lieve they have the Authority of an exprefs Command of GOD: Let thefe first be proved: Then let them use. the Office of a Deacon, being found blameless, 1 Tim.

iii. 10.

13. "In England, however, there is nothing of this Kind; no Layman permitted to fpeak in publick. " No! Can you be ignorant, that in an hundred Churches, they do it continually? In how many (particularly in. the Weft of England) does the Parish-Clerk read one of the Leffons? (In fome he reads the whole Service of the Church, perhaps, every Lord's Day) And do not other Laymen conftantly do the fame Thing, yea, in our very Cathedrals? Which being under the more immediate Inspection of the Bishops, fhould be Patterns, to all other Churches.

Perhaps it will be faid, "But this is not Preaching." Yes, but it is, effentially fuch. For what is it to preach, but prædicare Verbum Dei? To publifh the Word of GOD? And this Laymen do all over England; particularly under the Eye of every Bishop in the Nation.

Nay, is it not done in the Universities themfelves? Who ordain'd that Singing Man at Chrift Church? Who is likewife utterly unqualified for the Work, murdering every Leffon he reads? Not even endeavouring to read it as the Word of GOD, but rather as an Old Song ?· Such a Layman as this, meddling at all with the Word of GOD, I grant is a Scandal to the English Nation.

To go a Step farther. Do not the Fundamental Constitutions of the University of Oxford, the Statutes, even as revised by Archbishop Laud, require every Batchelor of Arts, Nine in Ten of whom are Laymen, to read Three Publick Lectures in Moral Philosophy, on whatever Subject he chufes? My Subject, I well remember, was the Love of God. Now what was this but Preaching?

Nay, may not a Man be a Doctor of Divinity even in Oxford, tho' he never was ordain'd at all? The Inftance of Dr. Atwell, (late) Rector of Exeter College, is fresh in every one's Memory.

Thefe are a few of the Confiderations that may rea

dily occur to any thinking Man on this Head. But I do not reft the Caufe on thefe. I believe it may be defended a shorter Way.

14. It pleas'd GOD, by two or three Minifters of the Church of England, to call many Sinners to Repentance: Who, in several Parts, were undeniably turn'd from a Courfe of Sin, to a Courfe of Holiness.

The Minifters of the Places where this was done, ought to have received those Minifters with open Arms: And to have taken them who had just begun to ferve GOD, into their peculiar Care; watching over them in tender Love, leaft they fhou'd fall back into the Snare of the Devil.

Instead of this, the greater Part fpoke of thofe Minifters, as if the Devil, not GOD had fent them. Some, repelled them from the Lord's Table; Others ftirr'd up the People against them, reprefenting them even in their Public Difcourfes, as Fellows not fit to live: Papifts, Hereticks, Traitors; Confpirators against their King and Country..

And how did they watch over the Sinners lately reform'd? Even as a Leopard watcheth over his Prey. They drove fome of them alfo from the Lord's Table; to which till now they had no Defire to approach. They "preached all Manner of Evil concerning them, openly curfing them in the Name of the Lord. They turned many out of their Work; perfuaded others to do fo too, and harraffed them all manner of Ways.

The Event was, 'That fome were wearied out, and fo turn'd back to their Vomit again. And then these good Paftors gloried over them, and endeavoured to Thake others by their Example.

15. When the Ministers by whom GOD had help'd them before, came again to thofe Places, great Part of thefr Work was to begin again; if it cou'd be begun again: But the Relapfers were often so harden'd in Sin, that no Impreffion cou'd be made upon them.

What cou'd they do in a Cafe of fo extreme Neceffity? Where fo many Souls lay at Stake?

No Clergyman wou'd aflift at all. The Expedient

that remained was, To find fome one among themselves, who was upright of Heart, and of found Judgment in the Things of GOD: And to defire him to meet the reft as often as he cou'd, in order to confirm them, as he was able, in the Ways of GOD, either by Reading to them, or by Prayer, or by Exhortation.

GOD immediately gave a Bleffing hereto. In feveral Places, by Means of thefe plain Men, not only "thofe who had already begun to run well, were hinder'd from drawing back to Perdition; but other Sinners alfo, from Time to Time, were converted from the Error of their Ways.

This Plain Account of the whole Proceeding, I take to be the best Defence of it. I know no Scripture which forbids making Ufe of fuch Help, in a Cafe of foch Neceffity. And I praife GOD who has given even this Help to thofe poor Sheep, when their own Shepherd's pitied them not.

