notice of the arguments urged in support of the
opposite sentiment, and of the attempt to prove that every man who is
qualified has a right to preach the gospel, without any regular call and
admission by the church. And,

1st. It is pretended that this is enjoined upon all that are qualified
for it, because Christians are called to teach, exhort, and admonish one
another. But even supposing that this were to be understood of
preaching, or a public ministry of the word, such directions, though
expressed generally, would not apply to all, but to those only who are
called to the ministry, according to the limitation and restriction that
is laid down in other places of Scripture. There is, however, no
necessity of understanding these directions in that sense. The
Scripture evidently distinguishes the preaching of the gospel, or that
public teaching which belongs to an instituted ministry, from that
private teaching which is competent to, and obligatory on, all
Christians by the law of love; the latter is enjoined upon some to whom
the former is absolutely prohibited: compare 1 Tim. ii. 12, with Tit.
ii. 3, 4. Christians in a private station have abundant opportunity, and
ordinarily much more than they improve, to exercise their talents in
teaching their families, friends, and neighbors, without interfering
with that public ministry of the word which is committed to those who
are especially called thereto.

2d. Some passages of Scripture are urged, wherein it is supposed all
Christians are enjoined to exercise their qualifications in public
teaching or preaching: particularly Rom. xii. 6-8; 1 Pet. iv. 10, 11.
These Scriptures, on the contrary, restrict the public ministry of the
word to those invested with an office, and it is that ministry which
belongs to their office that is spoken of. In Rom. xii. persons in
office are exhorted to apply themselves faithfully and diligently to
that ministry to which they are called, whether it be a ministry of the
word, and of spiritual things, or a ministry of temporal things, and
that without envying others who have a different office and ministry.
And, to enforce this exhortation, the apostle compares the Church to the
natural body, ver. 4, in which all members have not the same office, but
one member is appointed to one office, and another member to a different
office: and so it is in the Church of Christ, ver. 5. The same allusion
is applied more largely, 1 Cor. xii. 27, 28, to ill