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revealed to the Apoftles in general by the mouth of Chrift, and to St. Paul in particular by a more fpecial difpenfation, is delivered down to us in authentic documents, written under the infpiration of the Holy Ghoft. From thofe documents the matter of our preaching is to be drawn; and wo unto us, if we preach any other Gofpel, than that which we have fo received.

Under thefe circumftances, no charge can be devised against the minifters of Chrift, of a more difgraceful or a more capital nature, than that they are not Preachers of the Gofpel. As therefore it is of fo grievous a cha racter to thofe, against whom it may be di rected, it proportionally becomes every man, who may be difpofed to advance it against any minifters of Chrift, to be well affured of the grounds, on which he advances it "Whereas they call us hereticks," obferved a learned apologift of the English reformation, "that is fo grievous a fin, that unless it can "be feen, unless it can be handled, unlefs it can be grafped by the hands and fingers, it "ought not eafily to be believed of a Chriftian

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Nam quod nos appellant hæreticos, eft illud crimen ita grave, ut nifi videatur, nifi palpetur, nifi manibus digi. tifque teneatur, credi facile de homine Chriftiano non debeat, Juelli Apologia. Enchiridion Theologic. vol. i. p. 200.

Whether fuch circumfpection is at all times obferved, is highly queftionable. Certain however it is, that the charge itself has been of late, and is at prefent, perpetually advanced against a great majority of the minifters of the Church of England. Some of our own brethren in the miniftry, who are attached to certain peculiar tenets, and who in confequence claim the appellation of Evangelical or Gospel preachers, thereby exclude, by implication at least, if not exprefsly, from a share in that appellation thofe of their fellow-labourers, whofe opinions and ftyle of preaching do not correfpond with their own. It is no lefs notorious, that a large body of men, who have risen to be, according to their own imaginations, minifters of the Gospel, (how legitimately it is not my prefent purpose to inquire;) and multitudes befides, who refort to them in fearch of that fpiritual improvement, which, as they allege, they despair of procuring at the mouth of a regularly ordained priesthood; make no fcruple of pronouncing, in the broadest and most unequivocal language, that the Gofpel is not preached in our Church.

Upon this pretext Methodifm arofe and hath been maintained. In avowed oppofition to the parochial Clergy, and the authorized rulers of the established Church, to "heathenish

priests and mitred infidels," (for in the language of cenfure the Methodifts have not been diftinguished for their temperance,) the founders and abettors of the fchifm have gone forth, "to difpel the grofs darkness of ignorance and “ungodliness; and to fpread the light of the

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Gospel over a benighted land." The national Clergy, as a body, have been, and continue to be, ftigmatized, as "ignorant of evan"gelical truth;" as preachers of" Popish and "Socinian tenets;" as "fubftituting a hea"thenish morality for the doctrine of Scrip"ture ;" and as "corrupting, fophifticating,. "and mutilating the truth of God." In the Vocabulary of thefe modern reformers, Methodifm and the Gofpel are fynonymous terms. And fo exclufively do they affume the appellation of Preachers of the Gofpel, and fo arrogantly do they withhold it from others, that no minifterial qualification will exempt a man from this awful charge, unlefs his views of Scripture should happen to coincide with their own. "I have feen it afferted in print," faith a learned prelate, " by one of thefe felf-fent "apostles, that the Gospel was first preached

* See the works of Wefley, Whitefield, and other Methodists, throughout. See alfo "Sermons and Extracts by "Edmund Outram, D.D. Public Orator of Cambridge," containing a useful collection of extracts from the works of Arminian and Calvinistic Methodists.

"on a certain day in a parish, where, to my "own certain knowledge, every duty of a "minifter of the Gofpel has been regularly "performed by a diligent confcientious cler"gyman 1."

By this fentence it is evident, that the matter of the difcourfes, delivered by the minifters of the Church of England in general, is the mark at which their accufers aim. And it is either intended to be alleged against them, that they renounce, and are apoftates, from the Gofpel, inftead of which they fubftitute a style of preaching of a different character; a charge, which is pregnant with that "wo," denounced by the Apostle in my text; or it is intended to be alleged, that the Gofpel is corrupted and perverted in their hands; an accufation, no lefs than the other, of a moft alarming and tremendous nature, if we call to mind the warning of the fame Apostle, that such persons are to be held "accurfed."

We may however cherish the hope, that our preaching is not obnoxious to fo grievous a charge as that which is here levelled against And without calling in queftion the purity of our accufers' motives, and without putting upon their oppofition any harsher conftruction than charity muft allow, we may ad

us.

Ꮒ Bishop Randolph's Charge at Bangor, 1808. p. 15.

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mit a belief, that their zeal, whencefoever it. may originate, and to whatever end it may be directed, is at leaft "not according to knowledge." With this perfuafion, a love of truth and of juftice will fecond a becoming regard to our own characters and welfare, if we endeavour to maintain our ground against the affaults of our opponents; and should we, in repelling from ourselves the awful charge, that we preach not the Gospel, be driven to advance what may appear like recrimination, Chriftian charity, we truft, will authorize a measure, which is not prompted by a spirit of wanton hoftility; but is provoked by unmerited aggreffion, and rendered neceffary by felf-defence.

An inquiry into the juftice of the charge, that the great body of the national Clergy do not preach the Gofpel, is proposed for the fubject of these difcourfes. Confiftent, as I trust it is, with the exprefs intention of the Founder of this lecture, and worthy of the ftricteft attention of thofe, for whofe benefit the lecture appears to have been more immediately defigned, it is at the fame time unqueftionably a fubject of very great and general concern. May it please Almighty God for Chrift's fake to give us the help of his Holy

i Rom. x. 2.

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