$$ AN $UMBLE ATTEMPT, &C. under those free ministrations which you desire for your greater advantar,e, your complaints and pretences against the established forms of the nation will hardly be excused from the charge of vain and insincere ; and you may expect a severe reproof from the judgment-seat of Christ. Where are all your pretences to .. Me life and power and spirit of devotion, while you have not been restrained to the use of a single form ? What have you donein the houseofprayer more than those who have not enjoyed your advantages ? IV.. You not only worship God in your own chosen way, but you have the choice of your own ministers also. You join *. yourselves to what worshipping congregation you please, whe- . ther it be within the bounds of your own parish or no; and you are not confined to sit under such teachers as some rich patron shall chuse and provide for you*: and it is a melancholy thought, that too often a country parish is furnished with a preacher whom the patron chases as the fittest companion for himself, and whose character in the main is not much superior to that of the patron either in the love of learning, in piety or virtue. And let it be numbered among your advantages for edification also, that how - ever difficult it may be for a parish to get rid of an ill minister, yet your congregations have power to dismiss your ministers, if they prove immoral and scandalous, if they grow intolerably imperious and assuming, or shamefully contentious; if they become grossly negligent of the great work of their ministry, and continue so after all due admonition ; if they be known to fall into gross and dangerous errors, and will publish them in opposition to the common sense and sentiments of the people; and such dismissions are sometimes practised among you, where just occasions have risen, and that without long and vexatious . processes at law : so that you are not obliged to sit under the preachingof persons of a blemished character, or who are un- qualified for the sacred work, or who are utterly unprofitable to your edification. Well then, my friends, if you have not such public minis- trations as edify and profit your souls; it is in a great measure your own fault, since you sit under such a ministry as you ehuse. Onewould presume that you hear their messages of holy things with satisfaction and delight. But while you enjoy this privi- lege, enquire of your own consciences, What have you profited snore than others ? Do your souls find a greater increase in . knowledge, and in the power of godliness ? Do yoq treasure up more of their words in your heart, and receive them with faith and love so far as they are agreeable to the word of God ? Do you feed and live upon the sermons you hear ? Do you at- See Moder. Nonconf -Vol. III. p. 61, 104, Lay-Nonconf. Justified, p. 5.
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