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1. Preachers certainly, therefore, fhould not truft in their own judgments, merely, in fo weighty an affair.

5. Take care that your private sentiments of your brethren be not biaffed, or your esteem of them diminished, except by convincing proof. "Judge not that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye fhall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it fhall be measured to you again," Matt. vii. I, 2. "Above all things have fervent charity among yourfelves for charity fhall cover the multitude of fins," I Pet. iv. 8. Charity" covereth all things" (for so should the original word be rendered)" believeth all things, hopeth all things," I Cor. siii. 7.

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6. Be exceedingly tender of the characters of others: for to rob another of his character, by rafh judgment, is to do him an irreparable injury. Let thofe words of Scripture be ever kept in view, as of infinite importance to all, but especially to a minifter of the gospel, 2 Tim. ii. 16. 17. “ Shun profane and vain babblings; for they will increase unto more ungodliness. And their word will eat as doeth a canker." The influence of a travelling preacher is very extenfive: and for him to use that influence for the ruin of characters would be terrible indeed! Jam. i. 19, 20. "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be fwift to hear, flow to fpeak, flow to wrath: for the wrath of man: worketh not the righteoufnefs of God." iv. II, 12. "Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that fpeaketh evil of his .brother, and judgeth his brother, fpeaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law; but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one Lawgiver, who is able to fave, and to deftroy: who art thou that judgeft another ?" Tit. iii. 1. 2." Put them in mind to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, fhewing all meeknefs unto all men :” You are not only always thus to bridle your own tongue, but frequently to put others in mind of this important duty.

7. At the fame time, it is your bounden duty to reprove fin, wherever you meet with it: So fays the word of God: Lev. xix. 17. "Thou fhalt in any wife rebuke thy neighbour, and not fuffer fin upon him." Eph. v. 11. "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darknefs, but rather reprove them." Ver. 13.. "All things that are reproved, are made manifeft by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifeft, is light.' To reprove the open, prefumptuous finner, or to tell your brother of his faults in private, or even in public, if the fin be grofs, and the honour of God and his facred caufe demand it, by no means clashes with the two preceding rules. It must also be remembered, that thefe three laft rules do not relate to the conduct of thofe who have the overfight of circuits, when they act as judges: their duties, in that refpect, fhall be confidered in due place.

8. Labour after that true greatness of foul, that genuine humility, of which our adorable Redeemer fets us fo bright an example. "Better it is to be of an humble fpirit," fays the wife man, "than to divide the fpoil with the proud," Prov. xvi. 19. "I fay, through the grace given unto me," obferves the great apoftle, "to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think foberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith," Rom. xii. 3. And again, "We preach not ourselves, but Chrift Jefus the Lord; and ourselves, your fervants, for Jefus' fake," 2 Cor. iv. 5.

9. What a pattern have we before us in our Lord, for all chriftians, but efpecially for those whofe one bufinefs is to fave fouls? John xiii. 3-17. "Jefus----rifeth from fupper, and laid afide his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. After that, he poureth water into a bafon and began to wash the difciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. -So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was fet down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me mafter and Lord: and ye fay well; for fo I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye alfo ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye fhould do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I fay unto you, The fervant is not greater than his Lord; neither he that is fent greater than he that fent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." Pride is the very fpirit of the devil: he is full of pride. All other graces, without humility, are like a fine powder carried in the wind without a cover, foon blown away and gone. The ftreams of grace flow down, and fink into the vallies of humility, and there only fructify, whilft the hills of pride are dry and barBut at the fame time, the true minifter of Chrift, like his Mafter, can, in the way of duty, when neceffary, "fet his face Ike a flint," * and go through the fire and through the water. "The wicked flee, when no man purfueth; but the righteous are bold as a lion," Prov. xxviii. 1.

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10. Punctuality is of vaft importance in every circumftance of life. Without it, no confidence can exift: and the want of it is productive of innumerable evils to fociety. But how much ftronger are thefe obfervations, when applied to our situation? The itinerant plan, which we fo much and fo justly venerate, would be the most pernicious in the world, without punctuality. It would be almoft fufficient to make mankind hate religion. The man who will disappoint a congregation through any world

* Ifaiah 1, 7.

Ty motive, is highly criminal, and anfwerable for all the ev which his negligence has caufed-anfwerable for all the fouls which, through disgust, do afterwards despise or neglect the ordinances of God. When an appointment is fixed, and cannot be revoked in time, it should be considered as an engagement made to God. "Lord," fays the Pfalmift, "who fhall abide in thy tabernacle, and who fhall dwell in thy holy hill?He that fweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not." See Pfalm xv. and the word of a preacher of the gofpel, indeed of every chriftian, should be the fame as his oath, or he is not even an honeft man. Alas! the good which the best of us do, is but little, and, therefore, fhould not suffer any fubtraction. But when the itinerant preacher frequently proves himself defiitute of punctuality, his life and labours become more hurtful than profitable. He not only prevents a faithful man from filling up the office which he himself abuses, but gives continual offence, and imperceptibly drives numbers from the ordinances of God, and thereby out of the way of falvation. "Give," therefore, none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the gentiles, nor to the church of God. Even as I," adds the apostle, " please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be faved,' 1 Cor. x. 32, 33. What a reafon, “that they may be faved !” A reason, which should influence the heart of a preacher of the gofpel more than the strongest temptations of fenfe or temporal intereft! Approve yourselves, therefore, "as the ministers of God, giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed," 2 Cor. vi. 3, 4.

