been a great deal of error and misconduct in the management of this,
and holy affections; and those affections, and that sense, incline the mouth to speak. That other way of men's being urged to use certain expressions by an unaccountable force, is very probably from the influence of the spirit of the devil.
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2. Another thing I would take notice of is lay exhorting. There has been a great deal of error and misconduct in the management of this, and an abundance of disputing, wrangling, and contention about it. In the midst of all the disputes that have occurred, I suppose that all are agreed as to these two things:
1. That all exhorting of one another by laymen is not unlawful or improper; but on the contrary, that some exhorting is a Christian duty. And,
2. I also suppose that all will allow there is something that is proper only for ministers; that there is some kind, or way, or other, of exhorting and teaching, that belongs only to the office of teachers.
All will allow that God has appointed such an office as that of teachers in the Christian church. And therefore, doubtless all will allow that something or other is proper and peculiar to that office; or that some business of teaching belongs to it, that does not belong to others as much as it does to them.
If there is any way of teaching that is peculiar to that office, then for others to take that upon themselves, is to invade the office of a minister. Doubtless this is very sinful, and is often so represented in Scripture. But the great difficulty is to settle the bounds, and to tell exactly how far laymen may go, and when they exceed their limits. This is a matter of so much difficulty, that I don't wonder if many in their zeal have transgressed it. The two ways of teaching and exhorting — the one which ordinarily ought to be left to ministers, and the other which may and ought to be practised by the people — may be expressed by the two names of preaching, and exhorting in a way of Christian conversation. But then a great deal of difficulty and controversy arises to determine what is preaching, and what is