"But does not the Scripture fay, No Man taketh this Honour to himself, but he that is called of GOD, as was Aaron ?" Nor do thefe. The Honour here men. tion'd is the Ptieft hood. But they no more take upon them to be Priests than to be Kings. They take not upon them to adminifter the Sacraments, an Honour pe culiar to the Priests of GOD. Only according to their Power, they exhort their Brethren, to continue in the Grace of GOD.

But for thefe Laymen to exhort at all, is a Violation of all Order."

What is this Order of which you speak? Will it ferve inftead of the Knowledge and Love of GOD? Will this Order rescue thofe from the Snare of the Devil, who are now taken Captive at his Will? Will it keep them who are escaped a little Way, from turning back into Egypt? If not, how fhou'd I answer it to GOD, if rather than violate I know not what Order, I fhou'd faerifice Thousands of Souls thereto ? I dare not do it. It is at the Peril of my own Soul.

Indeed if by Order were meant, True, Chriftian Difcipline, whereby all the living Members of Christ are

knit together in one, and all that are putrid and dead, immediately cut off from the Body: This Order I reverence; for it is of GOD. But where is it to be

found? In what Diocese, in what Town or Parish, within England or Wales? Are you Rector of a Parish? Then let us go no further. Does this Order obtain there? Nothing lefs. Your Parishioners are a Rope of Sand. As few (if any) of them are alive to GOD, fo they have no Connexion with each other, unless fuch as might be among Turks or Heathens. Neither have you any Power to cut off from that Body, were it alive, the dead and putrid Members. Perhaps you have no Defire: But all are jumbled together, without any Care or Concern of yours.

It is plain then, that what Order is to be found is not among you, who fo loudly contend for it, but among that very People whom you continually blame, for their Violation and Contempt of it. The little Flock you condemn is united together in One Body, by One Spirit: So that if one Member fuffers, all the Members fuffer with it, if one be honour'd, all rejoice with it. Nor does any dead Member long remain; but as foon as the Hope of recovering it is palt, it is cut off.

Now fuppofe we were willing to relinquish our Charge, and to give up this Flock into your Hands ; wou'd you obferve the fame Order as we do now, with them and the other Souls under your Care? You dare. not: Because you have Refpe&t of Perfons. You fear the Faces of Men. You cannot; because you have not overcome the World. You are not above the Defire of Earthly Things. And it is impoffible you fhould eve have any True Order, or exercife any Chriftian Difci. pline, till you are wholly crucified to the World, till you defire nothing more but GOD.

Confider this Matter, I intreat you, a little farther. Here are Seven Thoufand Perfons (perhaps fomewhat more) of whom I take Care, watching over their Souls, as he that must give Account. In order hereto it lies upon me (fo I jadge) at the Peril of my own Salvation, to know not only their Names, but their Oatward and Inward States, their Difficulties and Dangers. Other

K 3

wife

I with you would explain yourself a little on this Head: Scire velim, verbo pretium quotus arroget annus? How old do you require a Man to be, before GÓD fhall have Leave to speak by his Mouth? O my Brethren, who could have believed any ferious Man wou'd once have named fuch an Argument as this? Seeing both Scripture and Reafon teach, that GOD herein giveth Account to none of his Ways. But he worketh by whomfoever he will work; he fheweth Mercy by whom he will fhew Mercy.

6." But there are only a Few young Heads." I cannot but obferve here, what great Pains have been taken, what Diligence fhewn, to make and to keep them Few. What Arts have not been ufed, to keep back thofe, of the Clergy in particular, who have been clearly convinced from time to time, that they ought to join Hearts and Hands in the Work? On this Ŏecafion, it has been accounted meritorious to fay all manner of Evil of us falfely: To promife them whatever their Hearts defired, if they wou'd refrain from thefe Men: And, on the other hand, to threaten them with heavy things, if ever they went among them more. So that how fully foever they were convinced, they could not act according to their Conviction, unless they could give up at once all Thought of Preferment, either in Church or State; nay, all Hope

a Fellowship, or poor Scholarship, in either Univerfity. Many alfo have been threaten'd, that if they went on in this Way, what little they had should be taken from them. And many have, on this very Account, been difown'd by their dearest Friends and nearest Relations. So that there was no Poflibility the Number of these Labourers fhould ever be increas'd at all, unless by those who could break thro' all thefe Ties, who defired nothing in the prefent World, who counted neither their Fortunes, nor Friends, nor Lives dear unto themfelves, fo they might only keep a Confcience void of Offence toward GOD and toward Men.

7. But what do you infer from their Ferness ? That because they are Few, therefore God cannot work

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