11. The falvation of fouls fhould be your only aim. The zeal of the Lord's house should eat you up. O that we could but feel a little of what Jefus felt for immortal fouls, when he offered up himself on Calvary! In fpeculation we acknowledge their ineftimable value: but O for the practice! O for a little of the zeal of the great apoftle, when he was going, bound in the fpirit, to Jerufalem, and could fay to the elders of the church of Ephefus, "None of these things move me; neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my courfe with joy, and the miniftry which I have received of the Lord Jefus, to teftify the gospel of the grace of God!" Acts xx. 24. This spirit will give us true humility, and make us prefer the meanest houses of the poor, when we can benefit immortal fouls, to the most pompous buildings and moft elegant entertainments, when we have no accefs to the fouls of men. "To the weak," fays St. Paul, "became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means fave fome," I Cor. ix. 22. O let us think it an honour to confume our lives in fo glorious a

work! May we be able to fay to our people from the ground of our hearts, with the apostle, "I will very gladly spend and be fpent for you; though," adds the apostle, "the more abundantly I love you, the lefs I be loved," 2 Cor. xii. 15. Even in that trying fituation, when defpifed or difapproved of by many, yet ftill let us go on, speaking and acting for God, and leaving all confequences to him. Let us not be difcouraged: let God do bis work of blefling, and let us do our work of fowing the feed, and of planting and watering, in season and out of season. Then we fhall certainly have feals to our miniftry, though, perhaps, the Lord may hide many of them, at prefent, from our eyes, left we should be exalted above measure: and in due time, if we faint not, if we lay not down our crown, we "fhall fhine as the stars for ever and ever, having [through grace] turned many to righteousness," Dan. xii. 3.

12. The command given by the apostle, Heb. xiii. 17. "Obey them that have the rule over you, and fubmit yourselves,” is as binding on minifters as on the people. Among us there is no exception. Our bifhops are bound to obey and fubmit to the general conference; and the preachers are bound to obey and fubmit to the general conference, and also to the yearly conferences, in every thing except the ftationing of them for their respective diftricts and circuits; and in this refpect they are bound to obey and fubmit to the epifcopacy. This is the order of our church: and as the New Teftament is filent as to the conftitutions of states, fo is it, in a great meafure, in refpect to the conftitutions of churches. It only requires obedience or fubmiffion to the pow ers that are, without which no order could poffibly exift. This does not, in any degree, prevent the due reformation of the conftitutions of churches, any more than of those of states. We may add to thefe confiderations the command of St. Peter, Ift Ep. v. 5. "Ye younger, fubmit yourselves unto the elder."

The due examination of candidates for the miniftry is of the utmost importance. The queftions proposed for this purpose, in the prefent fection, may be drawn out and enlarged upon by the bifhops, as they judge neceffary; and, if duly confidered will be found to contain in them the whole of chriftian and minifterial experience and practice. In respect to doctrines, experience, and practice, the preachers will have paffed already through various examinations, before they are received into the travelling connection. Let us take a view of the whole, remembering that our focieties form our grand nurseries or universities for ministers of the gospel.

I. On application for admiffion into the fociety, they must be duly recommended to the preacher who has the oversight of the circuit, by one in whom he can place fufficient confidence, or must have met three or four times in a clafs, and must be truly awak

ened to a fenfe of their fallen condition. Then the preacher who has the oversight of the circuit, gives them notes of admiffion, and they remain on trial for fix months. 2. When the fix months are expired, they receive tickets, if recommended by their leader, and become full members of the fociety. And to -prevent any future complaint on the ground of ignorance, the rules of the fociety must be read to them the first time they meet in clafs. 3. Out of these are chofen, from time to time, the leaders of claffes, who should not only be deeply experienced in divine things, but have a measure of the gift of preaching, so as to feed the flock of Chrift under their care, in due season. 4. Out of thefe, when they discover in public prayer-meetings an extraordinary gift of prayer and fome gift for exhortation, are chofen the exhorters. 5. Out of the exhorters, who are employed in the places of leaft confequence, or to fill up the place of a preacher, in cafes of neceffity, are chofen the local preachers. These are first to receive a licence figned by the prefiding elder, and by the quarterly meeting, which is compofed of the local preachers, ftewards, and leaders of the circuit. Without the confent of the presiding elder, and of the majority of this meeting, which is the most proper and refpectable reprefentation of the circuit that perhaps can poffibly be devifed, no one can be admitted as a local preacher. And the licence above-mentioned must be annually renewed, till the local preacher be admitted into the deacon's office. 6. Out of the local preachers are chofen the travelling preachers, of whom thofe in full connection form the members of our conferences. These must be on trial for two years before they can be received into full connection with the conference, their characters being examined at each conference (whether they be prefent or abfent) in respect to morals, grace, gifts, and fruit. Nor can they be received upon trial as travelling preachers, till they have obtained a recommendation from the quarterly meetings of their refpective circuits. The bifhops indeed, and the prefiding elders, have authority to call them to travel, in the intervals of the conferences, when they have received the above recommendation, otherwife the circuits would be frequently deftitute of preachers. But their call to travel, muft afterwards be confirmed by the yearly conference.

From all that has been obferved, it must be clear to every can`did reader, that it is not the yearly conference only, or the bifhops or prefiding elders only, in the intervals of the conferences, who choose the local or travelling preachers. On the contrary, they have no authority to choose at all, till the people, through their leaders, ftewards, &c. recommend. And thofe who will

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