and urgent neceffity call him away for a little time.

Let us now-take a view of the twelve rules for the direction of a preacher.

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I. Let every moment be employed to the glory of God! This is the fubftance of the firft rule. And how agreeable is this to, the written Word: Ecclef. ix. 10. "Whatfoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might: for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wifdom in the grave, whither thou goest.” Eph. v. 15, 16. "See then that ye walk circumfpectly, not as fools, but as wife, redeeming the time, because the days are evil." 1 Tim. iv. 15. "Meditate upon these things, give thy felf wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all." At the fame time that we should endeavour to lie fully open, in all our fermons, to the influences of the Holy Spirit of God, "we fhould not offer to the Lord our God of that which doth coft us nothing," 2 Sam. XX v. 24. Time is one of the most precious talents man poffeffes: O that thofe words of the poet may be engraven on every preacher's heart,

"Pay no

"Moment but for the purchase of its worth:

"And what's its worth? Afk death-beds, they can tell!"

2. Let all your deportment be grave, according to thofe commands of the apostle, Eph. v. 4. "[Let] neither filthinefs, nor foolish talking, nor jefting, which are not convenient [be once named among you :] but rather giving of thanks." Col iv. 5, 6. "Walk in wifdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be alway with grace, feafoned with falt, that ye may know how ye ought to anfwer every man.”

1 Tim.

iv. 12. "Let no man defpife thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in converfation, in charity, in fpirit, in faich, in purity." A minifter of the gospel fhould preach, not only by his fermens, but by his actions, his common converfation his whole example, yea, even by his looks. He should be every where a flame of fire. Wherever he is, the eyes of all are upon him. He cannot be neutral, but in every place will do either good or evil.

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3. Preferve chastity even in the most delicate fenfe of the word. Remember thofe words of our Lord, Matt. v. 28. " Whofoever looketh on a woman to luft after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart :" and, therefore, fee that you "make a covenant with your eyes," Job xxxi. 1.-that you "entreat the elder women as mothers, the younger as fifters, with‹ all purity," 1 Tim. v. 2. and that you "flee youthful lufts : but follow righteoufnefs, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart," 2 Tim. ii. 22.

4. What St. Paul fays of the wives of the deacons, belongs as much to the wives of preachers, Even fo muft their wives be grave, not flanderers; fober, faithful in all things," 1 Tim. iii.

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