what he shall, or is to speak, at such a time or place, as he may see meet; but that studying or writing sermons, and afterwards preaching, or rather reading them to the people, was, or is, the practice of the true minister of Jesus, our great Lord and Master, is denied; of which, I do believe, thou hast a real sense. I shall impart to thee something of my own experience for thy edification in this great work, viz. As in the work of conversion, or regeneration, there is a growth and increase from the state of a child to that of a man in Christ, so in the work of the ministry, or preaching the gospel, there is also a growth from a babe to an able minister, in all which the power and grace of the Holy Spirit must be our guide, our help, and support, keeping close to which, we shall increase in divine wisdom and sound judgment, and our hearts and understandings will be more and more opened and enlarged. The apostle Paul said, "When I was a child, I spake as a child, understood as a child, and thought as a child ;" and yet he was an excellent child of God, and minister of Christ, and as he grew in his gift, and Christ's grace, he became a wonderful serviceable instrument in the hand of God. Now a child's state in the ministry is too much overlooked by many, some thinking to be men as soon as they are brought forth into the ministry; and, according to my observation, divers have been at a loss, and some quite lost, for want of a patient continuing in well-doing, and not waiting to feel a growth and increase from above, have gone on in their own strength and will, perhaps against the advice and instruction of a sound and honest Aquila and Priscilla, and have been hurt; and some, who had received a gift, have had that same gift taken from them, even by the Lord, who gave it them. As I take it, a true minister of Christ, is to take no thought what to say, but it will be given him in the same hour that which he should speak to the people, (that is, in a general way) and if it is not given from above, I believe he or she ought to be silent; for they receive freely, if they do receive any thing from Christ, and so they ought freely to administer; and where little is given, little is re quired, all which is plain from Christ's own words in the New Testament; and Christ's cross is to be taken up by his ministers in their preaching, as well as in their conversation. It is a practice which the holy scriptures have not acquainted us with, that the ministers of Christ should take a verse, or a line, out of the holy scriptures, and write, or study, beforehand, a discourse on it, and preach it, or rather read it, to the people. The holy men of old (as we read both in the Old and New Testament), spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, and by it they were gifted for the convincing, converting, and reforming the world, and for comforting and edifying of the saints, quite contrary to the latter practice of modern reading divines, who dispute, write, and preach, against the immediate and divine revelation of the spirit of Christ, and therefore can not be of his ministers, but must be the ministers of antichrist, and ministers of the letter, and not of the spirit of Christ, or of his gospel. And where the apostle says, "When I was a child, I spake as a child," I take him to point at the being brought forth newly into the work of the ministry, as well as the work of conversion, and that he useth those expressions by way of comparison, and therefore I compare it thus: a child when it first begins or ventures to speak, he speaks but a few words, and those stammering sometimes, and its judgment is weak, and must be put upon speaking by his father over and over, if he be a backward child; otherwise, if he be forward, and speaks too much, he is curbed by a wise father and thus, according to my observation, it hath pleased our heavenly Father to instruct his children in the ministry, and as a child in Christ, I would speak a little of my experience unto the child, or children of God. When I first felt a necessity on me to preach the gospel, I had but a few sentences to deliver, in great fear and tenderness, with some trembling, with which my brethren were generally satisfied and edified; and after some time I felt a concern to preach the gospel in other countries, and to other nations, than that in which I was born, which to me was a very great cross; but feeling the wo of the Lord to follow me in not giving up to it, I in some time took that cross up, for Christ's sake and the gospel's: and in taking it up, I experienced the truth of the apostle's doctrine, that "the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth." Rom. i. 16. Thus, through a continual labour and spiritual travel, I witnessed a growth in experience, and an enlargement in expressions and heavenly doctrine; and my heart was mightily enlarged to run the ways of God's commandments, and divers were convinced, and some, I hope, thoroughly converted, and many comforted, and God, through the ministry of his dear Son, glorified, who is thereof only worthy for ever. In all which I have nothing to boast of nor glory in, saving in the cross of Christ; for what is Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas but an instrument? (I would not be understood to compare with those apostles, but to endeavour to follow them as they followed Christ). Christ is all in all he is the great teacher of teachers, and the highest schoolmaster of all: and he says, "He that will be my disciple, must first deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." We do not find any where in the New Testament, that Christ's ministers or messengers were only to speak or preach to one meeting of people, or that they were called or hired by men; for then it would have been necessary that man should pay them; but Christ says, "Freely you have received, freely give; and go forth," &c. Mat. xxviii. 19, 20. And, my friend, I find to this day, that it is safe for me when I am ministering to the people; when the spring of divine life and power, from which sound truths and edifying matter springs and flows into the heart or understanding, abates or stops, to stop with it, and sit down, and not to arise, or speak publicly to the people, without some spiritual impulse or moving, and openings. I would have this taken no otherwise, but as one friend and brother opening his state and condition to another for edification, and the strengthening each other in Christ. S And, as I fear lest I should exceed the bounds of a let- The 25th of the twelfth month I was at the burial of the wife of Randal Spikeman. It being our fifth day meeting, divers sober people were there not of our persuasion, and I was drawn forth to speak to the people of the death of Christ and his merits, and to shew them that there is no merit in the works of man, as he is man, or in a formal righteousness or holiness. In our yearly meeting at Burlington, it was agreed that the families of friends should be visited, and soon after our monthly meeting appointed me, with other friends, to visit the families of friends of our meeting; in which visitation, many were comforted and edified, both youth and aged; and we could truly say, that the power and grace of God, and the sweet love of Christ, accompanied us from house to house, to our mutual comfort; and we were so extraordinarily opened and guided to speak to the states of the people in their families, that were unknown and strangers to us, that sometimes some of the m were ready to think that we spoke by information, when in truth we were clear of any such thing, and only spoke from what was immediately given to us, without any information from man or woman; which to us was sometimes very wonderful, and caused us to praise the great name of the Lord. In the first month, the general meeting at Philadelphia, was a solid good meeting, and ended in a sense of grace and truth, which comes by Jesus Christ. Next day, being our week-day meeting, our dear friends, Elizabeth Levis and Jane Fenn, took leave of us, they intending for the island of Barbadoes; and it was such a parting-meeting that will not soon be forgotten by some of us then pres ent. After this meeting, I went to Burlington, to visit one that was sick, and under some trouble of mind for going astray, and greatly desired to come into the right way, with whom I had a good seasonable meeting, to her comfort, and my own satisfaction. Upon this visit I would remark, that it is a great pity, that youth, when in health and strength, should put off the work of their salvation, and forget the Most High, till either sickness or death overtake them. And then, Oh! the bitter piercing cries and groans, and terrible agonies the soul is in, which, by timely repentance, and amendment of life, might be avoided. I was afterwards at meetings at Philadelphia, Merion, Germantown, &c. and had some service and satisfaction therein. And on the second of the second month, the friend whom I visited, as above, was buried, and the relations of the deceased sent for me to the burial. The person being well-beloved, there was a large appearance of people of divers persuasions, and we had an opportunity at this funeral to exhort the people to live so as that they might die well; and that the way to die in the favour of God, was to live in his fear; and charity to those who dissent from one another was pressingly recommended from the apostle's words, that, "If we had faith to remove mountains, and to give all our goods to the poor, and our bodies to be burned, yet if we wanted charity, we were but like sounding brass, and a tinkling cymbal." 1 Cor. xiii. 1, 2, 3. And also our belief of the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead was asserted, in contradiction to that gross calumny cast on our society of denying it. The latter end of the second month, I was at a marriage at Horsham, at which was present William Keith, our governor, and I was concerned to speak of the end of that great ordinance, and of the happiness of those married persons who fulfil the covenants they make in marriage, and what strength and comfort the man is to the woman, and the woman to the man, when they keep their covenants, and that they are the contrary when they break them and I also opened the methods prescribed by our discipline, to be observed in marriages, and our care to prevent any clandestine marriages amongst us. |